The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;
for He founded it up on the seas and established it upon the waters.
Psalm 24:1-2
This is the second YL trip of my summer. An 8-day Beyond Malibu sea kayaking trip leaving from Egmont, British Columbia, Canada, and ending at Chatterbox Falls via the Princess Louisa inlet.This trip is totally me through and through.It was a small but great group.The first day we paddled 10 hours in pouring rain; second day, 8 hours with rain about 7 hours of that; third, 4th and 5th days, 6 hours in BEAUTIFUL sunshine and the last couple days were about 4-6 hours of paddling in the sunshine.After those first two days of feeling like drenched cats (to the point of rain jackets no longer actually repelling rain), the weather was beautiful and sunshiny and perfect.It was great.The best times were all those hours of paddling and the question game.You can find out sooooo much in 4 hours of the question game….even to the point of “I really didn’t need to know this” because, honestly, after day 4 of the question game, questions get a little random.Ok, a lot random (would you rather jump into a pit of snakes or eat a milkshake of cockroaches, moldy cheese and syrup?).
There were some interesting experiences and sights to be seen. We had a mountain lion walk through our camp one night. Luckily no one was in camp (we were down by the water) except our male guide. He got real big and growled and the mountain lion walked off (yes, walked). Needless to say, no one was alone in camp at all for the rest of the night. On our first day paddling, we saw a bald eagle eating an elk. We nicknamed the whole incident "America eating Canada"....hahaha.
There's more to this trip....but i can't find my notes. When I do, I'll update this.
Glad these snow days are allowing me to catch up on this blog. Though I am wondering if I'm getting home for Christmas with EVERY flight out of PDX being cancelled right now. My flight on TUESDAY is cancelled. Seriously? Clara prayed for a white Christmas....thanks Clara! Grr....
So, trip #4. This trip consisted of taking a group of kids down to Young Life's Wildhorse Canyon. I love Wildhorse. Such a great place to get away from life and have fun for a week. This year's group was great! I had an amazing cabin with really good girls, which if you know anything about my camp experiences then you know I don't always have good weeks. But, this one was FABULOUS! I've become good friends with some of the girls and keep in touch with most of those who went--even some of those not in my cabin.
Not much else to say about the week other than share some pictures! So enjoy!!
Ok, I'm finally getting around to telling about my #3 trip this summer. I went home to Spokane and then my mom and I headed to DC together. She had a conference for work over there and invited me to tag along. Free hotel for a week and chance to hang out with my mom all in a new city I haven't been to before? Hum...Yes!!
Ok, my favorite thing about DC is the Metro. Seriously this is soooo cool. I want one here in Longview, which won't EVER be possible but it would be REALLY awesome. Especially today when snow paralyzes the city. As of right now, I'm stuck on the hill.....cleaning, updating my address (another post...) and avoiding cleaning by playing on the internet! yea!!
My first day was spent at Arlington National Cemetery. The one thought that constantly overwhelmed by mind was, "It's so big. There are so many..." This cemetery is HUGE. There are so many tombstones. It was overwhelming. I walked through extremely humbled and reminded how heartbreakingly true the phrase, "Freedom is not free", is. Each perfectly manufactured stone represented a life willingly given so that we may live in the country we do as we do. We can make choices of what to believe on many levels and have the freedom and the legal rights to do so because of the lives given over and over again.
Their valor is your heritage.
Not for fame or reward Not for place or for rank Not lured by ambition Or goaded by necessity But in simple Obedience to duty As they understood it These men suffered all Sacrificed all Dared all And died. Randolph Harrison McKim
I struggled with a migraine the first couple days of the trip and that limited my time at various places. But I still saw plenty more so let me share a few highlights and pictures.
Smithsonian: Huge and massive museums with almost anything and everything you can imagine. My favorite was the American Indian Museum, though the Air & Space Museum was interesting. "It's human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand. Exploration is not a choice, really it's an imperative." - Michael Collins (Apollo 11 Astronaut)
Holocaust Museum: For the dead and the living we must bear witness. Elie Wiesel. I didn't even see this entire museum but what I did see was enough. There was a quote that I say that embodies what I took from this time: "Out of our memory...of the Holocaust we must forge an unshakable oath with all civilized people that never again will the world stand silent. Never again will the world...fail to act in time to prevent this terrible crime of genocide... we must harness the outrage of our own memories to stamp out oppression wherever it exists." Jimmy Carter. Add that to this: "Here we will learn that each of us bears responsibility for our actions and for our failure to act." George Bush. We are responsible for what we do. We are responsible for what we don't do when we should do something. We need to remember that.
We went to all the various other memorials (Lincoln, Jefferson, FDR, Vietnam, Korea, Police), even toured the capital building. And here's my one question. Why so big? I know we need to commemorate all these great people. But why are those things built to outlast them and to help us remember so MASSIVE? Just wondering....
Some quotes from the FDR memorial:
FREEDOM OF SPEECH FREEDOM OF WORSHIP FREEDOM FROM WANT FREEDOM FROM FEAR
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.
**Amen and amen. We are so caught up in focusing on what we can't do and what makes us uncomfortable that we are frozen in our tracks. Even the place of indecision (which I know I find myself in sometimes) grabs our feet and our mind and we don't do anything. We just wait for something to happen or change in order to make our decision easier. To make it clear what decision we should make. An interesting human tendency.
Oh and probably one of the coolest museums was the International Spy Museum. It's crazy cool where you can hide various spy tools in normal everyday things.
