04

We have been fairly busy since our last update. We have made enemies with buttercup and morning glory, both of which we have found impossible to eradicate. The other day we harvested cherries, which was fun because it meant that we could eat them as we were doing it. Also, it gave us time to daydream about the possibility of raw cherry pie.

Today we fought (and beat) fennel roots which tried harder than anything to stay in the ground. I would say it has been quite a successful week.

Diane showed up for a little while, but she wasn’t able to stay for too long. (this means that kate and I attempted to write/play music). We went outside into the field and brainstormed all the reasons that we hate buttercup; musically. Anyway, it’s a song that is a work in progress.

We also used the sauna for the first time. It was hot, but we did not sweat nearly as much as we were hoping for. I blame this on the lack of steam because nothing else seems to make sense (we are open to suggestion however, so any explanation is welcome). We need to make use of that sauna more often.

The other day Trayce decided that he wanted to make a trip to the local(ish) co-op and get some essentials. He invited us to go along, and we accepted. I knew that going would cause me to spend far too much money, which it did, but we both needed a few things. Through this trip we discovered why Trayce’s car looks the way it does, as well as solidified the stereotype of spacey raw foodists in our hearts forever. I think this scared us both enough away from ever even trying to be 100% raw.

We also went on a day trip to Vancouver.

On the way we stopped at two wineries that made fruit wines almost exclusively. First was Wellbrook Winery.

All of their wines were fruit wines. Some were dessert wines and I think they had a few ice wines. We only tried the table wines. They were really good for the most part, and the woman who worked there was super friendly. We ended up buying a dry white cranberry apple bottle of wine. Sanduz winery was our next stop.

Upon entering we immediately felt a little uncomfortable. The woman working could apparently tell that we were from out of town (and country!). We tasted a few wines, and ended up buying a white currant wine which was delicious.

After our winery stops we cruised into Vancouver. Our first destination was a raw food restaurant called Gorilla Food. We ate raw pesto pizza, a raw burger, and zucchini hummus with flax crackers.

For dessert we had raw fudge and a treat that they called Gorilla Biscuits, which we had to have for the name alone, and as a dedication to hardcore kids everywhere.

All of the food was very good, but we both agree that the food here at cedar springs is better (also free. I don’t yet know if that has anything to do with it). When we paid, the woman gave us back way too much change; however we did not realize this until after we left. This reaffirmed the notion of spacey raw foodists for us once again.

Stanley Park was our next stop. It is a huge city park in Vancouver that has a lot to do and see. We saw some fairly impressive totem poles, the beautiful and futuristic cityscape, a beach, hollow tree, and a lot of benches.

We basically just walked and drove around for a bit and took a bunch of pictures. Kate talked in a pretty poor British accent for most of the time for no reason. Maybe just to annoy me and practice her accent. Someday it will be totally legit. It was really nice and made me wish that I lived there so I could ride my bike around the park every day.

After Stanley Park we went to an area of Vancouver called Gastown. It is supposed to be the oldest area in the city. We walked around a bit there, but it was mostly just lame tourist shops. It was pretty beautiful and nice to walk around, but that was about it. Then again, you can’t really expect too much from a city. However, we did find this gem in a tourist shop. We almost bought it to mail to Leslie, but since the Canadian dollar is currently just as strong as the American dollar, we decided just to take a picture.

Once our parking meter time was up, we headed over to Chinatown which is supposed to be the biggest Chinatown in North America. When we got there everything was closing up. We were pretty unimpressed. We decided to just go get dinner instead of walking around for the sake of it.

Radha Yoga and Eatery was our dinner destination. It is a non-profit yoga and vegan/raw restaurant. We toyed with the idea of getting a raw dish, but instead we decided to delve into the world of cooked food. We also caved and both got tempeh in our meals, already succumbing to the world of soy. Both meals were delicious and well worth what we spent on them.

That day was Kate's mom's birthday, so for dessert we had a chocolate cherry jubilee with ice cream completely made out of cashews in her honor.

It was absolutely phenomenal.

After dinner we headed back to cedar springs, but not before stopping to take some swell pictures with a couple of bears in rad costumes.

Over the weekend we weeded everything, as well as washed every window ever, and helped out in the kitchen.

There have been some really great meals lately, although we're currently in the middle of a three-day juice fast. One night we helped make and eat raw falafel.

We watched and helped AJ make chocolate and Sage make onion bread. We put sprouted buckwheat into some of the chocolate to make it crispy. Other variations included: orange, goji berries, peppermint, maca, and raspberries on top.

