Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Yesterday I woke up on an island, peacefully overlooking a lake from my tent.

Yesterday, Rachel woke up in Nashville, after a week-long deep-dive into performance interpreting.

Yesterday afternoon we all went huckleberry picking together.

Today, I am sitting at my desk at work, about to walk into a procedure.

What a crazy, astonishing, wonderful world we live in. And what a time to be alive!

*****

The main focus of the week is Rachel's trip to Nashville. This is where she is going to take over the blog for the week. When she got back, we all sat around as a family and watched videos of some of the performances she got to be a part of. It was really, really cool. 

*****

BSL Nashville is an incredible experience every time! I have done one abbreviated course during Covid, and one full course last year. I am at a loss for words to explain what has happened for the last seven days. A bulleted list seems like a good idea, so I will go with it!

  • 7 full days that typically begin at 7 am and end around 2 am
  • 35 hours of classroom instruction during the day
  • Evening musical and comedy performances around Nashville for all certified participants
  • Constant evening events to interpret, or attend and provide feedback for other interpreters
  • Friday night party in my room!
  • Saturday is spent touring around Nashville on the Redneck Comedy Tour bus, then exploring the Grand Ole Opry Hotel.
  • Final song performance and celebration with friends, family, and each other
I flew to Nashville on Sunday morning, and the action did not stop until the following Sunday when I flew home. I enjoyed every minute, and I made a few lifelong friends along the way. 

During the 35 hours of instruction, we had a myriad of invited speakers. We had a makeup artist come and show us some great tips on how to get spotlight ready, a tour manager come and talk about tech design for shows, we visited a dance studio with an incredible woman who personally provided dance instruction to some of the greats (including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Selena Gomez). and a professional photographer who took shots of all of us. 

I need to mention that Mama Sam and Kim both run this crazy weeklong adventure, and they are truly gifted at creating an atmosphere of family, love, and acceptance. Last years' group still has a weekly active chat, and I have talked to, or zoomed with most of them over the past year. 

I will let the pictures do the talking now:


On Sunday night we headed to the Hard Rock Café to reunite with old friends and meet new ones!


Our classroom space used to be a recording studio here in Nashville. This epic guitar tower is definitely a fun perk!



I had the pleasure of performing "Satisfied", in costume, with Demi (my awesome roommate) and Devon








Here are a few actions shots for my evening performance at the FirstBank Amphitheater. I interpreted 10 songs by Parker McCollum (I found out who he is on Sunday morning, apparently, he was won ACM's New Male Artist of the Year award). 

On Monday, Terry and I interpreted a musical comedy improv show. Any one of those words is enough to be a lot, but all together it was crazy! Terry and I had a fun time, and I think it went off pretty well. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures. Oh well. 

Before concert time

The dream team! Terry, Keeley, Demi, and I interpreted at the amphitheater together 

Party in my room! We all came together to do our final performance songs and give each other feedback. Watching final performances is fun because we can see everyone's improvement. 
Did you know that Nashville has a replica of the Parthenon?

Group photo of the whole group at the Music Hall of Fame and Museum with the Redneck Comedy  Tour comedian






We took pictures around the Grand Ole Opry Hotel. This place is beautiful and massive, boasting over 3.3 million square feet!

I became Eliza one last time for my final performance of "Burn"

Goodbye, friends!

So long, Nashville. Until next time!

*****

Okay- I'm back. While Rachel was doing all that fun stuff, we were mostly holding it together back at home. Nobody went to the hospital and the house is still standing, so I count it as a win. Over the weekend we paddled out to Popcorn Island and camped. It was a chance to get out of the house and also to test out our recently-acquired canoe and its gear-carrying capacity. Things went great, and we are already planning more paddle-camping trips as a family for the near future.

Here's some photos:










These last two are of when we went huckleberry picking after Rachel got home. We are all very glad that she is with us again.

Have a good week!



Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Rachel is in Nashville right now, interpreting and doing classes with passionate performance interpreters across the country. This is her third year with the group, and she has definitely become a part of the "family". Here was her text to me this morning: "I was not kidding when I said I started at 8 and got into bed at 2. Every day." She's been loving it though. During the day she does workshops, and then at night she is either prepping for performances, or else up on stage in front of small intimate groups, or in large amphitheates with thousands of people, interpreting for some of the biggest names around, and then debriefing and partying until the early hours- just to do it all again the next day. I'm sure she'll have lots of stories to tell next week.



In the meantime, I'll tell my story of the week. It was a tough one, and I am still wondering if I made the right decisions. On Saturday, Ev, Addy, Jack, and I went up to do Chimney rock. It would be the first real multi-pitch alpine climb for any of them, and spirits were high. But then, a series of events: A late start, a steeper-than-anticipated approach, more difficult-than-expected technical climbing, and a very stubborn Jackson. Given the increased stakes, judgement and a cool head are way more important in the alpine than at a local crag, and safety has to come first- especially in a group such as ours with minimal resources or experience. These are the things I was thinking at the time, and I think I still stand by that call. But the end result was that Jack didn't get to climb with us. Ev, Addy, and I topped out while he waited at the base of the technical section for almost 6 hours. I feel bad about that. He is frustrated that he made the difficult approach and didn't get a chance to climb. I am glad we are all home in one piece. It was a long day.

This is at the trailhead. The most obvious part of the picture to me is how high the sun is. Usually when I do climbs like this, we start hiking in the dark, around 4:30 in the morning. Here, it was around lunch time. The hike up would take up 4 hours!

It was really hot, and water was important on this trip. We pumped pretty much every chance we could.

There it is in the background. This is about halfway up the approach hike. In just a few hours we would be climbing on it.

