Halloweenie Weekend!

Last week I took Thursday and Friday off of work. I spent all day Thursday making Ryan a sweet halloween wolf suit (which I now think I need to make many more versions of it because it is sooooo comfy and cute) then Thursday night we picked up Ryan's brother and his girlfriend from the airport so they could play with us all weekend in Seattle! Friday Ryan had to work so the rest of us worked on scaring up a few more costumes. We spent the afternoon/evening wandering around Seattle and finishing up costumes.

Sunday after some tastey pancakes, walking around the waterfront, and some disc golf, it was time for halloween costumes!! I dressed up as little red riding hood, Ryan was a wolf, Aaron was Carl from 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force', and Che-na was a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man. We started out in Fremont where we had already missed all the supposed festivities involved in 'Trollaween'. We ended up visiting the bridge troll where there were still a few costumed stragglers then wandering around Fremont for a little while. There were a lot of people dressed up and walking around, but they weren't really in any particular establishment, so we headed up to Capital Hill, which we knew would make for an interesting night. There were TONS of people dressed up everywhere. Lots and lots of flamboyant males dressed up in skanky outfits. There's a pretty prominent gay bar there, The Cuff, that had a line around the block of people waiting to get in, all males, and all uniquely sparsely dressed. It was quite a sight to see. We bypassed that venue to head to one of our faves, Oddfellows, where we spent most of the rest of the night hanging out and taking in the sights.

Sunday morning we got an extra hour...yay! We took Aaron and Che-na to Tilth, which is a fabulous organic brunch place in a cute little house in Wallingford! It was soooooo good. The rest of the day we enjoyed gasworks park, walked around Seattle Center and did the lovely Space Needle fun (yay for our annual passes!) and picked up some delicious brats from Wholefoods to cook for dinner while enjoying the awesome roof deck. After all the talk about it raining all weekend, it ended up being a really great weekend, maybe even enough to convince some more people to move to Seattle! I had to head back to Oak Harbor Sunday night so I could be up bright and early monday morning for physical training followed by meetings aaaaaaaaaaallllllll day long.

Happy Halloweenie!

Enchantments

[Colchuck Lake from halfway up Aasgard Pass]

We had a seriously intense weekend of hiking this weekend! Andrew (a former co-worker of Ryan's) invited us to join him on a trip through the Enchantment Lakes. It was a really breathtaking set of lakes and worth the trip, but it was also an extremely challenging trek to do in one weekend, especially for me.

We drove out almost to the trail head on Friday night and ended up camping in a drive up campsite off the road. Since it's been getting dark so early lately, we didn't have a whole lot to do once we got there other than set up the tents and get to bed. The site was right next to a river, so it was nice to have the sound of the rushing water put us to sleep. It also made for a nice view to wake up to in the morning! 

[Ryan, Me, and Andrew at Colchuck Lake]

Saturday was a perfect day for hiking, blue skies everywhere! We drove up to the trail head and got started. The first part of the hike was pretty easy going through some great woods and up to Colchuck Lake which was really beautiful. There were several people camped out around that from the day before it seemed. It would be a great place to wake up to as well. We walked around the lake to get to the foot of Aasgard Pass. This is where things got real dicey. I was certainly not prepared for this at all! In order to get to the upper basin of the Enchantments, we had to climb up and over the pass. This was a 2300 ft elevation gain over about a mile, all over granite rocks. It wouldn't have been too bad if we didn't have big packs on our backs and were in a bit of a time crunch to get up and over it before it got too late. Towards the top of the pass there was a good amount of snow and to make it worse, most of the path was covered in ice. Somehow or another I finally made it over, exhausted and frozen. Luckily the views from the top was worth the climb!  This was the first time I've really been on an alpine hike. There were several lakes, lots of snow, lots of rock, and very few plants since it was so high in elevation. We kept hiking around these lakes until it started getting dark. Even then we went for a little while with out head lamps on until we weren't quite sure if we were following the trail anymore and thought it would be better to set up camp and wait till daylight to continue on. It was sooooooo cold!! We found a little flat spot next to a river that would fit our two little tents and cooked up some dinner. As Ryan cooked up some food, I spent about 15 minutes guarding the rest of our food from all the little nice running around. They are relentless! After dinner we called it a night. It was so cold that night that I slept with nearly all of my clothes on.

[Aasgard Pass...I'm supposed to climb to the top of this?!?]

[We made it over the Pass!!! Completely frozen!]

[Campsite #2. Cold but beautiful!]