Both chocolate and raw bread making are going to be necessary and regular activities for me in the future. We also had wheatgrass, which didn’t agree with Kate’s stomach that day and made her throw up, but made me very happy.

We decided that we needed to camp out while we were here, so we set up the tent in the middle of the meadow.

We spent two nights in it, which were both significantly more pleasant than our camping experience in Wyoming. We drank wine, snacked and were not afraid of bears (for the most part).

Trayce gave a “performance” for us and all the guests. It was long. Luckily, some people were into it, and enjoyed it. We had to escape at a certain point otherwise I might not have been here to post this entry. Did I mention that it was long yet?

That night AJ, Kat (a guest here) Trayce, Kate and I had a fire out by the creek. It was small but really nice. This place has really started feeling like summer camp, and that was probably the thing that pushed it overboard.

Tonight is our last night here. It is strange thinking that we are done doing work here and will be gone tomorrow. I could probably stay here for at least another couple of weeks, but I know that it is time to move on and continue to do really awesome new things. We have learned a lot and I am very grateful for that. I was expecting that the only things I would learn would be about gardening, but it has been so much more. We are both ready to be healthier people and to continue learning about things that we do not know nearly enough about. I think that is a much greater lesson than anything else I could have taken away from here.

Love,
Cheryl

03

We have been at Cedar Springs Renewal Center for about a week now and have gotten really comfortable with pretty much everything.

Cedar Springs is a raw food center that has guests who come to say for any length of three days to a month. There is a staff of a couple of people who keep everything going. AJ, Sage, and Cheryl (yes, another Cheryl! how awkward.) are the kitchen staff, and there is always one of them around working. They make all of the raw meals, many of which are the best I’ve ever had.

Bernice coordinates a lot of classes and helps out with general things, and Nan and Michael are the proprietors and are always around doing classes and keeping busy. The guests stay in the guest lodge, which is a beautiful place to hang out and relax, as well as the place all the meals are made and eaten. It has a great porch with a bunch of birdfeeders that are constantly being filled to meet the high volume of birds that are always around. We've spent time lately with a bird encyclopedia, trying to identify them, and Cheryl has spent a lot of time trying to trick them into landing on her finger so she can pet their bellies.

The guests follow a daily itinerary that includes things like a morning walk, three raw meals, wheatgrass shots, tea time, yoga and other movement classes, dialogues, kitchen classes, and more healthy living classes. There is also a sauna in the lodge, and specialists in massage and reflexology come in at various times during the week to see people.

There are a bunch of beautiful horses and sheep here, and a dog named Bandit.

We were just told that we could be in charge of feeding the sheep in the mornings, which we are beyond excited about. The garden isn’t huge, but is growing a lot of amazing things like kale, lemon balm, corn, peapods, cilantro, garlic, parsley, basil, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, roses, a million different flowers that I don’t know the names of, carrots, cucumbers, and a bunch of other things I’m totally leaving out.

There is also a huge cherry tree at the entrance that we’re constantly eating from.

We work four hours a day doing various things. Our tasks so far have included: weeding an enormous pathway on the bank of a pond (this was a week-long project), planting things in the garden, watering, weeding, general garden maintenance, pruning, mowing, and our favorite…helping out in the raw food kitchen. Chopping figs and gathering peapods from the garden feels far from actual labor, but here it is. They have a wealth of raw food cookbooks and recipe binders, and it’s been really amazing to see what can be done with raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and spices. The kitchen is amazing and huge, equipped with all sorts of appliances that have been making Cheryl and I drool rather constantly (and figuratively…don’t worry, kitchen hygiene is something taken quite seriously). They have a blender of the heaviest-duty to make serious juices (every week the guests do a three day juice fast), a huge dehydrator to make breads and chips and tortillas and anything else that needs it. In raw foods, nothing can be raised above the temperature of 104 degrees if it is to be considered truly raw. So, a dehydrator is used to blast air onto things to dry them out. Delicious chips and breads have been made using it, so far, and Cheryl and I made raw meatballs one night using it. The kitchen has an amazing and huge food processor to chop up things for pates and sauces. They grow their own wheatgrass here, and the wheatgrass juicer is also amazing and super efficient. I really want to look into starting to grow it ourselves when we come back from this trip, and also getting a wheatgrass juicer.

