Category: Pacific NW

The Challenges of Getting to Oneonta Falls

Anika Raffle3 Comments

#1 Climbing down the tiny, thin steps.

Climbing down the thin, mossy steps wasn’t scary, just difficult. Almost slipping every other step, it didn’t take us the amount of time it usually does to climb stairs. It took a lot longer.

#2 Climbing over the slippery, high, uneven rocks and logs.

I cling on to anything I can. Then at a pace that was slow, but still faster than most people, I crawled over. I did this about five or six times.

#3 Trying to stay on the log in the middle of the lake as to not get wet.

“Come on. Just jump in,” Paloma exclaimes.

“It only goes up to your knees, and it’s below freezing.”

But I stick to balancing on the log any way. I quicken up my pace, as to keep up with Paloma’s swim-walk. After a few minutes, I give up.

“Okay, you win,” I say to Paloma. And I jump in.

#4 Not succeeding and going knee deep in freezing cold water.

“What do you mean this is below freezing,” I finally say a my senses return to me.

“You’ll get used to it.” Paloma answers. Then she runs ahead. And I run after her.

#5 Going even deeper into the waterfall.

Finally my Dad, my Dad’s friend and one of his kids, Paloma and I get to what we are here for. The waterfall.

It was beautiful. Water rushing from the top and bouncing when it hit the water really reminded me how amazing nature can be.

Then I came to reality and jumped. The water was freezing and I was belly button deep in it. So was Paloma. We tried to smile for a couple of pictures, but they didn’t turn out too well. And then Paloma jumped in.

Making really funny faces from the cold water

I couldn’t say any thing. It was too cold. I didn’t have to. My face told it all.

Overall it was cold, but great. I had so much fun and strongly recommend it to anyone who happens to be in Oregon.

Our last stops in the US

Rachel Cleary1 Comment

Before we departed the US, we made three stops up the west coast and then one in Honolulu for a layover.

Stop 1: Turner, Oregon, 2017 Eclipse, Zone of Totality

In Turner, Oregon, we experienced our first solar eclipse in the zone of totality. We had read Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass (a great middle school read) years earlier which sparked our interest in eclipses. This seemed like a perfect start to our year of exploration. We were lucky that friends from Palo Alto, Rafferty and Kristin, and Portland, Josh, Allison, Phineas, and Moses, were able to meet us to share the experience.

A rural science teacher rented us her sweet, simple home with a horse and chickens and enough land for Kristin and Rafferty to put up a tent. In the morning, we woke excited with our eclipse glasses at the ready.  As the moon passed before the sun, the enthusiasm swelled until totality when the sky went dark, the air chilled, the rooster cock-a-doodle-dooed, Phineas cried, and the kids and adults jumped up and down in awe. The moon looked like a bright white ball in the sky with swirling rays surrounding it. Totality felt like birth: no matter how much science explains the experiences, both feel otherworldly and magical.

Stop 2: Portland, Oregon

We had the great fortune to stay with friends whose home was an oasis in Portland. Hayes met Josh in graduate school at MIT. Hayes had lots of crazy ideas and limited skills in engineering and computer science. Josh, who Hayes describes as one of the smartest and most talented people he has ever met, was a joyful and easy-going guy who shared his time and skills with Hayes enthusiastically and generously. Now he is a dad with a thoughtful and devoted wife and two delicious sons.

I love staying with other people because I love observing the habits and rituals of different families. I like to reflect on what habits I might be able to incorporate into my own family routines. What struck me about the Liftons is their integrity. They are thoughtful about their values, and they live accordingly. This is exemplified through their language with their children, their shopping and eating habits, and their choice of how they spend their time.

Stop 3: Seattle, Washington (Swedish Ballard ER)

Our stop in Seattle included a life defining experience. Again, we stayed with fabulous friends who we had first met at MIT. James and Stephanie are creative and generous with two fabulous kids, one of whom was a NICU premie and is now just 4 months old. Similarly, I observe the calm, respectful and thoughtful way that they interacted as a family. Our visit brought a little more excitement into their home than they had anticipated.

The first morning we arrived, I ended up with a concussion in the ER. I had been heading downstairs to the guest room after my morning cup of coffee and as I took my first step, I slipped on the metal strip that separated the kitchen floor from the stairwell. I fell down the stairs and landed on my head and right forearm. I got up and walked back to the kitchen table. I felt dizzy so put my head down on my forearm on the table and then blacked out. Hayes and our friends report that I fell off the chair and hit my head (again) very hard on the wall. I then started seizuring. I woke up to the EMT feeling like I had been dreaming. I felt very light headed and nauseous. The EMT tried to put a head neck around me but I kept ripping it off. They also persisted in taking my blood pressure which was dangerously low. I couldn’t open my eyes or stop vomiting, but fortunately, my mind was clear and I repeated to Hayes a few times to call Meera to get the kids as they were taking me away on a stretcher. The girls had been downstairs so they missed the fall and seizure. They came upstairs as I was being carried away on a stretcher, but they said they weren’t too worried because I sounded like myself. You can imagine how incredibly grateful I felt that Stephanie and James and Meera were there for my girls so that their memory of the day is predominately about the fun they had in Seattle. I was ill with my eyes closed for the entire ride to the ER. It was one of the gnarlier feelings in my life.

