The box read “We want to go to Kyoto in your car” in Japanese, and a pair of women driving to Osaka for a One Direction concert gave the hitchhiking Katie and Jordan a ride from a roadside Starbucks. They were close to Kyoto, but toured around Osaka for a couple days, eating fried octopus balls, touring the iconic castle, and enjoying the Glico Run…

Ten years ago, Katie uninvited Jordan from Newport’s Seafood and Wine Festival and he still hasn’t let it go. Katie enjoys the marriage of grunge and bourgeois in Newport and Jordan declares Newport as the Capital of the Coast before talking about the first celebrity he ever met: Keiko the orca, star of Free Willy. Katie is weirded out Newport’s Oc…

Jordan won front row tickets to Hamilton in New York City, which spurred a crazy two-day planning spree. Katie and Jordan have been together almost ten years, so it's only fitting they have now seen ten shows on Broadway. When they weren’t being dazzled by theatre, they were experiencing some of the most classic buildings in Manhattan like Grand Ce…

Because it is Valentine's Day, Jordan reads an excerpt from his memoir recounting pivotal moments in their relationship at Pacific City. Katie once drove Jordan to an interview in Pacific City and dropped him off like the good babysitter she is after they imagine the rom-com Country/City. Pacific City’s Haystack Rock is one hundred feet taller than…

Katie forgot a swimsuit for a European trip so went to a Budapest bathhouse in just her underwear and Jordan talks about getting his chest hair in someone's pizza. Budapest is, to Katie and Jordan's surprise, two cities named Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River! Biggest regret? Not getting a sweatshirt that read "BUDA SEXY PEST". Before Ka…

Wizard Island! Old Man of the Lake! Phantom Ship! Jordan thinks Crater Lake National Park is the GOAT of naming things. Katie accuses Jordan of not liking lakes and suggests he is backwoods, being raised on rivers and fed crawdads, just like all the nonnative fish that have been stocked in Crater Lake from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mo…

Katie and Jordan are off to school! Without any teaching credentials, the Inthanon school headmaster begrudgingly allows the honeymooners to assist the local English teacher, who quickly became Jordan’s favorite person in all his travels. Katie and Jordan are whisked away to help at “English Camp” which isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds. To get ther…

Thick clouds dumped an inch of snow an hour for 15 hours straight during Katie and Jordan's second wedding anniversary, marooning them in Downtown Bend an extra night and leaving the whole city seemingly abandoned for themselves to explore. Katie learns a hard lesson about drinking lots of beer before trying on fancy jeans and Jordan experiences so…

Katie and Jordan get the ol’ Chiang Mai Shanghai in this week’s adventure. What started as a trip to teach English turns out to be ten days in a village atop Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand where Catholicism rules and the priest is a demi-god. On the first day, Katie and Jordan are welcomed to a house blessing as guests of honor where th…

A tornado (or waterspout, depending on who you ask) tore through downtown Manzanita; Katie and Jordan rushed to cover it for the local newspaper, without really considering how storm-chasing would go in the town Katie used to call home. Jordan talks about the 16th Century treasure supposedly buried somewhere on Neahkahnie Mountain and Katie reminds…

Katie and Jordan were evacuated out of Yellowstone National Park and need to tell you all about it. As the snow started to dump, it made the bison look even more magnificent and somehow made the duo think that coyotes were wolves and a single cow elk was somehow a moose. The night before the evacuation out of the world's first national park, the pa…

December 13 is Katie and Jordan's wedding anniversary, and to celebrate, the duo reminisce on one of their most treasured anniversary adventures to New York City! Jordan finally sees his first proper Broadway musical with a revival of "Hello, Dolly!" featuring Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce and Katie regrets not accepting free tickets from a Ra…

When the weather outside is frightful, Oregon is always delightful! The month of December has Katie and Jordan reminiscing on tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago! Jordan tells his wife about his first experience to ZooLights that ended before it began in a shipping container full of toilets for a catostrophic trip to the "bathroom" a…

Sorry, Vancouver, but Victoria is, apparently, the capital of British Columbia! Katie and Jordan visit the city on the world's 43rd largest island (a fun fact Katie says may be a little too obscure to be fun) and Jordan talks about donating his DNA to the Mormon Church. Yay! Victoria is home to North America's second oldest Chinatown, which leads t…

Salem, Oregon doesn't have any witch trials (that Katie and Jordan are aware of...) but the capital of Oregon is home to many great parks and one contains the wettest nutria, a legendary rodent Katie had always heard of on the farm but never saw. Knowing Salem, allegedly, grows cherries in some form, Katie guesses Salem's nickname is "Poppin' Cherr…

