Seattleite

Seattle is like visiting a very good, old friend. I haven't been back in a few years and it felt so great to be in this beautiful city again. But better than that, I got to spend my 10 days with one of my oldest and best of friends Kerry and her equally lovely fiancé Dean, who I haven't seen in years. We belted out some killer karaoke, hiked, explored Seattle and reunited with my favorite spots, ate delicious food, talked and laughed the days away, saw one of my favs Of Monsters and Men in concert, and just had the best time together. I miss you so much Kerry! Seattle, here's my love letter to you in pictures:

Portland

Oh Portlandia. I've been very drawn to Portland over the years and I was so ready to explore. When I arrived Portland was in the middle of a heat wave and it was a very hot 104 degrees. Ever since I've been back from Hawaii the weather out west has been very wonky, hope it's not me! I immediately went to stuff my face with the best ice cream I've ever had, huckleberry-goat cheese-habanero and salted caramel ice cream, at Salt & Straw which was a delicious welcoming. I didn't let the heat wave get in my way and I explored the hell out of this great city. Portland is super funky, artsy and has incredible food and blackberry hard cider, it's kinda like the Austin of the Pacific North West. Though Austin wins hands down as being most weird, sorry Portland. I loved walking around Portland's neighborhoods and letting this city wash over me. I took a quick trip to the coast which was so wild and stunning and a nice reprieve from the heat. I loved walking through Portland's Japanese Garden and getting my zen on, feasting with my eyes at farmers markets, walking around downtown, seeing all the city bridges (and there are many!) and I bought a lot of fun only-in-Portland art. I also ate my weight in blueberry bourbon and passion fruit donuts thanks to Blue Star, which is WAY better than Voodoo, don't even try to tell me otherwise. You were lovely Portland, can't wait to come back!

Crater Lake National Park

After dropping my two college friends off at a small airport in southern Oregon, I was by myself again and on my way to Crater Lake National Park. This is a place that I had been really excited to see and have been thinking about for quite a while. I must admit that I didn't know much about Crater Lake before I read one of my favorite books, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, a few years ago. I was curious to see how it would feel to be there, staring this lake in the eyes, something that has been on my mind since Wild. For those of you who haven't read Wild, it's a memoir about Cheryl Strayed who hiked 1100+ miles alone on the Pacific Crest Trail (like the Appalachian but on the west coast) when she was twenty-six. It's a spirit trek of sorts, walking herself back to healing, after the loss of her mom at twenty-two. The way Cheryl describes Crater Lake is so eloquent and one of my favorite parts of her story, showing what beauty can come from such destruction. I knew I needed to stop on my way to Seattle.

When I first layed eyes on Crater Lake I was stunned, somewhat similar to seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. The lake is so clear and blue, the bluest blue I have ever seen, it looks unnatural. The story of Crater Lake is 7,700 years ago or so it used to be a towering mountain that erupted and the heart of the volcano blew out and created this empty bowl. It took hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years to fill this bowl, by the melting of snow and ice. There are no waterfalls or streams or any way for water to seep in, it's all from snow and ice. Crater Lake is the deepest and clearest lake in the US, measuring at 1,932 feet, and seventh deepest in the world. Crater Lake is staggeringly beautiful and I was in complete awe.
I think Cheryl Strayed said it best: "This was once Mazama, this was once a mountain that stood nearly 12,000 feet tall and had it's heart removed. This was once a wasteland of lava and pumice and ash. This was once an empty bowl that took hundreds of years to fill. But hard as I tried, I couldn't see them in my mind's eye. ...There was only the stillness and silence of the water: what a mountain and a wasteland and an empty bowl turned into after the healing began." 

This is not the sky but the lake, so so blue!