Fortunately, the care at Swedish Ballard Emergency Room could not have been better. The nurses, staff, doctors, and radiologist were all warm, competent and effective. The nurse quickly hooked me up to an IV where I consumed a bag and half of liquids (note to self: stay hydrated when traveling), anti nausea medicine and mild pain medicine. I was shivering loudly so Hayes wrapped me up like a mummy in their decadently warm flannel sheets. The doctor thoroughly examined me and a CT scan showed that my brain had not been damaged. Within three hours, I transformed from feeling like I might die to feeling tired but otherwise fully functional. I slept for three straight days, napped for a few more and then within a week only had yellow bruises on my forearm and cheek and a few lumps on my head to remind me of the not so fabulous incident in Seattle.

The positives of the experience include: 1) I have more gratitude for Hayes who was wholly and completely focused on communicating with the doctors and making sure that I felt comfortable through the entire hospital stay; 2) I feel lucky to have friends like Meera and her family, who on a moment’s notice whisked my children away and showed them a fabulous day so that mostly what they remember of what could have been a traumatic day is hanging from large climbing structures in downtown Seattle, a yummy meal, and fun times at her house; 3) I had not really been a big fan of throwing up our life and galavanting into the sunset, but having felt close to death or disability, I better relate to Hayes’ intense desire to connect as a family.

 

Stop 4: Honolulu, Hawaii

Our last visits to Hawaii have been to Kauai where my dad and his wife live. Kauai is lush and feels wholly different form the mainland. The vegetation, beaches, and tropical weather dominate. Honolulu, in contrast, felt like the Stanford mall on steroids. The first day, I spent in bed at the tail end of my concussion recovery. I was surprised when I finally made it out to discover that Waikiki is manicured and commercial.

One morning, my dad took us to Pearl Harbor and gave us an overview of World War 2. My dad is a quiet and reserved man so it was a treat to hear him clearly and vividly describe the events that led up to World War 2 and the ways that his parents and their generation had been affected by the war.

Next stop: New Zealand!

Nest Stop: Seattle Space Needle

Paloma RaffleLeave a comment

8:53 AM: You are standing in a short line to get to the elevator. On your way, you pass many large poster boards with information about the space needle. Do you stop and read it? Nope! People are starting to cut you! You get to the front of the line. There is a nice lady taking the tickets. Your dad says he has online tickets and the woman taking the tickets says her boss doesn’t trust her with that level of responsibility. Your dad laughs. You move on to take a photo of you photoshopped in front of the space needle.

9:00 AM: You are going up an elevator with clear windows and you can see the whole beautiful city of Seattle. A tour guide is talking as you go up the elevator. He is explaining something, but you are not listening because you are too busy staring out the window at the mountains.

9:01 AM: You are suddenly jolted back to reality with a loud brrrrr, thump. You are on the top of the space needle. You immediately smell kettle corn and you automatically walk over to it. You scan the choices, ask your Dad, and before he even answers, you turn away. You know the answer. No.

9:03: You walk outside to the 360° balcony and you are greeted with a pleasant view of Seattle. You begin to trap the image in your head but before you can even finish taking your mental photo, you see your sister whip out her camera and shove it in your face. You decide to follow your sister’s wishes and take a few shots. Just as you are heading out, you quickly turn around and take your mental snapshot.

9:30: After a while on the balcony, you decide you want to go check out the spinning restaurant one floor down. This time you decide to go down the stairs. You count the stairs as you go down. 46 stairs. You are already at the restaurant. As you step into the restaurant, you realize something. It’s closed! Then you spot someone setting up tables. He tells you that they are closed but will be open in 3 minutes. You turn around and see about five more people who have wandered into the restaurant looking for reservations. Then you hear the person says that there are reservations only. You decide you didn’t hear that and go check out the spinning outside rim of the restaurant. You stand on it and you slowly but surely move around the outside rim of the room. You see the beautiful view out the window again and just as you suck in another view your dad calls out to you that it is time to go.

9:45: You take a ride down the clear elevator yet again and are greeted with the Space Needle gift shop. Your dad says you can have 2 minutes and 30 seconds later he tells you it’s time to go.

