Tea, museums and Ben Platt!

 I will be leaving in 10 days for the longest trip of my lifetime.

3.5 weeks. London. UK by rail. Exploring Scotland.

When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was travel. My biggest dream was to be a foreign correspondent someday and report on stories as I worked my way around the globe.  When we were raising the family, there wasn't a lot of time or resources for that.  So once the kids were launched, I decided to go after the travel dream... hard. In the last decade I have been to many places: France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Austria, Germany, etc.  I have generally gone somewhere in Europe every two years and my list has been growing.  Much of it I have done with my daughters, some with Bob. But a good portion has been on my own.

For this trip, I will be spending seven days alone in London and another week exploring the UK before Bob joins me for another 10 days in Scotland.

If you had to ask me what I am most excited about this very moment, it would be Midnight at the Never Get.  I will be seeing this show at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. The seating capacity is 90. Yes, 90.  I am seated in Row A, which included a warning that I will be right next to the stage and this may include engagement wth the star.

Did I mention the star is Ben Platt?

Yes, I will be right next to one of my favorite Broadway singers as he performs in a cabaret setting for 90 people.

It's a hardship.

Beyond that, I will be seeing three other shows in London, taking in many, many museums, walking a lot and also having tea.  I expect to be posting frequently on Facebook and here on my travel blog.  I will be staying in Covent Garden (below) and don't expect to be doing much resting while in London.

As for Scotland, Bob will be joining me (!!) and wants to see things people usually don't see.  So we will be playing that a bit by ear as we navigate the roads and explore Inverness, Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye.

I love traveling. But I would argue I love -- almost as much - the thought of traveling. I spend months on my plans, putting together tours, figuring out what  want to see, reading the history and getting excited.  Since Christmas, I have spent hundreds of hours planning, particularly focusing on all I am going to see in London. So I ended up with a trip that includes Ben Platt, Hamilton for my fourth time (because Leslie Odom Jr. is back as Burr!), Cate Blanchett and a fabulous new musical about Frank Sinatra.  I also have booked tours, museum visits and more.  Whenever I get frustrated or anything in life throws me a curveball? My therapy is planning and dreaming of London.

Sometimes life can be tough. This year has had some challenges. And I look forward with great gusto, joy and excitement to getting on that plane and exploring it all.

Including seeing Ben Platt with 89 other people.

I will be posting soon! (and then they will be my OWN photos!)

It can be a real adventure ... having a life.

  Sedona!

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The headline for this blog is a quote from "The World According to Garp." It has always stuck with me. And now, as I pursue adventure after adventure through travel, I often find myself smiling.

The whole idea of pursuing adventure through travel got stuck in my head when I was a kid. In fact, I wanted be an international journalist (thank you, All the President's Men).  I wanted to report from Russia and travel the world. 

Life had other plans, of course. I had a great career in journalism, politics, public relations and nonprofit leadership. And, in a move NO ONE would have ever predicted, I took about a decade off to be home with the kids when they were little.   So this affected the travel budget, as you could imagine. 

I didn't really start pursuing the travel dreams until the kids were done with school. Since then, I have been to Paris, Rome, Venice, Florence, Prague, Lisbon, Seville, Vienna, Salzburg and too many other cities to name.  I have done a roadtrip down the coast to the Redwood Forest, driven through the national parks in Utah and Colorado, drove up the East Coast to Maine and done many, many hikes.  One of the greatest blessings in my life has been how much I have been able to travel in the last seven years. And a couple of times, I traveled with my daughters! 

 (me on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon)

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Now that I am a college faculty member at the University of Washington (another lifelong dream that came true!), I look forward with great joy each year to the Public Interest Communications Summer Institute.  This is a gathering of people I have come to adore. They are professors from Florida, Texas, Minnesota, California and more. And year after year we meet to talk about issues facing our field, grapple with things like the decline of trust in higher education, etc.  And, we connect with old friends.  I always build a trip around it, and this year we met in Phoenix.

