“We don’t agonize. We organize”
– Democratic Congresswoman and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Democracy. It is defined by Meriam Webster’s Dictionary as
“1. Government by the people:rule of the majority.
a. A form of government in which the people elect representatives to make decisions, policies, laws, etc. according to law.
b. a form of government in which the people vote directly against or in favor of decisions, policies, laws, etc.”
Since the January 6, 2021, an insurrection attack on the U.S. Capitol by a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters trying to overthrow the U.S. Government election results, I am worried about our American democracy. Before the January 6th insurrection, I took it for granted that it was strong and would always exist.
After January 6th, I switched from being strictly a climate organizer to a climate and democracy organizer. To document my lifelong shift in thinking, I wrote an 8-part blog from October to December 2023, For Climate Action, let’s protect our democracy.
I followed up those writings with a related blog I posted in April 2024, For Climate Action, be kind to people knocking at your door. The blog was about my dedication and frustration to knocking on doors in in the Portland OR metro area as a U.S. Census Enumerator in 2020 and as a paid political canvasser/field organizer for the 2022 midterm elections. I wanted to uphold our democracy and to urge my fellow community members to vote for support Democratic candidates who would pass strong climate bills and uphold our democracy.
With the Oregon Primary Election happening in May 2024 and the general election looming on November 5, 2024, I was eager to engage with voters to urge them to support strong Democratic candidates that would stand up for our democracy from the rising threat of authoritarianism. This multi-part blog is an account of my actions January to November 2024. I will then conclude about my reaction to the 2024 election and what actions we should take now.
Part 1: Organizing and canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024
Part 2: Rough times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024
Part 3: The Good and Bad Personal Moments canvassing in the autumn of 2024
Part 4: My actions and reactions to the November 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Part 1: Organizing and Canvassing for our democracy in the spring and summer of 2024
From February to April 2024, I helped the Portland Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) chapter organize a Congressional Candidate Climate Forum on April 18, 2024. It was attended by Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal and Oregon Representative Maxine Dexter. I felt that the that candidate forum that I helped organize was a success. It may have played an important role in getting Dr. Maxine Dexter to win the Democracy primary on May 21st and elected to Congress on November 5, 2024.
In the middle of planning for this CCL candidate forum, in the second week of April 2024, Tanya and I took week-long trip back to St. Louis, Missouri to see family. Even more, this trip centered around a day long road trip to southern Illinois to see the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Seeing the eclipse was one of the highlights of my life. Months later, I blogged about it, 2024 Solar Eclipse Renewed me to take Climate Action.
On May 1st, after the CCL candidate forum, I worked for East County Rising (ECR) as a field organizer, also known as a canvasser, to knock on doors to urge voters to support their endorsed candidates for the May 21st Oregon primary election. I later blogged about this experience on the highs and lows of knocking on doors for the May 2024 Oregon Primary Election.
A quick vacation to Crater Lake National Park after the May 2024 election primary
After one day the primary election, Tanya and I took a much needed four-day vacation from May 22nd to May 27th visit Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon to go snowshoeing. It felt great get my mind off politics, elections, and trying to persuade people to vote.
The weather was beautiful on the Crater Lake rim when we snowshoed on that Thursday afternoon and Friday all day. On Thursday afternoon, the sky was clear with a stunning blue with no haze and just a few clouds. There was little to no wind, so the lake was a giant mirror reflecting the small band of clouds and deep blue sky. Friday was an overcast cooler day, reminding us that winter had not given up its grip on Crater Lake for the season.
We have each owned pair of snowshoes for years. It was enjoyable to use them at Crater Lake where they still had a healthy snowpack of over 8 feet of snow on the ground at an elevation over 7,000 feet. I worked at Crater Lake during the summers from 1992 to 2017. It brought back a lot of memories since I spent a good portion of my life there. The park was just as splendid, awe inspiring, and serene as I remembered. At the same time, I was glad to just be a visitor, and I liked my life since 2017 of organizing for climate action.
The calendar said May 25th. However, we had dinner at a picnic table by the Mazama Motor Inn cabin we were staying in the park. The elevation there is just over 6,000 feet. We had walls of snow surrounding us as we ate toasted hot dogs for dinner with a side of chopped broccoli. The temperature was probably a balmy 50 degrees, but the mounts of snow around us looked like we were having dinner in Greenland or Antarctica.
