One nice thing (among many) about living in the Pacific Northwest is access to quality non-formulaic music. Yakima is by no means progressive (its a bit preoccupied with cleaning up the drug pipeline that runs through here), but we seem to enjoy some of the Seattle/Portland music corona. For a city this size, we’ve got a phenomenally good college radio station, that plays a set of songs that could’ve come straight from my hard drive. It seems to be run by a local technical skills center for high schoolers, which keeps it relatively DJ-free and means I’m never subjected to a pitch to buy diamonds from Jared. It also means the occasional phonetic butchering of Sufjan Stevens’ name, but I can live with that.

Also, if there’s one thing Seattlites freak out about (other than a new Starbucks), it’s a trendy indie band concert. Or even better a full-blown music festival. And if it requires a mini road trip, all the better. Bumbershoot, of course, is massive, but I was poking around checking an upcoming Jack Johnson concert this summer at The Gorge and I stumbled across a link to the Sasquatch Music Festival, also at The Gorge. The Gorge is about an hour and thirty minutes from our house and considered a premiere outdoor concert venue and I’d definitely like to catch at least one concert there while we’re in the neighborhood. I’m not sure how I’ve never heard of the Sasquatch Music Festival before. I mean, the lineup of artists for this year is absolutely ridiculous:

Saturday, May 24th:
R.E.M. / Modest Mouse / M.I.A. / The New Pornographers / The National / Ozomatli / Beirut / Dengue Fever / Fleet Foxes / The Breeders / Okkervil River / Crudo (featuring Mike Patton & Dan The Automator) / Destroyer / Dead Confederate / Grand Archives / David Bazan / Joshua Morrison / Vince Mira with the Roy Kay Trio / Throw Me The Statue / The Shaky Hands

Sunday, May 25th:
The Cure / Death Cab For Cutie / Michael Franti & Spearhead / Blue Scholars / Cold War Kids / Tegan & Sara / Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks / The Kooks / Mates of State / Rogue Wave / White Rabbits / The Heavenly States / 65daysofstatic / Sera Cahoone / The Blakes / The Cops / J. Tillman / “Awesome”

Monday, May 26th:
The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show / The Mars Volta / Flight Of The Conchords / Rodrigo Y Gabriela / Built To Spill / The Hives / Matt Costa / Ghostland Observatory / Jamie Lidell / Battles / The Cave Singers / The Little Ones / Thao Nguyen with the Get Down Stay Down / Pela / Kinski / Dyme Def / Say Hi / Siberian

Ridiculous. Anyway, I won’t make it to this one as I’ve already booked plane tickets elsewhere that weekend, but certainly something to keep in mind for next spring.

Spring is definitely here in full force. Sunny and temps in the 60s most of the day yesterday. We opened all the windows in the afternoon to waft out that stagnant winter air, then took the dogs for a hike in the hills near Rimrock. Still patches of snow in the shadow-covered valleys and nooks, but for the most part we had dry footing throughout the outing.

And the dogs went ballistic. It was so much fun to watch them run up and down the slopes, sniffing elk trails, chasing dislodged rocks, and bouncing over fallen trees. Nora especially seemed a bit overstimulated as she catapulted after every clump of avalanching dirt or rock, sometimes chasing a rock 150 feet downhill before running back up to us.

They all mellowed out nicely on the ride home though and slept like stones. I’m getting excited for more snow melt to start getting back into real mountains this summer.

It’s still so strange to me to power through the end of February and into March with day after day of sunshine and temps in the upper 50s. The lawn is already starting to green up and we’ve got six inches of tulips poking out of the ground in front of our house. This past weekend we reunited the local Ultimate Frisbee crew and played a rousing 7 on 7 game for a couple of hours at Franklin Park. Blues skies, chirping birds. Mount Adams and Rainier have begun making regular appearances on the horizon again.

And I’m starting to get very restless of after a winter of sitting at a desk. This isn’t my long-term lifestyle. I mean it’s slightly fun to be making enough money to actually have a chicken scratch 401k, but that road of enjoying money management and obsessing over mutual funds isn’t a road I’m quite ready to head down. Maybe retirement-aged-me will look back and be annoyed at can’t-buckle-down-and-handle-your-responsibilities-me, but I hope he remembers how much more enjoyable life is/was when you live a flexible lifestyle and keep things simple. I don’t mind working or working hard, I just don’t like working hard for something I don’t care about. One of these years I’ll figure out something I’m interested in doing. In the meantime, I’m pretty sure I’ll make it through the summer, but I’m also definitely keeping my eyes open for other job options.

These pictures were from a couple of days ago. I was talking with a co-worker and he mentioned that deer, bald/golden eagles, and big horn sheep are everywhere in the hills up near Tieton this time of year. Good enough excuse for a hike for me. Beautiful sunny day. Still knee-deep snow in shady spots (I was hiking in shorts and continually shredded my shins punching through the ice crust) and lots of muck in the sunny areas, but it was great to get a natural workout again. True enough, there were tons of deer and sheep, none of whom would let me get any nearer than a ridge close to them. Didn’t see any eagles. I took a few pictures that predictably turned out showing the animals as tiny spots (see top left pic below), so I packed up the camera and enjoyed running around a wide open landscape by myself with the wildlife.

