Mt. Rainier

We had so much fun!

I haven’t been up to Mt Rainier since I was a kid… I had forgotten what a magical place it is.

When you can see it, of course.  The first day up there, the mountain was completely covered in clouds.  Visibility was, well, like this:

Not very August-like.

Justin was a bit skeptical, thinking this whole Mt Rainier thing was just a hoax.

So after a short hike, we went back to our campsite and shivered for several hours.  But the next morning, we woke up to this:

(I’ll leave it to you to guess who was more enthused at this point in the morning). 

Not a cloud in sight!

Perfect day to hike.  Would have also been a perfect day to pack some sandwiches, but we couldn’t be bothered with petty details like that.  Thank God we packed some Triscuits and some granola bars.

Avalanche Lilies.  Straight out of the camera.  Gorgeous.

It was a little surreal to be hiking through snow in 70-degree weather, but many of the trails were still partially covered.  Lots of slipping and sliding, lots of giggling on my part. 

Oddly enough, the higher we climbed, the more wildflowers we saw (and smelled).  Up near the top, the lupine was strong and sweet.  Lots of deep inhales. 

Lots of deep breaths also partially due to the thinner air. I was dizzy a few times. Especially right around here:

But we made it!  A 1700′ ascent!

Here’s the panorama shot from Panorama Point:

Ah.  Well worth it.

The next day we took a quick jaunt to the lakes, and headed on home.

Note the sweet sunburn on my neck (reflection off the snow, oops).

Go team!  There’s no one I’d rather climb mountains with.

getting the heck out of dodge. again.

Ack!  Summer is going by WAY too fast.  We’ve been insanely busy, but it’s the fun kind of busy.  Spending lots of time with friends and with each other. 

I still want to recap the conference… oops.  Looks like it will have to wait another while.

Really, all I’m doing here is procrastinating.  I should be packing right now, because as soon as J gets off work, the two of us are going camping.

Here:

Permit me a sigh of contentment simply at anticipating how beautiful it will be.  August is primo time for visiting Mt. Rainier, and I couldn’t be more excited.  You really can’t beat living in Washington State.  Go team!

Hopefully we won’t meet any of these while we’re there.

Well, not this bear specifically, since this is a Kodiak Bear and Mt. Rainier is home to lots of black bears.  Still, things could get a little awkward if we meet on the trail.  Hopefully they’ll go for Justin first.

I kid, I kid.

Enjoy the weekend, all!  I will show you each highlight of our trip in painful photographic detail upon our return!  (and the peasants rejoiced)

back from Los Angeles!

We LOVED our trip to California over Spring Break!  We visited Chris, one of Justin’s best friends and one of my favorite people, and stayed with him at his place… a staggering two to three block walk from the beach.

Pictures are up in the online photo album — just click on the picture of the cliffs.

Day 1 — we drove up to Rancho Palos Verdes and went hiking around the cliffs on the coast, then went and ate at an Irish restaurant right on the beach.  Gorgeous.  Took lots of pictures.  Felt pale in comparison to all the great tans walking around me!  I had forgotten how beautiful California can be.  Palm trees everywhere, all these fragrant flowers on the warm breeze… lovely.

Day 2 — Easter Sunday seems like a great day to go to a theme park, right?  We drove out to Anaheim and went to Knott’s Berry Farm (we originally considered Disneyland, but it’s kind of a rip-off, and KBF is a MUCH better deal).  I hate to say this, but Easter was actually one of the best days to go — the crowds were way down.  We only waited in a couple of lines, and those were for about 10-15 minutes, which is nothing.  The last time Chris went, he vowed he would never go back again, because he did nothing but wait in lines, but we were able to nearly reverse that painful experience for him. 

Favorite rides:

Ghost Rider — This was a super cool wooden rollercoaster we rode about 5 times (and it’s a pretty long ride in comparison to the others), constantly trying to make funnier faces for the photo.