On Saturday, May 25th, we drove back to Portland leaving to travel north of the park on Highway 138 to see the various spectacular waterfalls on that route. We enjoyed walking on the short trails to see these waterfalls, such as Watson Falls, Tokatee Falls, and Susan Creek Falls. The falls were all roaring strong from a hearty winter snowpack that fed them high upstream in the distance. It was Saturday of Memorial Weekend. The popular waterfalls on this route certainly had other visitors, especially family groups, admiring them. It was not crowded though.
As soon as I returned from this trip, I prepared for my next excursion to Washington D.C. June 7-12 to attend the CCL conference and lobby day. Much later, I blogged about that trip, especially the highpoint of my thrill meeting U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin.
Visits to Portland Oregon from my friend Itzel Morales and my mom Fran Ettling
The next day, I flew back home to Portland, Oregon. On the flight back, I had magnificent views of Mt. Hood out the window as the plane descended into Portland on this lovely summer day.
The next weekend, my friend from Climate Reality Project, Itzel Morales Lagunes, visited with Tanya and me after she had attended a wellness conference near the Columbia River Gorge. Itzel and I were co-presenters at the Climate Reality Los Angeles Training in August 2018. I enjoyed co-creating and jointly delivering that presentation. I admired her enthusiasm, optimism for the future, the hard work she put into this presentation, all her climate work, and her flexibility in meshing our presentations together. Tanya and I were delighted that Itzel wanted to stay with us in Portland and spend time with us. We had very few out of town visitors in our 7 years living there. We were excited to show her our area.
We first met at the Tryon Creek State Natural Area in southwest Portland, a 15-minute drive from downtown Portland. It was summer so the forest was lush green. This 658 acre heavily forested park featured 8 miles of hiking trails. We walked for about a mile so Itzel could get the feel of a Pacific Northwest forest. Tryon Creek is Oregon’s only state park within a major metropolitan area. It’s a second growth forest of deciduous and evergreen trees. This shady canyon valley with the meandering Tryon Creek wandering through provided a suitable environment for trees so tall it was hard to see the tops of them.
After we got a good feel for this park, we then drove Itzel to see the Portland International Park Rose Test Garden. The brilliantly colored roses were at their peak for the summer creating a joyful spectacle for our eyes. The bright color range of red, pink, orange, yellow, and other fabulous variety of roses were a must to take many photos with our cameras. We then took Itzel to see the outside of the Pittock Mansion with its broad high view of the Portland skyline.
From the Pittock Mansion, we walked a mile for Itzel to see the Redwood Deck at Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park. The park contains 70 redwood trees — including coast redwoods (the earliest of which was planted in 1931) and giant sequoias. Since their planting almost 100 years ago, these trees grew to an impressive height and girth. From the deck and hike among the trees, it feels like one gets a small taste of Redwood and Sequoia National Parks in California.
The next day, Tanya and I made sure Itzel got to see the most accessible and impressive waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge.
My mom Fran Ettling came to visit Tanya and me for four days at the end of June. She also wanted to see the Rose Garden. The roses were still looked fabulous just two weeks after my previous visit with Tanya and Itzel. I insisted on taking Portland’s public transit, TriMet buses and MAX commuter trains, to travel over an hour from our home into the city. My 84-year-old mom did great on public transit. She enjoyed taking TriMet. It reminded of her when she used to take the streetcars growing up in St. Louis, Missouri.
My mom requested for Tanya, her, and me to have a dinner at the Portland City Grill, which it located on the 30th floor of the U.S. Bankcorp Tower in downtown Portland. The restaurant has big windows with terrific views of the city, surrounding area, and sightings of Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams on clear days. It is a tradition when my mom comes to visit us in Portland to have dinner there every time from 2019 onwards.
Attending and even speaking at Oregon Legislators campaign kick off events
After my mom left Portland, it was time for me to network to see if I could work for a legislative campaign for the 2024 election season. I came to the campaign kickoff event for Rep. Ricki Ruiz in Gresham, Oregon on June 22nd. On June 30th, Rep. Zach Hudson asked me to give a short speech to introduce him as his campaign kickoff event in Troutdale.
This was the first time that an elected leader asked me to give an introduction for them. I was honored to do that. Even more, Zach is a kind, decent, humble man, and dedicated public servant. I made sure that I crafted an introductory speech that Zach would be proud.
