Home for the Holidays: Part Two

I made it safely back to Kansas via a redeye flight yesterday. It's nice to come back home ... from home. Here are some more snapshots from my trip with my family. We stayed in a beach house in Manzanita, Oregon for a couple nights. It was a beautiful area! The first day we were there we hiked to the very top of Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain which had an absolutely breathtaking view of the ocean! After taking a couple wrong turns and almost missing the path to the summit we eventually made it. Manzanita is in a gorgeous part of the coast. I'd never really been up to the north part of the Oregon coast, and it was just as beautiful as the rest! One of the beaches we stopped at required you to walk through a bit of old growth forest before you reached the sand.

I had a wonderful time at home and it was so good to see my friends, family, and Oregon again. It had been an entire year since I'd been back! Hopefully next time it won't be quite as long. Now I'm back in Kansas though, and can't get too settled in... I'm leaving for a choir tour to Germany this Friday!

It's a busy time of year, hope everyone is surviving!

- Erin

I made it safely back to Kansas via a redeye flight yesterday. It's nice to come back home ... from home. Here are some more snapshots from my trip with my family. We stayed in a beach house in Manzanita, Oregon for a couple nights. It was a beautiful area! The first day we were there we hiked to the very top of Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain which had an absolutely breathtaking view of the ocean! After taking a couple wrong turns and almost missing the path to the summit we eventually made it. Manzanita is in a gorgeous part of the coast. I'd never really been up to the north part of the Oregon coast, and it was just as beautiful as the rest! One of the beaches we stopped at required you to walk through a bit of old growth forest before you reached the sand.

I had a wonderful time at home and it was so good to see my friends, family, and Oregon again. It had been an entire year since I'd been back! Hopefully next time it won't be quite as long. Now I'm back in Kansas though, and can't get too settled in... I'm leaving for a choir tour to Germany this Friday!

It's a busy time of year, hope everyone is surviving!

- Erin

Home for the Holidays

“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's always nice to come back home to Salem. As soon as I walk out of the airport in Portland I can tell I'm home. The air just smells different.

Being home is a weird sudden break from the busy-ness of my life usually. I get to sleep in, but end up waking up early anyways because of the time change. I get to eat the wonderful food my mom cooks. My addiction to Oregon's awesome Goodwill's is fulfilled. I get to warm up by the wood stove. I get to be with my family and friends whom I haven't seen in a year. I have time to see them, and also time to spend alone and not feel guilty about not having enough time. Introvert's paradise.

This morning the fog on the river was so incredibly beautiful that I couldn't resist heading over to the walking bridge and getting some of these shots. Totally worth it. Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays and getting to spend time with the ones they love!

-Erin

“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's always nice to come back home to Salem. As soon as I walk out of the airport in Portland I can tell I'm home. The air just smells different.

Being home is a weird sudden break from the busy-ness of my life usually. I get to sleep in, but end up waking up early anyways because of the time change. I get to eat the wonderful food my mom cooks. My addiction to Oregon's awesome Goodwill's is fulfilled. I get to warm up by the wood stove. I get to be with my family and friends whom I haven't seen in a year. I have time to see them, and also time to spend alone and not feel guilty about not having enough time. Introvert's paradise.

This morning the fog on the river was so incredibly beautiful that I couldn't resist heading over to the walking bridge and getting some of these shots. Totally worth it. Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays and getting to spend time with the ones they love!

-Erin