Hood to Coast

SAFETY

/ janpriddyoregon / 4 Comments
The white lacecap hydrangea, above, was near where we entered the south end of massive Forest Park in Portland (more than 5,100 acres). The Rose Garden is within Forest Park and the extensive Japanese Garden, the zoo, second growth and old growth forest trees, and more than 80 miles of trails. A former coastal neighbor has a bronze plaque in the Rose Garden. Sometimes I run up to the roses—a hard uphill route, run loops up and down through the garden past thousands. of roses.

It’s May Day. I hope you find an opportunity to walk near a garden, into a garden, a place a little bit untamed, wild, and a place to find a quiet place to feel safe.

When I was a teenager, I used to sneak out of the house at night. I suppose a lot of teens did that back in the day. Maybe some still do. I didn’t sneak out to be with a boyfriend or any friend. I didn’t go to parties or score drugs. I walked to be alone and think. I went walking in the dark entirely by myself because I was miserable most of my high school years and walking in the dark was a comfort. I’d walk a few miles on the gravel shoulders of suburban roads and go home to bed.

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ANNIVERSARY

/ janpriddyoregon / 14 Comments

Yesterday was the 49th anniversary of our wedding. Gary and I were married under the pagoda tree in my parents’ backyard. We wrote our vows, a friends officiated, I made the wedding cake, a fruit cake, from a 100-year-old recipe, Joyce brought lasagna, The Chieftains sang on a record, and my dad toasted us from Shakespeare as his “warrior children”.

The nice man from Gresham who we talked to last week was horrified by the plankton bloom. He kept calling it “terrible”. What’s shown here is entirely gone, with a narrow line of fresh plankton at the tideline. It’s not terrible or bad in any way. It just is. I will run the beach tomorrow!

Our anniversary rings, more about goldsmithing, the Hood to Coast relay, and my preferred running conditions.

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