There is another WWOOFer here with us, a man named Trayce who is a yoga teacher, musician, furniture salesman, and raw foodist from California. We have done yoga under his instruction a few times, which has been really nice. We haven’t tried out the sauna yet, but I imagine we will shortly. On the fourth of July, the three of us dug out this game called “Wildcraft!” from the severely lacking gameshelf, and played. It was a ridiculous “cooperative learning” game that involved herbal remedies, a huge game board, so much group cooperation, and getting two pails of huckleberries apiece back to grandmother’s house before the sun went down.

We all won the game because it was a cooperative effort, of course, and afterwards we went outside and saw fireworks from all directions. They scared the horses a ton, but were kind of pretty.

Most everyone left the farm for the weekend, so we were in charge of our meals and time, which was really nice. We made a really nice salad with raw meatballs one night, as well as a raw sun-dried tomato marinara sauce for them.

Rania, a Syrian woman who stayed with her daughter Tayma for a little of the weekend with us made an apple nut bread in the dehydrator that was really fantastic with coconut butter.

Tayma was young and so full of energy and so excited about doing headstands and about showing me her life story via pictures on her mother's ipod. She also loved hugs, which is a great trait. Cheryl tried her hand at making raw halvah, which tasted way too much like tahini for my taste. For breakfast one morning we made a fruit parfait with an almond date pate topping.

It was really nice to explore raw foods like that, with all the resources and ingredients handy. There’s a tub of raw agave nectar here that’s about a third of my height. That’s a really serious amount of raw agave.

There’s so much room around here to explore and roam.

We walked to a creek yesterday, with a pretty fast little current, surrounded by rocks. We take walks after dinner pretty much daily, going around the area and seeing yaks and mountains. Lately, a tiny neighboring dog has been accompanying us.

We are probably going to camp out for a night or two eventually in the big fields around the area, with a nice view of the mountains. It gets light here at around 4am, and doesn’t get dark until 10pm!

Saturday night we went to Seattle, which is about an hour and a half South, to see Your Heart Breaks, Craig Salt Peters, Heathers, and Ghost Mice play. The drive seemed short and it was, bizarrely enough, really nice to be inside a car again. When we got there we realized that the area was the one we had eaten in with Stacy and Robert a week ago at the thai restaurant. It was nice to see something familiar to ground us. We have since researched some Seattle things and have found an amazing raw food restaurant in that same area, as well as an organic vegan donut store. We do realize that these two interests are in conflict.

When we got to the show we were greeted by Hannah, and it was nice to have a friendly and familiar face there at our arrival. Craig Salt Peters is a friend of Cheryl’s who played first. He had really nice songs and was also really great to meet. It was the last show at this particular art space, so there was lots of food and things available. Sticking to the raw food thing, Cheryl and I ate watermelon in honor of Simon Thrasher, and sweet corn. The band Heathers consisted of two twin sisters from Ireland. One of them played guitar and they both sang. They are currently on tour with ghost mice, and I can’t stress enough the importance of getting out to see them if it is at all plausible. They had the most intense vocal harmonies I have ever heard, and their voices carried so strongly throughout the space. My mind was completely blown from my skull by them, and I still can’t really find my frontal lobe. I got their CD, which is amazing but obviously can’t really compare to the live experience. Still, if you’re a Tegan and Sara fan, or just want to check it out, definitely go for it: myspace.com/heatherswhatsyourdamage

Ghost Mice played after them, and then Your Heart Breaks played. It was totally amazing, as expected. We got to talk to Clyde about the corn palace, and then a magnificent cover of New Kids on The Block’s “Right Stuff” was played, making the night complete.

We said goodbye to people and then had a nice drive home.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about soy and things, which lead me to believe that I should totally cut it out of my diet as much as possible. Also, eating only raw foods and feeling absolutely incredible has made me evaluate my diet entirely. I don’t expect to keep up eating as raw and as well as I have for the rest of the summer, as traveling makes that pretty impossible…but in the fall I’m hoping to eat way better and smarter. I feel much more aware of health things since being here, which feels really great. I have to note ahead of time, though, that even though I have given the chick-o-sticks a Viking funeral, I will probably enjoy vegan donuts and the like during the rest of this trip. There are some things I just don’t want to shake for another month or two.

Speaking of, Sage did a raw chocolate making class the other day, which was a relief. Chocolate is very important to me. After an amazing dinner last night, she served a lemon torte that was mindblowing.

