Due to some health issues with my brother-in-law and father, in August of this year (2002) I decided to visit my family on the East Coast.  Complete photos are below.

I started the trip by heading south from Oregon to the northern coast of California to visit my friend Karen, who was working at a Buddhist retreat center.  Here I went swimming in a beautiful clear river, with a nice, deep swimming hole.  And to my amazement I was surrounded by trout!  I then realized that if I were a fish, I'd hang out in a creek on land owned by Buddhists too- can't get much safer than that!

After visiting with Karen, I started east and camped one night at a campground that I can't remember4 the name of, but I was the only one there - which suited me just fine.

3I then headed into the Sierras and Lake Tahoe, where I spent four beautiful, relaxing days with my friends John and Liz. On the way I camped  We hung out, went hiking, and cooked dinner.  Liz is an amazing cook, both in terms of deliciousness and presentation. We also took a day trip to Virginia City, NV, a place that -if it had horses instead of cars on the streets - would take you back to the 1850's. American West.

After Lake Tahoe, I headed across northern Nevada.  Although mostly desert, I found a beautiful camp site in mountains in the Northeastern corner of the state, at a place called Angel Lake.  It's a lake 4 formed in the bowl of a glacier, and it was really nice. Each campsite is surrounded by trees and bushes, and therefore it's quite private.

The next morning I headed into Utah, turned south in Salt Lake City, and then east into Colorado.  I've always had a thing about Coloradoans, thinking that they are very smug without reason for all that smugness.  I mean, I've lived in California and Oregon, which has the same beauty of Colorado without the smugness (excluding Orange County, CA of course).  So I decided to enter Colorado with an open mind.  I camped near Vail, and all I can say is that my initial impression was correct.  Western Colorado is desert, Eastern Colorado is flat and barren, and in between are mountains that are nice, with people that are smug.

After this, it was on to Kansas, where I spent an non-exciting evening near Topeka, then across Missouri, which seems to have the fattest people I have ever seen, and certainly the worst drivers this side of Washington State. Continuing east, across the Mississippi into Illinois, and finally I made it to Evansville, Indiana to the home of my cousin Ben and his wife Tina.  I spent four days visiting with them.  They have a terrific home on a large, secluded lot with a wonderful swimming pool.  Although I've been lucky to get together with my cousin a lot over the past 10 years - in Oregon, Washington, California, British Columbia, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and New York City - this was the first time I'd been to his house.  He always told me how much work they had done on it, but seeing is believing.  Ben is a helicopter pilot with jobs that have taken him all over the world, and now he works in his hometown as a life-flight pilot, and is very happy.

Leaving Evansville, I made a brief stop in Wabash, Indiana where I was born, and visited my aunts Ida and Eunice, and my uncle Edward.  Then into Ohio, and finally into western upstate NY, where I grew up and went to College.  After a week or so here, my mother and I headed to Maine, via the Thousand Islands and the Adirondacks, spending a night on the shores of Tupper Lake.  The next day it was into Vermont via a ferry at Lake Champlain, across the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and into Portland Maine.

Portland, Maine is where my father is from, and where I have two uncles and their families, which means lots of cousins and second cousins.  I really haven't been there and seen them since I was 13, and it was really great getting to know my cousins as adults.  I especially enjoyed the time with Alice, Lisa, and Ward. Ward and I, only a month apart in age, were always put together as kids.  And we didn't really like each other.  I think we wanted to like each other, but we were too different as kids.  I had a chance to hang out with him on this trip and it was terrific.  He summed it up best when we shook hands and hugged goodbye: "I'm really glad you're not an a$$hole!" (I told him I was glad he isn't one either).

Maine is beautiful. Some of my biggest memories are going with my father to the Portland Headlight (probably the most famous visually and least well-known by name) lighthouse and the surrounding coast. No visit is complete without fried clams (yes, of course lobster too - but the fried clams are so good they also deserve recognition). Portland as a city is being rejuvenated, and while much smaller in some ways is reminiscent of the other Portland, and Seattle - without the traffic.

I enjoyed visiting with my Uncle Bob ("it's Bobby's fault") and Aunt Mary, as well as my Uncle Ben (the only liberal of the bunch, thank God). My cousin Rob was in the hospital and doesn't remember seeing me because of the meds he was on, and hopefully I'll get another chance to visit him and the rest of my Maine family soon. My mom and I had an excellent time, and the returned to NY via Massachusetts.

Total states crossed: 16.  Complete photos of the trip are below, just use the 34below to navigate.