Seattle Weekend

Me, Nik, Sara and Danny at Pike's Place

I have been in Portland for almost a year and a half and I have not been to Seattle yet. I lived in Seattle for 8 months right out of high school and since I left in 2000, I have not been back. So finally taking the trip to the Emerald City was long over due. Our friends (Danny and Sara) invited us up for the weekend of some city time and spending some time on the Pudget Sound at Danny's family cabin. We went to Pike's Place, ran around Greenlake, crabbed, dug for clams and I remeniced about the old times when I lived in the city. 

Sara and I getting ready for our ferry trip

View from the Bainbridge Ferry of Seattle

After we arrived at Bainbridge Island we drove about 45 minutes North to the tip of a peninsula near Point No Point. Danny's family has had a cabin there for most of his life and he has many great memories of doing all the fun things he and his dad showed us how to do. The view from the cabin faced the Olympic Mountains. When we could see them they were pretty spectacular, but most of the time they were stuck in the clouds. 

Crabbing in the dingy

3 Dungeness Crabs

Nik, Wanda and I enjoying our crab

digging for clams

starfish and sand dollars were plentiful

There were thousands of live sand dollars all over the beach during low tide. We walked around exploring the small tide pools. Crabs, sand dollars, starfish, clams, oysters were just a few. 

Nik's outfit for the weekend

 It wasn't exactly warm and the weather was crummy, but we didn't really notice. We enjoyed ourselves anyway. We had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed spending time with good friends. Danny's parents took good care of us at the cabin. They made all the meals and kept us busy the entire time. They were so sweet and made us feel so welcome. 

Mt. Adams Climb (written by Nik)

I know it may seem odd to be skiing during the month of July in the Northern Hemisphere, but I thought I would share some photos with all of you from the climb and ski of Mount Adams, Washington that I did this past Saturday with my neighbor Dillon and his friends. He was able to take some great photos of the climb up to the top, and decent on our skis of the south chutes.

Erin and I climbed part of Mount Saint Helen's about a month ago, and since then, I have been itching to go to Mount Adams because Dillon kept talking about how great and hard it was.

We started at the trail head at 4:30a.m./3,500 feet and I reached the south summit at 12:30p.m./11,500 feet. It was an extremely hard climb and once I hit about 10,000 feet the elevation started to ware me out. (I don't have those high desert Lungs like I did as a kid) None the less, we made it to the top of the chutes on the south summit and the skiing was amazing. It was very cold and windy, but it was pure and perfect spring corn, and we enjoyed every turn.

Climbing nearly 8,000 feet in a day was a pretty awesome feat, and I can say that it was certainly one of the most challenging things I have every done, especially with a 35 pound bag on my back that had all my water, food, boots and skis!

Near 5,000 feet at sunrise. Looking at the top you can see the sun hitting the eastern side.

Already getting a good workout, we still had 6,500 feet to go.

A great view of Mount Hood to the South.

Spring Corn at its finest. Softening up as we moved along.

A great view of Mount St. Helens to the west as we reached the lunch table at about 6,000 feet.

We've got out work cut out for us!

Getting up there and still climbing.

5 steps up, one minute of hard breathing as we approach 11,000 feet.

I finally made it to the top in 8 hours. 11,500 feet. Long day at work and I was out of breath!

My neighbor Dillon and I at the South (False) Summit at 11,500 feet. Notice Mt. Hood in between us. We are about 250 feet above the peak of Hood.

Finally the Decent. (Yes that is me:) That is what they call "Earning your turns!" Notice Mount St. Helens in the backdrop.

One more just for the heck of it!

Portland Timbers

Our friends the Griffin's invited us to one of the Timbers games in Portland a few nights ago. The Timbers are a soccer team that went pro this year. The stadium they play in used to house the Portland Beavers (baseball), but on the condition that the Timbers went pro they wanted the stadium to themselves. Nik was heart broken, because now there is no Portland AAA baseball, but the town is crazy over the Timbers. All of a sudden Portland is this huge soccer town. Personally, I do get it. I have never really liked soccer, but because we were invited and we hadn't seen our friend's in quite some time, we couldn't turn them down. And, one of their best players actually lives in our building (Cooper), so I had to see what this guy was made of.

The updated soccer stadium actually looked really nice and I had a great time catching up with Jessamyn, Dan and their 13 month old son, Ewan. We had one of the best seats in the house, in a sky box just off the corner of the field.

An American 4th

Nik, Wanda and I took the trip out to Sun Valley this past weekend for the 4th of July. Sarah and Zach kept us nice and busy from the moment we got there on Thursday to the time we left on Tuesday. We hiked, ran, waterskied, went to the rodeo, saw Alison Krause in concert, watched the 4th of July parade, ate hotdogs, had potato sack races, watched the fireworks and best of all got to spend time with our new little nephew the Dax Man. Dax is so precious and sweet. He is already laughing and smiling.