 At the wonderful Tlaquepaque Village in Sedona

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Sure, the trip was not seamless. I lost my suitcase (more on that in my earlier blog...). That really challenged my resilient spirit.  But I survived and saw amazing places, including the Grand Canyon, spectacular Sedona, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert and even Winslow, Arizona (and if you don't know why I visited there, I urge you to listen to The Eagles singing Take It Easy.)  I even squeezed in a Scottsdale visit to my old boss/friend Elaine Zielinski, whom I worked for in the federal government 30 years ago. 

What a trip.  

I keep thinking of those studies that show people stop traveling when they age. It becomes overwhelming, too challenging for some.  I have a lot of traveling to catch up on. I have many miles to go before I sleep. And I love every mile.

 (me with Elaine Zielinski, who ran the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Oregon/Washington office at the start of my career, way before women rose to success very often in land management agencies. She was a great boss. More importantly, she and I are still friends.) 

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And as I hang at the airport in Phoenix, waiting to go home to my little island, I find myself thinking of things like:

- gathering with dear friends and mentors and talking about how to be a better professor in these challenging times;

- sitting on the rim of the Grand Canyon in a hastily purchased Target t-shirt (thank you for the challenge, American Airlines!), laughing outloud because I finally made it there, regardless of the lack of a suitcase;

- looking at the spectacular red rocks of Sedona, which photos cannot adquately capture, knowing I will be back again;

- going to Winslow, Arizona, visiting the abandoned car on Route 66, checking out the Petrified Forest, seeing the adorable town of Jerome and its "ghost town" and other fun sidetrips.

 "Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me."

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Truly, Jenny in The World According to Garp was correct. And here's the whole quote:  "The thing is... to have a life before we die. It can be a real adventure... having a life."

I might not be a foreign correspondent.  But I am definitely covering some ground!

See you on my next trip!

Surviving bad travel karma

The last day has been... interesting.

Let's start with Seattle.  I was booked on American (I know, I always do Alaska or Delta.  Now I know why?).  I was ready to depart for my adventure at 11 a.m. when we learned there were plane problems. Everyone was booted from 11 am until a flight at 8 pm, which would have really affected my short vacation. So I asked to be put on another plane, and they switched me to Alaska, leaving at 1:45. 

That's when the fun began.  American made the arrangements and told me to go to Alaska (two terminals/subway away) to make sure it was all arranged.  I got there and no dice.  Alaska told me to go back and tell American it had not worked.  Two iterations followed, lots of walking and subway before I finally got it all squared away, after a lot of waiting in lines (I had to go to the back every time), lots of tense people, lots of tempers.  But I did it. I got on the Alaska flight.  But I decided to just go to Phoenix (intead of Flagstaff) so I would be closer to my vacation plans and take a rental car from there. So.... apparentlyl this was a bad move.  I got to Phoenix, but my bag didn't.  

By this point, I was pretty exhausted and at wit's end. The folks at Alaska were, as always, quite wonderful. I hit a Target so I had a couple of things to wear, got the last rental car and then drove for three hours on a dark twisty road.  I mean, really dark and twisty.  And it was a long drive and I was pretty tense.  But I got to my vacation just before midnight!  And, the host checking me in said, "You don't mind moths, do you?" Apparently they are having an infestation in Holbrook, AZ.  Friends know I am TERRIFIED of moths.  So at that point, I just burst out laughing.

                          This is the TeePees in the Petrified Forest

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Did someone not want me to take this trip?

This morning, I decided to start fresh and leave my hotel at 5:30, bound for adventure.  But my tire indicator came on.  So I found a gas station and fixed it, feeling quite proud of myself. I got to the Petrified Forest by 6:15, only to find it doesn't open until 8 a.m.  But I am happy to say, I spent that time hanging out with a shopkeeper and talking about polished rocks, one of my childhood passions.  

So things are looking up.

So.. now it is 24 hours and the bag is still bouncing back and forth somewhere between Flagstaff and Phoenix.  They are hoping to figure it all out so I can pick it up on Monday morning on my way to my conference.  I am definitely missing my hiking boots (thank goodness I was wearing sneakers on the plane), basic stuff, my glasses, etc. But it looks like I will have the bag Monday.

