North to Mt. St. Helens and South to Ashland

In the past three weeks, I've had the opportunity to travel beyond Portland to see other parts of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. My impression continues to be the same--this is a magnificent region of the country, with some of the most lush and stunning landscapes I've ever seen.

My first trip was up north into the state of Washington to be a chaperone for the 7th grade trip that Oregon Episcopal School, my employer, had planned. I felt really sick at work on Tuesday, as I was battling what was already a 10-day cold that seemed to have settled deeply in my throat. Nevertheless, when I was called Tuesday after work and asked if I could go on the trip to Mt. St. Helens to be an advisor to 10 seventh-graders, I decided to take the great offer. How could I say no to getting paid to hike around Washington while getting to know my co-workers and my students better? I said yes, packed everything I would need for camping, hiking, and caving, and was given a Prius to drive up to a base camp near Mt. St. Helens early the next morning where my boys were waiting for me.

Our trip was so much fun. The highlights for me were the following: the discussion we had as an entire group while lying under the heavenly expanse of stars about finding personal meaning in the universe even though we are such a small part of it; cooking bean, cheese, and guacamole quesadillas with my boys over a small propane-fueled stove; and helping all of the kids in my caving group climb over a tall rock wall. We spent one afternoon on our trip seeing a movie and exploring a museum dedicated to explicating the Mt. St. Helens blast of 1980, and it was neat to learn more about this volcanic eruption that I had always heard of as a child but never fully understood until my trip up there a few weeks ago.

Mt. St. Helens, which used to be a traditionally
beautiful mountain that got destroyed by a large lateral
blast in 1980 that emitted tons of lava, ash, and gases



Literally the light at the end of the tunnel...well, sort of.
Sunlight shines through a place where the cave opens to
the outside world near the exit.

As I mentioned briefly above, we spent another afternoon caving in what is known as Ape Cave, a cave in Washington created by the igneous rock left in the wake of other eruptions of Mt. St. Helens. The cave was enormous and required us all to have good hiking gear, helmets, and headlights. There was lots of skilled footwork and hiking involved, and at one point, there was a large wall that we needed to get a group of about 30 students over. The expedition leader taught the kids how they could all spot each other as they mounted the wall, but one kid said, "I think Mr. Weatherford should spot all of us." The other kids chimed in with affirmative "yeahs," and I probably blushed right there in the cave. :) I was the tallest male leader on the trip, and apparently they felt safest knowing I was spotting them and lifting them up. So I proceeded to help all of the kids and other adult leaders get up this large rock wall, and it was probably the most  gratifying part of the entire trip simply since I felt needed by my community and proud to be perceived as strong and capable.

The Mt. St. Helens trip was amazing, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. When I got back on Friday night, however, my throat was killing me, my right ear was aching, and I was finding it difficult to swallow. I made a quick appointment with an urgent care doctor, and after being swabbed and looked at, I learned that I had strep throat and a peritonsillar abscess. Yikes! I was given a small supply of steroids, two weeks worth of antibiotics, and a recommendation to see an otorhinolaryngologist to consider having a tonsillectomy. Though physically I felt really crummy, it was nice to know that my chills, fever, and ear and throat pain weren't all in my head but were actual bacterial realities. All I can say is thank goodness for modern medicine.

The next morning, Susannah and I left early to drive south to Ashland, Oregon, where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival takes place every year. We had pre-purchased tickets to two of Shakespeare's plays that are lesser known, Troilus and Cressida and Henry V. Since my antibiotics and steroids were kicking in, I started to feel so much better and to have tons of positive energy. Susannah and I first saw Troilus and Cressida, which is a somewhat tragic love story between a Greek girl and a Trojan boy that takes place during the Trojan War (that greatest of all Western epics depicted in movies like Helen and Troy and poetry like The Iliad.) We enjoyed how the director interpreted Shakespeare's words and made a modern adaptation of setting and costumes to change the Greeks and Trojans into American Marines and Iraqis. When that play was over, we explored Ashland a little and prepared for our second play, Henry V. Henry V was the last history play that Shakespeare wrote, and in it he tries to show how a character in his previous history plays, Prince Hal, goes from being an immature rich prince who steals for fun and drinks with his fat buddies in the tavern to being a noble king that eventually conquers France and thereby extends the English empire. This play was also really well done, and Susannah and I were, on the whole, very impressed, especially since our production of Henry V integrated a deaf actor really well, something neither of us had ever seen before. We spent a little more time in Ashland the following morning, and then we headed back north to Portland.

These deer were eating the grass of a park in Ashland. Look
how close they let me get!

The rest of life has been good, too. Portland is beginning to embrace autumn, and the leaves are spectacular. I'll take some photos and include them in my next post. Susannah and I have a new custom of eating this delicious, cheap food at a restaurant called Laughing Planet on Friday nights to celebrate our weekend. We then hop over to a small ice cream shop that serves flavors like Mexican Chocolate or Caramel with Salted Dark Chocolate (my favorite), and I've developed a little crush on the cute guy who serves us our ice cream. He he. It's a good life I've been able to lead up here, and I'm so grateful that all of this is possible for me!