Nan just came in with a bunch of new furnishings for our room. I was totally satisfied with our prior arrangement, but now that she brings in a rug, things are really turning around nicely. Cheryl is on the floor right now attempting to assemble an end table with instructions that are only drawings. Her ambition in the face of confusing pictorals and imminent frustration is impressive.

Update: During the span of me posting this entry, she did it! She assembled the end table! It's a little wobbly, but what isn't these days?

"It just needs some stuff on it, that's all." -Cheryl

Tomorrow starts a three-day juice fast. Nan was thinking about giving the kitchen staff some time off and having Cheryl and I do the juices for everyone for a day or so. We are here for another week and are hoping to make a day trip to Vancouver at some point!

Love,
kate

02

We woke up on Thursday morning and retrieved our camping belongings from the spots. Alan and Noah’s tent was not to be seen, and ours was collapsed with a sizeable puddle of water on the inside. Their tent was discovered, lodged in a mud ditch, and was painstakingly recovered. Since many of the mountainous parts of our camping area was just comprised of layers of muddy sediment, and it had heavily rained the night prior, walking on the surfaces was incredibly difficult, versus the ease and dryness of the night before. Every time we took a step in it, the top layer of mud clung to our shoes and stayed there, creating a heavy and tall platform for our feet to maneuver. The mud would randomly dislodge itself from the feet, and then fresh layers would build up. Altogether, it was inconvenient and made movement relatively impossible. But we successfully got our things from our camping area and into the car. We said goodbye to Alan and Noah, they were staying longer in the Badlands, and we headed out to Wall Drug.

We were covered in dirt from the Badlands, and still are. This morning Cheryl wiped some from my glasses, and we keep finding it hidden in every nook and cranny of the car and our belongings. When we got to Wall, South Dakota, we got a much-needed oil change at a Pennezoil that was also a fancy espresso bar. (Also to note: in Wyoming we discovered another Pennezoil establishment that was also an espresso bar. We think it’s some weird marketing ploy to emasculate diesel mechanics and drum up business from the coffee crowd.) We got pretty disappointed by the kitsch of Wall Drug (although, what did we really expect?) and ate at a café where Cheryl and I could actually get real-live veggie burgers!

After Wall, we headed to Mount Rushmore, which was pretty breathtaking. I’ve seen pictures of it all my life, but seeing it right in front of me was completely different, and pictures can’t really compare. Also, Washington’s eye is 11 feet wide! Ridiculous!

It was a pretty great thing to see, and Matt got really good looking ice cream to eat while Cheryl and I browsed around the gift shop and saw some guy who helped carve the whole thing. After Mount Rushmore, we went to Prairie Berry Winery, a way classy and legitimate winery that had some really interesting and delicious wines and really nice and helpful staff. We decided on getting a bottle of rhubarb wine, and headed out towards Wyoming, where everyone is super friendly and there is an average of 5.193 people per square mile.

We wanted to find a place to camp before it got dark, so with some trial and error, and after spotting moose and elk and cows, we finally found Sitting Bull Campgrounds in Ten Sleep, Wyoming, near a beautiful stream and the snow-capped mountains, where it was very cold. We cooked soup on a fire at our campsite and set things up. The night was freezing, and apparently I was the only one to sleep through it fully without any trouble. That’s what we get for camping somewhere that snow is able to survive at this time of year.

That morning we left camp, bright and early, but not before making friends with an fervent squirrel, visiting the nearby stream, and being grateful for not having been devoured by bears.

We passed several towns with populations ranging from 109 to 1800, and had lunch at a little diner that once again proved that everyone is nice in Wyoming. We stopped in Cody, Wyoming and poked around at the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum.

After that we were headed towards Yellowstone, with hopes of making it to Glacier Park in Montana for the night.

-Kate

Yellowstone was incredible. We saw more bison than any of us could probably stomach, as well as a fox, geysers, hot springs and mud volcanoes.

The air smelled so strongly of sulfur that I thought we all might die of stench exhaustion. Despite scent issues, Yellowstone was amazing and we all really loved it. I wish that we could have spent more time there, because there we did not see even half of what we could have.

After getting out of Yellowstone and into Montana (which I failed to honk the horn upon entering as a result of waiting for a more official sign) we stopped at a Super 8 to steal their internet and try and find a place closer to Glacier National Park to spend the night. After the previous cold night sleep, we all wanted somewhere warm to rest our heads. We ended up staying at a Super 8 in Conrad, where we all took much needed showers.