Supreme Scream — Did this one twice, and it was fully worth how much it scared the crap out of me.  Takes you straight up 254 feet in the air, then drops you straight down, hitting 50 mph in three seconds.  It feels like you’re weightless on the way down.  Amazing ride – although, as it was nearing the top and I could see for miles, I kept on saying, “No… no… no… this was not a good idea…”

Perilous Plunge — Not so favorite because the harness left bruises on my arms, but it took guts to ride it, so I’m pretty happy with myself.  This one’s pretty simple.  Takes you up in the air 115 feet, then throws you down a waterfall at 77 degrees (almost straight down), splashing down in a pool at the end, leaving you soaking wet (which is nice since the weather’s warm).

Day 3 — Chris had to work, so Justin and I nerded out at the local Starbucks for an hour and then hit the beach.  It was a little chillier than it had been the day before, and I didn’t realize I was burning (usually I can tell pretty quickly).  My attempt to “even out” the burn from our hiking on the cliffs did not go so well, and the rest of the trip became an adventure in aloe vera application.  Still, it was great just to chill out for a few hours in the sand, watching the waves and taking it easy together.  That night, we went with Chris to dinner and then to a large arcade, where we played some skee-ball.  The prizes were pretty lame, so we picked up 110 rubber thimbles and had fun placing them in various locations on our walk home.

Day 4 — Too tired and sunburned to do much else, we went to Starbucks and played Rummy 500 for about three hours.  Went back to the arcade and played more skee-ball — this time coming home with 8 visored pink and black do-rags, which we insisted on wearing around the house when Chris got home from work.  Introduced Chris and Justin to the wonder that is Bucca di Beppo’s Italian restaurant.  Ate way too much (three people at a family-style restaurant is a little small), but it was worth it — and we had leftovers, anyway.

Day 5 — Weather wasn’t so great (An extremely chilly 65 degrees — we promptly turned into huge weather wimps during our stay) so we ate at Joe’s and then hung out at home and played Carcassonne and poker til it was time to go to the airport.

On the flight home, it was a little shocking when our plane kept on having to do these holding patterns because Seattle was getting SNOW.  (Even more shocking when we finally landed — my poor sunburned skin was NOT ready for this).  We landed about an hour late, but made it home safe and sound, so grateful for the trip but glad to be back in our own bed.

Thanks for having us, Chris! 

check out the majesty!

I was a little more successful today.  We headed out to Whatcom Falls Park and then later I headed out to Fairhaven.  And I don’t believe there’s a single phallic photo in the bunch. 

I finally figured out how to slow down my shutter, resulting in pretty photos like this (although I need a tripod for the effect to come out perfect — 2 1/2 to 3 seconds is a long time to try to stand still):

So fun!  And I didn’t even fall in the water, amazingly enough.  Isn’t this bridge lovely?

Most important of all — I have a favorite new happy snap:

If any of you Bellinghamians get a moment to head out there, you should.  It’s so weird to take that left off Lakeway, park, get out of your car, and immediately hear the soothing sound of rushing water — right in the middle of the city.  We were only out there for probably 45 minutes, but as we got back in our car to head home, I knew it had done me some good.  The sheepskin slippers I had idiotically worn and hiked down underneath the bridge in — not so much good for them.  But it was a lovely time.

the road less traveled

Justin and I took a little road trip up to Mount Baker today so I could take some photos for a final project in one of my classes.  He asked me before we left: “Do you know where we’re going?”  “Sure,” I replied, “Super easy.  We’ll just jump on I-5 until we see the Mt. Baker Highway exit.”

So we jumped on I-5 North.  About the time we hit Blaine (on the border of Canada), I realized we weren’t going to see a sign for Mt. Baker Highway.

So we headed back down south until we hit Custer.  We decided that maybe we could find it if we headed over through Lynden. After driving north and south for about twenty minutes near Lynden, we decided to stop and buy a map. Upon buying a map, we realized that the exit for Mt. Baker was far south of us (off of I-5, of course), so we headed toward Sumas, then south toward Deming, where we finally found the infamous Mt. Baker Highway.

