“Maybe you had to leave in order to miss a place; maybe you had to travel to realize how beloved your starting point was.”  ~          Jodi Picoult

People will sometimes ask me what I miss from home. I can easily rattle off a list: my family and friends; Starbucks with drive-up windows; giant watermelons by the truckload in every grocery store during the summer; 4^th of July parades and bonfires on the beach; really good Mexican food; wide roads; orchards and vineyards that stretch for miles; tall, snow-capped mountains rising dramatically out of untamed wilderness; the Oregon coast. Continue reading →