So... crisis is over (almost?). I am trying to find humor as I wash my clothes in the hotel sink and fight frustration. 

And this is where the surviving bad travel karma comes in.  We all have it at some point, right? A missed connection. A lost bag. Too many hours on our feet, surrounded by crabby people who have also spent too many hours on their feet.  How do we find a way to stay positive when your travel gets off on the wrong foot?

Here's one idea:  it's really not tragic.  

Yeah, I miss my suitcase. I miss my clothes and toiletries and the hiking boots and poles I brought for my adventure.  But there are people who NEVER get to travel.  And the people at Alaska were so lovely.  When they handed me the little emergency travel bag, I started crying. Because it was so nice to be with kind people

And I find myself thinking of why people STOP traveling. When people get older, they start having a tough time with setbacks, challenges, frustrations.  But I want to travel... a lot.  So I need to find a way to deal with it.  I want resilience to be my middle travel name.  .

And the show has gone on!  Today I covered the Petrified Forest, the Painted Desert and am now writing to you from the lobby of the glorious El Tovar Hotel, right on the rim of the Grand Canyon!  Seriously.  Looking out at the Grand Canyon was everything I imagined it would be.

And earlier today, I went to one of my places I have always dreamed of visiting! I went to "Standing on a Corner Park" in Winslow, Arizona.  And it was such a fine sight to see! (if you know, you know).  

 

Route 66 is all the rage here in Arizona.  You have placards, museums, baseball caps and lots of nostalgia. Since my sister and I watched WAY too much "Route 66" when we were kids, I gotta say it is pretty cool to jump in on the nostaliga.  Where is George Maharis when you need him?

Another extremely cool thing I have always wanted to visit is the old Studebaker, abandoned near the road and serving as a monument to Route 66.  It was pretty cool to see!

Tonight, I was talking to my lovely host here at the El Tovar, telling her my tale of woe about my suitcase.  She said, "Yeah, I lost a suitcase once.  They finally got it back to me two months later."  Nothing like a little perspective.

So.. the shot below is me at sunset next to the Grand Canyon.  I mean, really -- who cares about my suitcase? (well, I would care a bit less if my medicine wasn't in the suitcase, but that's a whole different story.)  Note to self: always have medicine and glasses in the carry-on.

But -- I am here. I am having my adventure.  I will have the suitcase I HOPE by Monday, and then the adventure will continue. 

And my advice to you all for travel?  Be intentional about what you put in your carry-on if you are a luggage checker like me.  Try not to be affected by all the anger. Try to say thanks to the customer service people out there. Try to enjoy and take time to look at the scenery.  Find the beauty.

And breathe.

 

Grand Canyon, Here I Come!

 One of the most amazing parts of teaching has been the fellowship I have found.  I have made friends, mentors, colleagues and advisors since I came to this profession late in life. I have found colleagues who help me with designing courses or people I go to when I need advice.  And I have also found PIC.

PIC, for those who don't know, stands for Public Interest Communications. This is the field in which I got my Master's a couple of years ago. It's the field I am called to, where I have spent much of my career. And I have also found an amazing network of colleagues who also care about communications to drive change.

     This is from the Petrified Forest - at the start of my trip!

And... this same group gathers each May for the Public Interest Communications Summer Institute, when faculty from around the country gather to talk about the field, as well as catch up with one another.  This has become my favorite conference of the year. It has brought me to Denver, to Atlanta. And this year, it brings me to Arizona.

One of the best parts of the conference is always building in some travel around it. So this year, I will be headed to Arizona, visiting the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert before the conference and Sedona after, finding time to see two old friends while I am visiting, too.

 This is from the Painted Desert, also the start of my adventure.

I can't describe how excited I get when I am planning an adventure. I buy travel books and maps (yup, actual books and maps). I research. I download podcasts with local history and National Park Service audio tours.  Of couse, being a relatively spectacular heat wuss, Arizona in May is not easy.  But I am planning diligently for hiking at the crack of dawn and evenings and avoiding the heat of the day.

 Yep - Hello, Grand Canyon!

