Columbia Gorge Waterfalls Hike

A few quick pics of our recent hike to several waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge area:

Latourell Falls












Close-up












Wahkeena Falls












Below Wahkeena Falls












600 foot climb (over 1 mile) to the top of Multnomah falls (boy were my legs sore the next day!!)









Is that our car way down there???

So much to say...

Hello again!

November is flying by; quite a bit to report.

First, I finally made it to the Japanese Garden, which I had been planning to do for quite some time. They had free admission on Veteran's day, so I grabbed my camera and waded through the puddles...












This was one of a number of bonsai trees on exhibit, sort of a hybrid-looking one. My mother's words kept echoing through my head "Don't these people have anything better to do with their time than make trees small?" but I enjoyed the exhibit nonetheless.









Next Dan's father came to visit for the weekend..our first overnight visitor!! It was really fun to have him here, we got to see some new parts of Portland and he came out to this area for the first time (a prior trip having been cancelled due to the eruption of Mt. St. Helens!)

We went to the Rose Garden, but we saw more leaves than roses:









We also took a trip to the Oregon Zoo:
(this next pic dan said was a must-have for the blog)












And this is a shot of dan hypnotizing a penguin. It must have been a trained penguin because dan's dad first attracted it with his umbrella, then dan had it following his camera cord back and forth across the window.

humane? no. fun? yes.









(side note related to penguins: we (Dan, myself, and my way-cool friend from work Kim) went to the Omnimax theater at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI as people here refer to it (pronounced AAHHHM-see) to see Happy Feet, the movie about the dancing penguins. We went because Dan's best friend Dave worked on the film these past few months and also we wanted to see OMSI and the OMNIMAX theater they have. WOW! It was really cool. The theater was cone-shaped and for the first few minutes was disorientingly realistic. We got used to it after a while, but it was still really huge and fun! And at the end, we watched the credits and gave Dave a standing ovation. That was the best part.)

Canvassing and Cat glasses

Last night was one of the scarier nights of my life. I agreed to canvass for the Oregon Democratic Party for $10 an hour. All well and good, right? WRONG. Now, I will preface this by saying that I am not a stranger to "bad neighborhoods" nor am I particularly wimpy or naive. But this scenario was not what I had expected. I showed up, got "trained," they handed me a map and a palm pilot, and then dropped me off in the hundred-blocks of SE Portland and said "GO! We'll meet at that dingy mini-mart on SE Stark Street at 9pm!"

Basically everything my parents ever told me not to do, I was doing last night. Walking around, alone, in complete darkness, in pretty steady rain, with no car/bike/wheels to speak of, holding this rather expensive electronic toy, in a neighborhood I was completely unfamiliar with, knocking on people's doors.

Needless to say, I was a little nervous. But my nervousness increased when I started getting answers like "No, he's not going to vote, he's in jail." and "My son is in Iraq, there's no way in hell I'm voting democrat [SLAM]" and "Be careful in this neighborhood. There are a lot of Meth-heads hanging around. There used to be a whole den of them next door, till I called the cops on them and got them out of here. This world is crazy. I just want Jesus to come and get us all out of here."

Probably not the worst that could have happened to me on a rainy Friday night, but it was a situation I was wholly unprepared for and not at all pleased to find myself in. I'm not going back to canvass again tomorrow. There's got to be another way to earn $10 an hour in this town.

On a happier note, here is a pic of my cat glasses from halloween:









And Dan's costume (a chicken-dressed-as-elvis-puppet/hat):









Even Claire wanted to get festive:

Sign Interpreting and Vancouver, BC

2 things!

First, I'm getting really excited about starting school again. I've been studying for the GRE, and that's going ok. I am applying to 2 schools: Gallaudet University for their Masters programs in Interpretation and Deaf Studies, and Portland Community College for their Associates degree in Sign Language Interpretation.

I am debating whether to apply additionally to 2 others: Seattle Central Community College and/or the National Technical Institute of the Deaf in Rochester, NY (connected to the Rochester Institute of Technology.) Both of those are Associates programs in Sign Interpreting.

Right now, I'm thinking I will probably just apply to the two I know I want (Gallaudet and PCC). I'm worried about the time/energy/money it would require to apply to the other two. But there is a voice in the back of my head that's saying "but what if you don't get into either? Then you'll have to work full time for another whole year. No school for you!"

The other thing is that Dan and I are going to Vancouver, BC for Thanksgiving weekend! (of course, it isn't Thanksgiving in Canada, so things will be open/there won't be huge sales) We are in the process of reserving a bed and breakfast, and making lists of awesome things to do while we are there. Has anyone been to Vancouver BC?? Suggestions? So far I know we're going to see Stanley Park, the Museum of Anthropology, Chinatown, the Indian Market (I'm hoping to buy a sari!), and to a cool vegetarian restaurant called Naam.

Hope all is well with everyone..