God's Creation (The Ocean)

This past week I have spent a lot of time at parks around the area. Last week I visited the ocean for a couple days. Today I went to Mount Rainier. 

If there are two things that the Lord has surely blessed the Northwest with, they are exceptional produce and beautiful scenery. My surroundings continually remind me of Isaiah chapter 40, specifically verses 12 through 31. (It's a bit lengthy for a blog post, but I encourage you to read it and think on it before peeking at the pictures below. :) 

12Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,

or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?

Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,

or weighed the mountains on the scales

and the hills in a balance?

13Who can fathom the Spirit^d of the Lord,

or instruct the Lord as his counselor?

14Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,

and who taught him the right way?

Who was it that taught him knowledge,

or showed him the path of understanding?

15Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales;

he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.

16Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,

nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.

17Before him all the nations are as nothing;

they are regarded by him as worthless

and less than nothing.

18With whom, then, will you compare God?

To what image will you liken him?

19As for an idol, a metalworker casts it,

and a goldsmith overlays it with gold

and fashions silver chains for it.

20A person too poor to present such an offering

selects wood that will not rot;

they look for a skilled worker

to set up an idol that will not topple.

21Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood since the earth was founded?

22He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,

and its people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,

and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

23He brings princes to naught

and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

24No sooner are they planted,

no sooner are they sown,

no sooner do they take root in the ground,

than he blows on them and they wither,

and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

25“To whom will you compare me?

Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.

26Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:

Who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one

and calls forth each of them by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength,

not one of them is missing.

27Why do you complain, Jacob?

Why do you say, Israel,

“My way is hidden from the Lord;

my cause is disregarded by my God”?

28Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

29He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

30Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

31but those who hope in the Lord

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

Enjoy some pictures of the beauty I have been surveying over the past 10 days!

The Ocean...

*Disclaimer: Some photos may seem similar. I apologize for repetitiveness, but I simply couldn't choose! 

God's creation from different angles is beautiful in a slightly different way each angle you take! :)

What I have below was chosen from over a hundred photos of the ocean.

And to think... my God measures the oceans in his hand!

Toes in the sand. :) One of the loveliest feelings ever!

The hills and mountains come to the edge of the continent and then drop off into the ocean. Beautiful!

Pretty sure I have posted a photo of this rock before, but I really like it. :)

I'm convinced that the sun shines more brightly in the northwest!

I love the mountains right next to the ocean. Two of my favorite things right next to each other!

I've taken in so many beautiful sunsets the past few weeks! Northwest sunsets tend to be more golden and less pink.

I spotted a rainbow in a cloud that evening. No rain all day, just the sun reflecting off of the moisture in the cloud.

Ocean on one side and the Tillamook Bay on the other.

So much brightness! I had a hard time taking a pic of the ocean and me. ;-)

I stopped in a little town and it was simply adorable!!! A perfect little beach town. :)

The whole town seriously had the charm these two houses had.

Beach towels out to dry...

These signs made me laugh. How can you NOT take them seriously? They are so cute!

There are so many little streams running down the ocean. Seriously every beach I stopped at had at least one. This stream is one of the bigger ones I saw and waded in and it was ICE cold!!!

This little hill becomes an island when the tide comes in.

These are all over the rocks by the water.

Can you tell how high the water goes? :)

A little water carved cave.

The tide must have just gone out when I stopped at this beach. The sand was still quite wet far inland. The designs left by the water playing with the sand. :)

Lonely little lighthouse. I think this one is known as "Terrible Tilly" because of the wind and waves and rocks out there.

So beautiful! I have fallen in love with the Oregon ocean and countryside!

Pictures of some Seattle area parks and 

Mount Rainier coming soon!

Portland Visit

It has been a while since I posted last, but quite honestly, I haven't been doing anything terribly interesting. Not unless you count a play-by-play on what I've eaten for lunches each day and how I spend my days at school as interesting. Personally, I hate reading things when the author has written words that amount to nothing in meaning. So, I just waited until I had something (hopefully!) worthwhile to say. I'm going to share some pictures with you of a visit to Portland that my roommates, Tami and Victoria, and I took last Saturday. One of the most interesting things about visiting Portland was getting a better grasp on the setting of some of the books that I have read. Enjoy!

We started off by getting some lunch from Portland food trucks. This city block of food trucks was the setting for a part of one book I was reading, and it was lovely just how much the actual place matched the imaginary place in my mind!

This guy was playing as we walked into the Saturday market... and was still playing as we walked out a couple hours later. He was quite talented!

 Part of Portland...

Someone told me that Portland is known for its bridges. There certainly were a lot of them!

Not even sure what this is! But it looked urban and cool ;-)

Behold! Powell's Bookstore! It was my favorite part of the whole trip. (Go figure!) I found a really neat planner called the Uncalendar (it's a planner, but you write in the dates for when you use it so you don't end up with a whole bunch of wasted space, and it has tons of room for lists, goals, prioritizing, reminders, doodle boxes, phone numbers... and just about everything else a super organized, OCD person could wish for!), a cookbook called "Cooking for One"... which is just what I needed! I mean, I like stir-fry and eggs but sometimes I would like to have other food too. ;-) I also picked up copies of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and a book on Egypt (I'm working on becoming an expert before I get to teach a detailed unit on it a little later this year.

It certainly was an interesting place to visit!

We stopped at Voodoo Doughnuts. It probably is a tourist trap... but the doughnuts were really good and VERY different! We bought a dozen and then shared them so that we could try as many as we could. My favorite was the Bacon Maple Doughnut (it had real bacon strips on top of the maple-flavored frosting!)

The line for Voodoo Doughnuts...

While we were in line this Monster truck pulled up and started handing out free monsters to whoever wanted one. I'm not a Monster fan, but the crowd was thrilled. The interesting thing is that this kept happening throughout the day with different items... Monster, yogurt, coupons... Portland is apparently a very giving city! Haha ;-)

The bricks on the Voodoo Doughnut were painted gold and, although the picture doesn't show it very well, they had a glitter coating on them too. It was very eye-catching.

All those people waiting in line for a doughnut!!! It was only about a 20 minute wait time though. The workers were very efficient! 

The box.

Good things come in pink boxes!

On our way home after a long day in Portland! And the weirdest thing happened when we were coming into Seattle and started seeing the skyline and driving between the tall buildings... 

...I felt like I was home.

Such a weird feeling... I was NOT expecting that! So it appears that I am adjusting... and maybe even starting to feel at home in this outrageously large city with crazy traffic patterns!