Herring and Associates

An annual tradition, I took a road trip to Owl Farm during Earth Week to -- as "The Wizard" proclaimed to denizens of Emerald City prior to embarking for the land of "e pluribus unum" in The Wizard of Oz -- "confer, converse and otherwise hob-nob" with my fellow owls.

Actually, I was taking advantage of a Horizon Air special: $140 roundtrip from Eugene to Seattle. Although many use Facebook for strictly social purposes, the Eugene Airport uses its site for -- among other things -- to market specials and super-saver flights to clients, a bonefide business application for the social media site.

So, on Thursday, April 22, my friend Paul Turcott (AKA "Raoul") and I hopped the quick 50-minute flight up to Sea-Tac, rented a car and proceeded over Stevens Pass to Owl Farm for a summit meeting with friends Lupe Marroquin, Kelly Tjaden and Frank Czubiak.

The purpose of the summit? To plan for the coming season of adventure in the high country, of course. Though Lupe will be recuperating from a knee injury, plans include hiking the Icicle Ridge Trail from Stevens Pass to Gustav's Brew Pub in Leavenworth, and several other junkets.

We also conducted the seasonal rituals -- burning slash piles and floating the river -- while enjoying good food and company with Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster playing on the laptop in the background. On the way back to Sea-Tac, Raoul snapped this pic of me (below) before breakfast at Sandy's Waffle Haus in the Bavarian Village of Leavenworth.

A great trip, I spent quality time with long-time friends, participating in the usual pagan rituals while connecting with the spiritual world. In short, it was nice celebrating Earth Week with creatures of the earth.

The only ones missing were the owls. Oh, they were around; we just keep different hours.