Sarah working on Dax's neck muscles

Spending quality time

Our hike up Proctor

Allison Krause Concert. The boys were so nice to bring us dinner. 

Riding bikes around town was a good way to get around

Sarah waterskiing on Pettit Lake

Me getting in some turns.

Nik enjoying the sun on the beautiful mountain lake

Hailey Rodeo. 

4th of July Parade.  Zach and Dax enjoying the shade and the parade.

Nik hanging with the girls (Wanda and Lucy)

Nik attempting to slack line. We all had a go and it was so hard to balance.

Potato sack races. Only in Idaho!!

The beautiful family we already miss so much!!!

Thanks for everything Latham's. We had so much fun and look forward to the next time we see each other. You guys really know how to host a couple of guests. 

Mount St. Helens Skin

Nik and I had the opportunity to go with a bunch of his friends to hike Mount St Helens on skis. We drove up to the mountain after I got off work on Saturday, where we set up our tent and joined the guys at the campfire for some good ole' camping times. We didn't want to stay up too late, because we had to get up early to start our hike. 

The next morning we got up with the sun to get a fresh start on our ascent ahead. We left the parking lot with our skins attached to our skis and we barely had to walk 100 ft before we were able to put them on and start skinning up the hill. The first part was beautiful. We were below the tree line and it seemed so quite and serene.

Once we got above the tree line the terrain became much steeper and we really had to work hard to make a few slides on the skis. At this point I started to feel a major pressure on my shins. (My boots were given to me when I first came back to skiing a couple years ago. They have worked ok until now). Finally the terrain was so steep we had to take our skis off and hike with our poles in one hand and the skis over our shoulder in the other. This was about half way up the mountain (about 3000 vertical ft) from where we started. Once I took my skis off the pressure was too much to handle. My shins were throbbing and I couldn't handle the pain. Taking steps forward into a steep incline was killing me. I told Nik I was not able to continue and that he should go on. He didn't want to leave me along, so he gave up his ego and helped his injured fiance down the mountain. Skiing down was very difficult on the shins as well. I was practically in tears, but I knew that was the only way I was getting back to the car. I was really bummed we didn't make it and I know Nik was too. We both are competitive people and not achieving something like that struck my ego a bit.

At the bottom we took all of our gear off and headed home. My shins throbbed for most of last week and I wasn't able to wear any socks. I am feeling much better now, and realize I am glad I turned around that day. If I was injured anymore it really could have affected me at work.

While driving home we got a call from our friends, Andrews and Wanda. They invited us out on their boat for the first ride this year. We had to do it. Hiking and skiing in the morning to boating in the afternoon. It was a must! We didn't waterski or do any sports, we just lounged and laid in the sun. It was a perfect way to end such an adventure filled weekend.

Asa Pet of the Month

Look who's the Pet of the Month in our apartment building. Everyone loves our little Wanda!!!

Mom and Ben come to visit!

It is always nice to have family come and visit. This week we were fortunate enough to have Mom and Ben to Portland. I made sure to plan out the days while they were here, so we always had something fun to do. The first couple days the weather constantly threatened to ruin our fun, but we made sure to not let it stop us. The last day they were here the weather was perfect! Many of the activities included a Best of Portland Tour, a movie, trying the many restaurants around town, hiking in Forest Park, going to First Thursday (an evening of activities in our neighborhood) walking, walking and even more walking.

On the tour in downtown Portland

Posing next to the smallest city park in the world... only in Portland
Also in the middle of an intersection

The tour was great because we all learned a lot about the city. There was so many things I didn't know about the place I have been calling home for over a year now. I didn't even care I was the only local on the tour.

Experiencing one of the thousands of Happy Hours in the city

Nik and I love our cities Happy Hours. Cheap food, but always good and worth eating early. Now that Mom and Ben have experienced them they know why we rave about them. We took them to one of our favorites in NW Portland called North 45.

In the lobby of our building

 We joined in on the festivities for First Thursday. This is when the Pearl District's art galleries and some stores open their doors to guests and invite them in with wine and appetizers. We didn't make it very far, because our building was having a party and we enjoyed talking to the neighbors, including Tommy Heath of the band Tommy Tutone. We did however walk the streets and enjoyed the street fair of goods. 

First Thursday

 On Friday it was a beautiful day, so before heading up into the hills for a hike we stopped and had a fantastic breakfast at Besaws (one of our favorite breakfast spots). The hike was gorgeous and the smells made me feel like we were way out in the wilderness. When actually, we were 2 miles from our downtown home.

Hike in Forest Park

We had so much fun with you guys and are so thankful you were able to make the trip. Thank you for everything. We had an amazing time and look forward to the next time.