This month has been a whirlwind of activity for me, and though my blogging activity has been focused quite intently on wrapping up some loose threads from last September & December, my 52 Frames activity has been anchored in the present.

It’s impossible to take a photo a week without those photographs representing the time and space in which you find yourself.

So in this case, the photos take us to Pittsburgh, New York City, and back up to Skagit County, north of Seattle. Rather weird that I would have spent so many days on the least coast, but perhaps, it only makes sense that we’ve got at least one photo from the only city in the world that matters…

The 25th of September was a day of highs and lows. Of petroglyphs and disappointment. Of exclamation points, croquettes, and wasting-away sofas.

You’ve already heard about some Celebration and Disappointment, but there are still some 3-D glasses to wear! Some games of “the six degrees of Andrew Wilkinson” to play! Some museums to visit!

So let’s get into it!

I got up early with big plans of birding in the early morning daylight, though I first stopped for a breakfast sandwich and a coffee at Mudslingers, a locally owned coffee shop in Mountain Home.

They are an establishment whose promotional emails fill me with delight to this day, even if I am unable to get their Banana Cream Pie Monthly Drink Special, even with the 25 cent off discount.

And their coffee helped fuel me, as I made my way towards the Morey Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey Nature Reserve. (Boy, that’s a mouthful, isn’t it.)

Surely that isn’t where I’d experience the disappointment I allude to in this post’s title… right?

When I finished visiting Craters of the Moon, the day was merely half over. I did not want to stop and camp in the Craters of the Moon Campground. I wanted to continue heading westwards, and find some place else to stop.

One of the main points of interest for me, an area that took up a vast amount of the map of Southwestern Idaho on Google Maps was the Morey Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey preservation. Obviously, a bird preserve is not a campground, but I figured that if there was a state park or something that seemed worth visiting near the bird preserve, then I would be in good shape.

I settled on the Bruneau Dunes State Park, just south of the Snake River…

People sometimes go to extraordinary ends for the people they love.

Case in point, my sister had asked for some chocolate for Christmas, from a chocolatier that she thought was located in Seattle, when it was in fact located in Portland.

Their website indicated that all of their chocolate was sold out, though I had my suspicions that they had to have some available in person. I figured it would be sensible to call and ask first.

Meanwhile, late on a Friday I was once again checking on the status of a photo printer, which I had ordered when I moved to Seattle. It seemed to be on indefinite backorder. (Months later, the particular model still appears to be out of stock everywhere online.) However, to my surprise, the website of a certain office goods chain indicated that they had one available in a certain state to the south of Seattle, known for its lack of sales tax.

I had the chance to delight two people that I love: my sister, and myself. A serendipity that I had to take advantage of.

I would have driven to Portland for the chocolate, but I wouldn’t have driven even further to Salem for the printer without that other impetus. And armed with a drive to delight, I set off on a journey of discovery, awe, and disaster, but mostly just dull driving.

Hooray!