Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Wall Drug!

Well, I really wanted to stop at the largest ball of twine. Apparently there is some debate about who can rightfully claim that honor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_ball_of_twine. At any rate, Rich didn't share my enthusiasm, so no pictures of me next to a big twine ball.

Instead, we visited Wall Drug. For those of you who aren't familiar with Wall Drug, it's in Wall, South Dakota. A dusty town in the middle of nowhere. It's a fabulously cheesy tourist trap that started as a regular pharmacy and gradually expanded to a place that is, I'm sure, beloved by Japanese tourists. I'll provide the Wikipedia link, so you can get some good dry facts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug. You should also check out their own website because it captures more of the true flavor. I love that the left sidebar categorizing their wares includes a separate link for jackalopes. Of course it does. http://www.walldrug.com/

Here are a couple of shots inside and out:




Here we are modeling a few of the items that the Japanese tourists must love. Don't all Americans own cowboy hats and boots? If not, then we're all just fooling ourselves, pretending to be too cool.





In addition to the acres of stuff for sale, there are some priceless items not for sale. Rich found a couple of things that caught his eye.



To be fair to Rich (because I know how much he appreciates "The Painted Lady"), I'll end with one making me look silly.



Ok, this post is long enough. Take care y'all.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Yellowstone

Our return trip included a detour into Yellowstone National Park - one little corner of the park, actually. At that time of the year, only one entrance to the park is open and that road is only plowed for a certain distance. After some miles, the road becomes impassible to cars. At the end we found a little town that appeared to be the Wild West with snowmobiles. The place was buzzing with men who were racing from their hotel to the gas station across the street on their snowmobiles - just because they could - it didn't appear there were any wives around to tell them how silly it was.


Anyway, before and after reaching the end of the road, we saw lots of wildlife, including buffalo, elk, a bighorn sheep and even some wolves. The wolves were far away and we wouldn't have known what they were except that some scientists were watching them through high powered telescopes and let us take a turn. Pretty cool.


The first few buffalo were pretty exciting, even though they were far away, they were camera worthy.


The next buffalo pictured was closer than he appears in my shot. While we were stopped beside him in our car, I imagined the ridiculousness of my life ending in such a silly way - she was going to move to Portland, yet was gored by a buffalo trying to get a great picture from her point and shoot camera.


The picture below illustrates my constant fascination with open spaces and vast stretches of road.













After leaving Yellowstone, we continued east and spent the night in the north east corner of Wyoming. As it turned out, we were very close to Devil's Tower. I really wanted to see Devil's Tower. Not out of any interest in how the tower was incorporated into the culture of Native Americans or for any geological reasons, but because it was so prominently featured in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_Encounters_of_the_Third_Kind

Here's a shot of Devil's Tower:




I also have to include at least one picture to prove that I was on this trip. As it turns out, our trip took us through the other, more famous Sturgis, Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the Black Hills Motorcyle Rally.

Here I am, looking a little dorky, probably one of the few people photographed under this sign who is not wearing leather.

Ok, that's it for this time.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

To Michigan from Portland

The first post included pictures from our trip to Portland from Michigan. I'll include one last picture from that leg, just because I really like it. I'm not exactly sure where this was taken; I'm guessing around the border of Utah and Idaho.

So, we made our way through Idaho and the eastern side of Oregon until we reached Portland. Our week here March was really productive. On our first night in town, we purchased this huge, unwieldly map. During the week, we drove all over the city looking for places to live. Through friends and connections, we had a variety of meetings, coffees and dinners that week. One quick story: we were at dinner one night with a couple to whom we had been connected by one of Rich's professional contacts. It was the first time we had met them - sort of a "couples blind date." As we were chatting with them at dinner, we realized that the husband is the first cousin of a woman I had been connected to through one of my acquaintances. We were planning to meet the first cousin the following night. That was the first amazing occurrence of the trip. The second was that by the end of the week, the first couple we had met offered to let us house sit for them when we moved out permanently in May. Our house hunt was over!

I don't have any pictures of Portland to share from that week, so I'll jump into the return trip. Portland is right across the Columbia River from Washington State. On our return trip, we took our time along the Columbia River Gorge, stopping along the way to see a few of the 77 waterfalls on the Oregon side of the river. This is a must-see area near us.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry that includes some really good information and links regarding the Columbia River Gorge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_River_Gorge


Here are a couple of pictures from our visit to the falls. At this point, I have no idea where the first picture was taken. Along the path to one of the falls...


The next is of the bridge at Multnomah falls, which goes over the water at the base of the upper falls. It was really wet there and the picture looks like it's glistening.

To give you some context, here's my shot of the upper falls at Multnomah, taken on our near that bridge:

I think this will be it for now. The next will include some pictures from our visit to Yellowstone National Park, where the buffalo were close enough to touch!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Hello From PDX

Hello friends and family,

I've wanted to do this for quite some time; here's the first post to my blog.

As you know, I took the Oregon Bar Exam on July 24th and 25th. I can't really express how glad I am that the Bar is behind me. It's been a long time since I've studied and even longer since I'd taken the classes tested on the Bar Exam. I won't know for about a month whether or not I passed. At the moment, I'm blissfully ignorant, trying not to think about it.

While I was very glad to have the Bar behind me, I was not done with the required tests. In addition to the Bar Exam, I had to take a test related to legal ethics. I took that test this past Friday. So, finally, since starting to study for the Bar on May 21st, I'm done with the books. Yay!!

I thought I'd start by catching up, showing you some pictures from our trip out here in March, continuing up to now. I'll do this over a few posts. For all of the pictures, if you click on them, you can see a bigger version of them.

In the beginning of March, Rich and I drove out to Portland on a scouting trip before moving. To avoid the snow in the north, we took the southern route, stopping in Missouri, traveling through Kansas. Not much to say about Kansas. It was flat and hot and mostly looked like this. For my Dad, here's a picture of a long, long train.

After Kansas, we stopped in Fort Collins, CO, staying with friends Trent and Shellie and their very charming young sons, Sullivan and Harrison. Oddly enough, there are no pictures from this stop. But, we really enjoyed their hospitality, particularly Trent's pankcakes!

From Colorado, we drove through the southwest corner of Wyoming. Wyoming is vast and sparse and I think very beautiful. We were excited to see wind farms in Wyoming. If you click on the picture, you'll be able to make out the windmills.

After Wyoming, we made our way through Utah, stopping for the night in Salt Lake City and visiting the immense Mormon temple in the center of the city. Of course, you're not allowed in unless your a particular brand of Mormon, but it's pretty impressive from the outside.

The next morning, we continued north from Salt Lake City, stopping along the way for a long walk through the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. It was a crisp day. Still snow on the mountains.
















I think that's going to be it for now. More to come. Hope you're all doing well and I'd love to hear from you.