Here are the remarks that I gave at the Kickoff Campaign even for Zach:
Introduction to Representative Zach Hudson at Campaign Kick off
Thank you for coming to Representative Zach Hudson’s Campaign Kick Off event today. My name is Brian Ettling. I am a friend of Zach’s who has known him for several years.
Zach wanted me to introduce him because he has admired me for years as a local climate organizer. I was honored because I am not a constituent, but I live just a few blocks away from his district at NE 158th and Sandy.
My story is that I worked 25 years as a seasonal park ranger at Crater Lake National Park in southern Oregon. I loved being a park ranger, but sadly I saw the impacts of climate change there with a diminishing annual snowpack and more intense wildfire seasons. At times, the wildfire smoke was hazardous to breathe and forced visitors with health issues to cancel their vacations. I became so worried about climate change that I quit my summer job at Crater Lake in 2017 to organize and lobby for climate action. Thus, I have lobbied Oregon legislators to pass climate policies since 2018.
Zach and I first met when he was running for office in 2020. I must have made quite an impression because he immediately asked me to endorse his campaign. Zach was the first candidate for office to ever ask me for his endorsement. Zach listed me as one of his endorsers in the 2022 Oregon Voters pamphlet. It was exciting because that was the one and only time my name has ever appeared in an Oregon Voters Pamphlet.
I have always been proud to support Zach because he truly does listen when I chat with him about climate policy bills that I urged him to support. He has always treated me like I matter and he truly cares about me. I have had other elected officials and legislators besides Zach who have always treated me with kindness and truly listened to me who are here today.
However, I have had a few negative experiences lobbying in Washington D.C. and Salem with elected officials who have not treated me well. They acted bored, uninterested, and it was beneath their time when I tried to chat with them. Incidentally, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz grumbled and refused to even acknowledge me when I said hello to him at the U.S. Capitol exactly one year ago. We are all very thankful that Zach is no Ted Cruz.
I know for sure that Zach truly cares about me. However, I also have been around Zach long enough to know that he truly cares about you. Zach has lived in East Multnomah County for 18 years with his wife and three children. He truly cares about our community. He treats everyone like a neighbor.
Zach has taught at Gresham High School, Corbett High School, Reynolds High School and Mount Hood Community College. At the moment, he substitute-teaches at local schools while the legislature is not in session. He cares about quality education not just for his kids, but for your kids, all the kids in our community, and his students.
Since serving in the Oregon Legislature in 2021, Zach collaborated with legislators on both sides of the aisle on bills to help working families, first responders, students, and Oregon’s natural areas. Zach currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the House Education Committee, Chair of the House Higher Education Committee, and on the House Business and Labor Committee.
Zach loves the communities of East Multnomah County, and he enjoys getting involved. He served on the Troutdale City Council, the Troutdale Citizens Advisory Committee and the Troutdale Budget Committee, and he helped organize the Troutdale SummerFest for many years.
As someone who lives in east Multnomah County, I applaud the efforts of Senator Chris Gorsek, Rep. Ricki Ruiz, Zach and other to fight hard to keep open the Legacy Mt. Hood Birthing Center.
As a climate organizer, I deeply appreciate all of Zach’s efforts in the Oregon Legislature to fight to
- Continue the electric vehicle rebate program
- Limit the impact of megafarms
- Reform the Oregon Forest Resources Institute
- Divest the State Treasury from investments in coal
- Monitor and support marine reserves
- Increase state use of clean energy technology
I know I can always count on him to support strong and effective climate bills and to protect Oregon’s beautiful natural environment. We will need Zach in the Oregon Legislature in 2025 to help pass a major transportation package to fund and maintain our roads, highways, and bridges while also investing in public transportation, electric vehicles, and to continue transitioning the state to clean energy. I will be eager to continue to chat with Zach about climate legislation.
I hope you will also be eager to engage with Zach as he intends to be a champion on education, access to healthcare – especially reproductive healthcare for women, civil rights and justice, affordable housing, reducing gun violence, campaign finance reform, consumer protection, and many other issues facing Oregon. I know from personal experience that Zach wants to listen and fight for you!
On top of all this, Zach is a talented violinist.
Please give a warm welcome for my friend Zach Hudson.
The attendees gave my speech a good response. They laughed at my attempts at humor, especially when I remarked, “We are all very thankful that Zach is no Ted Cruz.”
