Looks Like We Made It!

We made it across the country! As the trip odometer clicked over to 4000 miles, we arrived today at 10:45 a.m. in Canon Beach, OR on the Pacific Ocean to stay for a couple of days with my aunt and uncle.

We've had a fabulous week in Portland, visiting with Elyssa's cousins and exploring that great town. We cooked and ate our own pancakes at Slappycakes, ate the weirdest, wonderfulest donuts at Voodoo donuts, drank the world's best coffee (?) at Peets, had tea at the fantastic China Gardens, spent not enough time at Powell's Books, bought a cool new purse for Lys at Queen Bee, explored the Hollywood Farmers' Market, drank from the Benson bubblers, acquired fabulous treasures at the Spoonman, got a year's supply of grains at Bob's Red Mill, rode the Max, and learned alot at the World Forestry Center-- what a tremendous week. We spent great time with family we hardly knew before, and reconnected with one of my oldest friends and her new husband. If we didn't already have such a great home on the other coast, Portland might call our names!

Now we're on to the shore (no, not the Jersey shore!) for a couple of days of exploration, kite flying, sand dollar hunting, arcades, and more-- it should be terrific, too-- before we begin the journey back through the time zones. Hard to believe that we've made it this far. It felt so good to walk on the beach today--we were joking that we felt a little like Forrest Gump on his cross-country journey!

Yesterday I also took some time to begin organizing my sermon thoughts for the high holidays. On the one hand, I have alot to say about all the things I did; on the other, folks aren't coming to services to symbolically see my trip pictures. On the one hand, I feel that I've learned alot from my experiences-- lessons I'd like to share with the congregation. On the other hand, there's so much going on in the larger world that I feel moved to speak about...

Never a lack of things to say; just not enough time to say them all!