Amoeba, Aloha!

As Anders and I started planning our honeymoon travel, we realized that a stop in the Bay Area would be a great way to get to Hawaii! 

We booked a flight for early Thanksgiving morning so we could arrive in time to do one of those cherished holiday activities--cooking! Fifteen people in the kitchen, five delicious casseroles and one turkey later, the fun had just begun. Thanks, Bowles family, for passing on this fabulous sweet potato recipe to Andy--over the last few years it has become a Thanksgiving favorite!

Did someone say, "Amoeba?" While the cooking was fun, and the eating even more enjoyable, by far the best part of our trip was our wonderful group of friends, our California family, coming together to hang out. Jill made the trip from Minnesota, Trevor gave up Potter family home cooking to stay in Cali and we were reunited with Julie's brother, David, from our trip to Oregon for last year's Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and here is a picture of us re-living our wonderfully crafted flashmob (thanks, Britta!). This move is appropriately called the Amoeba=).

The guys headed out through San Fran to go surfing for the day. There's no photos of us girls doing one of my all time favorite Bay Area activities...but let's just say I have a beautiful new lime green skirt as evidence of how we spent our day.

Have I ever mentioned how much I like sushi? If not stay, tuned, it will come up again=). On our last full day we packed into our favorite sushi bar, ManPuku, and then headed up to Indian Rock for the sunset. 

Our weekend in the Bay was everything we hoped for (Thanksgiving meal, hanging out at the Albatross and the Miz-Lo, playing some Settlers, hearing updates on life) and it was great to see everyone! We're so thankful to have such amazing friends. We hope to come back again soon! 

Aloha, Hawaii! We all know that Hawaii is known as paradise right? In other words, you think of beaches, nice weather, palm trees, etcetera. However, they don't just call it the "rainbow state" because it fits with the theme. On top of everything else, there really is a rainbow almost every day. Hard to believe until you experience it, but just in case you still don't believe me, check out the double rainbow that just showed up out of the blue...no pun intended=). 

For the beginning of our week, we stayed with some wonderful family members, the Culhanes. Sadly we do not have a great photo with them, but, we did have a wonderful time and therefore made some great memories. Geoff, Pi'ilani and Kehau have always been great connoisseurs of Hawaiian food, and to celebrate our wedding/honeymoon they took us out for an incredible dinner at a nice restaurant. Enter, this beautiful ahi tuna (told you the sushi would be back), and I'm in heaven! We so appreciated our time with the Culhanes on Oahu and also look forward to seeing them again. 

On to Maui! We show up at the rental car agency and they say, "Would you like to upgrade to a Jeep for $60 total  for your 4 days?" (much cheaper than the arm and a leg they asked for online when booking in advance), so with one look at each other we say, "Yes!!" This was one of the best decisions we made. Thanks to Scott, our personal tour guide (via text), we made our way around the east coast of the island. I never cease to be amazed by the  myriad of fresh fruit available right on the side of the road, so refreshing.

Oh yeah, and we found some sweet waterfalls on the side of the road too! Can't beat spending the day swimming in a lagoon and having your new husband jump over your head=).

The late afternoon view from our car...did I mention that we got a Jeep and it was awesome?!

Another really amazing thing about Hawaii, are the areas of the islands where there are no buildings, and very few people...just incredible views. As we completed our drive around the south coast of Maui, we were following the sunset for about an hour, and besides the rolling road ahead, there was nothing but the sloping hillside and the ocean. Definitely worth the trip. Aloha until next time!

Fall!

In my last post I talked all about the riches of Chelan, so these first few lake photos are really an extension of that. Even though the weather has now turned slightly more gray, I still walk by the windows of the elementary school I work at (high up on a hill) and repeatedly fall in love with the amazing scenery. 

The photo to the right was inspired by the gorgeous colors in the park right across the street from our house, the one directly below was taken in early fall from a park bench, and the third photo of the street sign is literally at the corner of two streets that go right up to the edge of the water. 

Here's an interesting fact about the state of Washington, it has several different climate zones and therefore in a relatively short amount of time you can go from a desert climate (in Chelan) to a forested mountain area (in Leavenworth) that happens to be Bavarian themed. I recommend checking out a few photos here: Leavenworth Photos. Just one more reason to come visit us=).

Quick snapshot of us hanging around the house...just kidding=). On Halloween we whipped together some costumes from the fabulous Habitat for Humanity Thrift store. Can you guess what we are? That's right, Robinhood and Maid Marian. Off to a costume party we went with some AmeriCorps friends.

Now we have officially seen Chelan in its various colors. On Wednesday at school the kids couldn't stop talking about the SNOW! Their enthusiasm was great, because, even though the Minnesotan in me will always be there, the recent Californian in me was holding onto to 65 and sunny for dear life! On days like this, though, when we get to enjoy a delicious Saturday morning breakfast at Blueberry Hills Farms and admire the, once again, stunning view, it's all worth it. 

An Embarrassment of Riches...

On our way out to Chelan in September, Pastor Paul called us up and asked if we would be okay with the church community hosting a wedding reception for us and our response, was, "Yes, that would be awesome!" Little did we know what a party it would be. Our wonderful neighbors, Cathy and Bill, have a beautifully landscaped backyard where they hosted all of us. Our friends from the church brought many kinds of delicious desserts, and, to our surprise, showered us with lovely gifts (Lake Chelan wine and cheese, a Washington state parks entrance pass, homemade jam, a sushi gift card, among others). What an amazing welcome by our new community!