Since it was already dark when we got to our campsite, it was fascinating to wake up and see what we were camping around. It was so beautiful. We were right next to a river that connected two lakes. So many of the views were unreal, straight out of a fantasy book or something. Unfortunately it was also super cold, and we had to get moving pretty quickly because we had a lot of ground to cover in the second day. We kept on walking, again over a lot of rock and ice, so it was a pretty challenging hike. We passed several more lakes and rivers in the upper basin of the Enchantment before we descended down into the lower basin. The decent on this side was a lot slower of an elevation change than the ascent the day before. After a few hours we were back into the woods and it started to warm up a little bit more. By this time we were in the lower basin of the Enchantments. There were several more lakes and rivers to pass and be awed by. It would definitely be worth it to take a few more days and come back for a longer trip just to soak it all in. We spent the rest of the day at a pretty brisk pace trying to get to the trail head. We were originally planning on going about halfway into the trail and turning around to go back to our car. Instead we decided to hike all the way through to the other end of the trail. Unfortunately that put us about 10 miles away from the trailhead that our car was at. Luckily we were able to find a nice couple who was willing to give one of us a ride to the car to pick it up and come back for the rest of us. It was nice to get back into a nice warm plush car after such an intense weekend.

[What we woke up next to on Sunday]

[The river we slept next to]

[All bundled up!]

[unreal...so pretty.]

[Snow Lake in the lower basin of the Enchantments]

On the way back to Seattle we stopped in Leavenworth. It's a little german town (touristy) in the middle of Washington. It kind of reminded me of Frankemuth in Michigan. We stopped for a little dinner, but didn't walk around too much. It looked like it might be fun to come back for a night or something just to check it out a little more. It was super cheesy and over the top touristy, but looked like I could get a kick out of it for a day. When we finally made it back to Seattle, we were all exhausted and stinky, and it was nice to be home after a great weekend!

Play Time!

Liz and Andrew had stayed in Seattle all week, and this weekend was their last weekend there. Before they left I wanted to do a special dinner with them and our other Seattle Auburn Alumni friends! I had found a coupon in The Stranger (a seattle newspaper) for a little cabaret bar right in the Pike Place Market, Can Can Cabaret. After reading some reviews, I decided we should give it a try. It was a little underground eclectic bar that had a cabaret type show while you were eating. The show that we went to happened to be a bollywood spin on Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was definitely amusing. It reminded me of some shows I went to in Auburn. They have different shows every night and I'd really like to try one out that is more of a comedy or acrobatic thing. One of the best things about this place though was the food! Your ticket price comes with $25 worth of food/drinks included. They had about 6 different kinds of mac and cheese which were amazing. We tried a few different kinds, and I think that alone makes me want to go back to the place! It was sooooo good! I tried a little sample of the three cheese, the gorgonzola and pear, and the chipotle cheddar. AMAZING! It was also just a lot of fun to hang out with the awesome group of Auburnites! Liz and Andrew headed back to Atlanta the next morning, so it was good to see them one last time.

Saturday, after watching a disappointing Auburn football game (again!) we went to a game night birthday party which was a BLAST! I love game nights in general, and this was a really great group of people, mostly Ryan's coworkers. We played Scene-It, which I was pretty terrible at since I can rarely remember movies I've seen or actors' names and such. I think I redeemed myself playing Taboo though. That's definitely one of my favorites, and everyone got really into it. Girls won...of course!

Sunday we went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which I've been wanting to see ever since it came out! It was one of my favorite books when I was little. This was also the first 3D movie I've seen, and it was sooooooo cool! I am definitely a big advocate of seeing every 3D movie that comes out from now on. It was a great movie, especially since I have the sense of humor of a 5 year old, so I thought it was hilarious! It was made even better when the credits rolled and I found out that the monkey, who spoke a whole maybe 5 words, was played by Neil Patrick Harris...awesome. Highly recommended!

We're off like a herd of Canadian Turtles!

This was a very interesting weekend! Saturday morning, Ryan and I got on the ferry bright and early to head towards Victoria, BC. I love being able to do weekend trips to another country. So, it's just Canada, but I still needed to bust out the passport! The ferry was packed with people, mostly runners, heading to Victoria for the Royal Victoria Marathon. The name of the marathon itself just sounds cool! That's why we were heading there too...my first full marathon!! We spent most of the ferry ride consulting the iPhones to keep updated on the Auburn football game. About halfway there though we went into international roaming and it would have been really expensive to keep using it. After dropping off our bags though, we headed straight to a sports bar (the Sticky Wickett...hahaha only in Canada) to watch the rest of the very disappointing game.

