We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Oregon is really beautiful and has many different landscapes. I'm in love with the rivers, which dig their way through the mountains and the forrest, sometimes purling happy, and then again quietly buzzing to themselfes. The mossy trees, who bend towards the rivers and brooks like they carry a heavy load, dipping theyr branches just a bit into the water. The rich smell of the forrest and the sweet lonesomeness, which is just interrupted by the tweeting of the birds. The wildflowers wich try to grasp every sunbeam which breakes through the leafy canopy. And when the wind is slowly moving the leaves, it sounds like the trees would talk to each other, whispering to each other storys from far away lands. It is hard to grasp all this beauty, and it takes time to take it all in and to be filled with it.



I arrived yesterday in New Port, were we will stay untill tomorrow morning. Outside is it raniy, and a cold breeze imprison's the sun tourists in their motelrooms. To be honest, i was also exited to spend this day of rest at the beach and in the ocean, looking for some adventures, but now i'm just drinking coffe, read and daydream, which suites me just fine. Tomorrow we will start to drive south, to Redwood, Nationalpark. As i'm a tree lover, i'm exited to see the biggest/tallest trees of the world. Afterwards we will hit again the road southwards, and will hopefully arrive by Saturday in San Francisco . Maybe we will make some breaks between to go swimming or to take in the summer ocean scent.
Yellow stone was really great, we saw lots of different animals, a bear, sea eagles, bisons and an elk. I got some pretty nice shots. The country side has much to offer, and is truly paradisiac. You can see those geysers, hot springs, many waterfalls, kind of stone desert, deep forrests or a forrest of dead trees, and of cause the yellow stone lake. For more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/elisabeth.schnabel/Yellowstone
Afterwards we drove to Grand Teton Nationalpark, which is just next to Yellowstone in the south. We hiked around a lake called "jenny lake" (which sounds somewhat german to me), but i have to admid that i gave up halfterm and went back by a shuttle boat across the lake to the parking lot. I love hiking, but i never said i would be good at it :) after that we drove to Ashton, were we stayed for the night ( the old lady at the reception desk of the inn was very rude and unfriendly, and i was a bit shocked, i thought elderly people would always be polite...another of my childhoodbelives is proved wrong by reality :P )we drove the whole of monday from Idaho to Bend in Oregon, over a 1000 miles which took us 12 hours. After such a long drive my parents were really stressed, which made the trip not so pleasent...we were also a bit affected by the weather, the temperature was over 40 degrees sometimes! the next day we reached the coast, and with that New Port.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy~ Henry Ward Beecher

i went saw yesterday the Garden of God's, and it was really awesome. those pics cannot really show the colour of the red sandstone. It was also really hot, 32 degrees, and i got a pretty bad sunburn. If you want to check out more pics, go to http://picasaweb.google.com/elisabeth.schnabel/GardenOfGodsAndCliffDwellings










After the Garden of God's my mum and i (and the other nags called brother and sister) went to the cliff dwellings which native indians built 700 years ago.



We also went into a museum called leanend tree, which exhibit sculptures and pictures about the wild west.



Denver

I hate jet-lack

Boulder is really hippie, and full of cheesy decoration stores... i love it here. Exept that i have to take every 3 hours medicaments because my cardiovascular system does not work so well here, because of the height. We went hiking yesterday, and it was really nice, but hard work . Alright...i will eat breakfast now! later more! Enjoy the pics!









if you want to see more, check out
http://picasaweb.google.com/elisabeth.schnabel/Summer08Usa

It's a dangerous business,going out your door.You step onto the road,and if you don't keep your feet,theres no knowing where you might be swept off to

So, here i am in Colorado, at my parents place. It is really hot, but my parents tell me it will get even hotter tomorrow (42 degrees!). My first impressions of this country...well, people drive ridiculously big cars, and were really short shorts. The Rocky Mountains look great, i think we will go hiking tomorrow....let's see how long that will take...since my father climed his last 4000 meter Mountain in 4 hours (since there with me, it will take ages, if i will ever reach the mountain top at all). Here are some pics of my flight yesterday, out of the plane:

over Greenland



over Winnipeg ( or at least what i thought Winnipeg must be)



Lorenz church in Nuernberg (pic from my walk through the city 2 days ago)

Elisabeth the Snake Dundee

It is one of my pleasures to spend my leisure by sitting motionless near our pond, watching all the amphibians who live there. But yesterday, i discoverd a most unwelcome guest. We quite have a history, the grass snake and i. For i am the snake hunter. I detest them, beside's i really cannot tolerate that the eat all my beloved toads, frogs and newts. So i wait out in the noonday sun, waiting for the grass snake to come out of the water and rest herself on one of the water lilies leaves, and than i catch her with my tubular! But because the grass snake is protected by law in germany, i have to put it in a bucket and release it near the next lake. And that is the trouble, i'm terrified of the snake so i could never put it out of the tubular into the bucket...i will have to wait until my father gets here...what a snake huter i am...a great one indeed.

the unwanted guest:


a previous catch:

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I had the pleasure to attend a wedding today, and meet with some old friends. All was well, the bride looked happy, the vows were touching and the wedding cake was delicious (and that was for me the most important thing at all).






well, and now some poem as i'm quite emotional at the moment (those weddings bring out always the worst of me :))

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;


Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

i got myself poisoned

Ah...i accidentally poisoned myself yesterday.....silly me! I went into the basement yesterday evening in search of a good drink. All i found was a carton of holunderbeer juice. I thought myself lucky, cause i love holunderbeer stuff (you can make also soup out of the berrys, you find them everywhere in the countryside). Because it was malicious disguised as a juice, i did not wonder why it tasted so abhorrent and bitter. Well, some hours later i got stomach cramps, had to repeadingly throw up and felt really unwell the whole night. The holuder is poisonous if not cooked. well, and what did this experience teach me? Never judge a book by it's cover.