Beachwalker, Seaside, Oregon

I liked this beachwalker, so I married him later that year.

Trees from a car window, Oregon

100-Word Memoir: Honesty vs. the True Meaning of Christmas

Once when I was working my Christmas job, I met an eight-year-old girl and her little brother. We chatted a bit about elves and Santa, then I asked them, “What is your favorite thing about Christmas?” The girl hesitated, then recited words as if reading a prepared speech: “That Jesus Christ was born.” 

“That is a good thing to celebrate!” I told her, then turned to her little brother. “And what is your favorite thing about Christmas?” 

Without hesitation, he yelled, “Presents!”

The girl might have had the correct answer, but the boy was a lot more honest.

~~~

Where to Go: Trail of the Four Winds, Lake of the Ozarks State Park, Missouri

It’s taken me forever to get around to this blog! When Zach and I were staying at Lake of the Ozarks State Park for our anniversary trip, we got the chance to hike this multi-use trail. It was honestly one of the most beautiful trails I’ve ever hiked in Missouri, winding in and out through a dozen different ecosystems, from watery bottomlands and coniferous groves to open prairies and glades. 

Zach and I only had time to hike the south loop, which is 9.25 miles— it connects to a north loop, which adds another 4.25 miles. The trail was well-worn and well-marked, with a lot of gradual inclines and pretty views. 

If you’re interested in hiking this trail, check out the trail section of the Lake of the Ozarks State Park website here and the Four Winds trail map here (pdf reader required). Here are a few photos I took:

Projects of the Week

1. Finish up my Write@Home students for the semester (except for a couple late papers).

2. Completely sort through and categorize the 4,000+ messages in my Gmail inbox. (This is step one in my journey to de-cluttering my life. More on this later.)

3. Master the art of kefir-making. (I just purchased some kefir grains from Cultures for Health, and it rehydrated really quickly. I had a kefir-banana-walnut-chocolate smoothie yesterday!)

4. Finish buying and wrapping presents.

5. Make a bunch of homemade Christmas cards.

6. Send out a Christmas letter to my relatives who don’t have Facebook.

7. Spend as much time as possible with my sister— who is HOME FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR!

~~~

Travel Tip Tuesdays: Five Miscellaneous Things I Wish I'd Known

In the year and a half since I’ve stopped traveling, I’ve discovered all sorts of useful things about it. Were I to indulge in nomadism again, I’d be much better prepared!

Some of these things are big and some are small. All of them are useful. (Also, you can see the European edition of this blog here, and a slightly more general version of this topic here.)

1. Wear synthetic clothing. I cannot even tell you how much easier it is to have a low-maintenance, nice-looking, bring-fewer-articles-of-clothing-and-do-laundry-in-the-sink wardrobe routine when you wear synthetic fibers! I always knew this, but I was never willing to take the dive and buy something made of polyester. I’ve since discovered that places like REI have awesome clothes that go on sale— still out of my price range for everyday use, but for a trip, it’s worth it to buy $60 pants if they will dry in two hours! If you have any money to spare, this is well worth the investment.

2. Bring several postcards of your hometown. So many times, I found myself rushing out the door at a couchsurfing host’s house, realizing I wanted to write them a thank-you note, and digging through my backpack in search of a pen and a scrap of paper. A postcard of your town is a nice little gift for your couchsurfing host, hostel friend, or other random person you meet.

3. On long trips, always fly “open-jaw.” This means that you fly into one city and out of another, rather than backtracking to the same city. In Europe I could’ve saved a ton of money if I’d flown out of, say, Salzburg instead of having to return to Amsterdam (of course, it all worked out beautifully, but if I ever did it again, I’d heed this advice).

4. Bring just one bottle of all-in-one soap. Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap is my go-to soap for everything now— shampoo, body wash, hand soap, dish detergent, face cleanser, you name it. If I’d brought a bottle of this stuff on my trips, I never would have had to mess with trying to keep track of five different liquids.