The next morning we headed to Glacier National Park.

Upon our arrival we purchased an annual national park pass. We headed into the park and stopped at one of the first places to park. We walked a trail down to a lake and were in awe of the beauty around us. I was extremely tempted to go swimming, but the water was absolutely freezing. After standing in it for only a few minutes, my legs began to hurt. The park was really beautiful throughout and we made many more pit stops to check out the sites. Eventually, while driving up the road, we hit a roadblock and park rangers who informed us that the rest of the road through the park was closed. Since there is only one road through the whole park, this meant that we had to turn around the way we came, leave the park, and drive all the way around the perimeter in order to keep on going. As a result, we drove at least an extra 100 miles than we were planning on, and spent probably 3 hours doing so. The roads were very curvy which did not help, and overall depleted morale rapidly. Our original plan was to make it to Seattle from Glacier National Park in the same day, but this detour made that nearly impossible. We drove for as long as we could, stopping in Missoula for dinner, and continuing until we reached the Nites Inn in Ellensburg. It was not the nicest place, but it was the cheapest thing we could find and we were all tired. While we were there, we saw a commercial on television for ear plugs and sleeping pills “specially designed for women”. They were pink, as was all of their packaging, and they came in some type of purse shaped carrying case. I am still in awe of this, and need to find them somewhere.

We left in the morning and headed toward North Bend, Washington. For those of you who are unaware, this meant that we were on our way to see the sites of Twin Peaks.

Our first destination was Twede’s diner, which is the Double R from Twin Peaks. Although slightly disappointing on the inside, it was a pretty awesome experience. They have 50some-odd burgers, all of which can be substituted with veggie patties, and they all come with endless fries. We drank coffee as black as the sky on a moonless night and stuffed ourselves with fried food. Despite our full stomachs, we made room for cherry pie. Kate and I had little problem deciding that if ever there were a time to set aside veganism, this was it. It was delicious.

Before, during, and after we ate we went to the back of the building where they had all kinds of Twin Peaks memorabilia. Mostly they just had trading cards, magazines, newpaper clippings, and photographs, but it was still really awesome. We took pictures inside and out, and picked up a twin peaks map that was drawn in colored pencil and photocopied.

After Twede’s we decided to set out to find as many sites as we could. We unfortunately could not find many, since it has been so long since the show was filmed. We found the train cars and the giant log from the series.

We decided that we would just go to Snoqualmie Falls and see the Salish Lodge (which is the Great Northern in the show). The falls were absolutely beautiful.

We decided to hike down towards the water to see them more. This was not the best of ideas since we were pretty ill equipped to do so. We were dressed pretty inappropriately for a hike (skirts and not sneakers) and did not bring any water with us. This caused me to be kind of a grump, and rude at points, but overall I think we are all glad we did it. We hiked back up, and went on our way to Seattle.

When we arrived in Seattle we were met by Stacy (Matt’s birth mom), her husband Robert, a handful of their friends, and their 15 year old beagle named Baxter. They were having a barbeque, which ended up being incredible. We ate tofurkey sausages, portabella mushrooms and asparagus all together in a hot dog bun. It was wonderful. All of their friends were very friendly and we felt really good about being there. After everyone left we headed to the video store to rent Purple Rain, but left with Fire Walk With Me. We watched the movie that night. Matt and I fell asleep much too early on, and Kate stuck the whole thing out.

The next day Stacy and Robert showed us around Seattle. They took us to the pike place market, which was huge and totally incredible. We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant, and found vegan desserts at a bakery. They were delicious! We sat by the water and took in the sights of Seattle. After we left we went to Fantagraphics, and Kate bought a comic book. We came back, went for a walk, and then went out to dinner. Stacy and Robert took us to a vegetarian/vegan thai place that was absolutely amazing. They then dropped us off in an area of Seattle called Freemont, which is the “center of the universe”. We stumbled upon a giant sculpture of Lenin that was offered for the modest price of $250,000. We walked around, and ended up at a bar called Triangle Lounge. We spent the night there talking and drinking, and eventually took a cab back to Stacy and Robert’s.

It is important to note that Stacy and Robert were really wonderful and generous to us. It was really nice to feel at home and a little less like we were living out of a car/tent/hotel. I wish that we could have done more to thank them, but I am sure that they know how much it means.

The next morning/early afternoon we headed out to Sedro Woolley, and ended up at the farm around two o’clock. It is really nice here, but more will be written about that later!

-Cheryl