Doodle Week - Doodle Bug

To Wish Impossible Things

So I am sure you are all keen to know how my weekend trip was.

It started off great, we took highway 101 down the coast, and saw some incredible views. The Oregon coastline is impressive, the sheer number of trees, the high rising Cliffside and craggy beaches, as you travel south the cliffs turn to long and high dunes, like I’ve never seen before. We spent the night at Coos Bay, and left early for Crater Lake. The drive to Crater Lake was also impressive, especially as we started to move into the mountains following the Umpqua rivers.

We stopped off at Diamond Lake for lunch, I had a little splash in the Lake, then back in the car. I can not describe Crater Lake well enough to give do it justice, nor do the photos give it justice. Ryan and I discussed this a little, and decided part of the beauty and awe of crater lake, is that as you drive through the mountains to get to it, you’d have no idea it was there. Its not until you get to the top of the rim do you see it. Its incredibly blue. Crater lake was created about 7,700 years ago when Mt Mazama erupted and collapsed in on its self. Over time, the crater has filled with rain water and melted snow, the Lake is 1.963 feet deep, and about 5 miles across.

We spent a few hours driving around the lake, getting out of the car at every opportunity to take photos and enjoy the scenery. One stop was at the pinnacles, they remind me of the architecture created by Gaudi, but of course were created long before his time. They were created when Mt Mazama erupted. Hot gas was pushed through the ground and fumaroles were created. Over time as rain and melted snow etched the landscape the pinnacles were revealed.

After making the round trip of Crater Lake we headed to Chemult for our lodgings. Chemult is a small town of 75 people. Our motel was the first on in town, so we pulled in checked in, then headed out for dinner. We ended up at the Chalet for dinner, we had a great rib-eye then went into the bar. We expected to just be there for an hour or two… well how wrong could we have been… it was 1am by the time we left and many drinks later. There wasn’t many people in the bar, but the people that we there were extremely friendly. The karaoke was in full swing within no time at all. If you’ve been to my blog much before, you’ll be aware of my feelings regarding karaoke and my ability to sing… well, with enough drinks I was up there singing a duo with Lea, I don’t think it was too bad.

As last call was called, Ryan and I left and went back to our motel to rest up for the long drive the next day. We this is where the perfect weekend turned sour. We got into a conversation which lead to Ryan telling me that he is not in love with me. He told me he wanted to be, that I am what he wants, but there is just something missing. So that’s it, the wbf becomes xbf.

The drive back home to Portland yesterday was long, I spent the whole time with tears rolling down my face trying to piece it all together – when the cure song “To Wish Impossible Things” pops up on Ryan’s iPod, it just seemed to sum up the whole situation perfectly.

Now we are both trying to figure out what happens now. We are tied into the lease, and neither of us can easily afford to pay the rent on our own, so at least in the short-term we will still be living together.

I know that the pain I am feeling at the moment will disappear with time, and I am just looking for the positives and opportunities that will arise from all this.

More photos:

Friday

It's finally Friday, and I am so happy. The weather here is wonderful right now, and I have no desire to be indoors, however, at the moment I need to work to pay the bills so there's no getting past the fact I have to at least spend some time indoors - oh well, such is life. I suppose if I was really bothered by that fact, I'd look for a new job in which I could be outdoors all day. Been as I'm not going to do that, I'll just stop my whining now.

Today, I'll only be working till lunchtime. Then I am going to Coos Bay and Crater Lake for the weekend. I've never been to either of these places, in fact I have never been that far south in Oregon. This is part of my birthday treat from the wbf. I am so excited.

We leave at noon, and then we'll be taking 101 down. Its going to be so much fun, I can hardly wait. I know this morning is going to take a long time, I am counting down the hours (I'd do minutes, but then it would feel even longer).

I've added Twitter to my blog, and I'll be sending updates there.

Smell ya later :)

July 4th

Well it was almost a week ago, but I had a fabulous July 4th.

After arriving back from my camping trip, I had a lovely bath and got all cleaned up. Camping does lead to a mucky Caroline.

I then had a nap, as I hadn't got a whole lot of sleep while I was gone, then I headed out to a friends for BBQ and drinks. We were there for a while, then we went to the Blues Festival. This is the second year that I've been. Both times its been great.

I never really thought of myself as much of a blues fan, but its so much fun to sit on the grass, in the sun listening to it. I was there with the wbf, and it was so nice.

At about 10pm it was fireworks time. They had two barges set up on either side of the Hawthorne bridge. I love fireworks. The wbf put his arms around me as we watched.

It was such a lovely birthday eve.

Doodle Week - Starts on Monday

I had so much fun at doodle week last time, and I am happy to see there's another one coming up!

Woo hoo!

It starts on Monday, you can find out more at Doodle Week.

Here are my doodles from last time around:

Take on me

I was going to write a lovely post about last week camping, but that will just have to wait as I haven't gotten around to uploading my photo's yet, and I am waiting on Marie, who took more photos than me.

So, I am going to write about something else instead, but of course in true Caroline fashion, I have no clue what I am going to write about just yet.

I am still waiting for that A ha moment. Not A Ha as in the group, although I really do like the video for Take On Me. I remember dancing to this in my living room when I was all of 5 years old – I think I still dance the same now as I did back then – (sorry to disappoint, but the below is not a video of my crazy dancing)



We tried to go dancing on Saturday night for my birthday celebration, but the place we ended up in was not playing the type of music that me and my friends like to dance to, and we were too lazy to go wandering around to find another place. Saturday nights in Portland is not the best dancing night for me – I prefer Fridays.

As the group I was with wasn’t dancing a whole lot, we spent a lot of time people watching.

Oh my goodness was this a great place to do that. I thought my dancing was a little crazy, but mine is normal in comparison to some of what we saw, it was a blast. I am not one to make fun of other people (unless I know them first), but I just couldn’t help it. I just couldn’t take my eyes away from some of these folks. One lass was line dancing to R&B, well I say line dancing, that’s really just the best way of describing it. But you know what, everyone was having so much fun, and at the end of the day, that is what counts.

As Mark Twain said: "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."

Short Post

Took a while for me to get back to my Blog, but here I am.

I had a great week camping, and was back home in time to take a nap and then head out to the Blues Festival, and watch some fireworks.

Saturday was my birthday, after grabbing breakfast, getting a manicure, pedicure and haircut, the wbf, myself and our neighbour watched a movie then headed out to celebrate my special day.

I will write more about all the week in a bit, but right now I am back at work, and they already have me busy.