Greeting from Berlin. I’m in the heart of the what used to be East Germany.. now you would never know. it has thme ritzy boutiques as in the west half of this city… but maybe a little of the 1960’s DDR architecture still around

 

had a nice Vietnamese dinner with friends Michael (not in this pic) Felix and Nadja 

 

walked aorudn for a bit just to stay awake.. i’m now at 9 hours time lag whcih is making sleep reallly important now. 

Had one last beer and watched a bit of world  cup with Felix and Freshie.. 

 

but couldn;’t keep my eyes open

 

headed back up to get soem sleep..

 

one thign that did happen today is that fir the first time in at least 6 months, i’ve been able to completely clear my inbox !

x

ow thats a fine day !

 

nite all. nite sam

-me

 

 

heading to. Germany after a really great va ation with fMily. Lookign forward to seeing soem freinds over there I havent seen in a while. Its strange homw much germany feels a bit like home to me these days

not  much to report on the day.. had a good run .. then headed tot he Itprport in portland. There was a fine mist of rain .. and I liked it.

 

One thing I did no tice is that So e plumbing errors had prevented my ,ast couple of weeks of. Log pists from being pos ted to twitter or facebook.. so I may do a few back posts now

ok..  ore from the road tomorrow

 Nite all, nite sam

-me

Today was our last day in Bewnd Or. and the end of a really gret family trip. We managed to help gabe get set up for grad school by finding him an aprtment. bank. neigborhood and favrite food cart place. We saw 8 watwerfls, vistied tropical forests, a beach. sa desert, saw snow.. swam in the coldest and hotest water both coming out of the ground. ate all sorts of hipster food and really gefell in love with this part of the country.

It  was so nice being here with my family and their GF’s.. and freinds.. 

we left our nice VRBO rental hous ein Bend about noon and headed east up into the cascades. The only stoip we made today was to the Blue Pond .. a cool frigid pool about 2 miles from the road.. The trail was beutiful and easy walking

 

 

it ran through giat sequias next to a rushing river. 

 

the  lue hole itself was so cool to see.. hard to climb down to.. but the waterfall and the river made it magical. Check out the color . 

 

we had trouble finding our way down to the pol itself.. so we swam above it.. it was THE coldest water I’ve ever been in.. and I’ve swum in ivce water !

\

 

we fond a place to cross.. but it meant walking on  a single shaky log.. so we worked to make it 3 shaky logs !

 

here’s our pool

 

and along cane a cure dog namesd ‘beans’ to swim with us

 

max went in frist 

 

here I go in 

 

in goes gabe

 

then max and gabe went in to put a samstone in the waterfall

 

they got the soten into the waterfall 

 

then back as fast as they could. that water was insanely cold !

see the samstone ? 

 

then back on the trail 

 

the blue water was amazing 

 

the walk back was cool in the afternoon sun 

 

then back in the car to go back to Portland.. one quick stop at Sailah falls to make it 8 waterfalls this trip 

 

we had a nice vietnmese dinner in Salem Or.. n (thats having a water contaimnation problem right now) 

then we dropped max and becky off in Portland at a hpuse they are borrowing

 

 

FIane, gabe araya and I then heaed to my hotel at the arport.. (i’m flying out to germany tomorrow) .

they took showers and  we repacked everything 

 

then around 11:00 I took those guys to the airport for their flight back to BTV 

 

 

 

 

great trip.. I loved being with my family

more from the road tomorrow

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

we had a great longest day of the eyar. We got out of the house at about 9:30 and headed 2 hours down to crater lake in Cnetral Oregon. It was a long, pretty trip 

 

there was still a huge amount of snow up there 

 

here’s the first view of the lake.. amazing !

 

crater lake is a collapsed volcano caldera filled with rainwater and snow melt.. .. the island in the middle is a cinder cone of a later eruption !

 

next stop was the cleetwood trail, the only trail that goes down to the water.. 70 feet down !

 

check out the pllen in the water !

 

we all got ready to jump in

 

we placed a samstone in near shore in the cold water

 

we had soem curous chipmonk freinds begging us for food 

 

gabe braugth the 3 man slingshot we made.. and we used it to launch a samstone way out in the lake.. wich is almost 2000 feet deep in places !

 

look at the huge rocks in the water 

 

then back up the trail 

 

at one poitn a small patrol boat went by.. I thin the only boat in the lake.. you cold see the ripples from that boat for a good long time. 

 

tyhen we were back on the road to paulina lake 

here’s our 7th wayterfall for the trip 

 

then came the amazing part.. Becky had foudn a hot springs noted on the map at East lake .. we foudn a small trail.. then scrampbled down to teh water. there on the shore of the lake were these shallow pools wiht bubbling hot gas.. . it was a hot spreing right on the shore of the lake !\it was really too hot to stand directly in soem places. 

 

 

sich a beutiful setting. .and we were all alone there. soon after we got there. 

 

then on the way home.. we stopped to see the obsidian flow.. what an amazing landscape.. it was caused by a magma event 1300 years ago.. a mile long river of glass (obsidian) and pumice. 

 

everywhere was this beutiful, shiney, smooth and shaprp black obsidian. 

 

it was like a martian landscape 

 

then the drive home.. with the most beutiful sunset.. and it was already 9PM./. a fitting way to end the solstice !

 

we got home about 9:30.. too late to go out.. but our friends Joe and Morgan came over for a beer.. .. so good catching up with them !

great day.. great week

 

ok.. now time for sleep.

happy solstice everyone !

 

nite all, nite sam

-me