Backcountry Ski Tour: Chair Peak Basin

***I'm doing a bit of 'back-posting' with this entry, but wanted to document the trip and share some photos.***

Will and I ventured into the back country for a ski tour, all by ourselves (!!) a few weeks ago.  We headed out to Snoqualmie Pass and parked right behind Alpental in a very popular lot.  The plan was to do a loop out and back to Chair Peak.  We set out on our journey early very early and followed the path through a woodsy trail for roughly a mile or so then broke out to a basin right by Source Lake.  We headed up towards Chair Peak and then decided not to pursue because of signs of unstable snow, although avy danger was moderate to low.  Instead of pursuing Chair Peak, we skinned up the basin just to the east, somewhat following the trail to Snow Lake.

The sun was glorious and the snow was pretty good.  The sun beat down all day so towards the afternoon the snow was a little more unstable, sloshing off when it got wet, but overall, a very nice day.  Sorry for my lack of trail and location detail, it's been a few weeks so some of the specifics escape me.

What is this giant orb in the sky??

Update from Cali

I've been working my hiney off this week preparing for our campus events but have managed to enjoy a few things this week that are share-worthy.

Sunset on Pacific Coast Highway
One of my work events was in Santa Barbara.  I drove up from San Diego and hit Santa Monica and Malibu just as the sun was setting.  It was a beautiful time of day.

Snapshot below is from right outside the UCSB bookstore.... um, why didn't I look at this school as an option when I was going to college?  It's on the beach, has beautiful desert mountains in the background, is laid-back, is 70 degrees in January, and everyone rides beach cruisers with cute baskets.  And did I mention that it's on the beach??!

After Santa Barbara, I headed down to LA, which is where I am now.  What can I say... LA is a hot mess.  UCLA is a cool campus, right in the city and near great shopping.  USC is a beautiful campus but is in the ghetto.  I could never live in LA because the traffic is horrendous and the air quality is visibly harmful to my lungs (I could see smog from miles away as I drove into the city).  It's a fun city to visit; I got to see the Hollywood sign on the side of the hill, drove through Beverly Hills, saw Bel Air (no Fresh Prince though) and ate at a cool restaurant that used liquid nitrous and sciency stuff to make their food.  The restaurant was at the SLS Hotel, called The Bazaar (http://www.thebazaar.com/).

 

That's all for tonight, packing my bags and heading east.  You'll have to check back to see what exciting places I go next :)

See you on the flip side.

Traveling for work sometimes has its benefits.  This week I'm in Southern California enjoying the sun, water and warm temps.  This must be my reward for traveling to Buffalo last winter :)

It's nice to be greeted at the door with champagne and sun.

Saw a double rainbow on the walk back to my hotel.

Walk down to the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean at sunset.

Paraglider

I ended my evening with a soak in the hot tub and a little swim in the heated, salt-water pool.  Ah, life is nice.

A New Day, A New Year

2013
Every January, or sometimes December 31st if I'm feeling ambitious, I write down a list of about 10 things I want to accomplish in the upcoming year.  These aren't New Year's resolutions, per se, rather things that I aspire to do throughout the year. If I don't get to each and every one of them, I didn't fail, but isn't half the battle putting pen on paper?  I'll share my goals with you for this year and would love to hear yours.

In no particular order...
1. Heal my knees so I can run.
2. Work on my posture.
3. Maintain my current, healthy weight. (Last winter I put on a few extra pounds and am happy to say that I've taken them off).
4. Save XX amount of money, pay down XX on the mortgage...sorry, no details ;)
5. Lead climb a 5.11 A.
6. Visit a new country (going to France & Switzerland in March --- check!).
7. Cook something once a week.
8. Blog 3 times a month.
9. Read more.
10. Update our bathroom and dining room light.
11. Learn to sail.

Now that they are on paper, hopefully I'll complete at least half of them; that wouldn't be half bad!

 For last year's words belong to last year's language and 
 next year's words await another voice. 
                                                                      - T.S. Eliot

And Christmas Makes Three...

Christmas 2012

Christmas One
We spent our Christmas with family in the south, and it was great to see everyone :)  Our first stop was at my in-laws' house in Griffin, GA.  Per usual, Mrs E out did herself with decorating the house, it's always a very festive place, complete with mistletoe.  We spent a day or so there and had our first Christmas.

 Mrs E in her new storefront.

We took a ride to see lights and found
this house all decked-out!

I decorated gingerbread cookies; one to look like each of them!
 

Christmas Two

After Georgia, we headed up to Tennessee to have our second Christmas.  My grandmothers and Aunt Carla came for the night to spend time with us.  Mom arranged a few crafts this year to keep us all entertained.  We started with home-made Christmas tree decorations (I made the star); Mom chopped down the tree from the back yard and we put all the newly-designed pieces on it.  I think it turned out pretty well, all things considered.  (Dad is moving out of the house soon because he's retiring(!!) so there were no decorations there so we made our own).  Following the tree decorations, we had a cookie-decorating contest. Mom had baked a bunch of sugar cookies and brought toppings and such for us to use.  Each participant had 2 minutes to decorate their cookie then be judged.  Let me tell you, competition was tough ;)  Cookie decorating was followed by another Christmas.

Did I forget to mention that whoever was opening
a present got to wear this festive vest?  Dad loved it
so much, but we made him share it :)

My beautiful grandmother, Mimi.

 

Christmas Three

We had our third and final Christmas on the actual day Christ was born (we just celebrated a lot up to this point!).  Mom made a great french toast bake for breakfast and then cooked a fabulous lunch of grilled tuna steaks, hashbrown casserole, and salad.  We also had another craft, oyster-angels (see below).

Will's home-made Semi-Rad t-shirt (from M&D); the real
one shipped late so he gets to wear this awesome one
for the time being.

 

 

And the last day of our trip Will dropped me off in Atlanta to visit my favorite little babies, Vivian and the brand-new Harrison :)  He was only a week old when I got to first hold him; it was so special!  Vivian was as cute as ever and had gotten a kitchen for Christmas so we played with that for most of the night and all her fake food.  Harrison was such a sweetie, he was always content and happy and I held him as much as I could, fed him, and even changed him!