A few hours later Liz (a good friend from college), her fiance, and two of her co-workers showed up to join us! The whole reason for this trip was because Liz and I decided back on our girls weekend on the beach that we should do a marathon together, so this was the one that we chose to do. We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening walking around the town, checking out the sights, then loaded up on carbs at a fabulous little italian place. It was getting pretty chilly out, and we ended up getting a table outside so we wouldn't have to wait too long, so the restaurant started handing out snuggies to anyone who wanted them outside. They also had heated toilet seats which I was thoroughly amused by. After dinner we called it a night to rest up for the big runs in the morning. Liz, Andrew, and I were running the full marathon, and Liz's co-workers were running the half marathon. I was planning on waking up around 7am to get ready for the race, but at about 5am I woke up and got really nervous about what I was about to do, and couldn't get anymore sleep. It was an early morning for sure! I think I got a little more energy when I got around all the other people ready to run. The hotel we were staying at (The Fairmont Empress, which was super posh) was close to everything, so we just had to walk around the corner to get to the starting line. After a little warm up run and downing some energy bars and gummies, we were ready to go! Before the race started they had someone sing the canadian national anthem which startled me a little at first as I had forgotten that we were in a different country! It made me giggle a little. Finally we were off...and 4 hours and 45 minutes later we were done! It was perfect weather for a run and the scenery was awesome. When we started, there was a blind lady right in front of us that was running with a guide. How awesome is that to blindly run a marathon?!? In order to entertain myself the whole time, I had downloaded 'The Lost Symbol' to listen to. I think it worked pretty well and kept me at a steady pace the whole time. It all went really well until about the last 6 miles that my legs decided they didn't really want to go any further. So after a painful and slow 6 miles, we were finally done. YAY!

Ryan met me at the finish line and helped me wobble back to the hotel. I've been really bad about cooling down after long runs which usually makes me sick, so this time I just stretched out and took of my shoes to let my tootsies breath and we went for a little walk around town to keep my muscles moving. The rest of the day we all kind of did our own thing to recover from the runs. Lots of resting, eating, and hot tubbing. It felt soooo good and relaxing!

After a good nights sleep Sunday night, we all 6 piled into Liz and Andrew's rental car and headed to the  Butchart Gardens (one of the big attractions around Victoria). It was huge and had a ton of different flowers and plants. Definitely worth a visit. We were all super sore from the day before, so it was a little embarrassing when we had to let significantly older people pass us because we were going to slow down the stairs.

Ryan and I headed back on the ferry Monday night, while the rest of the group stayed on one more night. Unfortunately Ryan had to go into work when we got back late that night and pretty much pulled an all nighter to get some stuff done for Tuesday. What an end to a vacation. I had taken Tuesday off as well, so I had a nice relaxing day to spend in Seattle before heading home. It was an awesome weekend, and it's nice to know that all my running lately finally paid off. We'll see if I get enough energy to try that again anytime soon!

Guilty!

I got to do jury duty for the first time last week! I realize that most people dread doing it, and I'm sure I will next time, but I was excited for my first time. I've been summoned for jury duty a couple of times in Michigan, but I'm always out of the state or country. Out of all the jurors called in, only 6 got to sit for the jury, I was one of them (not for any reason, they just took the front two rows). The trial only lasted the one day, and they guy was obviously guilty...he had the WORST defense lawyer ever! So we found him guilty of a DUI and got it over with quickly. It was an interesting experience.

Last week I discovered the wonder of galettes. They're so easy and versatile to make, so I made a dinner one with lentils, spinach, mushrooms, and feta cooked in red wine. Then for dessert I made a fruit one with strawberries, blackberries, and peaches. Yummm...and leftovers for the next few days.

This past weekend, Aimee, one of Ryan's team mates from Rural Studio came to visit us from London! We're so special :) We did some touristy things, watched some awesome Auburn football, visited some architecture projects, and had some good local foods and brews. Sunday we went outside of the city to do a little hiking. Our main destination was to Snoqualmie Falls. It's the most famous water falls in Washington. It's also the most touristy as we found out. The boardwalk for viewing the falls was under construction, so it ended up being a little anticlimactic. They were nice falls though, but too easy to see. So then we looked up another good hike in the area that took us to Twin Falls. It was a nice easy hike, only about 3 miles, but that was enough to deter a lot of the tourists from swarming the site. It was also nice that it was tucked back into the woods more than the first ones we went to. It was a nice hike with some beautiful falls at the end!

As I'm trying to kill time in Oak Harbor, I baked a few more things this week.

[peanut butter banana muffins]

[my fave m&m cookies]

Holy Deliciousness

Inglorious Basterds was pretty great. We went Friday night and I was a little iffy as to whether or not I would actually be able to stay awake through it, but it definitely kept my attention! I spent a good bit of the movie with my hand in front of my face preparing to avoid the gruesome footage, but I also spend a good part of the movie laughing and the ridiculous lines. Brad (we're on a first name basis) is a phenomenal actor no matter what, but I've become a big fan of these goofy roles that he's been doing lately. Anyway...props to the movie.