When I turned 40, Bob and I did a tour from New Mexico back to Seattle, going through Arizona and Utah on a roadtrip. Honestly, we went pretty fast. The kids were home with my sister and I was very cognizant of that.  I remember telling myself I would be back again- back when I had a little time to just drive and see what I could see. 

I still don't have a ton of time on this trip, but it's enough to get out there. It's enough to get out on the road, see beautiful red cliffs and deep canyons. I get to stay at the historic El Tovar on the Grand Canyon and walk on the rim. I get to drive along long highways while I listen to some Brandi Carlisle playing, or listen to a podcast about the geological history of the area. I will be providing plenty of photos and blogging some thoughts as I go.

Red Rocks of Sedona - near the end of the trip.

And here's another thing: I have always wanted to visit the "Standing on the Corner" park in Winslow, Arizona.  Fans of the Eagles have long loved the location from "Take It Easy" and I have seen photos of people posing there. It just seems like such a wonderful, random place to visit.  And I get to go (or more appropriately, I get to stand on the corner.)

This is the fun of traveling.  Seeing colleagues and friends at conferences. Making connections and becoming a better teacher. And...going away for 10 days and managing to see a little Red Rocks... and little bit of a song immortalized by a band from my youth.

See you on the road!

It goes so fast

In the last several years, I have been so blessed to have wonderful adventures.  I have kayaked near Crater Lake, explored Europe, hiked in old growth, snowshoed.  I have seen some amazing things and taken a lot of photos.  But I don't know that I have ever seen anything as beautiful as Fern Canyon in the Redwoods.

I have read about Fern Canyon for years and always wanted to visit.  I am still giggling over my visit earlier today. After a long and VERY bumpy road, you get to this beautiful canyon of green. Hikers walk around as if in a daze, taking in the canyons on all sides.  There's a reason movies have been filmed there. 

Fern Canyon was the start to my day.  Then I went to Ladybird Johnson Grove, a beautiful old growth grove with a tribute to First Lady Johnson, who fought for the Redwoods. (backpack again for scale in photo below. Those darned trees are hard to capture.).

Then it was off to the fabulous town of Eureka, which has a crazy beautiful oldtown, this wonderful old mansion, a delightful waterfront and yes, another lighthouse! I think Eureka and Seaside, Oregon have been my favorite towns so far. And... since I realize I have not blogged the last couple of days, I started my "California portion" of the trip with a visit to the Jedediah Smith Redwoods Saturday, a kayaking trip on the Smith River Sunday, and more Redwoods yesterday. The kayaking trip was probably the toughest once I have done and at one point I went over MINI rapids (the MINI is to let people know I was safe.  -)).  It was sort of thrilling, as I usually  just tool around our little harbor at home.

Tomorrow I hit some really showy stuff and the "Avenue of the Giants". I am spending the next two nights in the lovely Scofield Lodge, very close to the Humboldt Redwoods, where I will be focused the next two days.

One final note: when I was hiking yesterday, I came upon a family. They had three kids, crazily the same age spread roughly as our three kids, and they were also girl, girl, boy.  The youngest was even named Will (and was riding in a backpack).  The middle one had a speech delay (Sorry, Lilly!) and the oldest one was quietly reading and then told me life had been easier until the siblings came long (Sorry, Emma).  After I said my goodbye, I felt pretty emotional. I remember my Dad visiting us once on the island. He went to swim lessons with us and at one point, he told me how fast it all went. He said, "Whenever I see a stressed Mom, I like to tell her it really does go fast and to appreciate it." I remember I joked, "Wow, Dad, I am sure they all love that."  But it is really bouncing around in my brain.  My Dad is gone, and he was so very right. You don't get a do-over. I hope we did enough magical things with the kids.  I hope we had adventures and enjoyed just being alive. I know we never went to the Redwoods with them.  But I hope we found our own kind of magic. Because my Dad was right. It went fast.

Ok.  Enough of this melancholy!  Off to my next adventure tomorrow! (but first, a photo of my Dad with us at the ocean when were kids... having an adventure).

