Hood River & Portland, Oregon
It’s nice being in Oregon. I’ve visited here a few times before, but have never really had the opportunity to get a lay of the land and explore. When Isaac and I rolled into Hood River, it was 60 degrees and sunny. We were excited to see Memaloose State Park had just opened for the season, it’s a perfect spot right on the Columbia River and only about 20 minutes from Downtown Hood River. I was able to spend Saturday with Jon & Sami (and baby Pippa), who showed us a nice Rico-friendly trail off at the Catherine Creek Day Use area. Afterwards, we visited Everybody’s Brewing in White Salmon. I sure have done a lot of beer drinking in Oregon, and I haven’t even gotten to Bend yet!
Portland Japanese Garden Photo by: Isaac Miller Photography
In Portland, I took Isaac to the Japanese Gardens – I went a couple of years ago and wanted to show him. It’s a really beautiful, peaceful way to pretend I’m in Japan. We did some other pretty typical Portland things like VooDoo Doughnut and Base Camp Brewing, but, honestly, none of us really felt like being in the city parked at a concrete RV park for very long.
After two nights in Portland at the Columbia River RV Park, it was back to the mountains. We found a quiet (at least in March) and wooded campground outside of Welches, only 10-15 miles from Mt. Hood. It’s been awhile since we’ve been in one spot for awhile and I’m definitely feeling relieved to be stationary for more than 3 nights somewhere.
In addition to some new big projects, I’ve been working a lot on restructuring and growing my business – something that’s proven to be very difficult while traveling full time and moving locations (on average, every 3-4 days). While the long drives full of deep conversations have given me the ability to reflect on the future of my business and creative life, there are stressful days where I can’t get my work done. I fall behind on my responsibilities, which makes me feel like I need to reassess my priorities to assure that I am balancing everything just right to fund this lifestyle.
The Cascade Mountains look like a crazy green mountain jungle with hundreds of shades of green in the form of moss, ferns, plants and trees. Being in the forest feels like being in a different world. Photo by: Isaac Miller Photography
Our main reason for rerouting to Oregon was because I had signed up for a weekend watercolor retreat at Mt. Hood that I signed up for with Nikki Frumpkin from Drawn to High Places. I’ll be drawing and painting in the woods with new people all weekend. And the best part…free indoor hot showers!
This week, I worked on this fun submission for Misadventures Magazine. The theme was, you guessed it, land. One thing I want to do more of, is submitting my work for contests and submissions in order to create more outlets to share my art.