Stop 1: Pip’s Donuts

Paloma Raffle1 Comment

You crunch into the sweet, crispy exterior of the delicate dough. You are suddenly greeted with the soft, bready interior, as well as the crunchy, sweet and salty top. This gives you an urge to take another bite. As you take your second bite, you start to taste the flavors more intensely until you know exactly what the flavors are. But wait! Is it what you were thinking? You have to take another bite to confirm. And another. And just one more. Yep. It is the sweet, comforting, maple flavor combined into the salty bacon, balancing out the sweetness of the maple syrup on the donut — all captured in that 1’’ x 1’’ piece of fried sweet bread. The sweet maple bacon donut madness from Pip’s donuts in Portland Oregon is enough to make you turn around in your car, drive back, and grab a few more.


The Locks and The Fish Ladder

Hayes RaffleLeave a comment

Juniper was a great tour guide. Give a seven year old a job she can do, and she delivers! It took a bit of convincing to get her to go back to a place she had already been, but when she realized it meant another couple hours playing with Anika, she agreed. We grabbed a lyft to the gates of the park. “This way,” she told us, and walked us through the park towards the locks. 

Impeccable timing. We walked up to the locks just as the last small motor boat was loading in to the small lock, ready to head out to sea. After just a moment’s wait, we saw the back gates close. We ran to the front, ready to see the front gates open and let the boats free. It went down so fast! An elevator for boats, I didn’t realize how simple the locks actually are. I always wondered how they make the boats go up and down, but now that I’ve seen it, it’s so simple! They just let it drain slowly down to the lower water level, and down the boats go down like they are on a big floating elevator. The sea-side gates noisily opened up and let their caged passengers free. 

It took me a minute to figure out how they make the boats go back UP. They just let the lock fill from the higher river, that’s it! So simple. Paloma explained it to me – I think she’s a bit quicker than I am sometimes… 

“Where are the seals?” we asked. Juniper showed us where to look. We walked across the dam looking for them. Down the ramp we went, seeing the pattern of waterfalls on the way down, down to the observation area, like a real-life-wild-salmon aquarium. It was full of fish! We watched them for a while, and as the kids’ teacher this year, I dutifully took advantage of the science lesson splayed out for us on the wall: an illustrated essay about how the fish needed to swim upstream to their birthplace to make their babies. We played popcorn, reading different parts of the lesson. Even Juniper read a bit – the last line – after getting over her initial hesitations. I just remember a little bit: a map showing the 1,700+ rivers in the area. A call to action about how we could help the salmon be safer:

  • Help limit city runoff
  • Use fewer garden chemicals
  • Use soaps with no phosphates
  • Use absorbent mulch, not plastic tarps on the gardens, to help the earth soak up the rains
  • Let trees grow over the rivers, so the fish can stay cool

I’m hoping the girls remember some of that, too. I think they will remember seeing the dozens of fish outside the ladders waiting for the energy to climb one more set of stairs upstream. Lucky for the fish, there were no seals surrounding for them. Just a flowing and peaceful river presenting a journey ahead.

In classic fashion, the journey back was at least as fun as the one there. Juniper showed us the hills across the river that were perfectly set up for rolling. She didn’t manage to convince a slightly tired and grumpy Paloma to climb up to the top, so we settled for a smaller hill with a climbing tree and a decent rolling place. And then the golden hour arrived and we snapped a few pictures of silly kids playing on the goose-poop littered lawn. Ew, gross. But fun! Cartwheels, handstands, fireman weaves, and playing princess in the shadows of the tall trees.

Once again, Seattle delivered.

Chihuly is a Crowd Pleaser

Hayes RaffleLeave a comment

Ok, they guy’s project was to use every color in the arsenal. You’ve got to love that – especially if you’re 10 or 12 years old, and the colors are bright, saturated and glossy like the biggest pieces of candy you’ve ever imagined. The guy is the AC⚡︎DC of the art world: nothing too deep, just pure power, emotion, delight. Go Big or Go Home!

The entrance should warn you, Gardens of Glass is actually a playground: CHILDREN REQUIRED TO ENTER. I thought it was pretty cool, pretty big and grand, but too many years of art school and snobby grown-up critique planted words like “gaudy” in my brain. Kids are the perfect remedy. They don’t have that handicap. They see it fresh, new eyes soaking up the pure chromatic saturation.

But remember, like a playground, approach it from down low. From the ground and it was even bigger, even better. He designed the place to be viewed from 3 feet low. Dale made it larger than life, so get down on the ground and make it larger again.

Go dude, you nailed it. Sometimes too much is too much. And sometimes it’s not. Make it Big, make it crazy, make it horrible, make it beautiful. Use those bright colors. Use all of them, and then envelop us with them.

well that was scary

Hayes RaffleLeave a comment

ok rachel. I’m glad you’re alive. That was a scare yesterday. You bit that spoon in half.