View the Map of Our Lovely Route, Which Will Help This Story Make Sense

This brilliant route took us over 2 1/2 hours. One way. We left a little after noon, and hadn’t yet reached a view of the mountain when the sun finally set. Not so great for pictures. And, it was getting icy.

We decided to try something new and took the Mt Baker Highway directly back to Bellingham. When the name of the highway changed to a local street, I craned my neck to see a street sign, so I could know which exit we should have taken.

Oddly enough, the name of the road was Sunset Dr.

Alas. 

Congratulations, Universe.  You win.

I told Justin of my observation and we both laughed til we cried.

We live right off Sunset Dr. It’s our onramp to the freeway; our exit to get home. We drive this nearly everyday.  I knew there was some reason Mt. Baker highway sounded familiar:

We traveled over 100 miles to get there when the actual route would have taken us about 44. 

It’s okay, I thought.  At least I got a couple of good sunset & tree-y type pictures there near the end.

Upon closer observation when I uploaded the few pics I liked onto my computer, I realized that perhaps I had missed something when I first took the picture.  Given the maturity level of my class (and the fact that we’ve discussed eroticism in literature and art fairly extensively), there is no way I’ll be able to use this:

This is horrible. 

In the end, however, a pretty funny story.  Not sure what I’m going to do about my final project, but we’ll see.

hot sauce and other adventures

We had a great time in Leavenworth!  Unfortunately, we missed what ended up being a pretty sweet windstorm here in Bellingham, but I’m sure we will survive the loss somehow.  As it happened, we had lovely clear weather our whole trip.  It was cold, but sunshiney.  It was fun to play for a few days, and to celebrate our first year together.

In case any of you should happen to visit the above-mentioned Bavarian village, and you happen to go into a shop called A Matter of Taste — do not, I repeat, DO NOT, try the 357 Mad Dog Hot Sauce.  It tastes like burning.

You can’t see it in the pic, but they advise you not to try this if you have respiratory problems.

I hesitated, walked around the shop to stall a bit, and finally had to prove my stupidity.  I’m bad at backing down from these kinds of things.  Tiny drop on the end of a pretzel.  Nothing big, right?  I said to Justin, “Meh.  It’s not all that bad.”

Ten seconds later…

Eyes watering, nose running, skin flushed red, sweating, etc.  Ten minutes later, the cheese shop next door caught me using their handwashing sink to shovel water in my face.  “Ah.  Tried the hot sauce?”

I think Justin married me mostly for the amusement factor.  He gets to watch all this.

In school news, I’m officially a Creative Writing major… finally.  And, I got my first A in five years yesterday, so I’m feeling encouraged.  We have about four weeks left in the quarter, and I’m throwing myself into it hard, trying to stay on top of everything.  My motto for this next few quarters:  Die trying.  Yes.  These papers scare the shit out of me.  Yes.  I’m afraid of failure.  I’m going to do it anyway.  (I may need to go back and read this soon, when I get some other papers back, so I’m putting it out there, out loud).

Anyway, hope you all are doing well and drinking lots of coffee.  More soon.

visiting our great neighbor to the north

The Mr. and I decided to go to Canada yesterday.  The border guard was a little skeptical that we were traveling into Canada in order to go to a movie, but it was the truth.  Langley has a kick-ass theater called the Colossus.  Justin had never beheld its glory, and it was time for the movie-loving pilgrim to finally see Mecca.

At first, Justin was not so impressed with Canada.

But as we stopped for coffee at The Wired Monk, he started to perk up a bit.  For Justin, there are very few situations that are not improved by the addition of coffee.

Unfortunately, the coffee was crap.  I had high hopes when they put chocolate whipped cream on my iced mocha, but it was the lonely high point of an otherwise awful cup of coffee.  Burnt shots!

