On the Road with Lauri

 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...

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...

 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 ...

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 be...

 Okay, if you are a Vashon Island neighbor (particularly if you live on the water), plug your ears I hate how the beaches are not public in Washington. It's sort of crazy. On Vashon, it is almost armed warfare sometimes, with property owners getting VERY angry if you walk on the beach.  There is a whole complicated formula you can quote them about when you walk on the beach, but every time I get crosswise with one of these people, I think of this: I miss Oregon. Bob and I started our young married lives in Portland.  We met dear friends we still know today. We lived in an adorable house that cost about six cents. We explored Oregon history with weekend road trips. And, when those weekends brought us to the ocean, we enjoyed it to our heart's desire. Because Oregon, well, decided the beaches are for everyone. And they have belonged to everyone since 1967. And doesn't that sort of make sense? There are other things I miss about Oregon sometimes.  I feel a lot of sentim...