its been a rolicking good two weeks

Good grief, its been non-stop lately.  Non-stop fun, that is.  I am exhausted - summer needs to pack its bags and hit the road, just so I can have a little downtime...

No!  Forget I said that!

It has been fun lately, and now with the house finished Adrienne and I have had a wee bit more spare time to enjoy our state, our city, our friends and our family.  And really, all this fun really just reminds me of how truly blessed we are (not to sound like a cliche, but it is absolutely 100% true).  The last two weeks have been spectacular - minus a few mishaps, like AJ's bike getting stolen :(  

But!  We overcome such mishaps and continue to embrace the fantastic summer that the PacNorWest continues to dish out.  Below are some pictures that showcase some of the funness of it all, and I hope illustrate how very fortunate we are to be surrounded by those that make life so rich.

 First, two weeks ago I finished the coolest thing I have ever build - a wooden map of Washington State.  It now hangs above our deck outside!

Next, we finished the summer ZooTunes series with our great friends Simon and Faith, Jen and Zach listening to AJ's newest favorite - Brandi Carlisle.

Next, a quick jaunt to CA to celebrate my grandparents' 90th and 95th birthdays.  Remarkable!

Got to visit with my uber special little nephew, Derin. 

AJ, mom, and I snorkeled with 100s of leopard sharks in the cove at La Jolla - the best I've ever seen, and I have been many times!!

And we had a cuzzie reunion - Jesse, Kenny, Erin, and John.

And every other free moment was spent at the beach in Carlsbad!

But!  A quick trip to LA was in order to see my friend's new house and baby!  So, I started the trip in style - brekkie and a Bloody Mary with Auntie W at the harbor first!

I got to see Mr. and Mrs. Cheeseball (aka Ryan and Aura) in their new awesome LA home.

Their smiling little guy, Xander, was the real highlight!

Their puppy dog Ivy is pretty cool too...

Back to San Diego for a martini/beer lunch with the grandparents!

And one more quick visit with the parents and D-Dizzle - then off to the airport!

Then my buddy Simon took me to a Seahawks game the day after I got back to Seattle - what a treat!

AJ and I rode our bikes downtown to do yoga in the park, but alas there was none.  Not to worry - we went on the Big Wheel instead!

The views were spectacular, for sure!

Back at home for dinner, AJ poured us martinis with infused violet liquor - from the garden, and homemade!

Followed by dinner with AJs's pressed flower pasta - yes, homemade and flowers from the garden.  

Then, we got a last minute invitation to go to the Huskies season opener in their brand new stadium - with of course tailgating on a boat!

Go HUSKIES!!

Lots of purple!

 Meanwhile, AJ harvested the garden hops and made a homebrew while I bottled my Carmerere wine.

And lastly, this morning we made it out to the forests for our first mushroom forage of the season.  Our mushroom instructor told us that fall mushroom season begins after the second good rain in August.  It felt weird to be foraging in shorts and sunglasses - but alas, we had great luck!

Someone's excited...

2.5 lbs of chanterelles.  I'd show you the dinner we made, but its cooking right now.

So...there you have it.  On top of that, we managed to spend an entire day in the garden getting it ship-shape, sanded and repainted the front steps, and ran a blood curve on our cat to see if she's still diabetic.  Prognosis - she looks to be in remission!  So it has indeed been a good two weeks...  I hope yours has been too.

a few days in the hills

I don’t really feel the need anymore to embark on 10-day long backpacking jaunts – its almost always miserable*.  Eating gruel for days on end, dodging hungry bears, drinking spotty water, carrying 1/3 of my body weight on my back, sleeping on ice sheets, tending to unspeakably painful blisters.  I did that for years.  These days I get the same battery-charge out of spending two nights in the backcountry.  Don’t get me wrong, I am always up for a good challenge – but I can do without the joys that multiple days of such challenges heap on to a “vacation”.

It’s been a while since I've been in the hills, so a short trip up-slope seemed like it was in order.  My buddy Aaren flew in to Seattle on a beautiful Pacific Northwest morning; I picked him up, we had a leisurely lunch, and then we piled in the car for the three hour drive to a trail that I’ve been wanting to visit for ages.  Our destination: Spider Meadows.

The trip did not disappoint. We hit the trail at 5pm on Saturday and returned to the car at 10am Monday, logging 30+ miles in the high backcountry of Washington’s Cascade Range.  I’d spent lots of time traversing the Olympic Mountains, and I’d climbed a few volcanoes around here – but I had never gotten deep into the heart of the Cascades.  

What a treat.  The area was all it was cracked up to be, and more.  It was bigger, wilder, and more jaw-droppingly beautiful than I had imagined.  Below are some pictures from our overland journey into some of the state’s most pristine country.

*I hereby reserve the right to continue doing miserable 10-day trips if I so choose

 John and Aaren at the trailhead parking lot - with about 10,000 cars

The famed Spider Meadows

Even though there were a bajillion people in the lower meadow, we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves

The giant red mountain above our camp - aptly called Red Mountain

Going up through Spider Gap on Spider Glacier

The pink algae that forms in the late summer snows

View north from the pass - stunning!

Hoary Marmot!!

Aaren in the ice bunker

The prettiest picture I took

Some far away mountainy place

Johnny Meyer in the backcountry

That's a 30ft glacial ice wall coming into the lake

Aaren on the red red rocks

Back up over the Pass we go...

Aaren on top of the world!

A perfect example of a glacially-carved valley

A nearly full moon rising over the valley

the 2013 garden at the 20th avenue

I realize I haven't posted many (any?) pictures of the garden this year on our blog.  Its been another vegetal bonanza with lots of delectable foods that have graced the dinner table for months now.  Below are some pics from this year's bounty.

The bees continue to love leek flowers

Our pink lupine is one of my favorites every year - and its always the first to bloom

Love this jungle pathway

Squashes coming in...

Purple tomatillos - love the lanterns they grow in

The bees are back!

This year's garlic harvest

A perfect calendula

Cucumbers climbing the trellis, echinacea, asparagus gone to seed, and tomatillos

Early garden

That's it!