Hoh Rainforest

How was your Memorial Day weekend?  I hope it was nice.  Mine was lovely, I spent it camping in the Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula.  Yes, you heard me correctly, I used 'lovely and camping' in the same sentence.  Will wanted to go backpacking and I was hesitant at first for several reasons, but then I decided to try it before knocking it, and much to my surprise, I had a great time.  It was so nice to disconnect from everything for a few days, and just relax.  We backpacked in about 6 miles to our campsite, Happy Four, along the Hoh River Trail.  We set up our little tent, made a fire each night, cooked on our camping stove and did a day hike up the trail about 5 more miles.  The water was the the clearest and bluest water I've seen in the US -- it looked aqua, because it comes off of Mt. Olympus (where the trail eventually dead-ends).  I felt extremely self-sufficient and at peace.  The rainforest was totally cool --- it's an actual rainforest in the state of Washington; who would have thought?  There were tons of different types of trees and plants, and definitely the biggest Cedar's I've ever seen.  We saw a few animals on our trip, luckily no bears ;)  On the drive into the rainforest we saw two elk, then during the trip we saw a few more animals -- birds, small squirrel-like things, two snakes, and a fox! 

If you have not camped lately, and have the opportunity to, I suggest trying it.  Un-plug and engage with nature :)

I forgot to mention, for all you Twilight fans, we drove through Forks, WA to get to the Hoh. 

Mt. Rainier Ski Tour: Part II

Two Sundays ago we took our skis to Mt Rainier for another shot at skinning up to Camp Muir to ski down.  The day was perfect... not a cloud in the sky and about 75 degrees and sunny.  Not kidding, it was really warm even though we were skiing.  We made it much further than last time and we both really enjoyed the day.  We made it about 1,500 ft. shy of Camp Muir, so total elevation gain was over 4,000 ft (parking lot at Paradise up to Muir Snowfield).  The snow was kind of choppy in places at lower elevation but pretty nice up on the snowfield still.

Mt. Adams

Mt. St. Helens

Told you --- tank top skiing!

Glaciers to the left of the snowfield.

Stopping for a banana break :)

View from Panorama Point 

It's hard to tell from this photo, but from this point you can
see three volcanoes: (L to R) Mt.Adams, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens

 

What's in store for this long weekend?  You'll have to wait and see :)  Tomorrow is Bunco night and I have made a fascinator!  I'll post some photos of  Bunco festivities, too.  And after this weekend...moving into the new house!!!!!!!!! (I would put more exclamation marks, but think you get the point.)

Biking to the Island

What island, you ask?  Mercer Island.  Two weekends ago (I'm a bit delayed with my post) we rode from our house down along Lake Washington Boulevard and across the bridge over I-90.  It was a beautiful and hilly ride, with nice views of Rainier. The sun was shining and weather was lovely.

Rainier coming out for the day.

Green Machine: Juicing

Before I get into the real subject of this post, I wanted to share a few photos from my run this morning at the lake.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day today!  Everyone in Seattle was enjoying the weather and soaking up the sun --- including the turtles and me :)

So now to the post --- juicing.  I've been thinking about juicing ever since I watched the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  Two of my friends did the '7-day cleanse' and said they really liked juicing.  I decided it was time to try this and cleanse my body out and see how I feel (it can certainly help out my waistline, too).  I ordered my super-duper juicer on Amazon Prime, and within two days, the beautiful stainless steel machine was at my doorstep.  Will decided to jump on board the juicing boat with me so today we purchased all the veggies needed to get started.  Tomorrow marks day one of the 7-day cleanse. Hopefully it will go well and we will feel fabulous!  I'll be posting throughout the week so check back to see how it's going.

Bunco

Yes, Bunco.  Some of my Junior League friends from my transfer group decided it would be fun to have a bunco night once a month.  Blake hosted this month's get together and I'll have to say, I had a lot of fun!  Turns out it's not just a game for middle aged women in the south :)

Next month's theme is 'Derby' party. We're going to make hats and have mint juleps!

 

Having a 'Bunc-off'

Hostess, Blake.