Nashville Wedding Photographers | Jen & Chris Creed

One morning last July, we awoke to the ever obnoxious sound of the iPhone alarm, beeping way too early after a night spent packing (last minute of course). It was still dark outside, and we were on our way to Portland. We have this funny little quirk when we travel. You see, months before the trip, when booking plane tickets, we always think “Hey, it’s no problem to take the earliest flight! Then we get there early and get practically the whole day to explore!” Forgetting of course, that that means getting up some time in the middle of the night, waking up the dear friends who graciously offered us a ride to the airport, and checking in while it’s still dark haha. Dear friends, we are not morning people. Not even a littleBut there’s something about the idea of an adventure, of going somewhere we’ve never been that makes me book that early flight every time, and sleep be darned!

So this particular trip, we were on our way to Portland for the What If Conference. While waiting for our connecting flight in Las Vegas (after a harrowing 20 minutes when we realized that we left our laptop sitting in the food court, running back, and luckily finding it unscathed…) we talked about how we really couldn’t miss the chance to get out and see the Oregon coast, even though we didn’t have a ton of time before we had to meet people that evening. So after boarding the plane, I’m trying to book us a rental car before the flight attendants give me a dirty look for not turning off my phone. We arrive in Portland, get our rental car, and we were off. And I am stressed. We’ve been up for all hours, we’re on a tight schedule before we have to be back, and, oh yeah, we’re speaking in front of a bunch of people we hugely admire in a few days and need to keep preparing. We don’t have time to do this.

But then, we get out of the city. The giant evergreens loom up on either side of the road, more green than I could have imagined. And the stress began to melt away. We were together. We were exploring new places–one of our favorite things to do. As we arrived at Cannon Beach and stepped out into the crisp air, I felt myself just begin to come alive. It was the perfect reminder to slow down and take a deep breath, and enjoy the inspiration that is all around. A reminder that we have to take time for this, because these are the experiences where we come alive, and our creativity recharges. We don’t have time not to do this.

A few favorites from our trip:

Doing what we love bestNote the tired circles under the eyes in the bottom left haha. Also note the irony of the locals in shorts and bathing suits and us in jackets, because it was FREEZING compared to Nashville in July! (For the record, I’ll take those Oregon temperatures any day!)

Why yes, yes that is the rock formation seen in the Goonies

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”–Howard Thurman

(Thanks to our friends Jenn and Dave for telling us that quote!)

So…what makes you come alive? Have a wonderful rest of the week friends