Bridge & Burn

For us as a family, one of our most exciting and coveted times is our annual RV trip. We spend days prepping for this trip, getting excited about places we will go and things we will see. The night before we load up the vintage rig with all of our favorite books, craft coffee, our favorite treats and snacks, twinkle lights and cozy blankets.

We head down from Portland taking the slow route along the the coast of Oregon into the Redwoods National Forest in California and back up to Portland.

The goals are simple:

• Get there in the amount of time that it takes.
• We don’t have any obligations, and we are not in a hurry.
• We let the journey lead us as we slow down, rest, connect and treasure the time together.

Here’s a few of the stops we took, and what we noticed or loved about each place. 

Newport, OR

This town is just one of those places that you will leave remembering for years. The iconic clam chowder, the pungent scent of ocean water and fresh catches of the day, and the slowness of it all, removed from the bustle of metropolitan cities.

We loved lazily walking through the Oregon Coast Aquarium, home to a variety of fish and ocean creatures home to our beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Our little two year old who could walk on her own this time loved the seals, the fish, and the touchable tide-pool creatures but needed a sweet mama’s encouragement to get her hand close to those soft little tentacles of the anemones.

Coos Bay, OR

The first morning waking up in our cozy little RV, just big enough for the three of us, left us lazily wandering the beach in front of our favorite RV Park of all time: Bay Point Landing. We savor the peace and calm of this place and the thoughtful design and layout of this modern campground. 

 Sarah is wearing the Linnton Dark Olive and Roscoe Terracotta.

This place has gorgeous airstreams, rentable tiny-house cabins, a lounge with shuffle board and fun games, a kids play room, and even a natural-light filled indoor saltwater pool. You can even get tasty snacks, craft beer, wine and s’mores kits. 

Harris Beach, Oregon

Two years in a row we’ve pulled into this magical beach town just before sunset catching the most incredible skies of orange and red mixed with a foggy haze of the incoming marine layer.

 

The campground is a stones throw away from the beach, so it’s perfect for a short hike down to the water. There is this sandy escape if you go down the hiking path from the campground. We trekked between massive rock cliffs, seizing a view of the ocean for as long as we could before moving downwards. 

The Redwoods, California

 Sarah is wearing the Bird Russet & Balsam Navy. 

There’s this mysterious quality to the Redwoods that is so present during an adventure into the forest. The windy roads in between towering trees, the mist that hangs off of them swooping in from the ocean, each one towering upwards, as if they stretch on forever.  

Colin is wearing the Fremont Off-White and Crest Olive & Sarah is wearing the Bird Russet and Balsam Navy. 

We spent ages wandering through each grove, admiring the gorgeous peaceful giants. We played and ran around, stopping to notice the details, and taking lots of photos to look back on these times in the future.

What comes of each trip is a series of unexpected, treasured and joy-filled moments that will hold into old age, and pass on as a legacy. We have found that this commitment to rest and unplug a bit from the daily grind (from our callings at work and home) gives us balance in our emotional and spiritual health as individuals and as a family. 

Colin Cabalka is a visual story teller, director, husband and father based in Portland, Oregon. Follow him on Instagram @colincabalka.

Since Bridge & Burn got its start over 10 years ago, it’s been paramount for us to give back to our local community here in Portland, Oregon. Since we opened our doors, we’ve committed to donating one percent of all online and retail sales to a local, Portland non-profits through a program we call One Percent for Good.

For the last three months, we’ve been proud to partner with College Possible Oregon, an organization that believes the best way to end the cycle of poverty is to help young people achieve their dreams of higher education. They envision a day when the future of America's children is determined solely by their talent, motivation and effort. College Possible is making college admission and success possible for historically underserved students through an intensive curriculum of coaching and support from junior year in high school through college graduation. One way they bring this dream to life is through near-peer coaching – leveraging the power of young, passionate and dedicated recent college graduates serving as AmeriCorps members to offer advice, mentoring and friendship to a cadre of young people to help them learn to navigate the often complex world of college preparation and persistence.

And what they are doing is working:

• 1,449 Oregon students were served in 2018-2019
• 92% of their 2018 High School graduates enrolled in college directly after high school

We’re proud to say that our customers at Bridge & Burn, through their purchases in-store and online, have helped us to donate close to $6,000 to College Possible Oregon in the fourth quarter of 2019. 

Want to get involved? Volunteer opportunities are available throughout the year with College Possible. Email CCarl@CollegePossible.org for more information.

