That’ll Work For Now
One thing I enjoy about my new job is that I occasionally get to travel around the state. We have 6 offices around the state and it’s not uncommom for we to work on jobs for other offices. I’ve recently been working on a job in Eastern Washington near Vantage and this past week I was over there for a day. I’m a sucker for state parks and historic sites so I tend to stop a lot on my way back home if I have the time. Somehow a 2.5 hour trip back took me 5 hours the other day and here are some photos of what slowed me down:
These three shots are from Olmstead Place State Park near Kittitas, WA. The Olmstead family arrived in 1875 and worked on the farm for over 100 years before donating it to Washington State Parks in 1968.
My favorite stop on the trip was the South Cle Elum Railyard on the Milwaukee Road. The Milwaukee is considered one of the most significant and cherished railroads ever to exist in the United States. A 100+ miles stretch of the converted in to a trail and is now called Iron Horse State Park. I would love to hike or bike this trail someday as it follows the old railroad right-of-way through tunnels and over bridges. There is one tunnel that is over two miles long. The depot and sub-station have been restored and you can see the some remains of the railyard around the site. The amazing thing was as I walked around his site for nearly an hour there was nobody else around and I could almost imagine what it was like years ago.
Here’s the same sub-station building in 1918 (rotated 90 degrees).
If you look behind the puff of steam in the picture below you can see the sub-station and to the right the depot shown in my photo above.
I didn’t take any photos of it but you can still see the concrete foundation of the turntable and the structure next to it.
Someday I will hike the 100 miles of this trail. When? Who knows. Until then I’ll just have to make stops along the route when I’m passing through. That’ll work for now.
I’m Back
Two great albums you can stream online for free:
Coldplay - Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends
Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Do it
Date Night
Missional Musings
The most recent subscription in my Google Reader is Missional Musings. Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor Soma Communities, a church that meets at many locations in the Tacoma, WA area. I’ve known Jeff for a very long time, over 15 years. When I was in 3rd grade, around the age of ten I suppose, Jeff came on staff at the church I grew up in as the youth pastor. He had a huge impact on me growing up, I’m sure more than he realizes.
They have an amazing thing going down at Soma Commuties. Whenever I talk to anyone who is a part of Soma Communities the love they have for the people of Tacoma is apparent. They have a great way of doing church and, more importantly, being the Church.
If you have any interest in church planting, missional living or even if you don’t, keeping up to date with Missional Musings would be a good thing.
Recent Listening
I have been neglecting this blog for a few weeks so I though I’d try to get back on the bandwagon with a post about some music.
I’ve really been enjoying Death Cab’s new album, Narrow Stairs. Their previous album, Plans, was their first album on a major label (Epic). This was evident by commercial radio friendly song like “Soul Meets Body” and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark”. Seems like they maybe lost some creative control to the demands of the label. I was expecting some of the same from the new album but have been pleasantly surprised. The first single “I Will Possess Your Heart” is nearly 8 minutes long and half-instrumental, not your typical 3 minute ditty.
Just started listening to Mates of State’s new album, Re-Arrange Us. I like all their stuff and it’s no different this time around.
City Light is a new project from Seattle singer songwriter Matthew Shaw. He’s combined forces with another Seattle singer songwriter Andy Fitts (Airport Cathedral) and a few others to make some really good music, check it out.
I may have already mentioned it here but Cloud Cult’s newest album is still in heavy rotation in the DeKoekkoek home. My wife and I like turning it up real loud while riding in the car.
That’s it, later.
