Birthday Bash Weekend

*Our traditional road trip pic by SHH

It's been a while since I blogged as I've been bogged down in life issues of late. So, as a nice respite, my bestest friend,Liz, and I drove down to Astoria, Oregon to help celebrate our friend's birthday. Kuku turned 50 this year and invited as many of her letterboxing friends as could make it to join in her celebration.

We had sweet afternoon tea at an Astoria Bed & Breakfast where a special project, the 4th Order of the Quest, made its debut - SHH (Liz) did a fabulous job making the simple, beautifully crafted box into an amazing Jedi holocron - sweet to this Star Wars geek! We sure had fun watching folks work on the code to get the official SHH carved stamp to add their collection of images!

Our friend, BlackvelvetRav (Kelly) flew in from Boise to join the party, so we took her touristing down to Cannon Beach doing some letterboxing, hiking the trails, driving through the quaint shopping area, and eating at world famous Mo's. Oh, and Kelly got to experience real Oregon coast rain and wind!

We also spent time with Kuku and Yiker (and others) in their hotel room stamping away - you know, all those personal travelers and sig stamp exchanges, not to mention any event stamps hangin' around. Lots of laughter and inky fingers!

Saturday evening, we joined the group, now larger, at a local Astoria Pub for birthday cake and more of that stampin' thing - have to say we had a great time schmoozing with friends, old and new. Letterboxers are some of the most friendly, nice people I've ever been around!

The next morning, Kuku and Yiker joined us at our hotel (Kelly shared a room with us) before Kelly, Liz, and I walked the Astoria waterfront touristing and 'boxing - got some awesome boxes! Then, off to the airport for Kelly in that most awesome of rentals - a brilliant red Mustang - sweet!

You have to know that we met Kelly about 2 years ago on our first month long road trip where we met letterboxers all across the country - she spoiled us with an incredible mini-meet (the first of many) at her house with her fellow Boise boxers. She's great!

All in all, yet one more cool chronicle in my life as a letterboxer!

Frozen Adventure

Yesterday, Liz, Netanya, and I had a 'Girls' Day Out' enjoying a little letterboxing, shopping, snapping photos, and generally having a good time.



Here are my favorite photos of the day. I can tell you it was COLD out there!

Hangin' in the City

Yesterday, I had the privelege of spending the day with Liz as we had a day away from the usual responsibilities. Seattle was our destination this time. We found a couple of letterboxes and snapped dozens of pictures and just generally enjoyed the day out.

A Lovely Respite

Yesterday, Liz and I had a great time escaping for the day - driving along in Speeder, taking pics, finding letterboxes, laughing - what could be better? Here are a few of my best pics of the day:




For a much more detailed summation of our day (and some laughs!), check out this site!

Daytrippin'

Just this last Wednesday, on our usual 'Girls Day' outing, Liz, Netanya, and I headed up north to check out the Mt. Baker area. We had a great time exploring a new place and doing some real letterboxing!

Here are just a few soundbites from our time along with a few pics - we'd love to go back sometime when the sun is actually shining!


"Hey, I see snow!"

"Ah, shoot - the actual clues were on a blog - here's the link!"

"Was the cloud that low when we came up here?"

"Those clues are sorta soggy!"

"That moss is incredible!"

"Look at the color of that water!"

"Imagine what it was like in the Spring after all that snow melted!"

"Careful, you'll get a wet butt."

"Hey, there's a hug pile of scat down here!"

"Oh, she's climbing up the other side! I can't see her - oh, there she is!"

"And you told me to be careful?!"

"Hey, your toes are red." (I wore my hiking sandals)

"I don't think you'll get any takers on your cat." (in a little eccentric store, there was a cat bed in amongst the produce with $20,000 posted on it)

"This is really wet."

"And we all had such good hair to start - so much for a good hair day!"

"It says 'stand and enjoy the view of Mt. Shuksan' - um,where's that? We're in a cloud."

Snapshot in Time - Productivity

Today, I found the focus and energy to get busy with a couple of LTC projects! Woohoo! Had to take advantage of that! As you can see, creativity is never tidy!

Snapshots in Time

Today, Liz and I spent the afternoon letterboxing - both planting and finding. We had a great time just driving along in the air-conditioning through lots of countryside enjoying hanging together. It was a nice way to spend a hotter-than-I-like-it day.


The capitol from an Olympia park:


Flowers at Percival's Landing Park in Olympia:

A Walk in the Park

Yesterday, Liz and I spent the afternoon having a sanity break as is our custom when our schedules allow. We drove around the area from Bonney Lake to Tacoma to Olympia letterboxing and taking lots of pics to amuse ourselves. Here are a few of the ones I took - we both like to compare our shots as my perspective is usually so different from hers.

We just had to stop in the rose garden at Point Defiance Park - they're full of blossoms this year. I appreciate all the care that goes into these beauties as the ones in my garden are pretty pathetic.



Then we wandered over to the duck pond and saw these little fuzzies:


We stopped for the local 'Box of the Month' in Olympia, too (an awesome carve by 3 Blind Mice) and took the time to look at the restored 'Henderson House' at the park.

Yes, we actually did find a few letterboxes - shocking, I know!

Carvin' Through the Night!

Well, we had a great time carving our way through the night during our annual all-night study this Shavuot! All in all it was a great celebration with a better-than-usual potluck, lots of schmoozing, singing, not to mention the actual study - from about 10 P.M. till 5:30 this morning!

Here's a little taste of how Liz and I spent our night:


The carving area hidden behind the bookshelves in our library - the study was on the other side of the shelves. As you can see, our friend, Katie didn't quite make it all night - this was about 4 or so, I think! Oops! Is that food and drink in the library? Our awesome librarian won't like that!

The result of my efforts by 5:30 A.M. - a good deal of my time was spent learning how to shade another photo for carving (thanks, Liz!). That one did not get carved... need a more carvable image, I think!

I've posted more pics of the night on MySpace (see link on sidebar).

Snapshot in Time - Heceta Head

This shot was taken on our first 'Moms on the Loose' trip that Liz and I took, oh probably 3 years ago now. We traveled to Oregon staying in the little town of Yachats about midway down the coast. We letterboxed to our hearts content enjoying the freedom to hike and box without our families. This particular pic is of Heceta Head Lighthouse from a trail where we found a Green Tortuga box. Since then, Liz and I have taken two more 'Moms on the Loose' adventures - you know, I'm thinking it's about time for another one...

*this blog has been reposted as I messed up my first 'Snapshot in Time' posting and had to redo it...