 

Lighthouses and turning garbage into art

 I have always had a thing for lighthouses. And Oregon is all about their lighthouses.  

Driving down the Coast of this beautiful state gives a person plenty of chances to visit these lovely old places. They all feel like they could tell stories.  I love how they are carefully maintained by their local communities and how each lighthouse lists all of the keepers who lived there.  In the last several days I saw the lighthouse at Heceta Head (near Florence.  The photo from far away feels very dreamlike, which mist shrowding the lighthouse.

Today, I saw the lighthouse at the Coquille River (near Bandon) and the beautiful one at Cape Blanco.

 

 

Other trip highlights so far:

I reunited with a couple of old friends of mine on the beach in Newport.  It felt really good to see each other after all these years (and yeah, it was windy out there!)

I stayed on a riverboat in Newport, which was utterly beautiful. The fog rolled in while I was there. The shot out my stateroom is the bridge nearby.

Then yesterday I had a delightful kayak on the Siltcoos River (near Florence). It was peaceful and very different than my kayaking back home!

Bandon was fabulous.  My room had a fantastic view of the rocks on the beach. Check out the photo below of the infamous "Face Rock". Before I headed south, I visited the Bandon Historical Museum, which was a huge collection of antiques and memories, many of them from a fire destroyed the entire town in 1936.  Then I went to Washed Ashore, a great place that collects garbage on the beach and turns it into art! See some of the photos below.  Here is their site: https://www.washedashore.org/

Heading out of Bandon, I saw the famous "Natural Bridge" below, outside of Gold Beach, before arriving in Brookings.  I am here for the next two days as I start my Redwoods exploration across the border!

So excited!  Will share a Redwoods update next!

An ode to pursuing adventure

As I write this, the Oregon Coast is under a tsunami warning, linked to an earthquake in Russia.  And - get this - my hotel is as far out on the dunes as any hotel in Seaside, Oregon.  And I am on the first floor.  Facing west. Families are packing up and leaving, as folks are pretty rattled by the warning. I started to spiral a bit before the updated tsunami alert said we were talking waves about a foot over average. It is supposed to hit around midnight. Still, as I called Bob and we started crafting my emergency plan (pack up before bed and drive somewhere away from water to wait it out a bit), I cannot deny what I was feeling:

It was adrenaline.

I mean, as we age, we avoid risk. We avoid too much excitement or craziness. And sometimes, it means we don't have adventures anymore.  

Haystack Rock this morning - a Cannon Beach treasure

This part of the aging journey has always petrified me. I remember sitting in a Denny's when I was 21. I was studying with my best friend Billy. Of course, because we were stupid and 22, we would meet at Denny's when I got off my shift at KIRO radio, at about 2 a.m. We would "study" (and mostly talk) until the wee small hours.  Once I was talking to Billy about what we both feared most about our lives ahead. I said, "getting conventional".  Billy burst out laughing and said, "The day that you get conventional, all hope is lost."  That always stuck with me.

So this is what we struggle with as we age. How to find adventure. How to be sort of crazy. How to be unconventional.

With all this in mind, I am enjoying my adventure. I am enjoying seizing the day and exploring things on my own. I have only been gone a day or so and it feels much longer.

I walked A LOT today (about 12 miles total), mostly on sand (Hello, calf muscles!).  I saw the infamous Haystack Rock (above) and fabulous SeaStars!  (also above)

The rock formations here are wild.  A couple of great photos below.

And.. I visited Hug Point and Ecola Park. Hug Point is where they filmed part of "The Goonies" and it was fun to check out the caves. The rest of the day was exploring Seaside, walking the Promenade and preparing for the tsuanmi.  :-)

One of my favorite movies has always been "The World According to Garp".  At one point, Jenny stands at the shore with her son Garp and says, "You know, Garp. Life can really be an adventure."  That stuck with me. How do you live a life like that?

So here's to adventure and hitting the road.  I have many pictures, hikes and adventures ahead of me and will be posting here.

In the meantime, here's to a tsunami late tonight that (I hope) never quite lives up to its PR.

Tomorrow- Newport!