New photo by Hayes Raffle / Google Photos

I did not like that one bit, seeing your body slump on the floor and stop answering me. I was glad to still be in the US, to still have Google health insurance (for a few more days…) to be with friends who can help. I was glad you kept breathing, I was glad you woke up, snapped back out of it and talked to me again. I was glad the EMTs were kind, and careful. I was glad for the people at Swedish Ballard, for Cindy your Nurse, and that we beat the rush. I was glad that the Doctor’s 26 point exam didn’t find anything, and the CT scan didn’t either.

New photo by Hayes Raffle / Google Photos

I was glad you nagged the kids about their manners tonight at dinner, and made a few demands afterwards too. You’re feeling stronger again.

I love you. Please don’t do that again. I want you just the way you are.

The Oregon Blackout

Paloma RaffleLeave a comment

The sky started off brighter than usual because the sun started off so strong. We were out on the grass in front of our Airbnb house with a bright blue sky and an even brighter sun. With the eclipse glasses, we could look directly at the sun. With the glasses on it looked kind of orange, and as we looked at it, it started looking like an apple with a bite out of it. It began to turn into a bigger bite, and then a bigger bite and then it started to turn into a crescent shaped moon, but instead of the moon, the crescent was actually the sun!

The sky started to get darker and darker and about 30 minutes into the beginning of the eclipse it looked like dusk. We had to pull out a jacket because the sun started slowly exiting, and we were losing our warmth. About 45 minutes into the gazing the sun turned into a sliver and outside started getting darker and darker. Everyone began jumping up and down as the sky started turning darker and darker, and then the sky turned black.

The two minutes of totality in one word. Unbelievable. We started to see the moon crossing over the sun, and finally, it happened. We took off our glasses to enjoy the full solar eclipse. We could see the moon with gleaming light coming out the sides. We could see the 360 sunset on the horizon.

Then the sun crept back out and we put our glasses back on and looked at the sun for a little bit longer, left with the feeling of watching the earth grow dark so fast and then lighten back up like nothing happened.

2017 Solar Eclipse: Turner, Oregon

Rachel ClearyLeave a comment
We started the whole family part of our journey with a trip to Turner, Oregon to view the 2017 Solar Eclipse. We rented a small home that included a horse, chickens and ample land to gaze up at the sky with friends who traveled from Portland and Palo Alto. The experience was more spectacular than I anticipated. After a bright, clear, sunny morning, the sky went dark, the air became cold, the animals were noisy and then quiet, and at totality when the moon was completely aligned in front of the sun, there was a ring of swirling, bright rays around a black circle in the sky. We were all gasping and jumping up and down in amazement. It felt a lot like a birth.

total solar magnificence

Hayes RaffleLeave a comment
I can’t stop thinking about the corona. I think that’s what it’s called. The sun, when it was fully obscured, looked like it was billowing with cotton candy, streaming out from the glowing ring in long wispy strings of white. I guess they are always there, but we can’t see them. What other amazingly beautiful things in nature’s creation can’t we see?
I was surprised by a few things. How long it took: hours! How weird the darkness was: like dark gray sunglasses. How much more fun the anticipation was, than the second half: like childhood versus old age. How very cold it got: cold enough that Rachel got her jacket. And how completely spectacular the eclipse was: the enormity of it; how big the sun seemed with the corona; how much the sky seemed more alive during the sun’s partial death than it usually does in the bright, too-glaring-to-watch daytime that I love thoughtlessly each day.
If I could witness that every day, I would do it. I would stop everything I was doing and stare at the sun for those two minutes and try to drag them to eternity in my memory. Try to burn the details of the rapidly changing skyscape into my visual memory for my eternity.
There are no photos, no videos, no records that quite capture it. It was too much. Too dynamic. Too unique for human representation.

Totally Terrific Totality

Anika RaffleLeave a comment

It’s bright. Brighter than I’ve ever seen the sun before. So bright that you can’t look at the sun without protective glasses.

And then all of a sudden a bite is taken out of the sun. It’s a small bite, as if a young child is taking a bite out of the sun. Although it can’t have been made by teeth because soon the bite is making the sun look more and more like a crescent moon. Our glasses make it so all we can see is the sun and black surrounding it. Gazing up is the world around me, all looking at the same thing. The moon eating the sun.

It is now just sliver of the sun left to see. And then everything goes dark. We are now in total totality. The birds are all quiet. You can see a star in the sky, it’s that dark. We all take off our glasses and stare at the beauty of space and the universe around us. There is no sun visible. No moon. Just a blue sky and Venus.

After jumping up and down about a thousand times, the sun starts to creep back to its place and we one by one go inside, having seen a full solar eclipse.