You can also learn more at on the College Possible website or follow them on Instagram @collegepossible.

We loved spending the day with Katie Davis, the floral mastermind behind Ponderosa & Thyme. She's shared her thoughts with us on where she draws her inspiration from, how she stays cozy during a gloomy Pacific Northwest winter, and what makes her homebase of Salem, OR magical.

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Katie is wearing the Ash in Copper Twill + the Davis in Black.

As a creative, what drew you to floral design specifically as your chosen medium and what do you love about it? 

My family moved in with my Great Grandmother to care for her during the later part of her life. Every year she would plant a garden with sweet peas, green beans and strawberries, and right alongside the food she would plant flowers. Sunflowers by the green beans, and pansies near the strawberries. She taught me to balance the practical with beauty. She had survived the Great Depression and she understood that beauty brings hope. We need hope to live. 

I was always drawn to flowers. The clover and dandelion spoke to me as a child; each branch and bloom had a personality to me. That feeling has been carried on into my art, flowers are whimsy and wonder, and they also show us the fragility and brevity of life. I love the way flowers challenge and inspire me. They build a bridge between people, a way to have a conversation, and for me, that’s even better than the art itself. 

Especially in winter when there is less vibrancy in plant life, how do you stay inspired and get creative? 

I love the change of the seasons and the different challenges they bring. Currently, I’ve really been enjoying my winter floristry a lot.  Winter allows us to see the structure of things, bare branches and open skies. Lots of contrast. This time of year I find myself enjoying more minimal and muted designs. I love the permission to get cozy. I love to make myself a cup of tea, get cozy and make something that inspires my imagination. 

 Where do you draw your biggest sources of inspiration?

 Inspiration often comes to me when I’m immersed in nature, and always when I have time to be still. I love architecture, especially in Italy and England. I draw a lot of color inspiration from ancient and heirloom textiles, as well as tile mosaic and stained glass and mud plastered walls.

Keeping up shop in Salem, OR you struggle like all of us Pacific Northwesterners with the dark, cold and rain. How do you stay cozy through winter?

Gosh, yep! It can be hard to live in a place that’s as cold and damp as Oregon. I used to REALLY struggle in the winter season. A couple of years ago I led a retreat in Scotland during the Autumn and while I was there, I noticed that all the locals wore lots of natural fiber layers. Soft linen undershirts, and cozy wool sweaters, and usually a big scarf or shawl and hat too. SO cozy. 

My friend Duncan made a fire every single morning and night of the retreat, and we drank warm tea all throughout the day. I never remember feeling cold, even though the temperature and climate was exactly the same as home.  As an native Oregonian, I grew up resisting using an umbrella or raincoat- thinking I’d just tough it out like most of the other Oregonians I knew. In Scotland that wasn’t a thing! 

Starting immediately, I decided I’d make a fire every day, and wear layers of the yummiest clothes I could find, and last winter was the best winter season I can ever remember! I think when you're cozy on the inside, everything around looks and feels just a little bit more golden.

Katie is wearing the Easton in Navy Corduroy + Ada Burgundy Plaid.

What do you love about your community in Salem? What would a weekend out around town look like for you?

During really any day you can find us checking in with the team at my husband’s donut shop (Bigwig Donuts!), shopping at our local health food store (I’m an unapologetically crunchy mama), walking around the Bush park gardens or getting drinks at our friend’s bar if we get a night off. 

Lots of our friends have started businesses near downtown, and even in the same building as us! It’s been really fun to live and work near our friends, it kind of feels like we grew up together. We all started with little seed dreams, and now we’re supporting each other as our dreams grow bigger and bigger! 

Katie is wearing the Ursula Burgundy, Vale Light Natural, + Easton Dark Earth.

We know that education is a huge driver of your work. Tell us what led you down the path towards curating workshops and retreats for people from literally around the world?

I love people, and I love helping budding artists understand their own creative process. Over the last several years I’ve had the incredible opportunity to teach florists and creatives across the globe, and now I’m bringing it all home with workshops and online education hosted in my downtown Salem classroom. It’s really a dream come true.

What do you love most about your work?

I view my work as twofold. Art and teaching. My art gives me something to teach, so I love it for that. I love that I learn something new every day from the flowers I get to work with. Nature always gives me something to keep exploring. When it comes to teaching, I love helping people discover their passion as a creative, and I love exploring all the ways to translate an idea, with color, with flowers, with words and then eventually with teaching.

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Learn more about Ponderosa & Thyme on their website or follow Katie on Instagram.