Tuesday, August 31, 2010

From San Francisco to the Rogue River...

First stop: San Francisco. It’s not our first time and definitely won’t be our last. We arrived in the late afternoon and made plans to meet with Nat, Graig, and little Mac for dinner. We went to a place called Namu, a Japanese and Korean fusion restaurant where everything is made with organic ingredients. The kitchen staff visits the local farmers markets for fresh vegetables, meat, and fish. We tried their Korean tacos, shitake dumplings, and fish head soup (yes, with a real fish head... eye balls and all). One word: AMAZING! Good times with good people.

There’s no way I can leave my heart in San Francisco knowing that I have Portland and Seattle coming up. Yesterday we spent six hours driving through Northern California. Driving up the 5 Interstate in Mt. Shasta is a whole lot better of a drive than Los Angeles and Orange County. We drove through golden pastures, purple mountains, and crystal-blue lakes. The air was fresh and the skies were bright blue. Having my hand out the window with the crisp wind blowing through my fingers made me feel I was at peace with myself and the nature surrounding me. This may sound so cliché, but in that moment, the cliché felt right.

We have been driving with directions purely from road maps, not by GPS or our phones. When we passed cities recognizable on the maps we got a sense of accomplishment, especially when we hit the Oregon State Line.
Oregon is an amazing place. It’s full of trees, old wooden houses, bearded-flannel wearing-old Ford pickup truck driving-mountain dog having men everywhere. Needless to say, I will have a really hard time coming back home. Driving through Oregon is best described as driving through Big Bear city but with more trees and rivers.

By 6:00pm yesterday, we hit Medford and decided to plant our camping gear by the Rogue River. I have never stayed at such a beautiful campground (although that could change soon). We ate sandwiches by the campfire and listened to Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans album. We did not say much by the campground just because we were still soaking in all we had seen between the beautiful drive and the Rogue River flowing only a hundred feet away from our tent. Just to sit and reflect on all the beauty that surrounds us makes me speechless. We have an amazing Creator, and I don’t want to take any of this for granted.

“There’s a movement in our stillness and however much we move we’re bound to stand completely still. Let’s all stand completely still…” -MeWithoutYou



 
 

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