Portlandia

Having the thermometer register 108 and 109 the two days before we left, it wasn't very hard to get on a plane and head to the West Coast for more aCross Creation work. I must say that the Sullivans are master packers. They had all the equipment organized as efficiently and securely as possible for our air travel. Add that to the long list of their skills. If you ever find yourself stuck in a "how-will-this-all-fit-into-the-car" moment, I suggest you call Janet.

Thanks to the time change flying west we landed at the Portland airport at 10:00 a.m. meaning we had plenty of daylight for filming. After checking into our rental house in Oregon City and grabbing lunch we headed to the coast, about a two hour drive from the Portland metro.

By law the entire beach along the Oregon Coast is public. No part of it can be blocked off or designated for private use only. Since the focus of the episode was on the Pacific Ocean we had miles and miles of coast line to find the best spot. We chose to film at Cannon Beach, near the picturesque "Haystack Rocks." They added some good contrast to what was an otherwise dreary and gray scene. It was overcast the entire afternoon and evening, not unusual for the Pacific Northwest, even in summer.

This is obviously not a sunbathing beach but we were far from alone. Though we walked down the beach and away from most of the crowd we were still interrupted by the occasional bicyclers, joggers and curious people who were strolling down to look at the recently beached sea lion corpse near us (and no, he will not be featured in the episode). The traffic did give members of the film crew plenty of opportunity to pass out aCross Creation business cards. The small cards turned out to be a very handy way to explain the series. Janet and Anita even talked at length to one man who is a member of "The Woodlands" United Methodist Church in Houston. Oddly we met a family from the same church at Paradise Divide in Colorado last month (though with thousands of members at that church I doubt they were friends.) Lesson learned: Texans are everywhere.

Most of the beach traffic was well controlled but as we shot scene two, I was busy preaching away when I noticed that Greg and Janet were failing miserably at stifling their laughter. I turned around to see some goof running backwards behind me, in full view of the camera. Later footage revels he turned around just as he came into view, oblivious of us or anyone else. I hope he had a good workout. We will save a prime place for him and his ridiculousness in our outtake reel.

We shot a few scenes right at the ocean's edge. I had thought the tide was going out but either I was wrong or it changed as we were filming because more than once we were sent scrambling up the beach to keep dry. The waves weren't that fierce and I didn't mind being in calf-deep water but it was COLD and I didn't particularly want to fall over and get drenched. Everyone but Steve had on sandals though, so we dried out quickly. Perhaps we should get some sponsorship money from Keen shoes, they seem to be the perfect footwear aCross Creation.

We wrapped up filming by 6pm or so (make that 8pm Wichita time) and headed up to Cannon Beach (the city) to find dinner. Our quest was for seafood, obviously, and we found the perfect spot where Janet and Greg could feast on crab while Steve, Anita and I enjoyed fresh salmon. After the drive east we arrived back at the house a little sandy and a lot tired after the long day of travel and work. I was so thankful to be in beautiful Oregon and excited about the days to come.

Many, many thanks to Steve Martz who is responsible for all the pictures posted on this blog. He really does come on these trips, I promise, but we rarely have pictures of him because he is always documenting!

Coming up...reports of days 2 thru 4!