Guadalajara's Colonia Americana district has recently been named the coolest neighborhood in the world and Katie and Jordan stayed in the heart of it! Vibrant colors! Mariachi music! Lucha libre! Guadalajara is considered by many to be the cultural center of Mexico and captured Katie and Jordan's hearts and completely changed the way they think abo…

Eastern Oregon is much farther east than many people we talk to realize and this week, Katie and Jordan talk about vibrant Baker City, named not for baker potatoes, but the only sitting U.S. senator killed in military combat - and Katie researches it in real-time! Jordan talks about the time he tried to take Katie to Baker City and ended up in Burn…

Romantic images of pizza and gelato conjured within the minds of Katie and Jordan when they thought of Italy -- only to be replaced by a deserted alpine resort town and eating the tavern's last sandwich. The Dolomites are a mountainous region within Europe's Alps range and UNESCO has described them as among the most beautiful mountains in the world…

In the land of canneries, historic buildings that transform into breweries, and exactly one might column, Katie and Jordan visit maybe Oregon's film mecca: Astoria! (Sung to the tune of Rihanna's 2008 masterpiece "Disturbia".) The city is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies and one of Katie and Jordan's favorite cities in the Pacific…

Every day in the city of Si Racha, the ancestral home of the namesake sauce, was a strange adventure as Katie and Jordan watched raw hunks of meat slap tigers in the face and elephants trunk-chugging beer. The plane landed in Bangkok about 12:05 a.m. on January 1 and Katie and Jordan are nearly denied entrance into "The Land of Smiles" because they…

That's right, kids, we're visiting our hometown of Tillamook, Oregon! Land of cheese, trees, and ocean breeze! Katie grew up on a dairy farm and, because he was raised within city limits of Tillamook, Jordan will always be a city boy in her eyes. However, Jordan does a very good impression of milking a cow to Katie's horror. Jordan starts the episo…

The coffee is burnt and the mics are hot! Mania sets in as we unleash our trailer on the world with a good latte on the horizon. Join Katie and Jordan as they warm you up for the travel stories ahead!Par Jordan and Katie

In 2004 they met in band class on the Oregon coast; little did they know they'd travel the world together less than ten years later. Meet hosts Katie and Jordan as they recount their relationship with travel and introduce themselves to you, dear listener!Par Jordan and Katie

The streets are lined with genital-shaped chocolate, the sweet scent of waffles waft from a window, and the Belfry is ringing! Belgium was the first overseas country Katie visited and has a special place in her heart and is the home of one of her best friends. Years later, she returned, reunited with her dear Belgian friend and took Jordan to Bruge…

After serving as pastor for almost 15 years, this is the Derek Helt's farewell message.

... Except When He DoesDo you believe that God has a plan for your life — a detailed plan for your "ideal" life — that you need to search and do your best to follow? If so, then this message is for you.

In general, we value people who obey the rules. In fact, our society is livable largely because we respect the rules of a polite society. However, sometimes rules can get in the way of doing the right thing. Matthew 12:1-8 relate one such instance and Jesus' response.

Many, maybe even most, followers of Jesus "sell" the Gospel message as being primarily about going to heaven and/or avoiding hell. Certainly our eternal destiny is a part of the equation, but when Jesus spoke to lost people, he used a different tack. He did not tell sinful people, "Join with me or you'll burn in hell." No, he said "Join me, follow …

Are you ready for Christmas? Most people aren't. In fact, many people come away from Christmas feeling anything but closer to God, even though they have just "celebrated" the coming of Jesus. Here are three words that might help your Christmas experience.

If you think the story of "the woman caught in adultery" in John 8 is about sexual sin, you're missing the point. It's not. It's about forgiveness; it's about coming back from something you thought there was no coming back from. It's about grace.

The Bible notes that King David was "a man after God's own heart." That's pretty high praise for an adulterous murderer.

Have you ever been at the end of your rope, been ready to call it quits, or entertained the idea that death might be better than what you're going through? If you're honest with yourself, you probably have to admit that you've been there a time or two.But, did you keep your despair a secret because you were ashamed, because you thought that it wasn…

What is the reality of your fight against sin in your life? Are you as put-together as you let people believe? I didn't think so. None of us are. We need to be honest and admit that our whole lives are basically playing "catch-up" when it comes to being the people that we would like to be.

When Jesus spoke about being forgiving, Peter asked how many times should someone forgive a person who wrongs them? He thought seven times was good. Jesus countered with 77 times! Of course, Jesus was not saying we should keep a running total of how often we forgive someone we believe wrongs us; he was saying that to be like God is to be forgiving.…