Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Today was my thanksgiving since I was at work from about 6:30 am to 7:30 pm yesterday. Today was my day off and I enjoyed sleeping in, making dressing and pumpkin pie and studying a bit of academia. We had dressing, mashed potatos with gravy, sweet potatos, cranberry sauce, olives, spinach and broccoli, and pumpkin pie. Delicious!

I am a bit on the sad side now that it is the rainy season again and it is dark when I go to work and dark when I get home every day. I am really not used to living this far north. It is sundown at 4:30pm. Can you believe that!?! It's crazy!
But I am doing quite well with my light box which really seems to help and we put up christmas lights in our house a few weeks ago, so that is warm and inviting. And it is not so bad to burrow under a pile of warm blankets on a nice soft couch and read something on a rainy day (they are all rainy now). Now if only I didn't have to go to work... just kidding...I am actually more inspired than ever to study and learn medicine since I am already about halfway done with my residency and I definitely don't feel like I really know what I am doing yet although it is coming along.
God is good! I am looking forward to going home for Christmas in the next few weeks. I really would love to swing by AdventHOPE, too, but it will be a little challenging this year since I used a large chunk of vacation time already when I was with my Mom for her surgery. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.
I have to work tomorrow but should have a pretty nice day on by myself since we only have 4 patients right now. I hope to get home early and enjoy the rest of the Sabbath.
Happy Sabbath to all of you!!!

This was the start of our adventure up Mount Hood. There is nothing quite like the wilderness, and a backpack with only what you absolutely need. Kind of gives a sense of freedom... Please refer to my previous post for the full details of this adventure. These are just the long promised pictures.


The trees had a lot of fur (moss) hanging from them, especially at about 5000 feet.
This is my backpack and tent site the first night. We finally found the trail head at midnight and got to bed at about 1:30 since it was so hard to find an acceptable tend site (lots of underbrush and some marshy areas). The bottom part of my backpack has my sleeping bag and on the outside is my mat for sleeping (dark red). Inside the main compartment is water and most of the food. My room mate carried the tent (only 4.5 lbs!). In the small pack is my teeny tiny Bible and of course there are also stuff sacks with the bare minimum in them (extra socks, extra layer of warmth, toothbrush, flashlight, etc). It is really quite addicting...
This was a glorious view of Mount Hood from the switchback trails that went up to Elk Meadows. A Sabbath treat, to be sure.
We had to cross this creek to go up the trail switchbacks. Others had put logs across so that it was quite easy to cross.

This is where the actual loop starts. We camped the second night up here and had a lovely campfire and cooked our food over it.

Wow! This was definitely the most breathtaking part of the backpacking trip, the view of Mount Hood framed by elk meadows.