I've made a few additions to the blogroll lately, all of them pastor blogs: Among the Ruins, Michael Spencer and Along the Way. The last is by a minister in Troutdale, Oregon, a picturesque little town east of Portland where we stopped on our trip and received very helpful advice about visiting the Columbia River Gorge.

The Columbia Gorge, by the way, is one of the most beautiful places on God's earth. Its best-known landmark is Multnomah Falls, but there are quite a few waterfalls and scenic vistas just about everywhere you turn. (It's also home to fields of the flower after which I named myself, but since it blooms in the spring they don't look like much right now.) Although the Northwest has had an unusually dry summer and it wasn't as lush as usual, it still could hardly have been more different from my last excursion to Joshua Tree. No question about which is my natural habitat.