And so today began the first segment of our adventure to explore our northern neighbor.  It was a sudden 4:30am alarm awakening, followed by a one mile walk to the MAX station and into Portland by 6:00am.  Our Bolt Bus picked us up and then it was an eight-hour trip to Vancouver, with stops in Seattle and Bellingham.  We were able to check into our hotel by 3:30pm and spent the rest of the early evening enjoying an incredible happy hour and strolling around Robson Street.  Finally, we splashed around in the hotel pool and finished with a nice hot tub session as the sun set.  It was definitely a long day, but it went without incident and the weather was beautiful.  Okay, enough with the basics, onto the photos!  One of the best parts about traveling is the discovery of things that we haven’t seen before, or that we think is kinda odd or funny.  Here is what our first day brought us:

Whenever we are about to embark on a trip, I usually have a to-do list a mile long that I always think that I have enough time to complete.   From packing, doing last minute travel research, and closing up loose ends there never seems to be enough time.  Procrastination can also be a hindrance, as I have neglected to mow the lawn and take care of the yard for the last several weeks.  So today was the day that the battle had finally arrived.  I toiled out there for two hours – mowing, pulling weeds and weed whacking — serious strain under the hot sun, sweat pouring down my head, these old bones achy and sore.  But as I struggled to keep my pace, I was reminded of a Netflix episode featuring Morgan Spurlock documenting his temporary job of picking oranges and living with people that do this for a living.  The work was a lot harder than he thought.  He couldn’t keep up with the quota and he was thoroughly spent and exhausted by the end of the work shift.  As I finished my own laborious work, I acknowledged just how tough this is and how much respect I have for people that do this for a living.  Often unrecognized or forgotten, there are so many people that help bring food to our table.  This simple Native American blessing is one that I often recite before I have a meal:

“We thank the Great Spirit for the resources that made this food possible.
We thank the Earth Mother for producing it, and we thank all those who labored to bring it to us.
May the wholesomeness of the food before us, bring out the wholeness of the Spirit within us.”

If you are interested in learning more about the Morgan Spurlock episode I watched, here is a short clip from CNN.

Day two, oh the pressure!  It will be interesting to see how much of a struggle or how easy it will be to blog everyday.  We gave ourselves some outs, in that any photos, quotes, worthy articles or short observations count as a post.  Today we found out that one of our acquaintances, we’ll call him “Duke” was scammed from a not-so-honest person.  The basic story is this:  Duke was looking for a room share situation, posted his request on Craigslist, and along came a lady who had a room available.  He went to visit and look at it and everything was great – he paid his first month’s rent and security deposit directly to the lady, and set his move-in date for four weeks later.  But as the move-in date got closer, the communication was sporadic and somewhat odd — the explanation was that the lady was having some medical issues and was getting treatment in Seattle.  Being the compassionate person that this Duke is, he believed her and wished for her the best.  He hired people to move from his current residence to the new one.  But on that Thursday move-in date, she was not available to meet him, but promised that her husband would be there on Saturday.  So Duke cancelled the movers and rehired them for Saturday.  But when Saturday morning came around, and after having his calls and texts to the lady remaining unanswered, he came to the realization that he had been scammed.  Duke went back to the apartment that he was supposed to share.  It was empty.  After talking to the upstairs neighbor and tracking down the landlord, he found out that lady was actually evicted a week ago due to failure to pay rent.  And now she was nowhere to be found.  Of course, she already had Duke’s money.  It was a perfectly executed con — she invited Duke over while she still had the place, took his money order for securing his tenancy, and then she strung him along, pushing back the move-in date until she skipped town.  And now Duke is pretty much screwed.  He has no recourse to retrieve his money.  He’ll file a police report, but he’ll join the landlord and who knows how many other people in trying to find this lady.  But in the meantime he is in between places.  Fortunately he can stay a few more days at his current place, but someone else is moving in so Duke will need to vacate his residence within the next couple of weeks.  Obviously, Duke feels pretty low and disappointed that he got taken for a ride and lost his money.  We chatted about his experience, and perhaps this will actually turn out to be a blessing in disguise.  I’m hopeful that he’ll find the perfect place, close to work and with good people he can live with, and though this lesson costed him a lot of money, perhaps it will all turn out for the better.  Duke is a good guy, and he deserves good things to happen to him.  And that is why I am keeping the faith.

This is our first post.  I feel like it should be something profound and memorable, a rousing start to this new blog that declares upon the world “This is US!  Come join and be amazed and have your breath taken away every day with all the grandeur that comes from our writings!  YES YES YES!!”  But eh… we’re tired.  If anything, this day will be remembered for it being our first day of summer away from all the school kids.  And with that comes a big sigh of relief – a time to decompress from all the end-of-the-school year stress, to unwind from the frenzied energy of the students, to reflect upon another year gone, and the double-take realization that yes, the school year went pretty fast!  Lisa and I are very happy and fulfilled with the vocation we have chosen.  We love our students and the staff that we work with, we love the learning and the growing up that we see everyday, and we love the exuberance of their youth because it keeps us young and grounded and hopeful.  I think that is what our web site will strive to be — happy, hopeful and a shared experience for you to learn more about us and the world we live in.  Life is good!