On July 10th, I went to Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s campaign kick off event. Billy Fish, my old ECR boss from the spring of 2024, helped organize this event. I asked him if he had any jobs for the upcoming campaigns. Billy said he did, and he would be happy to hire me again.
Settling on a Paid Field Organizer/Canvassing job for the summer and fall of 2024
In June and July, I regularly chatted on the phone with my friend Katie Collins. She was the campaign manager for Nick Walden Poublon, who was running for Oregon House District 52, which represents an area east of Portland from The Dalles and Hood River to Sandy, Oregon. Katie and Nick recruited me for months to work their campaign. They were in negotiations with FuturePac, which is the Oregon House Democratic Campaign Committee, on when they could hire more staff. In early July, Katie encouraged me to submit my resume to FuturePac.
It took a long time for FuturePac to respond after I submitted my resume. In late July, FuturePac told that I wanted to work for ECR under Billy Fish. I was then in a delicate situation where I just wanted a campaign job. I preferred to work with Katie and Nick. I was eager to help Nick win to flip that legislative seat from a Republican to a Democrat. However, friends who were seasoned campaign staff advised me that they did not feel like Nick could win. They felt like I would be better off working for a legislative candidate under the ECR umbrella.
It felt frustrating that people well connected with Oregon Democratic Party did not think Nick could win. This was a purple district. In the May 2024 primary, Nick received 5,319 votes as the Democratic candidate and his general election opponent Jeff Helfrich received 5,323 votes as the Republican candidate. Previous elections in this district were extremely close Democratic Representative Anna Williams won this seat by only 84 votes in 2020 over Helfrich. In 2018, Williams beat Helfrich by 897 votes out of 31, 414 votes cast (less than a 3% margin of victory. I could not believe no one else in Oregon was salivating like me to try to flip this seat.
By late July, Billy Fish told me that ECR wanted to hire me for a Campaign Field Director. FuturePac seemed to be dragging their feet to hire a Field Director for Nick’s Campaign. On Thursday, July 25th, I met Katie and Nick in Hood River, Oregon to knock on doors for Nick that day. Sadly, I broke the news to them that I decided to work for ECR as a Field Campaign Director since it was closer to my home and community. Even more, I did not want to burn any bridges with ECR since I had already indicated to them that I was interested in working for them.
I liked Katie and Nick. I hated sharing this news to them. I had my eye on working on their campaign all year since I met Nick for lunch on February 4th. When I chatted with them in Hood River on July 25th, I lamented, “I sure hope I do not regret this decision.”
Nick and Katie took the news graciously. They were not mad or disappointed with me. They understood I was in a tough spot to choose where to work. They were annoyed with FuturePac with dragging their feet to get a Field Campaign Manager hired that I ended up working with ECR instead. On Friday, July 26th, I started work for Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign.
Briefly working Full Time for the Representative Hoa Nguyen Re-election Campaign
On my first day of work for Rep. Hoa Nguyen’s re-election campaign, I was introduced to Hoa’s campaign manager Aimee Santos-Lyons. My first interaction with Aimee was unusual. She texted me that she ran out of gas not far from where I lived. Fortunately, I have a gas can in the trunk of my car for such emergencies. I was able to fill up the gas can at the nearby Costco gas station and rendezvous with her where her car was stuck. We were able to put the gallon of gas in her Minivan so she could drive to a nearby gas station to fill up her car.
After she filled her gas tank, we met up at a location to knock on some doors together. I admired her enthusiastic energy and how she greeted every voter with a perky, “Happy Friday!”
Aimee took me out to lunch at a fabulous Vietnamese restaurant called Yoonique Pho and Grill in southwest Portland. My lunch looked so delicious that I took a photo with my iPhone. Yoonique is one of Aimee’s favorite places to eat in Portland, as well as for Hoa. It was a gathering place for Hoa’s campaign on Saturdays for lunch after we would canvass in the mornings.
Hoa Nguyen is a big hearted and devoted public servant. I had known her for two years and was impressed with her. Besides being a state legislator, she served on the David Douglas School Board. Her full-time job for David Douglas was to locate students who were not in school and find the resources they needed to get back into school. I was honored to be working on her campaign. I enjoyed the times I canvassed with her. We even went to eat at Yoonique one time together after the two of us went on a joint canvass.
Just days after I started working on her campaign, we laughed about my canvassing. Her doorbell camera filmed me knocking on her door, posing with her campaign lit, and leaving the campaign lit at her door. I had no idea that was her home when I knocked on the door. She texted me the video. It was hilarious to see me in action doing my job. I proudly posted the video on social media. I included that video at the end of this blog.
