Saturdays in the summer mean a trip to the Magnolia farmers market. They have great fruits, veggies, and flowers, but our favorite destination is the crepe stand!
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Sent from my Blackberry
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Crepes at the Farmers Market
Friday, July 25, 2008
Summer = Hiking
It's been a while since my last post (have I started all my posts lately with those words??), and while I wish I could say it's because I've been off hiking for the last 3 weeks, really my life has been mostly filled with work. I have managed to fit several great hikes (and a quick trip to Las Vegas) in on my weekends however. Here are a few shots to showcase the country I've been exploring this month:
This is a view from the Denny Creek trail, while enroute to Lake Melakwa . I did this hike with my friend Kristie, from NYC. We were headed for the lake, but turned back 2 miles from it after losing the trail in the snow several times. I had strange flashbacks of my attempt to summit Mt. Whitney 2 months earlier!
Makayla and I hiked Mt. Si, a small peak just outside of Seattle. It's so convenient, and so popular, that people will even hike it after work. It's a fairly brutal 4 miles and 3100' from parking lot to summit.
The next weekend we hiked in a slightly more exotic locale...the Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas. We hiked a trail with similar distance and elevation to Mt. Si, but very different scenery. This is a picture of us at the top of Turtlehead Peak.
Our destination, Turtlehead Peak, in the background.
Just last weekend we hiked to Granite Mountain, part of the Alpine Lakes network of trails. The trail was fairly busy since it was a beautiful day, but the views were absolutely worth it! Above is our first view of Mt. Rainier in the distance.
Our goal is the lookout at the top of the peak. The last stretch of trail was in snow and rocks, and very steep. It was challenging!
...but totally worth it! Mt. Rainier again..
I can't walk through snow and pass up an opportunity to go sledding! Believe it or not, there is a technical term for the act of sliding down the snow on your butt: glissading! (Though wikipedia seems to think glissade is a ballet term...ridiculous!)
So those are the highlights of the last few weeks. Who says summers in Seattle aren't fun?!
This is a view from the Denny Creek trail, while enroute to Lake Melakwa . I did this hike with my friend Kristie, from NYC. We were headed for the lake, but turned back 2 miles from it after losing the trail in the snow several times. I had strange flashbacks of my attempt to summit Mt. Whitney 2 months earlier!
Makayla and I hiked Mt. Si, a small peak just outside of Seattle. It's so convenient, and so popular, that people will even hike it after work. It's a fairly brutal 4 miles and 3100' from parking lot to summit.
The next weekend we hiked in a slightly more exotic locale...the Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas. We hiked a trail with similar distance and elevation to Mt. Si, but very different scenery. This is a picture of us at the top of Turtlehead Peak.
Our destination, Turtlehead Peak, in the background.
Just last weekend we hiked to Granite Mountain, part of the Alpine Lakes network of trails. The trail was fairly busy since it was a beautiful day, but the views were absolutely worth it! Above is our first view of Mt. Rainier in the distance.
Our goal is the lookout at the top of the peak. The last stretch of trail was in snow and rocks, and very steep. It was challenging!
...but totally worth it! Mt. Rainier again..
I can't walk through snow and pass up an opportunity to go sledding! Believe it or not, there is a technical term for the act of sliding down the snow on your butt: glissading! (Though wikipedia seems to think glissade is a ballet term...ridiculous!)
So those are the highlights of the last few weeks. Who says summers in Seattle aren't fun?!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July!
Despite being half Brit I'm completely embracing Independance Day...its a paid day off, who wouldn't??! :-)
The kids and I are down at the Sculpture Garden and Mrytle Edwards park, where the city is having a day of festivities, including live music. Thunderstorms are forecast for later today, but its nice right now!
Cheers, Rich
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Sent from my Berry
Monday, June 30, 2008
Summer in Seattle
It was 80F today, so the kids and I got ice cream and then decided to cool off in a local creek, called Wallace Swamp Creek. A perfect evening!
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Sent from my Berry
Proud Owner of a 3 Year Old
Yes, indeed. Bennet turned 3last weekend, and we celebrated in style. I'm still a little in shock that he is 3, but he's so much fun I can't complain too much about how fast he's grown up. You'll notice the dinosaurs in the picture...calling Ben obsessed with dinos might actually be an understatement! In fact, just today we rocked out to a dinosaur soundtrack that Jodi was kind enough to lend me. I'm wondering what's next??
