Hood River

I call this picture "The day I disappeared". It reminds me about this idea I had one time for a web slide show that would have music from the songs I was writing a few years ago. The story would be of a guy who becomes progressively "blacked out". In the beginning of the story he would be a regular person but slowly his arm would be darker in the pictures, then his other arm, then his legs, then his torso, and finally his head until he was entirely a silhouette.

At the end of the story the blackness affecting him would reverse itself, but only to the degree that the rest of the world became more black. For a brief time there would be an equilibrium where he was as grey as the rest of the world had become, but eventually the world would fade and he would be become more lit, until he was left in a world where things existed, but he was only visible to himself.

But really, that's not very important.

What's important is that Jen and I took a trip to Hood River last weekend and spent the night in a Bed and Breakfast called Panorama Lodge that was great. Right when we got there we headed down to Taco Del Mar for some lunch. After that we headed to this bike & hiking trail that Linda from Panorama Lodge recommended to us.

Not being familiar with the area, we parked way ahead of where the trail started, but we saw some cool stuff once we finally got to the trail. Jen got this neat shot of the flowers next to the trail on the way to the ridge -


Once we got to the ridge of the hill we were accosted by this really stiff wind, but the view was gorgeous. There were some people about 200 yards away flying those model airplanes that have their own little engines.


That night we ate Chinese food and watched Borat at the B&B, which is a hilarious movie that is not appropriate for anyone.

The next day we woke up to this view of Mt Hood -


Later in the day we took the trail farther on where we went past a turtle pond. We got this picture of Jen - that's the Columbia River in the background. Incredible.


I'm hoping to do a lot more hiking this year. Both Jen & I talked about how the kids complain when we make them go, but I always think of that movie Rabbit Proof Fence where two Aboriginal girls walked 1500 miles back home in Australia, and I think "They can handle two or three miles."