Majesty!

I spent the entire day singing "Majesty!" or "Oh Lord, oh Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" You can ask Rory. I've been hum singing all day. We left Bandon this morning, drove the coast, saw cranberry bogs that are soon to be harvested and arrived at our sweet KOA in Jedidiah Redwood National Park in Northern California. We have a cabin for the next two nights:

This is a great shot of Rory, working from our front porch. Strangely, we have both accomplished a lot on this trip work wise. And that feels good. The next picture is taken from our porch...it's the root system of a fallen redwood. Incredible. We drove into the state park for a hike this afternoon and I began singing Majesty again. Check out these pictures.

Sea Lions, Seals and Crab Fishermen

That's what our day was filled with today. The sea lions were dense on the rocks and SO LOUD. There was even an elephant seal sunning himself, a monstrous animal with his head tipped up to the sun to catch some rays. There easily were hundreds of these flubby, hippidy creatures jumping around on the rocks below. There were two stationary telescopes on the overlook so we could watch these sweet animals point their chins to the sun and hobble over one another to get to the water. It was a riot.

These pictures give some idea, but the noise really added to the commotion we were watching. We drove to Bandon, OR for the night and spent a lot of time walking on the docks, had fish and chips for lunch and learned how to fish for crabs. Honestly, this whole side of Oregon is exactly how I imagine the East Coast...and I'm excited to go there one day too. But if you ever have the chance to travel Hwy 101 in Oregon, you really should. We have a beautiful country.

We got a YURT!!!

On Sunday my sister-in-law Stephanie told us we really should try to see if we could find a YURT to stay in while heading down the coast. So yesterday the stars aligned and we arrived at Cape Lookout State Park to land the last yurt available for the night.

Yurt stands for Year-round U-something Recreational Tent. They have electricity and heat and feel much more like a cabin with canvas walls than anything else. It reminded us a lot of the banda we stayed in on our safari in Tanzania.

We had a blast. We slept well, we ate well and we were right on the ocean. I'd like to thank my girl scout leaders from 2nd-8th grade, Judy Pugh and Leanne Snyder, for the delicious dessert below that I had tucked into my memory of fantastic camping treats. I "roasted" caramel on a long stick over the fire until it was just about to fall off and sandwiched it between two saltines. It is crazy-good, similar to a salted nut roll.

Rory made spaghetti and suddenly we had four uninvited dinner guests. And these raccoons were very, very tame. Any attempt we made to send them on their way had very little impact. They simply tipped their heads and looked at us as if to say, "it is very obvious you are going to have leftovers."

We saw many beautiful sites today. I'll leave you with my favorites.

To the Oregon Coast

Thanks to lots of conversation while visiting with our cousins and family in Seattle, we decided to slow up our travels and enjoy the Oregon coast. I cannot believe how grateful we are for this kind advice...we would have missed so much!

We are in Seaside Oregon today, a spectacular town on the ocean. The town must be packed in the summer...it is set up as a tourist town. But this is the off season, and it feels like we're here with a bunch of the locals. There are 10 kites being flown on the beach at any given time with salty mist filling the air.

Pastor Jen and Pastor Ben

On my very first day of summer school Greek at Luther Seminary I sat near this really energetic, super funny girl named Jen Newsome. We quickly became friends and have always shared really exciting conversations about how God is moving in the church and where we see glimpses of the kingdom.

We went to a week-long conference in Arizona one semester with other seminary students and were roomies on that trip. Through lots of soul searching and conversation, it was on that trip that I realized I wanted nothing more than to marry Rory Groves, and Jen began spending a bit more time with another friend on the trip, Ben. Which basically left us as two giddy school girls giggling about boys all night as we tried to go to sleep. (And somehow, we fit in getting the flu on this same trip and were puking when we weren't giggling. This is how memories are made...)

Jen and Ben have been married one year and are serving a really incredible church in Tacoma, WA. We spent two hours with them, getting a tour of their church campus- FOUR buildings, including a brand new food distribution center. I have always been excited to see what they would end up doing...there are days when any girl in any church might think the larger church just isn't getting it. But both Jen and Ben always seem to redeem my spirits and remind me that God is very much at work in his church. I am so proud to be their friend.