“When we will be at the yacht?” asks my five-year old daughter, Ellie. “Yurt,” I correct her, smiling.  “In a few minutes, we’re almost there.  Can you smell the salt air?” And then we are there.  There being Cape Disappointment State Park, a wild outcropping

Shannon and Kirby’s “jeans friendly” wedding took place under an ornate white tent on an organic farm in Monroe, Washington. I hadn’t met the bride or groom before that day and was a guest at their nuptials by association: my husband is friend and colleague

If the seasons were a symphony, surely autumn would be the crescendo. The green of the leaves begin to turn and change color, a few here and there, until gradually the landscape becomes an impressionistic painting, dotted with browns, splattered with brilliant yellows and burnt

She sees the art in everything.  We enter the hotel lobby and she stops.  Transfixed by the multi-colored tile border encircling the room, she studies the complex pattern while I go to the front desk to get our room key. She routinely processes details most

On a recent family camping trip, after a couple of days of hiking and beach combing in chilly, rainy weather, we all pined for a hot shower.  ”How much for a shower?” I asked my 9-year-old daughter, the person in our family who notices such

Sometimes you see someone and you’re immediately drawn to them. You don’t know why, nor do you care. If you have your camera with you, you become intent on photographing this person. So as to not arouse suspicion, you begin taking random pictures of the

Seventh grade. Class assignment: memorize a poem and recite it to the class. I don’t remember why I chose this poem by Robert Frost;  knowing my thirteen year old self, I probably grabbed a poetry book off the school library shelf an hour before my

“It was a tough time,” she said, bending down to pet her fluffy West Highland Terrier, “but you helped me through it, didn’t you?”  The little white dog wriggled his back end, looking up at her adoringly as she scratched behind his ears. “What’d he