It was not long though before I realized this was an all-encompassing job with little to no time off. I figured that I would spend many hours to do all I could to help this campaign win. The red flag that soon jumped out at me was that I served three bosses in this job: Judy with Future Pac, Bill Fish with ECR, and Aimee with Hoa’s campaign. Judy needed me to deliver timely reports to her about the canvassing on a weekly basis. Billy would be making my schedule and teaching me how to work the VAN data system where ECR and the Oregon Democratic Party kept their voter database and campaign statistics. Aimee and I would be in contact daily about organizing the canvassing, recruiting volunteers, phone banking, and setting up the house parties for Hoa.
My decision to not be the Field Manager for Rep. Nguyen’s re-election campaign
I soon learned the expression, ‘You can’t serve more than one master at the same time.’
Billy was so busy setting up and cutting the turf for canvassers that he little time to teach me how to use the VAN data system. When I took the job, I explained I needed some time off when my in-laws came to visit August 8-11. I knew I would probably be working, but I needed one full day at least to clean the apartment before they arrived on the 8th. Tanya, her parents, and I planned to travel to the Olympic Peninsula August 17-21, so I would be away on vacation then.
FutuePac expected me to knock on over 350 doors a week, plus commit to making over 100 phone calls a week to reach out to voters and to recruit campaign volunteers, plus provide planning for house parties. When I started in late July, Billy and I agreed that my days off would be Mondays and Tuesdays. With everything happening in the campaigns in August, it soon became one day off that varied due to all the campaign activities that were happening.
Hoa Nguyen’s campaign had many plates spinning in the air with canvassing events, house parties, phone banking for donations, recruiting volunteers, etc. My stress level went up greatly when I would ask her, “What do you want me to prioritize right now?”
Her answer: “Everything!”
I really admired her energy and dedication to winning this very tight election campaign. However, our styles of organizing were soon in conflict. I really wanted to know what the biggest priority was when we would meet. She would then go over everything the campaign was doing. She would give me long lectures on how to prioritize my time. I felt like I was living the expression: “I asked this person what time it is and they told me how to build a watch.”
By mid-August, I was very unhappy with the job situation. I worked a full day and then Billy kept me for an hour and a half one evening to go over what to say when recruiting volunteers. Aimee and I would have these long-drawn-out meetings that I felt like were not accomplishing anything. The meetings took away my time from the Future Pac goals of hitting my 350 doors knocked per week and making 100 phone calls.
On Wednesday, August 14th, I reached my breaking point. I had a horrible day at work. I started work around 8:30 am that day to pick up campaign literature on a 30-minute drive to southwest Portland and back. Then I had a 10 am Zoom FuturePac Meeting. After that Zoom meeting ended around 11 am, Aimee cornered me into having another planning meeting with her that did not feel productive or effective. I asked her again what she wanted me to prioritize. The answer again was “Everything” followed by a lecture how to manage my time.
I was eager to start knocking on doors to try to reach the 350 doors goal for the week. I did not start knocking on the doors until after 2 pm since it took time for me to have lunch and drive to my turf (assigned canvassing area). After I started knocking, I had at least two people scream at me that they did not want to be bothered with people knocking at their door. Two different people even wadded up the campaign lit and threw it at me. After I came home after 8 pm, I wanted to quit. I did not want to do that job ever again. My wife Tanya was worried I would make a rash decision. We agreed that we should talk with Aimee the next day.
I requested a meeting with Aimee and told her that I did not want to be the Field Director for Hoa’s campaign anymore. Earlier that week, we were on a campaign marketing call. The internal polls showed that Hoa’s poll numbers were very dicey. She was running basically tied with her opponent. She could lose this race. I didn’t want Hoa to lose this race. I told Aimee that she needed a new Field Director that was not me. Hoa’s race was too vital to maintain a strong majority in the Oregon House. Aimee appreciated hearing my decision. She knew that the working relationship was not going well for us. I felt that Aimee was a good campaign manager. She was driven and completely dedicated to make sure that Hoa would win. I believed she needed a Field Director with more experience than me and she agreed.
