Pacific NW love part II: Vancouver Island, Canada

As with relocating to a new country there is a lot of catching up to do. Seeing friends and family has been such a great joy, but my goodness, can it take a lot out of me! I have been traveling nonstop for a long time, so traveling is the last thing I really wanted to do, yet a few days away with my mother sounded like just what I needed, so we loaded the car and left Portland for a little more Pacific Northwest adventuring. First stop: My future home of North Seattle. 

I found a great little bed and breakfast called The Dibble House in Ballard and we explored and saw some of my friends before heading for the Olympic Peninsula. 

We drove the lovely US 101 highway up the East coast of the Olympic Peninsula to Port Townsend, Washington and boarded the ferry across the watery expanse to Victoria, Canada. 

While there we walked around the pretty neighborhoods, explored the city, ate some killer Italian food (Pagliacci's is where it's at!), swam and hot tubbed, visited several vineyards, and caught up after so much time spent away. 

We went to the prestigious neighborhoods in the Eastern part of Victoria, where there are grand victorian homes, elaborately landscaped estates, and even a few castles. The Craigdarroch Castel, situated upon a hill in a glamorous neighborhood, was built by a wealthy businessman who wanted to show off his riches with opulent building practices, and that he did! 

The next building of interest was the Government House, home to the Lieutenant Governer of British Columbia. For privacy reasons the home itself was not open to explorers, but his property was kindly made into a park of sorts. There are thirty-six acres of varied landscape. Each garden is individually named and has it's own feel, while they all connect making it a large, flowing outdoor experience. There is a rose garden, an oak forest wildlife preserve with hiking, protected redwoods, an herb garden, a lily garden, and British Columbia's native plants garden, to name a few. The grounds are cared for by a team of volunteers.

At the edge of one of the gardens we ran into an artist working away at creating a replica of an important, old totem pole that has been word by time and weather. From a giant tree taken from an off site location he was carving and sanding away! 

I was born and raised in Portland, I have lived much of my life there and yet this was my first time venturing across the border of our friendly neighbors to the North. It was a great time of exploring, seeing the stunning beauty that this region has to offer, and having a good time with my dear mother. 

pacific northwest love

I love the pacific Northwest. I particularly love the trees, they are tall, old, and everywhere. I also love the restaurants, the music, and my people! It has been a long time away and what a perfect way to come back to my lovely home, by seeing a killer show in Seattle with these lovelies (plus a few more):

followed by a weekend in the Wenatchee National Forest, camping with some good, familiar people and getting to know some new folks that I hope to keep keep around. 

Now that I am here there is a lot to be figured out; where to live and work being the big ones, but I think the universe is smiling on me this time around, so I have no fear! For me there is no such thing as "all work and no play" so rest assured there will still be stories and ideas to share. 

From my beautiful home, Oregon, with love

 -- N

(thanks for the photos Jasmine and Adam)

returning home

Returning home. This can mean so many things, and I think I’d like to hash out what it means to me. It’s full of a grand mixture of emotions and senses. The senses are much easier to define. I am tired. I am so tired, I’ve been traveling for months (years?) and I crave my bed, even though I don’t have one. My skin and eyeballs feel dry and my mouth is parched. My legs are cramped. I want out of this plane. But not before we have a safe landing, of course. All things in their due time.

I crave home. Whatever that is and wherever it is. I’ll make one soon.

I’m better at speaking of my emotions. Sometimes. I’m super damn good at feeling them, but expressing them isn’t always as easy. I feel excited and anxious. I want to see people who I miss, see what they look like, feel how they feel when we hug, and what their energy is like, know their thoughts and ideas, cause they must have changed a lot!

And I feel this pit-in-my-stomach kind of sadness that is just going to have to be part of this piece of writing cause I cannot avoid it. It’s a bittersweet homecoming. There’s no bitterness about coming home, but bitterness about coming home alone. I left with my love, I come home alone. And so it is.

I want to remember everything, but I also want to forget. Maybe it would be easier. I just don’t know.

Returning home. It’s not simple, but it’s perfect. It’s appropriate and necessary and something I’ve longed for for longer than I should have, perhaps. So the cocktail of emotions is appropriate, and I’m just me, so who could have expected less?

I love where I am from, the Pacific Northwest, and more specifically Portland, but Seattle is where I will call home for some time, how long? I don’t know… There’s a lot of “I don’t knows” these days.

photo credit

But this I know: I’m comin' home! 

the final leg

When we rented the car at the airport in Memmingen, Germany, a Renault Elf, it had 9 kilometers on it. They drove it straight from the lot for us to rent. That intoxicating new car smell was quickly replaced with the wind from the Alps and all our fruit and cheese snacks that filled the vehicle. I’m so much like my dad, who is also super sensitive to smells in general. I don’t like perfume, or scented soap, or nail polish. They give me a headache. I far prefer the scent of the fresh alpine air, the freshest blooming flowers, and the animals that roam freely, grazing on the mountain grass.

The car was a must for this journey, however, and we had a blast putting over 1000 kilometers on it in the short time it was ours. We drove all through the Bavarian Alps, visiting old spots that I used to frequent in solitude, and we explored outside of what I knew by heading in to the Austrian and Swiss alps, and of course a stop over in Liechtenstein, just for fun. 

We took to the road for the sake of being on the road this time around, and with one final destination in mind, a small town in Southwest Germany, deep in the Black Forest. The town is Totdnauburg, and had the honor of being the place where the great philosopher Martin Heidegger kept his summerhouse. There he did a vast majority of his contemplating and writing. And by the looks of this place, it was a good spot for these mental tasks. Being as we are both Philosophically inclined individuals it seemed a good place to add to our journey, and we were very pleased to find it so serene, quiet, and remote. Not a tourist destination, but a simple hut up the mountain, on a simple trail, with a killer view.

After a happy stop at this aforementioned location we continued to traverse the mountain roads through the black forest and north to a small town called Nagold, on the same-named river. That evening there was a football (that’s soccer to Americans) match between Germany and Greece. It was politically charged,  and high energy, to say the least. Germany won, so I’m glad we were in Germany, where the celebration was a dramatic display of joy in the streets for hours and hours that included millions of honking car horns.

Somehow we managed to get a really solid nights sleep through the intense celebration that lasted late into the night. We must be tired these days… And in the sunny morning we took the road again, avoiding the large and speedy autobahn for the most part, leaving the navigating up to me and our trusty map. We found simple two-lane roads that sent us through forests, along side vineyards and farms and rivers, and through miniscule towns. We like this style of road trippin. It takes more time, but it’s more beautiful. Who’s in a hurry? A wise person once told me, if you live your life quickly you will live your life quickly. Think about it.

Next stop Aschaffenburg, where our lovely German friends, Markus and Christine, awaited with their beautiful home and wonderful hospitality. We explored their pretty city and caught up after many months, cooked some meals and drank some beers, played a rainy game of put-put golf, and rested up before the last leg of our journey took place.

Which is where I write from now, thirty-something thousand miles above the sea (what’s that in kilometers? That’s where my mind has been this past 1.5 years). We are mid-flight, homeward bound.  And that my friends, is another story. Stay tuned for more.