Me and Ev at the first belay. There was much yelling up and down between us and Jackson from this little perch.

This is a couple pitches higher up on the climb. The exposure was actually pretty real.

Evelyn's note in the summit register.




Here we are on the way down. Jack seemed to be in better spirits at this point, but was still a little upset about not getting to climb. I can understand his frustration. It is hard being both the trip-leader/guide and the dad. I hope that can one day be understandable.

Walking down. We didn't get to the car until well after dark.

Besides Nashville and Chimney rock, we found time to do a few other little things. Huckleberries are in season, and we've gone up a couple of times to collect what we could. Our freezer is now full of berries, with even more to come since they are only just becoming ripe at lower elevations. We also hung out a little bit at the annual Post Falls festival, our town's little celebration of itself, and my office had a little tent set up there. On Wednesday, kind of on a whim, Rach, Jack, and I invited Wendy and Marissa to go see a play with us. MJ, the musical, was about as expected- great music and choreography, and kind-of a loose storyline that seemed to be an overly curated and simplified version of his rise to fame. It was a fun night though.



As for extended family, I'm pretty sure everyone is gone now. Marissa and Wesley still have a lot of house projects to do, but are mostly settled into their new home. Summer days are mostly lazy for the kids, with friends and lake things and tennis and lots and lots of tv during the hottest hours of the day. 

Have a good week!

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Sometimes you don't need a reason. Sometimes, the adventure of discovering something new is the only justification that you need. Sometimes, you just get it the car and drive to Portland. You know- just because you can. That is what we did, and it did not disappoint. Evelyn planned several hikes in the area, and Rachel and I planned some city things. We were there for three very full days, and in typical Hazard fashion, arrived home with just a few hours to spare before work the next day. It was worth it.

Before we get to into the trip though with pictures and all that, a few quick updates: Evelyn's new job has long hours and it isn't very fun, but she is making a lot of money and there is a possible end in sight if she can split her hours with something a little less soul-draining. Also, a few weeks ago, we went to the lake and Maren brought a bunch of water snails home and boiled them and then ate them because TikTock told her she could. This wasn't recent, but I just thought it should be recorded somewhere because that was really kind of gross and stupid, but funny in the end because she didn't die or even get sick, and this should be recorded in a way that we can look back and remember it. Also, in a separate incident, Lindsey was talking about how if she lived in the forest she would have to rely on natural foods only, like honey and berries and Raman noodles. I'm pretty sure she legitimately thought that these three foods were in the same category. Any guesses what we eat when we go camping?

Ok. On to Portland. Day one was a massive amount of hiking to a bunch of different waterfalls in the Columbia River Gorge. I lost count of how many we saw. Maybe like 10ish? Day two was all in the city, doing things that are kind-of specific to Portland, walking around a bunch, and just getting a feel for what this city is all about. Some cities just seem like large population centers and nothing more. Others have very specific vibes that are usually pretty intentional but also evolve naturally because a lot of people living there have shared values. Portland is one of these, and that's pretty neat. Day three started out in the city, and then we drove to Mt. Hood and did some more hiking before heading home.

Here's some photos:

Let's start the photos at home, with July 4th fireworks. The neighborhood show was as spectacular as always.


There is no way that I am going to put all of these in order or attach labels to every one. It's more that, when taken as a whole, I think it captures the magic that is found in this place. Also, look for Lindsey in this picture. She is hiding :)






For a lot of the hiking we did on this trip, Jack and Lindsey wanted to stay back at the car. I think that they missed out.






We celebrated Lindsey's birthday in the hotel room on the first night

Portland is the City of Roses, and we had to check out some of their gardens. This picture is a huge area that is set aside in Washington Park just for roses, but we also saw several smaller gardens interspersed throughout the city.


I found this on my camera reel and had to include it, though I don't really know what is going on here. This is one of the more awkward pictures of Evelyn that I have come across.

We spent a couple of hours at the Portland art museum. I like art galleries and museums, and I like that our kids like them too.

Powell's City of Books- maybe the coolest bookstore I have ever been to. It claims to be the world's largest independent bookstore, and I totally believe it. We planned on spending an hour here. We ended up staying for almost two. This place had everything.

There are a ton of food cart pods throughout the city. This one, the Hawthorne Asylum, is particularly well-known. None of us are real "foodies," but I can honestly say that this was a fun and unique "dining experience." I don't use those words lightly. 



We spent a fair amount of time just walking around the different areas of the city. This was intentional. We'd park our car, and then walk to different points of interest that fell within about a mile from the car before going back and moving to a different area. We've done this as a family in a few different cities, and the walking itself always becomes a highlight of the trip for me. I think that slowing down and getting out on the street gives you a better feel for a place, and I really like that.

In the heat of the afternoon we stopped at a park along the Willamette River to cool off for a while. To some, this meant finding shade to read their new books. To others, it meant meandering through the pathways, or even cooling off in the various splashpads along the way.


Screen Door- a Portland icon that serves Southern food, and one of the best breakfasts around!

This is the Pittock Mansion. It's on a hill overlooking the city and was owned by a newspaper guy who also happened to be quite the mountaineer. We toured the house, and took in the amazing views.

Mt. Hood in the background. That would be our next stop!

Yep- there it is. Shout-out to Ev for planning the outdoor adventure part of this trip!


I think the relationship that these two have is pretty neat.

Also, a big shout-out to our little car. 1SEND1- the Sienna that goes where no mini-van should ever go. We have asked so much out of this car, with ice and deep snow in the winter, to un-maintained forest service roads and endless stretches of freeway in the summer. It doesn't really seem like it should, but it just keeps on going.

Have a good week!