Gorge-ing on Washington's Scenery

I love road trips. Remind me of that when I'm anticipating our several-days-long cross-country move, but as a rule, I love long trips in the car. Wind in our hair, music blaring, junky convenience store treats in our center console. I like the time to sit and think individually or to sit there and have a real, drawn out conversation while we're sitting still for a really long amount of time (on a related note, we tend to get into arguments during this drive more than any other time - no distractions, I guess).

This is a drive that Carson and I have made often in our time here in Washington. His parents live in Olympia, on the other side of the state (the part that gets the weather we don't in Spokane - that stereotypically rainy, cold weather). 

It's become a familiar drive throughout our relationship; we first made it about two weeks after we began dating, when I went to meet his family for the first time. Since then, I'm not sure how many times we've made the drive. I once counted thirteen times, but it was sometime last year that I calculated that and we've driven that way about five times since. It takes us a little over five hours to make the drive, but we usually stretch it out with a million coffee breaks (all him) or through a drive-thru  for a meal, or we make stops like this one to enjoy our state.

Since this may be our last time making the drive for a long time, I asked Carson if we could stop at the Gorge to take some pictures. He obliged. 

This is the Columbia Gorge. It's one of my favorite stops on the drive over and roughly three hours away, about halfway. It's gorgeous, which the camera can't fully capture. It's really windy there but I just love it. 

He was helping me down the steep rocks.

In addition to beautiful sights, we often listen to music (mostly me) or lectures (mostly Carson) as we go. I sometimes get a little bored even though it is a pretty drive, so I just take pictures of myself or of Carson. I have about a thousand of the side of his head as he drives, pretending to be oblivious of the camera... he's a trooper.

I think that this could have been the last time we'll make this drive; it's certainly the last time for awhile. I took many more pictures of mountains and waterfalls on the sides of huge rocks to remember our drives. 

Ps- two Columbia Gorge-related puns were discussed for the title of this post. This was Carson's contribution. Mine was "Gorge-ous".

A Berry Nice Time

Honestly, the most difficult part about this post was which pun to use in the title. Should I go for something to do with canning or with berries? So many options. 

Given that clever title, you've probably deduced that this post has something to do with berries. 

Well, you are correct. 

I joined Molly and her mom, Michele for an adventure amid strawberry plants. It was their very first time picking the delicious red berries, which surprised me since I grew up picking them on the way back from the beach every year. I sort of thought everyone had picked strawberries (I asked Carson and he doesn't think he's ever been either, so maybe it was just my circle of friends growing up).

I was also surprised to know that strawberries here aren't ready until late June (we picked on the last day of June) or early July. Back home, strawberries are an early to mid-May kind of thing. Must have something to do with the weather... 

Anyway, we went up and almost met a dead end when the first farm we stopped at only had berries for sale; nothing to pick. But they directed us down the road to another farm. As we turned in the drive, we saw dozens of families picking and eating berries and we knew that we were in the right place. Yay!

I had just taken a bite out of this one; I had to edit the berries off my teeth; oops!

As you can see, they were naturals at this berry picking thing; Michele made herself at home in the field

We went a little crazy with the picking: 15 pounds of berries. 

And then it was time to make strawberry jam. 

When we got back to Molly's apartment, we ate and de-stemmed. 

I mashed. I was the "gentle masher"... but not gentle enough to avoid berries on my shirt.

7 cups of sugar per batch! 

Boiling

  

Jarring

Lidding.

I helped with the lids too.

Placing the jars in a pot of boiling water to set. I like this picture; they're so ready to jump in and fix whatever mistake I was about to make :) 

Finished

Labeled

Proud. We were intending to do only 12 jars but we picked (and had already mashed) way too many berries so we sent Jerrad out for 12 more. And we still had a lot of leftovers for Molly and Jerrad to put over ice cream or shortcake the next day. 

All the credit for the canning goes to Molly's mom, of course. She instructed and guided on the first batch, and we learned so well that she left us and read a book during the last batch. We're probably the best students ever. At least that's what we like to think. 

It was fun, and though not a process I'd enjoy alone, I think I'd like to do it again. It wasn't as difficult I thought, and the result tastes pretty nice. 

Red, White and Blue

We were talking about it, and realized that this Fourth of July would be the first that Carson and I would celebrate together. Every other 4th, we've been apart - he was working for the forest service and I wasn't (when we lived in Naches and he was doing the fire crew, we saw one another, but it was a busy day for him, since he had to monitor fireworks fires). So it was fun to spend together. 

On Tuesday, Molly and I got together to make our nails patriotic. It didn't take as much time as I would have thought, but we watched a movie so that we had to sit still for a long time for our nails to dry. 

On the 4th itself, we slept in, enjoyed making breakfast together, and then got ready. We joined a family from our church to celebrate. We enjoyed volleyball, pool time, and food! Lots of time for conversation as we sunbathed and munched on too many servings of chips and dip. It was a wonderful time.  

(I was also trying to learn different settings on the camera, so the pictures aren't world class)

Following that, we decided to head downtown early for the fireworks to get a good spot. No one was sure what time one of the bridges closed, so we got there two hours before the fireworks to secure a place...and the spot we wanted didn't open up until 30 minutes till. Now we know :) We got some walking around in during that time and lots of conversation. 

And then, the fireworks! Neither of us have gone to downtown Spokane for fireworks before (I was in town, but joined the same family at a nearby cabin). It was great! There were so many people, and I really enjoyed the community aspect of it all. Love our downtown here; and the fireworks show was great!