Any journey can become an unexpected odyssey of personal transformation, enlightenment, and growth.
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There were two things we locked in and specifically planned around on our trip to Oregon, a whale watch at Depoe Bay and seeing the 1949’ deep, crystal clear waters of Crater Lake.
Both required extra effort. The whale watch, a night’s stay along the coast where we otherwise may not have stopped, and Crater Lake, a nearly 5-hour drive in the direction opposite of where we were ending our trip.
The day before the whale watch was shrouded in fog. We are instructed to wait for a call to see if the watch was a go. We got the call, despite the 7- foot rolling waves and an extra chill in the air.
Onboard our Kodiak boat is a marine biologist who has devoted her life’s work to studying the whales in the area, her dog Coda who only barks when he senses a whale in the area, and twelve passengers. This woman charmingly presents as a caricature of herself shamelessly promoting her achievements and promotions and talking about herself in the 3rd person. She laughs and pokes fun and teaches us like we are in her college class with pop quiz questions.
There are no such things as Sea Gulls, she says. Where are we? In the West. These are Western Gulls. You will flunk the class if you refer to Sea Gulls!
We zip through the ocean on our high -speed retired Navy Seal rescue boat, my favorite part, and then rock and wait.
And we zip some more and rock and rock and wait. I fight back nausea and am aware of someone in the back of the boat being very sick.
We see a few blows, the hump of a whale, and we get “fluked” as they say, the tale 
coming up and out of the water, our biologist giddy like a little school girl.
Having been on whale watches out of Provincetown in Massachusetts where whales came along side of the boat and up out of the water with mouths open so close you could see the baleen, this did not give us the same thrill.
We enjoy the adventure and experience though; happy we did something outside of the box.
In the next couple of days, we move onward to Crater Lake. The drive through Oregon alongside of streams and through mountain passes with tall Douglas Fir and Cypress trees is mouth droppingly beautiful. As we climb in altitude, the temperature drops steadily.
With the north entrance to the park closed, we swing around to the west entrance, another 30 minutes of driving but in the direction of our lodging.
Deciding to check into our quaint cabin and get some lunch before driving up the mountain, we head across the street to Beckie’s Café, known for her homemade pies. We have a bowl of the most delicious white bean soup I have ever had. I still can’t figure out how she made a basic soup sooo good. And of course, we have a piece of pie, boysenberry, something I’ve never eaten before. Kind of like a little blueberry, a bit tangy, but good.
Sufficiently refueled, off we go to climb the 20 miles left to Crater Lake. By the way, we have no cell phone service during a lot of this leg of the trip. An Angel we met in the previous town gave us a map of Oregon where he delineated and circled in red our trip. Who would think you’d need a map these days??
When we get to the park entrance, the female ranger politely informs us there is a complete snow whiteout at the top, do we want to continue? Both of us truly believing it will clear by the time we reach Crater Lake, are eager to continue, plus we only have one day to see this sacred spot.
It is another 7 miles to the top. Snow and slush along the way. Only one mile of the rim open due to heavy snow this winter, another 3-4 more inches the day before. We push on.
Finally reaching the lookout, we peer out to complete nothingness, the caldera filled with snow and fog.
I stand there focusing all my energy on Spirit, literally blowing forcefully out of my mouth and asking Spirit to part the clouds, and let the sun peak through for a moment, so we can get a glimpse.
Unbelievably (or believably), the clouds literally part with the tiniest sliver of sun, and we get to see the lake below, not the beautiful clear water, but we did see it. Within the minute, gone, fog closing in again.
Salvaging the day, we head for a nice hot toddy by the fireplace in the lodge. Out of every window is a snowy landscape. It feels like a winter weekend away.
Back down the mountain and over to Beckie’s for just a place to land and relax after a long, long day. I decide to have a glass of wine. We have red or white the server says. What kind of red or white, I ask. It literally just says RED and WHITE on the labels, she says. Okay, I’ll take red. She returns in a moment later and says, sorry, we’re out of red. Ok, I’ll take white.
The couple behind us tries to order dinner. Meatloaf. Sorry, we’re out of meatloaf. 
Chicken Pot Pie. No, we’re out of that too. Steak. No, sorry. We do have the burgers. Ok, we’ll take those.
Back in the cabin, I reflect on how we planned our trip around the whale watch and Crater Lake and wonder out loud if it was worth it.
I’m sure you’ve had times like these, where your plans didn’t go accordingly and maybe you felt disappointed, let down even.
Planning things doesn’t necessarily mean they will happen as we envision. I believe there are reasons beyond my knowing in the moment for things to happen the way they do. Encounters, lessons that I will come to learn in time.
Things don’t happen to you. They happen for you, as I say in my book.
My Guy says to me while I stand there reflecting, it’s about the people. Look at all the people we met along the way to get to where we are.
It’s true. All along the way, we met kind, generous people, laid back people, quirky people, people who helped us, and people who made us laugh ourselves silly.
After every vacation I say this to him, why didn’t we take pictures of the people we met? Those are the stories we remember and hold dear.
I stood in the center of that cabin my eyes welling up in tears. Of course, it was worth it.
It’s all about the people.
With Love and Gratitude, Dyanne
PS – When have you made plans that went awry and actually turned into something better? A lesson learned maybe?
PSS- I’m up to something…Schedule Your Complimentary 30-minute Reignite Your Life Session HERE, and find out what’s coming next.
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