Visit to the US: Oregon, Part 1: Church + hike

(Back in the summertime)
Off we went to Oregon, driving, driving, drone? wait....luckily not, even if it looks like the counterpart of going, going, gone.

We got to visit my aunt + uncle + grandma. I continued to work on lots of puzzles. We picked tons of blackberries :) and climbed on top of a church (yes, on top -- and perfectly legally, I assure you :) We happen to be related to the building manager ;) )

I love that "Love radically, serve gratefully, wonder daily! :)

Surveying the roof

 Here gutters needed to be completely ripped out and replaced

 Posing in the tower

 + yoga-ing in the tower :)

 Even higher up -- how high, you might ask?

 This high!

 And now, from even HIGHer up -- from the ......forgot what it's called, caterpillar? crane? (some animal that is also a machine for getting up high...) ;)

 View from the basket

 Poor roof :(

 There's that tower again

 Brave Grandma!

 Can you tell they're all related? They seem to be going for a similar hairdo ;)

We also went on a hike in some of the most beautiful woods -- on the way, there was this amusing house that reminded me of a German garden and how they are sometimes overrun with gnomes :)

But the woods -- wow! I was just inspired and seeing all sorts of woodland fairies ready to flit through the shadows. (Unfortunately the woods are actually suffering from being overrun by non-native ivy...sad, because it looks so cool! But just wow. I kept taking pictures of trees,

ivy,

spiderwebs,

rocks (hooray for a super cool rock-climbing place!!)

and leaves (that had already fallen becuase of unseasonably hot/dry weather due to the forest fires up north...).

Just gorgeous.
It's lovely to visit family :)

Thanks for hosting us!