Headed out late Friday morning south on Highway 97. I always like this drive as it’s frequently punctuated with unobstructed views of Mount Adams and Mount Hood. You can see Adams just peaking into view in the picture on the left and Hood standing tall in the one on the right. It’s also neat to watch the landscape change from desert-y scrub-brush to rich evergreen as you descend toward the Columbia River.

Normally I would’ve taken 97 straight into Oregon, but construction on the border bridge meant I was diverted west following the Washington-side ridge above the Columbia. Really pretty views of the gorge at every twist and turn. After crossing the Columbia, I stopped at The Dalles DMV to take care of some unfinished business and had easily the best DMV experience of my life. Rolled into a nearly empty parking lot, walked in and pulled my tab for number 66, looked up to see they were now serving number 65, and three minutes later was back in my car. Incredible. I took a picture to commemorate the moment (below right).

Then I drove and drove. Hit the expected Friday afternoon Portland traffic, but no real traffic jams. I don’t think I’d ever want to live in a really large city, but every so often I don’t mind immersing myself in the crush of humanity. In these bumper-to-bumper moments I’m always glad to have cut my driving teeth in a city that provided plenty of learning opportunities.

A couple hours after Portland, I hit the coast, pulled off at the first view point, lurched out of the car, and sucked in delicious lung-fulls of salty air. Haystack Rock pictured below left. About fifteen minutes later I arrived at Oswald West State Park, parked, and raced the quarter mile down the trail to the beach (below right).

There were only a couple other people on the beach and no one in the water. At first I thought this was odd, but thinking back to last summer when we came in on a Friday afternoon there were only a few people in the water and the weather was much nicer then. I stood gazing at the waves for a bit then scrambled around on the cliff-side rocks and poked around in the tide pools. Returning to the beach I mulled over whether to track down a campsite or try to sneak in a surf session. The sun was fading, but not sunset-y yet. I raced back up the trail, changed into my wetsuit in the back of my car, and ran back to the beach with my surfboard jostling at my side.

Glorious.

The longshore current was in full force and I was surprised at how hard I was having to work to paddle out. I chalked it up to being out of shape, but later decided it might not have been just me. I never really did get outside and was content to play in the two inside beach breaks. Just me and a dozen ducks. I hoped any sharks in the area were in the mood for bird.

As the sun set I cruised back onto the beach and snapped off a couple pictures (pictured yesterday) before changing and heading back to the car.

I had been hoping to camp at Oswald West, but the campground was closed for the season and the parking lot (my backup plan) had a “No Parking 10 pm-6 am” sign tacked up. My backup-backup plan was Nehalem State Park, so I headed that direction, stopping at a grocery store in Manzanita to pick up some chicken brats and buns.

I couldn’t believe how many people were camping at Nehalem in the middle of February. Not as busy as when we stayed there last summer but still plenty of RVs and tents. Those Oregonians don’t mind the elements I guess. My singed dinner was well-earned and delicious. I was too lazy to set up my tent and didn’t feel like breaking camp in the rain if a wet morning was in the works, so I slept in my car. On an angle with my fleece for a pillow and only woke up shivering once.

The next morning I woke to a misting rain and a fogged up car. I walked down to the beach and petted five dogs that were racing around while their owner tossed sticks. She apologized for all their sniffing, but I told her I didn’t mind. It was 6:30 and I don’t think she was expecting anyone else to be out yet.

I walked the beach for probably forty-five minutes then broke camp and drove back into Manzanita which was just starting to stir. Retirees and vacationers stretching and heading for coffee shops. Dogs on leashes everywhere. I walked the beach again then bought a fresh cinnamon roll from a small grocery store when it opened at eight. The cashier, a white-haired slightly surly man, scooped my cinnamon roll into a paper bag, then scraped up the leftover scraps and held out the spatula toward me. I was confused because I figured he was planning on putting the excess in the bag, but the spatula just continued to hang in the space between us. So I held out my hand and thanked him at he flipped the spatula sideways. My politeness seemed to have earned his regard and he handed me a couple pieces of saltwater taffy as I turned to leave.

I went back to Oswald West and surfed until my shoulders were in knots. Then I surfed for another hour. A few others in the water this morning and many more on the beach. I didn’t mind the company. It was nice to watch other people getting thumped by the waves for a change.

By 1 PM I was back on the road headed toward home. Highway 101 along the coast seemed to have quadrupled in traffic and ditto for Highway 26 back toward Portland. Making use of passing lanes though, I didn’t notice much difference in my travel time.

East of Portland I stopped at Multnomah Falls, a 600ft waterfall which is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the US after Yosemite. It’s ridiculously conveniently located as you can pull into the parking area off of I-84 just like you’d pull into a rest stop. Quite literally there is a coffee shop near the falls and people sipped their lattes while gazing up. I think half of Portland may have been there this afternoon.

I had planned to stay just long enough to take a few pictures, but I accidentally started walking up a trail that led to the top of the falls and my curiosity got the best of me. A mile of switch backs later and I was peering over the edge. Pretty cool. Actually though, I think the best part of this visit was hearing all the different languages. I’m sure I heard at least half a dozen while heading up and there may have been more. International destination I guess.

I drove home with the sun in my rear view mirror and was treated to a Mount Adams sunset near Goldendale, WA. Rolled back into Yakima in the dark, greeted my wife and exuberant furballs, and drifted off to sleep while my body floated up and down on phantom ocean swells.