Here's how this story began for us. Martin stands up in church one day and says that he would like to invite us to a party at his house to check out his new tower. Your reaction may be the same as mine at the time. "Who's Martin?" and, "He's having a party to show people what?" It turns out that Martin is a very creative, resourceful person who has taken a giant water tube, turned it up on its side with a crane that he acquired, and built it into a playhouse-like 40-foot tall tower! Now, if you are one of Martin's kids, or anybody for that matter, you're thinking, "Sweet!" 

Can you find Anders in the photo?

Inside the tower, there is a kitchen at the bottom, Soren's room above it, Anna's room above that and then Martin's room at the top which has a 360-degree view of the surrounding hills, because, by the way, Martin's house is way at the top of a mountain. There's one way up the tower--the ladder. Anders is standing on the top floor and I'm on the ground (in the kitchen). 

Here is the view from Martin's house. If you look closely you might be able to see the town of Chelan, way down by the lake. :)

If you have heard of Chelan, other than from reading my blog, you most likely know it for its fruit, and in particular, its apples. When we were invited to a cider pressing party by a couple who has a beautiful home on the lake we gladly accepted. 

We combined 

Winter Bananas and Honeycrisp Apples by tossing them into the shredder and then turning the press that produced the fresh cider. We took home about 3 gallons of cider, plenty to enjoy over the winter. 

One day, before we left for Washington, Pastor Paul told us over the phone, "Chelan is a unique place, we really have an embarrassment of riches here." From that moment on I figured Chelan had to be pretty cool for him to say that! So, as Anders and I continue to write many a Thank You card from our wedding, we decided to motivate ourselves by checking out one of the beautiful wineries we kept driving by. We set up shop in the sunshine, and with a couple flights of KARMA vineyards wine, scribbled away until the sun went down...

Holden Village

When Anders and I first learned that he could be interning in the Lake Chelan area, we had never heard of Chelan, but we had heard of Holden Village. Mostly what I knew about Holden Village was that it's in the mountains, if you worked there you don't use your cell phone--just email, and that some really wonderful people that I know, love it there. When Pastor Paul invited both Anders and me up for the Pastors' Cluster Retreat over a long weekend in the end of September, we gladly accepted the invitation to check out the other part of our new home. (Anders internship is for 9 months in Chelan, and then 3 months next summer at Holden Village--which is a 2 hour boat ride up lake, and then a 45 minute bus ride up the switchbacks!) 

When we first got up into the village, it was an overcast day--though still a pretty awesome setting at first glance. Friday morning, however, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and promptly took off on a  day hike. Several passing deer, a few yurts, and many switchbacks later, we arrived at the beautiful site of Holden Lake where we caught some trout that we ate for breakfast the next day.

Holden is an old mining village that was given to the Lutheran Church in 1960 with the intent that it would become a retreat center. Today Holden is just that, and, from what I understand, even more. Holden has a focus on providing an ecumenical experience, serving diverse communities and practicing sustainable living. The environment feels very open, artistic and peaceful.  If you want to read more about the history of Holden check out this website: http://www.holdenvillage.org/holden-mine-history-mine-closing/

Holden is visited by all different kinds of guests–Lutherans and many non-Lutherans, people from all over the world, and even guests with 4 legs. When the llamas arrived, everyone went out to welcome the exciting guests.

However, there was one guest that was not so welcome...and little did we know until we got home and discovered the trail mix that was spilling through the freshly chewed hold in Anders' backpack, that the Holden chipmunks are pretty quick and sneaky=).

Our Abode

When Anders and I accepted this adventure to pick up and move to a town called Chelan, WA, I can accurately say that I knew nothing about this place. I did, however, have one strong notion of what I thought it might be like–different than anything I knew.  We have both grown up in cities, we were living in the Bay Area, and I had just become acclimated to the life and culture of teaching in Oakland, when I got home one evening in February and Anders told me that the placement he had been offered for his internship year was in a town that has fewer people than my high school! After making up my mind that I wouldn't be joining him on this endeavor, I was left to be safe and comfortable in the world that I knew–big town, not small.

However, my mind has a way of changing itself, and over a memorable Indian dinner on College Ave., Anders and I began to discuss what it would be like to move together to central Washington. There was only one problem–besides the fact that we would be together, we didn't really know what life would be like.  Many questions began to pop into my mind, most of them went like this: "What if __________ is not as good as ___________ in the Bay Area?!" I quickly decided that one of my coping mechanisms for transitioning from this wonderful place that had become home, to small town life, would be having no expectations. I figured, if I don't plan for much, I can only go up from there.

Looking back on our arrival and first impressions, I would say my approach served us well. We had no idea what Chelan looked like, felt like, or how it operated, but on September 15th when we drove across the high desert and then descended into the picturesque Chelan Valley, we were more than pleasantly surprised. In the same day, we were welcomed to our new home by Pastor Paul and some very friendly people from church. Welcome to our abode, hopefully many of you will be able to come experience it in person=).