An ISBL Travelogue

So ... we were on vacation ...

Toledo, Oregon, my father’s new, old home. He lived there with my Mom until she passed away, and then a couple of years later he moved way up north to Sumas, Washington. Sumas never felt like home, but he’d secured a long-term lease agreement for his Toledo house and waited the five years until the tenant moved and then Dad came back home to Oregon.

This is the The Timbers in “downtown” Toledo. I’m of a mind that every single coastal town has a bar called The Timbers or The Driftwood.

Newport, Oregon. The Newport Bridge, from the bay and from the beach, and the seal population in the harbor. Oy, the noise they make … like Carlos practicing his trumpet. [And, yes, I told that joke to him and he did not laugh!]

The Rogue Brewery in Newport where one can, and did, enjoy a Chipotle Ale whilst overlooking the harbor. One also enjoyed what was left of Carlos’ Hazelnut Ale, too.

Three lighthouses along the Oregon coast; the first, top left, is at Yaquina Head and is the tallest along the coast; plus the coastline there, the birds and the surf, is just so gorgeous and peaceful. The second, top right, is the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport; it sits atop the lighthouse keeper’s cottage. It’s pretty, but holds a wee sad memory for me. My mother and father volunteered as tour guides there when they first moved to Oregon and, one day, my mother slipped on the stairs and broke her ankles … plural. That was due to years of smoking which caused the bones to become spongy but, as the doctor told my mom, there was no sign of lung cancer. A year later she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Sad memory, pretty house. The last is the Heceta Head lighthouse a bit further down the coast. It sits on a gorgeous point of land, and the keeper’s cottage is a B&B now, where my parents spent their fiftieth, and last, wedding anniversary.

Another view of the Heceta Head lighthouse and the beach …

Local Ocean Seafood in Newport. It’s run by fishermen’s wives, and all the fish is as fresh as fish can be when it’s caught, brought ashore, and then carried form the boat, across the street, and into the restaurant. Any and all profits from the business go to help local fishermen’s families in times of need, so it’s good for you and good for the community. 

This tree, in Toledo, seems to be trying to tell me something ….

The Bridge Over Troubled Waters, or, as it’s called in Oregon, the Bridge Over The Devil’s Churn; just another gorgeous spot along the coastline.

The weather was so beautiful the entire time we were out there, save this one day when we visited Depoe Bay and the sky was gray and the seas were ragged. Even then … beautiful.

The night before, though, my Dad had taken us up to Depoe Bay to the Tidal Raves for dinner; the food was amazing, the view was spectacular, and our waiter had great guns and a nice butt. No matter where I looked, I saw The Pretty.

Nye Beach; kinda tourist, kinda quaint. And home to Nana’sIrish Pub where I had the best Irish Coffee—mostly Irish with a little java—and a killer Reuben Sandwich. After eating, we went into a little shop and started chatting up the owner. When she found out we were from South Carolina she told us she had a tenant upstairs who had recently moved to Nye from Ashville, North Carolina, So we were talking North Carolina and it’s crazy Bathroom Bill, and how beautiful Asheville is, when the phone rang; it was the tenant, from upstairs, who’d heard us talking through the floor, and was coming down to meet the two guys from Camden. She brought he freshly bathed dog with her and we chatted South and North Carolina for quite some time; just makes you realize how small the world really is.

Astoria, Oregon. That little needle at the top is the Astoria Column with spectacular views all around. You can climb to the top and walk out on that little teeny tiny balcony but, well, it was very windy that day and I was sure I‘d be blown—and not in a good way—of the top of that big rod so I stayed put. That last picture is a view from the Column looking down on Astoria; the bridge crosses the Columbia River into Washington. Now, is it just me or does anyone else expect Julie Andrews to come twirling across that hillside signing about climbing mountains?

While in Astoria we stopped in at Baked Alaska for lunch and views and a lovely glass of Albariño, my favorite Portuguese wine. It’s one of those wines, and restaurants, where you want to sit and sip all day long … we did not, sadly.

We had planned to stay in Astoria but then we chose to drive into Portland for our last day to see the Japanese Gardens. We’ve been before on a previous trip, but it’s so peaceful there, and so lush—no, they don’t sell wine …sorry—that we wanted another visit. That is the Zen Garden from above, and a stone pillar inside the garden itself.