It turned out to be a perfect day to be outdoors, so I made a last minute decision to move the party outside. There's a great park near my house called Ella Bailey which has gorgeous views of the city, a brand new play area, and a huge grass field, plus multiple picnic tables.
Bennet and his cousin Aidan got some frisbee time while I was grilling the dogs...
Jason is getting educated on all the dinosaur names by Bennet. :-) I let him play with the cake toppers before putting them on the cake.
The wind picked up right at cake time..so it was a team effort to get that candle lit!
Success! The candle stayed lit (the second time) long enough for Bennet to blow it out. Woo hoo!
Lucky I've got helpers (thanks Makayla & Lara)! We're serving up home made cake (chocolate with chocolate, Ben's request) and triple chocolate ice cream (also chosen by Ben).
Bennet (and I) have so many ladies in our lives.....
And here is a kid that is so happy to be 3!!! Happy Birthday Bennet!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Cannonball Run
The mission: Drive friend Makayla's BMW 330xi from Chicago to Seattle.
Constraints: Can't leave before 12pm Monday morning (when the moving truck gets packed and goods signed for). Have to get to Seattle by 12pm for my 1230p doctor's appoint.
Can we do it??!! So far, so good! We departed an hour early yesterday from Chicago..about 11am. We promptly burned up that extra hour by sitting in TONS on construction traffic. My earlier Google searches for I-94 construction failed to yield complete results. Doh! So we began falling behind schedule...it looked like we had a lot of miles to make up and little time to do it! Finally in Minnesota we broke loose of the construction and made up some time on the way to Minneapolis. Unfortunately we hit Minneapolis right at rush-hour so were once again slowed. We stopped for coffee, Caribou Coffee of course!, I called into a meeting, and we got back on the road. From Minneaplolis to Fargo we averaged a solid 95mph (I love German engineering) and steadily made up ground. We gave some back by stopping for dinner in Fargo (not on my original plan), but decided to push for another 200 miles before bedtime. We left Fargo at about 10p, and rolled into the town of Bismark right around midnight. Sweet!
Accomplishments yesterday: 4 states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota). Hours of sustained speeds north of 100mph, 857 miles traveled, multiple cups of coffee, and no less than 12 Harley Davidson store sightings!
On the books for today: Wrap up ND, cross Montana, Idaho, and enter Washington. About 1,000 miles, test the speed limiter on the BMW, and find the Starbucks off of Exit 157!
Why did I title this post "Cannonball Run"? There was a great movie made back in the early 80's about an illegal cross-country road race with that title: link
Cheers from North Dakota...
Constraints: Can't leave before 12pm Monday morning (when the moving truck gets packed and goods signed for). Have to get to Seattle by 12pm for my 1230p doctor's appoint.
Can we do it??!! So far, so good! We departed an hour early yesterday from Chicago..about 11am. We promptly burned up that extra hour by sitting in TONS on construction traffic. My earlier Google searches for I-94 construction failed to yield complete results. Doh! So we began falling behind schedule...it looked like we had a lot of miles to make up and little time to do it! Finally in Minnesota we broke loose of the construction and made up some time on the way to Minneapolis. Unfortunately we hit Minneapolis right at rush-hour so were once again slowed. We stopped for coffee, Caribou Coffee of course!, I called into a meeting, and we got back on the road. From Minneaplolis to Fargo we averaged a solid 95mph (I love German engineering) and steadily made up ground. We gave some back by stopping for dinner in Fargo (not on my original plan), but decided to push for another 200 miles before bedtime. We left Fargo at about 10p, and rolled into the town of Bismark right around midnight. Sweet!
Accomplishments yesterday: 4 states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota). Hours of sustained speeds north of 100mph, 857 miles traveled, multiple cups of coffee, and no less than 12 Harley Davidson store sightings!
On the books for today: Wrap up ND, cross Montana, Idaho, and enter Washington. About 1,000 miles, test the speed limiter on the BMW, and find the Starbucks off of Exit 157!
Why did I title this post "Cannonball Run"? There was a great movie made back in the early 80's about an illegal cross-country road race with that title: link
Cheers from North Dakota...
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