tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86110534082695176012024-02-21T07:21:27.014-08:00Slowly Global(... because not all who meander are lost, either)Slowly Globalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08050294217028192331noreply@blogger.comBlogger262125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-67139762253539416642018-06-26T13:54:00.000-07:002018-06-26T13:54:51.956-07:00Portland, Oregon in 24 hours.Over the last few months we visited our old stomping grounds twice - independently, and for work reasons. Conferences always seem to be hectic and stressful, and while we did see some friends and have some fun while we were in town, these were definitely not slow visits.
So when I saw that the Decemberists' Friday night Edgefield show hadn't sold out a few weeks ago, I immediately bought ticketsJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-66333518849269911842017-08-04T08:17:00.001-07:002017-08-04T08:17:32.841-07:00Friday five: County Fair season!Five reasons to visit a local county fair this summer, whether you're home or traveling, in no particular order...
every year when summer comes around
they stretch a banner 'cross the main street in town
you can feel somethin's happenin' in the air
The animals! Sadly, we missed the pig races (which always amuses me to no end) and we didn't get to visit the chicken and rabbit room, but we Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-21285910913617526612017-06-24T11:41:00.003-07:002017-06-24T11:41:58.999-07:00Grants Pass, revisited.My first text to Patrick when I arrived in Grants Pass for a recent work trip: "Man, I do not miss this area of the world..."
Grants Pass is just up the highway from our short-lived 2016 farm internship, the experience that kind of ruined Southern Oregon for us. We didn't spend much time in Grants Pass last year but we liked what it had to offer - cool food co-ops, decent venues for bands, a Slowly Globalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08050294217028192331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-67525584028673739162017-06-18T11:12:00.000-07:002017-06-18T11:12:09.159-07:00Cape Blanco, revisited.Our first camping road trip in 2012 included a stop at Cape Blanco State Park. We loved it so much we ended up staying an extra night. Even with the massive winds famous in that the area, it was beautiful and well worth the time we spent.
So when various factors including the purchase of a new tent, Free Camping Day in Oregon state parks, Cape Blanco being just an hour from our Coos Bay housesitSlowly Globalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08050294217028192331noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-47563162853440818272017-05-16T20:10:00.002-07:002017-05-16T20:10:57.939-07:00Slowly Global vs the Avenue of the Giants... and some future pondering.For the first time in about three months, we did nothing this past weekend. It was amazing.
"Living like a local" for an extended period of time finds us with jobs, which means that the concept of "weekends" has meaning again, and man, are they precious! These Saturdays and Sundays, when we're not working on house and yard maintenance (which, honestly, is neither super time-consuming nor Slowly Globalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08050294217028192331noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-63496735351849713462017-01-26T06:12:00.000-08:002017-01-26T06:12:02.536-08:00Slowly Global goes to Washington, part two.In 2013, I got the first day of President Obama's second term for my birthday. At the time I honestly wasn't sure what could top that (although the Cares Gorge hike in Picos de Europa National Park back in 2014 did come close).
And then there was 2017, the Women's March on Washington. Helloooooo, 42!
"the fempire strikes back"
~~~~~~~
The plan was to leave the house at 8am that morning. At 7:Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-64891379630692007432017-01-25T15:17:00.002-08:002017-01-25T15:24:39.937-08:00Slowly Global goes to Washington, part one.We were really fortunate to witness several peaceful protests during our international travels. The most memorable one was in Warsaw, Poland back in September 2013. Labor union members organized four days of action around job security, health care, and retirement benefits. We didn't understand all the words being said, but we got the gist through loose translations, and we stood in solidarity Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-39676629108441829462016-12-28T10:11:00.000-08:002016-12-28T10:35:57.712-08:00What a long, strange year it's been.Dear 2016,
Remember that time in July when Patrick and I got the call that the Subaru's engine needed to be completely rebuilt (also known as the icing on the craptastic cake that was the first half of you), and I shook my fist at the sky and shouted, "What else ya got for us, 2016?!"
Man, did you ever deliver...
