Beautiful Mount Baker

Mount Baker
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Baker

Friday night I picked Will up from work and we headed out of town with speed... well, actually we sat in traffic for a while but after we got out of the city we cruised right along.  Our couple friends, Amy & Josh (and pup Jules) arranged a cabin rental for the weekend and invited us to go along with them and a few of their friends.

First stop was dinner in North Fork at the brewery (http://www.northforkbrewery.com/) then on to the cabin in Glacier, WA.  The house was a beautiful log cabin complete with fire pit, hot tub, and windows all along the front with sweeping views of Mt Baker.  We met Owen and Michelle and are glad we did --- such nice people and Owen's an outdoor enthusiast who knows Baker's terrain like the back of his hand.

Saturday most of the group hit the slopes (Owen took Will all over the backcountry... pretty nice to have a private guide!) and Michelle and I stayed at the cabin to rest.  Later that night we had a delicious dinner of Banh mi's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_m%C3%AC followed by hot tub and a game of Mad Gab.  Sunday we checked out and parted ways; Amy, Josh and Jules took a lovely hike, and the rest of us went back to the mountain for a very, very short ski tour.  The conditions on Saturday were blue-bird skies and on Sunday you couldn't see five feet in front of you.  So we took a lap then went to have lunch at Grahams on the way home.

Lovely weekend with lovely people.  Thanks for setting this up Amy, looking forward to many more!

Mt Shuskan

Saturday

Sunday

Mt Baker

Jules, Amy, Josh, Michelle

Jules looking reflective. 

Yes, that IS a custom doggie ski jacket!

Frenchman Coulee

Bonjour!  (and "hello" to you American readers).  We spent part of last weekend rock climbing in Vantage, WA at the Frenchman Coulee: http://wikitravel.org/en/Frenchman_Coulee

I was ready for a weekend with no snow and had a hankering to climb outdoors --- it's one of my favorite sports.  When I told my Mom this she said "Of course, I should have guessed that --- when you were little you climbed all over everything...the furniture, up the slide, the walls..."

We drove down after work on Friday and camped in the back of the 4 Runner.  We brought our tent but decided to try sleeping in the car since we have never done it; it was surprisingly comfortable and I slept like a rock.  Will's a bit taller than me (by a foot), so he was a little less comfortable since he had to bend his legs to sleep, none the less we had a restful night before a day of climbing.

Since it was our first time outdoor climbing since last year, we practiced on a few 5.4/5.6's and then climbed a few routes that were just a bit harder, 5.7/5.8.  I'm working up to my goal of leading a 5.11 outdoors this year.  It's a lofty goal but I'm going to try my best to do it! 

Will cooking eggs for breakfast. I love camping,
partly b/c Will takes care of me :)

We don't go anywhere without
our trusty french press!

Ready to climb; rope and coffee in hand.

North face of The Feathers
(we spent most of our day climbing here).



View from the Feathers of the gorge. 

Note the home-made camper in the background - it's a Toyota Tacoma with a pop-up tent; Will is itching to get a look inside one of these contraptions! Reminds me of Melissa --- she had a fascination with trailers and always wanted to get to go inside one... don't know why!  This particular truck/home must have been from the South, it had confederate flags drawn on it and had written "if the truck is a rockin' don't come a knockin'". 

Harlem Shake

"What a strange title post" you must be thinking if you aren't up-to-date with the recent YouTube trending videos.  Well, I wasn't up to speed on this trend either until last week when at work I made history. Yes, history!

If you want some context to this video, first go to YouTube and type in "Harlem Shake" and you will see what all this is about.

--- without further adieu ---

Amazon's Harlem Shake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0IQyX5banA

See if you can figure out which one I am (hint --- I'm not the Indian guy in the front).

On another note... today Will got a "W" on his door at work.  They do this when someone wins something --- he won his motion today.  What a big day at the Eidson household :)

Happy hump day!