She did not want to lose me as a field organizer. She knew that Billy would really want to keep me on as a field organizer for ECR. She asked me to stay on as the Field Director for a couple of weeks until they found my replacement. I affirmed that I would be happy to do that. I then knocked on doors for the rest of the day with a huge sense of relief that the chaos and responsibilities of the Field Director for Hoa’s campaign were no longer on my shoulders.
Vacation on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington in August 2024
Our relationship was a breeze after that. With this weight off my shoulders, Tanya and I enjoyed a five-day vacation. We took an Amtrak train on Saturday, August 17th from Portland to Tacoma, Washington to meet up with my first college roommate Billy Maher. We roomed together at our freshman year at William Jewell College in 1988. I last saw Billy in 2012, over 12 years earlier. He started to date his partner Alvin around that time. It was fun to meet Alvin.
Billy cooked for me a Thai dinner at his parents’ home in Kansas City when we were college roommates that was one of the best meals of my life. Before college, Billy spent a year in Thailand as an exchange student. Wow! He mastered how to cook Thai cuisine when I had the meal he cooked at his parents’ house 36 years earlier. Billy cooked an amazing meal when we stayed with Alvin and him in Tacoma on August 17th.
Since we roomed together in 1988, Billy traveled frequently to Asia and was fluent in several Asia languages. Tanya and I enjoyed hearing his storied about Asian culture. He had several funny stories about surprising Asian cab drivers by speaking easily in their language. It always floored these Uber, Lift, and cab drivers since Billy looks like an average white American who should not be able to speak their language so clearly.
The next day, Tanya’s parents picked us up at Billy and Alvin’s home. We then headed to the Washington Coast to stay for two nights. My mother-in-law Nancy found a comfortable beach rental with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and living room area in Pacific Beach, Washington. The weather was overcast and drab when we went for a walk at the beach. At the same time, it was still serene and refreshing to spend time walking on the beach. Though the clouds made the beach seem a bit gloomy, the sunset we saw was outstanding.
The next day we drove to the Quinault Rain Forest, located in the southern most part of Olympic National Park. We planned to walk several miles on a loop trail in the old growth rain forest. The trees were towering and majestic with huge ferns and an abundance of green plants on the ground. It was another Pacific Northwest coastal overcast day. The grey sky made it easier to photography the trees in the rain forest. It was one of those days where one could really strain their neck to keep looking up at the tall trees. Many of the trees were so large that you could not wrap your arms around them, and you could easily hide behind them.
My in-laws, Tanya, and me love to hike. We relished our time in this rain forest until it started raining hard that afternoon. Even with wearing our rain ponchos, we got soaked. At the end of our hike, we saw a sign for the world’s largest spruce tree. We walked over to see it, but, it was a fast view. We were tired and weary from battling the steady rain that afternoon. We could not wait to return to our beach rental at Pacific Beach to change into dry clothes. The rain didn’t stop so we stayed inside to watch the Democratic National Convention on TV.
As Tanya’s parents, Tanya, and I watched the Democratic Convention together, we felt a sense of hope from the speakers and watching Kamala Harris that she might win the election.
The next day, we drove up the coast on Hwy 101 to see the beach by Kalaloch Lodge. The weather was most cloudy with patches of blue sky. After the dreary rainy weather we experienced the previous day, we glad to see a bit of blue sky with no rain. Like the beach we saw at Pacific Beach, we marveled at seeing and hearing the ocean waves, the view of the sea extending out to the horizon, and observing huge groups of sea gulls gathered on the beach.
We then traveled to Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park to eat a late lunch and to take a short walk along the lake shore. We admired the steep green mountains that ringed the lake with the clouds shrouding the tops of the mountains on this overcast summer day.
We next headed to Sequim, Washington to spend the night with my mother-in-law Nancy’s cousin Peter and his wife Karen. They own a comfortable and spacious home that sits high on a coastal hill. Their home is at an elevation to have a bird’s eye view out their back windows and deck of Sequim Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. One can see far enough out to Victoria, Canada and even see Mt. Baker and the northern most Cascade Mountains in Washington on a clear day. Peter and Karen’s home has the perfect coziness to visit family with surrounding scenery to put you at ease that you would never want to leave.
We had no choice but to leave on Wednesday, August 21st. Tanya’s parents had to catch their flight back to St. Louis, Tanya had to return to her job, and I had to resume my campaign work for ECR and Hoa’s campaign that next day.
Stay tuned for the next part of this blog:
Part 2: Rough Times and the friendly cats when I canvassed in summer and fall 2024