There's not much to say about you that hasn't already been said, 2016. But Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-44513655144115808042016-10-07T09:32:00.000-07:002016-10-07T09:40:46.035-07:00Friday five: before and after.I have this obsession with taking "before" and "after" photos during our WWOOF gigs. It's so gratifying for me to see concrete evidence of my manual labor. I just don't get that kind of satisfaction from an office job, no matter how rewarding the organization...
It's also fun to take time-lapse photos in the garden. Pretty amazing how quickly seeds become giant plants!
I never did anything withJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-16103015801928505592016-09-23T06:30:00.000-07:002016-09-23T06:30:39.204-07:00Local WWOOFing near Myrtle Point, Oregon.I had this idea to do a Friday Five featuring five things we learned during our recent WWOOF gig near Myrtle Point, Oregon. As I sat down to make the list, though, I realized that five things wouldn't cut it - even with 16 farms and homesteads already under our belts, we still learned a surprising number of new things during our 5-week stay at this beautiful garden and orchard!
the garden
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-59196818868935753892016-07-31T11:36:00.000-07:002016-07-31T11:36:40.475-07:00ExplOregon, June 2016 edition, part three.After three days in Steens Mountain and two days exploring five geologic wonders (among other things) in Lake County, Oregon, family duties called and it was time to meander back to Eugene.
We considered trying our luck at Paradise Campground again, but a quick check showed that almost all the sites were reserved that night so we opted for Coldwater Cove Campground instead. Sometimes no Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-77856592514020459142016-07-31T10:30:00.002-07:002016-07-31T10:30:58.862-07:00ExplOregon, June 2016 edition, part two.The first part of our FUNemployed vacation took us to Steens Mountain for a few days of gorgeous (and I do mean GORGE-ous) hikes. The second part took us to Thompson Reservoir, Hager Mountain, and five geologic wonders in Lake County, Oregon...
1. Christmas Valley Sand Dunes - the largest shifting sand dunes in Oregon. Formed from ash and pumice when Mount Mazama erupted 7,000 years ago, these Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-48620907223347619012016-07-29T13:47:00.000-07:002016-07-29T13:55:56.406-07:00ExplOregon, June 2016 edition, part one.So yeah, that farm internship? It didn't work out.
Luckily for us, Patrick's family offered us a roof while we worked on Plan B.
Also luckily for us, after 3+ years on the road we were in a pretty good position to deal with just about anything thrown our way. (Dear 2016, not to complain, but would you please stop throwing things at us? Or at least wait for our bruises to heal? XO, J&P.)
Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-49803618131245544762016-07-15T08:03:00.000-07:002016-07-15T10:15:50.490-07:00ExplOregon: waterfalls!Some of you may know that 2016 has been a pretty challenging year for us. After three fairly easy years traipsing around the world, I suppose we were due for a dose of reality at some point... (Granted, our challenges don't exactly rival those of many others these days, but they are challenges none the less.)
More than once over the past few months we've turned to nature to regroup. Oceans, bigJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-37392782358260063932016-06-30T09:37:00.000-07:002016-06-30T09:37:01.672-07:00ExplOregon: the Eastern Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway.In early June we took a much-needed weekend away from the farm. Our official mission was Toketee Falls, but we'd soon learn that there was no shortage of beauty along the eastern portion of the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway! (Patrick's parents lived nearby when they were young and he grew up in Eugene, but he'd never visited this area of Oregon... Boy, did I hear about that the whole weekend - "I Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-79406197717169437892016-06-03T06:33:00.000-07:002016-06-03T06:33:06.904-07:00"Professional housesitting," part two - helpful tips.Our first "professional housesitting" blog featured FAQs and pros/cons of housesitting while traveling. Many of the "cons" I mentioned are not really "cons" in the grand scheme of things - and they are easily addressed by the tips below...
