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Destinations, Photography, Short and Sweet and Scattershot, Thailand

Memories of Hua Hin

November 12, 2013


So, Hua Hin.

The vacation city overlooking the Gulf of Thailand was our final stop in Southeast Asia. A spot where we dropped our bags, dropped our go-go-go, and took time to indulge in slow days, fast motorbikes, fresh fish, old gardens, hot coffees, and torch-lit dinners along the sandy shore.

Prior to arrival, we’d explored Wats in Bangkok, taken the overnight train to Chiang Mai, relaxed among the dragonfruits growing in the northern Thai countryside, dabbled in the kitchen, crossed into Laos and floated two days down the Mekong River, bused into Cambodia in time to join nationwide mourning for the death of a king, and eventually ended up full circle back in Bangkok, prepared for one final Asian adventure before departure to New Zealand. Continue Reading…

BabyOregonian, Musings, Poems, The Little Peach, Tidbits About Us

Welcome to the World, Little Peach!

September 28, 2013

Nine months after our adventures around the globe, on the morning of September 17th, 2013, we welcomed little Lucie Anne Rydmark into our world. Our little Peach came the day before her due date – or, right on time, if you calculate by New Zealand clocks…

I can remember one year ago, strolling the beaches at sunrise, watching women gather seaweed on the shores of Zanzibar. Meeting Salama (leading to one of my favorite memories of the entire trip – learning to make octopus curry from scratch). My, how the sands of time change the landscape of life… Continue Reading…

Musings, Oregon, Tidbits About Us

Seven Years and Six(ish) Continents Later

July 1, 2013

We met when we were seven and nine and married at 22 and 24. Such babies, I know.

When I have a thing for something, I have a thing. Ted. Travel. Oregon. The Pacific Northwest… Seven years ago, on July 1st (Canada Day, hey-oh!), we stitched our life-passports together, celebrated with family and friends, and set out to make our way, together, in the world.

This morning, what started as an effort to dig up wedding pictures for a Facebook profile picture turned into a nostalgic walk down memory lane…

Happy Anniversary, sweet Ted!
xo, Bethany


Grandpa’s old Model-A out on the family farm…


Josiah, Ross, Wayne, AJ, Darian {Ted & Bethany} Jenna, Heather, Sarah, Erin & Melanie

Continue Reading…

Musings, Tidbits About Us, Travel Plans

On Slipping into June: “When Wanderers Cease to Roam”

June 8, 2013

It’s a warm Saturday afternoon here in Portland, Oregon.

Earlier today, Rose Festival traffic slowed my drive south to my sister-in-law’s baby shower, and now that I’m home, I’m slowly sinking farther into couch cushions and this post-RTW reality…

“I’m worried that I broke my iPad,” my mom tells me at last night’s family get together. “I keep visiting your blog, but the newest post I see is the one about Baby Peach.”

Sigh. I know.

The pace of travel and writing and writing and travel suited me so well. Camera in hand, or at least on shoulder strap, keyboard daily beneath my dancing fingers. Post after post of people and places, of meals and memories and life-altering lessons.

Time, endless time…

Here I am now, searching for new equilibrium while this growing belly sways my backbone and calls for re-prioritizing nearly every single aspect of existence.

A rug. New shoes. A hardcover book. Wood floors in a home with a mailbox…yes, that’s right, a permanent mailing address for these two RTW wanderers. Continue Reading…

Destinations, Meditations, Musings, Spain

Semana Santa: Observing Good Friday in Barcelona, Spain

March 28, 2013

On a dreary Friday afternoon near the end of Holy Week, Semana Santa as it’s known in Spain, the weathered streets of Barcelona pulsed with pilgrims and onlookers mesmerized by the beats and passions of the traditional Viernes Santo procession commemorating the sorrow of Christ’s sacrificial crucifixion.

Ted and I found ourselves standing in the Spanish city’s Good Friday throng mere hours after disembarking from our transatlantic ship crossing. Leapt we from lavish cruise ship surroundings and memories of blissful blue ocean waters into the brooding atmosphere of a seaside city in mourning. Easter on the horizon, but death and darkness first. Continue Reading…

Cambodia, Destinations, Landscape Architecture, Musings

Preah Khan: Architecture Education Rising from Ruins

March 12, 2013

For the past nearly quarter of a century on the flip side of the planet from my Pacific Northwest nest, the World Monument Fund has been helping bring modern day workforce training opportunities to would-be architects, engineers, archaeologists, and artisans in the midst of a still-recovering country tangled in layers of civil war and jungle-eaten ruins. This is the story of the Preah Khan Project at Cambodia’s Angkor Temples.

I grew up in a land of peace and plentiful resources.

When landscape architecture wormed its way into my curious mind at age 14, I’d already squirreled away countless years of urban planning and city management experience (ahem, they’re releasing a new version of SimCity this year, by the way…). But seriously, when I chose to pursue landscape architecture in university, my world was rife with opportunities to study, to travel, and to gain practical experience in modern-day design, construction, and management.

In other regions, access to higher education and workforce training is not so simple; in other regions, entire generations of skilled artisans and professionals have been lost to war.

Countries like Cambodia, filled with natural and cultural landscapes in need of preservation and protection, riddled with histories of instability, are all too often left to wither alone or to be plundered by foreign governments, unscrupulous business ventures, and outside interest groups.

Happily, I share an encouraging story today. One of foreigners banding together to partner with Cambodian citizens to increase education, skills, and ultimately care for the Cambodian people’s cultural heritage. Continue Reading…