pnw & travel

  • A Taste of Ecuador

    A Taste of Ecuador

    Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny

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  • Ten years ago this fall, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny

    Read more →

  • Ten years ago this month, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny

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  • Letters from Ecuador: 9.18.2006

    Ten years ago this month, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny

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  • Ten years ago this week, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny

    Read more →

  • Ten years ago today, I – freshly graduated from high school – flew to Quito, Ecuador, to teach English at an orphanage. Ok, well, really, I was getting out of my hometown, making my mark, immersing myself in language and culture, learning something new about a corner of the world far, far away from my tiny Eastern

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  • Annette Lake & Knowing Less

    I’ve often heard iterations of the phrase “the more you learn, the less you know” — if you’re human and you speak English, you’ve probably heard it, too. I suppose there are as many ways to interpret the phrase as there are letters comprising it, but the way I see it is that one who

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  • Olympic National Park: Shi Shi Beach Backpacking

    Question: Why do people love backpacking so much? And why haven’t I done it yet? Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, it’s more than a little silly that I haven’t gone backpacking before. I’ve tent-camped a hundred places, hiked a hundred more, but never the two together. My encounters with backpacking have been purely

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  • Deception Pass State Park

    In case you have never yet heard of Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey/Fidalgo island in NW Washington, let me enlighten you. It is one of the most engaging hikes I have ever been on, and I’ve now been there twice in a month! It’s not difficult, only reaching about 500 or so feet of

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  • Book: Snow Falling on Cedars

    Book: Snow Falling on Cedars

    Snow Falling on Cedars, by David Guterson Challenge: A book with weather in the title Rating: 4.5/5 Review: David Guterson wrote the foreward for the book I just read – Wintergreen – so it is fortuitous, or something, that this book came in at the library immediately following. I’ve always heard this was a good

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