Road trip to the SW in 2009!

we LOVE to take road trips. to sleep in our car (bessy is her name) and to camp out. visiting places off of the freeway is our favorite pass-time. so much to see in this beautiful country! this was joshy's first time driving a long roadtrip to the south west and it was back in june of 2009. we started off in portland (duh!), drove east to idaho, then turned south to salt lake city and quickly cut through most of utah to get to where we wanted to go, which is the southwest. we saw brice canyon, hoeseshoe bend, lake powell, sedona, phoenix, san francisco and then back up to portland (with all sorts of stops in between). SO FUN! We have SO many pro-camera photos of this trip... here are just the iPhone ones :)

entering idaho

Delorean!

Ha! This is just cool :) We found a Delorean parked in Jensen Beach, Portland while on one of our Home Depot run. Classic :)

Rhododendron beauty.

Too bad that these old rhodies in our yard bloom for only 2 weeks in a year! They are gorgeous and huge and the City Of Portland actually told us that we should submit them to their list of protected, heritage trees list. That's how special they are! Top photo is from the street and bottom photo is from our yard. I have to tell you, walking under their canopy to get in and out of our house is sooooo cool! Even with the bees :)

Seattle!

Here is Josh, making some art in Seattle :)

Bon fire in our yard is fun!

We have a pretty darned big yard. We love it! And we love camping out and bon fires, so we dug up a fire pit and this was the very first fire in it. It was back on 2010 and trust me! The pit is one big and awesome success now! There have since been plenty of bon fires with friends and on our own and it's so fun to sit around it :)

A Portland street.

Nothin' to it, really. It's just a quick snap shot of a street I travel in Portland quite often. It's what I see from the car, so it's part of my day-to-day life. Oh! And the typical wintery clouds too (looking west) :)

2009 portland snow event.

Our first snow fall at our house in Portland! This was back in 2009 when it REALLY came down and then melted after a week or so, flooding everything! It was beautiful while it lasted though :)

Back in '79 and '88 in Italy!

Just a little blast from the past :) Top one is me back in 1988 in Italy. The second image is again, me about to blow my very first candle on my very first birthday in 1979 also in Italy, with my mom. I LOVE old photographs! <3

The deep reds of autumn.

This Japanese maple is right along the road that leads (einds) up to Washington Park (Portland's rose test site) in the SW hills. It was fall of 2009 and while driving up to the park, i saw the tree and decided to stop, climb down the hill a bit to get under it and snap this iPhone photo of the trunk and leaves. Such a pretty tree! They are always so gnarly and dramatic!

Japanese maple at Washington Park, Portland OR

Stevenson WA

When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest back in 2003, I was living in Stevenson WA. It's a tiny little town on the shores of the Columbia River, in the Columbia River Gorge (where the famous Skamania Lodge and the famous Walking Man Brewery are). It's only about 45 minutes east of downtown Portland and it's really super nice. Secluded without being too far away from a city. This particular view is looking west from the shores of the river, with my friend's Columbia Gorge Riverside Lodge to my left.

Stevenson WA in 2009