We left and headed over to the Colossus.  Our day improved substantially.  I couldn’t fit the entire building in one frame, but hopefully this pic gives you a decent idea:

The Colossus boasts 19 screens (one of them IMAX), a Baskin Robbins, TCBY, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and a Starbucks (of course) among a few other restaurants.  Seating in the theaters is stadium style — so you’re fully sitting above the row in front of you.  Pretty posh.

We saw Transformers – part two of our deal that if we saw Harry Potter V, I’d go to see Transformers.  Truthfully, I ended up loving Transformers.  Highly recommend it.

We felt our deeply Canadian experience wouldn’t be complete without a visit to IKEA over in Coquitlam.  On our way, there was a traffic jam and we got into a bit of an altercation with some girls in the car next to us.  I looked over, and both of them were hanging their heads on the window sill, staring intently into our car.  I thought the best response was to grab my camera and take pictures of them.  They responded in kind.  Justin was going to lick the window just to take things up a notch, but he couldn’t lick said window and drive safely at the same time.

I was impressed by two things in this moment: 1, Justin and I have the same level of maturity as tween girls; and 2, these smart-ass 12-year-olds have WAY cooler cell phones than we do.  Sigh.  They win this round.

IKEA was fun, we’ll head back up there once we move next month.  Two more sights on our tour of Canada raised and then quickly lowered our opinion of our great neighbor to the North.

(Apparently we also have the same maturity level as 12-year-old boys.)

It pains me to show you the second picture, it really does.  Just like the let-down at the Wired Monk, Justin’s hopes were raised (Yay, Canada does have Mountain Dew!) and shot down.  Hard.  (Caffeine free Mountain Dew?  …I hate this country.)

After explaining to a border guard once more that we had indeed come to Canada simply to go see Transformers at the Colossus, we made it safely back into the good old US of A. 

Good to be home.

mayYOUpalooza!

Following up on the success of febrYOUpalooza, Justin and I will be headed down to Monroe this weekend to celebrate mayYOUpalooza with dear friends.  We’ll have it easy — only an hour’s drive — but to attend this A-lister event, others will be making the trek from such glamorous and far-off locations as Boise, Spokane, Medford, and Sweden.

Basically it’s a bunch of Justin’s old college buddies getting together to play games and eat all weekend.  Because of our 9-year-long shared history, some of Justin’s old college buddies happen to also be my old college buddies, so that’s fun for me.

Here is the official mayYOUpalooza flyer (methinks Jamie had too much time on his hands at work):

mayyoupalooza

Here are some of the games we will be playing (if you haven’t played these games, you are simultaneously not as cool and not as nerdy as we all are):

Munchkin

Bang!

Settlers of Catan

Twister (just kidding)

Pirate’s Cove

Hilarity will ensue!

campin’ pics

Top to bottom: Our campsite at Banks Lake in Eastern WA; the racers on race-day (slightly confused about which camera to look at); the cliffs behind Banks Lake at sunset; J and me (apparently either stoned or looking straight into the sun, you decide); J and me making valiant attempts to avoid the squinty eyes a la the photo above; and the sad sad road home.  Great trip with friends, great birthday spent with the one I love.  Can’t ask for more.

 

home!

I arrived home safe and sound on Tuesday night, newly grateful for things such as flushing toilets, bathtubs, queen-sized beds.  As I drove into Poulsbo on Wednesday morning, I saw each and every building through new eyes.  What would that look like hurricaned?  It will be a while before normal feels normal again.  I saw too much.

As curious co-workers stop by my cube to see pictures and hear what it was like, I find myself enjoying the telling of my moments there.  These are stories too precious not to tell.

You’ll hear.  Soon.  I couldn’t hold the stories in if I tried.

It will just need to be delayed by a weekend.  Justin flies in on Friday night and there, in the baggage claim at SeaTac airport, a much-anticipated, long-overdue reunion will take place.

There are not words for such a moment.

Til Monday, then.