Once you've signed up for a housesitting web site, when responding to potential hosts the most obvious tip is to put yourself in the host's position. What Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-71565233586976774642016-06-02T06:23:00.000-07:002016-06-02T06:39:18.518-07:00"Professional housesitting," part one - FAQs and pros/cons.Regular readers know that we got a small taste of housesitting in Melbourne and Honolulu back in 2014, and we recently spent the last eight months as "professional (unpaid) housesitters" around the Pacific Northwest. We got to explore new towns (Corvallis and Orcas Island here in the States, Sundre and Vernon up in Canada) as well as catch up on our previous hometown of Portland. Our housesits Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-42225851927406165522016-04-15T07:00:00.000-07:002016-04-15T07:58:34.848-07:00Almost eight months of housesitting on $13/person/day.Housesitting does not equal "free" - well, not the way we've done it, anyway. There are paid housesitting gigs all around the world, but we weren't quite sure how to find them so we opted for Housecarers.com opportunities.
You can certainly save a lot of money housesitting through sites like this but you still pay for groceries, gas, personal expenses - pretty much everything you'd normally pay Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-66707019880812411742016-03-25T09:46:00.000-07:002016-03-25T09:46:00.168-07:00Pacific Northwest road tripping, part two.The general post-Orcas Island plan, Part Two, via blurry Google map:
(9 hours 27 minutes, give or take another few days)
(Previous posts about our Orcas Island->Forks stops here, and our stop in Hoh Rain Forest here. There, now you're all caught up.)
Sixth stop: Olympic National Forest and our very first campsite after we left Portland back in April 2013. We didn't camp here this time Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-17204787144553550372016-03-23T06:52:00.000-07:002016-03-23T06:52:00.195-07:00Pacific Northwest road tripping, part one.The general post-Orcas Island plan, Part One, via blurry Google map:
(6 hours 4 minutes, give or take a few days)
First stop: Port Townsend, where we picked up minor camping supplies we'd forgotten to pack back in November. You know, like a tarp, propane, a saucepot, a knife... Totally minor things like that.
We camped at Fort Flagler Historical State Park across the bay from Port Townsend Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-14346028538287852692016-03-21T07:21:00.000-07:002016-03-21T07:21:03.199-07:00Two days in Olympic National Park's Hoh Rain Forest."Let's take a road trip down the Pacific Northwest coastline and camp the whole way, even though it's winter and we have absolute minimum gear!"... said no sane person, ever.
We got pretty lucky with our overall post-Orcas Island road trip at the end of February, all things considered. One bummer was that due to our timing, we couldn't camp - or spend much time at all, really - in the Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-11033810390623904352016-03-18T07:36:00.000-07:002016-03-19T09:52:15.969-07:00Friday five: amazing Orcas Island.Orcas Island is one of those places that Pacific Northwest people gush about. I mean, seriously gush. Don't get me wrong, I hear that all of the San Juan Islands are nice, but there's something about Orcas that makes people actually gush.
So naturally, when I saw the housesit ad last summer I immediately pounced. We exchanged a few friendly, funny emails with the host, and a few days later she Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-30236555317476684742016-02-08T11:42:00.000-08:002016-02-08T11:42:00.759-08:00A southern detour.I had to make an unexpected trip to North Carolina right before our British Columbia housesit ended in mid-January. After three weeks here, I must admit that while the flatlands of Rocky Mount pale in comparison to the snow-capped Canadian Rockies, the southern hospitality has definitely been a welcome change from Vernon's unpleasant vibe!
If you've never experienced southern hospitality, here'sJenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-867428810901117732016-02-01T06:57:00.000-08:002016-02-01T06:57:04.481-08:00About that Vernon, British Columbia housesit..."Let's housesit in the mountains for the holidays!" we said. "Seeing that part of Canada in the winter will be great!" we thought. "Getting snowed in, watching movies and reading books all day, hanging out in the hot tub - it'll be fun!" we told ourselves.
And it was fun... for about a week. Unfortunately, we were there for five weeks and it turns out that all play and no work makes Slowly Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8611053408269517601.post-4988758349563706282015-12-22T08:27:00.001-08:002015-12-22T08:27:31.048-08:00A review, a preview, and a ginormous THANK YOU.Day 975 of FUNemployment! Crazy.
As I sat down to write this year-end post, I started to go down the "gratitude" path but it took an uber-sappy turn at some point. Believe me, no one wants that for Christmas. Suffice to say, returning to Portland and the US in general was more challenging than we expected and we're eternally grateful to everyone who supported us, particularly those of you who Jenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12755435023674969641noreply@blogger.com6