5. Don’t keep every little map, ticket, and piece of memorabilia. I purged some of my travel collection the other day— yes, it was fun for a moment to glance at that map of Nob Hill or see the Amtrak ticket from Portland to Chehalis for my first WWOOFing trip, but unless it’s organized in an album, it’s not something you’re going to go through and cherish. This is what photos are for. Recycle the paper, back up your digital photos, and let go of the need to hang on to every scrap of sentimental paper.

~~~

Have a travel question? Leave a comment and I’ll answer in a blog!

Fern, Oregon

Travel Tip Tuesdays: A Low-Maintenance "Beauty Routine"

When it comes to hair and makeup, I am the queen of being low-maintenance. I wake up, roll out of bed, brush my hair three times, throw it back in a ponytail, and I’m done. I only wear makeup for special occasions, and usually forget that I’m wearing it and rub my eyes, giving me that “raccoon” effect. But most of the time I just run around with my untreated skin and hair showing, with the acne and oily skin and split ends and chapped lips. Sometimes, this natural look comes off looking pretty nice:

But most of the time, I just look like I got dragged through a plowed field:

There’s one big reason I don’t fix my hair and makeup most of the time: priorities. I’ve written about this before. Priorities are a big deal in my life. It’s the way I sort everything. And in the end, trying to look nice is trumped by the time and energy I save by not trying to looking nice.

When you travel, this is a great skill to have. (See, I’m going to tie it into travel! It is Travel Tip Tuesday, after all.)

Time is money. On any trip, but especially on a short one, you want to spend your time experiencing the trip, beach-walking, city-exploring, or riding those roller coasters. Having an extensive “beauty routine” cuts into that time like crazy. And if you’re doing more hardcore forms of travel, like hostelling or WWOOFing or backpacking, you’ll be lucky to find a place to perform said routine.

If you want to save time (and a lot of room in your suitcase), here are seven suggestions, from least to most extreme.

1. Make sure all your clothes match with all your other clothes. If you feel self-conscious going out in a mismatched outfit (even I feel this way occasionally), then you need to be sure that everything you pack is coordinated. This will also save you from rooting around in your duffle bag wondering where the only shirt that matches your orange bermuda shorts is.

2. Only bring non-wrinkling clothes. Wrinkle-prone clothes need to be packed and stored more carefully. Wrinkle-resistant clothes can be wadded up, shoved in a backpack, worn at a moment’s notice, and still look great. 

3. Let your hair air-dry. It takes a long time to blow-dry hair, so throw it back in a braid or ponytail and put on a hat. 

4. Leave your makeup at home. For some girls, this seems like leaving their face at home. Makeup is awesome. It looks pretty. It’s a beautiful form of artistic expression. But when you’re traveling, it’s mostly just a waste of time— and will most likely get messed up anyway. 

5. Don’t shower every day. Showers take up a lot of time and, in most situations, aren’t necessary to take every day. Just wash up. Know what makes you feel clean and refreshed: on one farm I volunteered at, I only showered once in two weeks. The rest of the time, I just washed up after working in the fields and put on my clean(er) set of clothes.

6. Don’t shampoo your hair. My scalp for most of my life has been frantically trying to keep up with my scalp-drying shampoo habit, producing more oil than my hair could ever need. This meant that I was reduced to an oily scratching mess if I ever went without showering for two days. I did some research and decided to switch to washing my hair only once a week. After some experimentation, I decided to wash it with Castile soap instead of shampoo and diluted apple cider vinegar instead of conditioner. My hair looks about like it did before, but now my scalp doesn’t produce near as much oil. This will be essential when I’m hiking in the backcountry taking one shower a month! It might be handy on other kinds of trips, too. Think about it.

7. Be happy with what you look like. If you honestly don’t mind what you look like, you’ll be confident, and confidence is one of the most important parts of beauty (inward and outward) anyway. If you’re enjoying your time instead of worrying about what you look like, you might find that you actually look pretty awesome.

~~~

Seaweed under docks, San Diego, California

Zachary's No-Shave November Adventures

This year, I took the trouble to record my husband’s No-Shave November efforts. I wanted him to keep the mustache, but he didn’t agree. Ah well!

Day one

Day six

Day fourteen

Day thirty!

Goatee.

Soul patch.

Zach in the 70's. (I made this pic largest because it's the best.)

Back to the beginning!

The 12 Days of Christmas Traditions

I’m sitting at my desk, after a two-hour nap and a supper that consisted of four huge pieces of homemade pizza loaded with ground beef. My muscles aren’t too sore, but I feel completely wrecked. Yup, it’s the day after opening weekend of St. Charles Christmas Traditions!

While I frantically try to catch up on my editing for the week (and wash eight thousand dishes that accumulated over the weekend), you enjoy these 12 lovely “talking cards” that Christmas Traditions put out this year. The Scandinavian elves in particular (Day Two) are pretty awesome.

Check out the playlist here!

Empty vineyards, mid-California

You can see the reflection of the opposite Greyhound bus windows. (2012)