Restoring the creative well with day trips

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We’re finishing up Oregon’s spring break, and while I worked for most of the days, I took yesterday off to go with my family to the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center an hour and a half north in Washington.  My older relatives recall the ash from the 1980 eruption landing in yards and gutters here in Beaverton.  We can see the flattened peak on clear days from Portland, but this was the closest I’d ever gotten to it.  We got gorgeous weather for our visit.  In the gift shop, they had glass ornaments handmade in Ecuador, so I had to bring one home with me. 

Stone sign with bronze letters saying "Mount St. Helens Visitor Center" with trees and a parking lot in the background.
Line of pretend lava trickling between stone walls to a hole labeled "Look deep into the Earth," with more pretend lava pooling at the bottom.
Blue circular glass ornament with a drawing of Mount St. Helens erupting, with bubbles in the glass for the sky, and a paper tag saying "Handmade in Ecuador."

This morning we stuck closer to home and went to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge.  We lucked into more great weather.  My older son commented as we walked about how peaceful it was, and then he shared with me how he thinks there are various types of “Oregon peaceful”:  beach peaceful, forest peaceful, desert peaceful, mountain peaceful, cave peaceful.  (I was very tempted to tell him he has the makings of a great poem in that insight, but that doesn’t seem to be his thing.)  When we got home, I realized that a lot of my novella, Thrice Petrified, is about restoring some of those types of peacefulness to the landscape and the creatures (fantastical and otherwise) inhabiting them. 

Tree trunk covered with thick dark green moss and single fronds of fern sticking out from it.
Oak tree covered in light green moss next to a stream.
Wooden sign saying "Thank you for visiting your national wildlife refuge" with while silhouettes of geese flying and "Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge" at the bottom.

We interspersed additional types of fun into the other weekend and evenings of spring break, such as basketball games and a couple of movies.  I also received the proof of the Clocks anthology to review, plus I just got an acceptance for a poetry reprint.  And I’m making slow but steady progress on my current writing project.  All in all, a great week.