Olympic National Park.

I was still breaking in a new pair of hiking boots. They were covered in a thick red dust from a five mile hike we had taken a day earlier just outside of Roslyn. While most of the plant life was different, a lot of that hike reminded me of Sedona. The red dust being a big part of it, but also the smell. That warm pine smell. It's fantastic. But when we got to Olympic National Park the only red dust was on my boots and the air was heavy and mossy. 

The hike through the Hoh Rainforest was as impressive as I expected it to be. Huge old growth trees dripping in mosses. It was nothing like anything I'd ever seen before. The word "magical" comes to mind when I think back on it. 

In the car on our way to Ruby Beach I remember the way we turned around a small bend and it seemed that we had traveled to a completely different place. The sky was overcast and fog was creeping through the the trees. We had to roll up the windows due to the chill. 

Timing our trip to the beach to coincide with low tide was the best decision since it allowed us to check out some really awesome tidal pools and explore the beach a lot more than we would have been able to had the water been up. I loved the colored bands that the barnacles and oysters left across the rocks. 

The sun peeked out just as we were leaving. We easily could have spent another day or two in the park. I'd love to see the entire coast some time and do some hiking in the mountains. Another time. 

More photos HERE.

Roslyn, Washington | Cicely, Alaska.

There's a feeling I get every time I go back to my hometown. It's a familiarity and sense of belonging despite the fact that I've been gone for a long stretch of time. Six months, a year, sometimes more. Things change, but overall it's the same town I know and love. This is the feeling I had when we arrived in Roslyn. 

There was a part of me that was afraid that I'd be disappointed when I finally got to experience "Cicely, Alaska" for myself. After years of growing up with this show, and many recent Cleveland winters spent hibernating under blankets re-watching it all, I thought perhaps I was building it up in my head. Maybe I'd see a few sights from the show, but it wouldn't feel the same. I was wrong. I loved every part of it. And while obviously the community of Cicely don't really exist, I got the feeling that it was very much the wonderful, eclectic small town that it portrayed on TV. 

We spent an evening and part of the following day here. I thoroughly enjoyed eating at Village Pizza and The Roslyn Cafe, wandering the streets and stores, sitting in Chris in the Morning's chair at KBHR, and getting my fill of the history of Roslyn. I can't wait to return someday. 

More pictures HERE.  

Snoqualmie and North Bend OR visiting Twin Peaks.

It's not often that I get to say that I've made a long term dream of mine come true, but recently it happened. About 7 years ago in college, when my roommate and I were immersing ourselves in Twin Peaks, I came across the fact that some significant locations in the series were filmed just down the road from the town of Roslyn, WA. Roslyn is the town where they filmed six seasons of my all time favorite series, Northern Exposure. It was at that moment that my dream vacation was born. Things fell into place this past year, my cousin moved to Seattle and invited us to visit and we found out we were expecting a baby in December - I was really craving one last getaway for the two of us while I was still physically able to do a decent amount of hiking. So we went for it. Our first stop was Snoqualmie Falls. 

The first thing that struck me was how intense the falls are. The intro shot in Twin Peaks doesn't do it much justice. It's easy to understand why they use the falls to generate power. It was a rush seeing it. The surrounding scenery is also really fantastic. There were daises spattering the cliffs near the overlook which was beautiful and as we walked down the hillside to the bottom of the falls we got our first taste of the moss that seems to cover and hang from all the trees in Washington State. One of my favorite parts of traveling is getting to experience new environments and all the different species of plants that come with them.

We had plans to make it to Roslyn for dinner that night before stopping at a B&B for the evening but we took our time and made one more essential stop. Twede's Cafe, or the Double R. We got a "damn fine cup of coffee" and a slice of apple pie since neither of us are huge fans of Agent Cooper's favorite, cherry.

Stored memories.

One of my favorite things is how a song is able to bring back the most vivid memories of a particular time and place. So much so that it's like you're actually in that moment again. I recently did a series of images based on this idea. I combined photographs I've taken over the years with hand lettered lyrics of the songs that bring me back to those photographed moments. These recently hung at a music themed gallery show at American Greetings that I organized with a few friends.

The Special Goodness and central Florida.

Yeasayer and Arizona freeways.

Tokyo Police Club and the California coast.

Damien Rice and Mulranny, Ireland.

Linwood.

Some dear friends of mine have been collaborating on a new project for a while now and I'm pleased to say that today is the release of their new album, Closer to Clear. I was thrilled when they asked me to create the artwork for the album, especially since I got the opportunity to try some new techniques along the way.

You can purchase and listen to the album at http://linwood.bandcamp.com

Bedroom: Before and After.

There's been a lot of remodeling happening in our house this winter. 

The bedroom, the ugly bathroom and one of our closets. I feel like there's always power tools and construction debris scattered around the house, our stuff moved out of place, dust on everything. It's a constant state of flux. Sometimes it can be really frustrating. I'm asking myself "why don't we just pay someone to do this so it can be clean again?" and other times I'm completely proud of what we're doing and how we're making this house our home in an affordable way.

  

The bedroom was a bit of a happy medium between the two. 

Shortly after we first moved into the house we took down a drop ceiling that had been installed in the bedroom (you can see it in the photo above). Our hope was that the original plaster ceiling was underneath and in repairable condition. That was not the case. The plaster was there, but it looked like a rough sea, full of waves and holes. The more we work in this house the clearer it is that the previous owner knew nothing about plaster repair. His solution was to cover it up. So due to other priorities, we lived under this terrible ceiling for two years.  

We finally decided that this winter would be the time to get the bedroom done. Big projects tend to take a long time around here (the bathroom has been in-progress for over a year) because Andrew and I don't frequently have time off together. Aside from the fact that we didn't want to be out of a bedroom for that long, having a huge hole in your ceiling during the coldest months of the year is not a great idea, so we decided to hire some professionals to replace the ceiling for us. They were done within a week. 

Andrew and his mom had taken down the wallpaper that fall, so after our new ceiling was done we went to work scrubbing the old wallpaper paste off the walls and repairing the plaster where needed. I think the best part of this whole process was discovering the old mural that was on the wall behind our bed. I'm assuming that it has been there since around the time that the house was built in 1920. Unfortunately it had been painted over at some point and we couldn't think of a good way to preserve it. I guess that's what photos are for. 

So after a couple of weeks worth of work on the walls and several coats of paint we were finally ready to move back in. It feels like a luxury to finally have a ceiling light in that room. Not to mention a flat ceiling. 

I pulled that mirror out of the trash when I was in college. It's perfectly worn.

The Christopher Bettig print above the bed was a gift from Andrew.

A tiny aluminum bird that we brought back from our trip to Cozumel. I like when the wind from the open window blows it around.

I love all the original details of our house, especially the glass door knobs.

We've been living in the room for a couple of months now and I'm still loving every bit of it.

Still to do:

This summer we're hoping to have the original wood windows restored. They've warped a bit over the years and don't fit as well as they should. We also ended up with a cracked pane after some extreme temperatures this winter. The floor, along with the rest of flooring in the house, really needs to be refinished. The previous owners did a sloppy job of painting the baseboards before installing carpet. It's something that makes me grumble almost every day. Also, as you can see in the before pictures, we don't really have a bedroom door. Instead we have two slatted closet doors. In fact all of our bedrooms are like that. Pretty awful when it comes to privacy, luckily we live alone.