More of the gardens, with the pure white sand gardens and the beautiful, almost neon, moss gardens.

Just two of the ponds and waterfalls in the gardens, and the hillsides behind.

And the Koi Pond, too. Plus a little stone temple icon; there are scattered throughout the gardens and sometimes you might not even see one of you aren’t really looking and enjoying.

On our way to the airport, whilst driving through Portland, I saw the Boy’s Fort. If anyone knows Stephen Rutledge — he has a blog called Post ApocalypticBohemian ... though he posts mostly on Facebook now — the Boy’s Forts is what he and his husband dubbed their back garden at their Portland house. Stephen’s husband, a designers, and a partner, opened a Boy’s Fort pop-up store last year that was so successful, it is now a full-fledged, thriving, fabulous Mecca for manthropology!

Anyway … those are few pictures—seriously, I took hundreds—of the trip. It was so nice to get away; so nice to see my Dad and help him get settled back at home; and so nice just to spend time with Carlos away from home and work …

Now, time to plan another getaway.

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again: The Notre Dame Academy Uninvited A Gay Speaker

It seems like it was only yesterday—actually it was Monday—that I posted about Bryant Huddleston being uninvited to speak at his sister's graduation because he’s gay [see post HERE] and here we have the same thing happening again.

This year’s Notre Dame Academy’s May Crowning—an annual event, in which girls in Catholic schools show their devotion to the Virgin Mary by bestowing a wreath of flowers as a crown on a statue of the mother of Jesus—has gone and done the same thing to Brittanie Kuhr that Sloan-Hendrix High School  did to Huddleston. They have revoked her invitation to speak at the event because she’s engaged to be married to a woman.

:::gasp:::

Kuhr, a 2009 graduate who placed the wreath on the statue of Mary when she was a senior, learned that she was uninvited just a day before the event. The high school explained that its decision was based on Kuhr’s advocacy of same-sex marriage, something of which the Roman Catholic school does not approve:

“As a Catholic school, Notre Dame Academy supports the teachings of the Catholic Church. That means ensuring that programs, resources, and presenters that we choose to represent Notre Dame Academy will also support those teachings. This situation involved the contradiction between public advocacy for same-sex marriage and church teachings, not the sexual orientation of the speaker.”

You know, cuz the Baby Jeebus and his Daddy, or Mommy, hate The Gays, and hate the idea of same-sex marriage. I mean, the Baby Jeebus specifically taught his followers to rise up against same-sex marriage, and God, when he, or she, was writing the Bible, devoted an entire chapter to telling his, or her, followers to stomp out same-sex marriage wherever it rears its ugly head. At least, it appears that’s what the officials at the Notre Dame Academy think the baby Jeebus and his Daddy, or Mommy, said.

The revocation of Kuhr’s invitation sparked the creation of a social media support group for Brittanie Kuhr, with some 1,215 people—most of whom are graduates of the academy—creating the NDA Eagles for Equality. Shortly after the school’s statement was issued, the Facebook group was converted to private status, though it posted a statement:

“While the decision has been made and Brittanie did not speak at May Crowning as planned, we as LGBTQA alumnae are determined to not let this blatant act of discrimination [allow] current and future generations of NDA students [to] be pushed further back into the closet.”

On her own Facebook page, Brittanie Kuhr wrote, “How dramatically things can change in 4 years. Including my openness about my sexuality. Surprising to many: my faith has remained a constant. NEWSFLASH: Catholicism and homosexuality ARE NOT mutually exclusive!”

She then said she did not want to “harm the image of Notre Dame Academy” but that she wanted to facilitate a “dialogue to improve [NDA’s] current ‘Non-Discrimination Policy’.”

Kuhr also stated that she had no intention of speaking about her sexual orientation, or her upcoming marriage, just that her speech would discuss her “lifelong relationship with Mary and Notre Dame Academy.”

See, like Bryant Huddleston, who had said his speech at his alma mater would be about his sister, and empowering women, and what he learned, Kuhr’s speech was not going to be about herself, and her life, and her love.

What some of these school officials, both at the Notre Dame Academy and the Sloan-Hendrix High School ,don’t seem to realize is that gay people have more on their minds than just being gay. We have other things to talk about other than our sexual orientation and our opinions on LGBT rights and marriage.

Too bad the students at both the NDA and Sloan-Hendrix won’t be able to hear that.

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