Theres a good chunk of my childhood I owe to the Pacific Northwest. Our family lived there during the ages 7-11 and I did a lot of back woods climbing, creek exploring, black berry pickin', tadpole catching, and poison oak suffering. They were some of my most memorable, and eventful years of my life. I still have some family that live there, but we're not nearly as close as I wish. While I lived in Kingman AZ, during my high school years and a little after, I met my friends Laura and Matt! Laura and I have stayed relatively in touch this past 20 years, and Matt and I mostly, though the last few years we've gotten busy with our own lives etc. Laura and Matt both live in the PNW and through the magic of Marco Polo (a walkie talkie type app) I hustled them into letting me come and hang out for a few days for a reunion, and a suuuper good chance for me to be in the care of my favorite people and places.
The drive is BRUTAL, especially by yourself. Andrew had to work, and I wanted to be able to stop and do as I please like taking pictures. SO the 13 hr drive naturally turns into 16+hrs. I had several podcasts to listen to, as well as 2 new mixed cd', and a couple of rented lenses a 24-70 and a 70-200 (my dream gear)
The route through Idaho is not my favorite but hey, I saved 10 minutes.
At the border of Oregon and Idaho, in Vale.
I'm amazed the pioneers crossed this land on the Oregon trail in wagons.
Cute little church with a strand of lights for a cross. I bet it looks awesome at night.
Outside of Bend Oregon, Mt. Jefferson
Pretty farmland
I love the light and how it peeks through the trees
The light was constantly changing wherever I went. This is Mt. Washington
Finally really into the woods of Oregon
Indulging myself and a random dirt road...
I found said dirt road by chasing these pretty flowering trees...
And these dogwood trees
At this point the sun was setting and I was close to Eugene and I was excited to see the Spawns, get some sleep and drive up to Seattle the following day to meet up with Matt!