We spent a lot of time this weekend looking at new places to live in Seattle. We went to several different apartment buildings to scope them out in search for a slightly larger place without paying much more and also allowing the pup in. We also checked out some other apartments in the same building we're currently in. There's actually a really great studio apartment that is a good bit bigger than the current one and 3 floors up from where we are now but in the same building that we really liked. It has a pretty good sized walk in closet too, which is awesome! So Ryan might be moving apartments in just a couple of weeks! Turns out we could also knock $100 off of our parking fee, which would make the new place about the same price that we had been paying for the old place. Plus the 5th floor is still really new, the new apartment has never been lived in, and the 5th floor isn't very occupied yet so it is amazingly quiet...for now. The only problem being that technically dogs over 25lbs aren't allowed in the building, so we kind of have to hide Tara. Although she doesn't technically live there anyway, so I guess we can't get into too much trouble. So we'll see how it all turns out. We also did a good bit of football watching...War Eagle!

I busted out my crock pot a few weeks ago when I was staying at Ryan's and going to training across the sound. I am often amazed at how easy and successful it is to throw some ingredients into the pot at the beginning of the day, go to work all day, and come home to a cooked meal! A couple of weeks ago I made a great BBQ shredded chicken (it was soooooo moist after cooking all day that it just fell apart with goodness). This weekend I thought I'd try the crock pot again making a great jambalaya with all kind of fresh goodness from the pike place market. Again it was great to throw everything together, then be able to run errands and look and apartments and such and come home to an awesome meal!

Even better then the ease of the lovely crock pot was the deliciousness of crème brulee. I think the last time I tried to make that was several years ago at a RHLO post thanksgiving potluck. It's always been one of my faves so I thought I'd give it another go with some new little crème brulee ramekins that I got a while back. I didn't have any fresh fruit to top it with, but I must say that chocolate shaving will do the trick! Hello delectable!

Climb Every Mountain...

Soooo...we watched The Sound of Music this week...hence the post title (imagine it being sung to the music). Still as fabulous as ever. But the title is also relevant because we climbed a mountain this weekend too! Since it was labor day weekend and we got Monday off as well, Ryan took me on my very first backpacking trip! It was also helpful that REI was having a sale so I could actually get all the appropriate gear for this sort of trip. Now I am fully stocked up and ready to go on many more trips! This weekend was a good starter trip though. We drove up to Oak Harbor Friday night since it was a little closer to our destination in the North Cascades. Saturday morning we finished getting food and such for the trip, got all packed up and headed east into the mountains. We got to the trail head at about 4pm and hiked into the woods a couple of miles to our first campsite. There ended up being a few other backpackers that got there later in the night, but we hardly saw them at all since it was so spread out and wooded. That was also a good thing since I was definitely hugging a tree to relieve myself, so luckily I didn't have any spectators! After a little supper and securing our food from the bears, we bundled up into our little tent to keep warm and played a few games with my awesome Care Bears playing cards. They just make me smile :) It was a little tough sleeping, but we managed. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, it started to rain a little, so we had to close up our little tent flap and wait it out for a little while. It was never really hard rain, but we waited for it to stop so we could make some breakfast and get ready for our next hike. Apparently I wasn't very good at securing my food because I forgot a pack of pitas that was in my front pocket of my pack. Some little mice had a hearty little dinner and chewed up a little bit of the mesh pocket on my brand new pack! At least it wasn't a bear, and I've learned my lesson to double check for any food left in my pack! The plan for the second day was to hike to the top of Stiletto Peak and go along the ridge for a while to get to Stiletto Lake, so that's what we started doing. We hiked up the steep mountain through the woods for a couple hours, taking several breaks to catch our breath and refuel. It felt like it would take forever to get to the top! After a while we got out of the woods into a more grassy area above the tree line. Then we finally made it to the rocky area which lead us to the peak of the mountain! It was really kind of scary at the top since it was a huge drop off on every side! There was a little stone fort with a metal post to indicate the top of the mountain. It felt like a pretty big accomplishment to make it to the top! The view was amazing, although much of it was covered with clouds. At this point it had gotten cold enough to be snowing and the wind was starting to pick up. The plan had been to hike for a while longer along the ridge to the lake, but we got a little nervous about getting back if the snow kept up and covered up our trail! It was also literally freezing at that point, so we decided our best bet was to head back down the mountain where it was a little warmer and a more visible trail. The trip down was MUCH faster and easier! We made it down so fast that we figured we could even make it out of the woods and back to the car before it got completely dark. Since it was pretty wet and rainy and there weren't really any good places to set up a tent, we figured that was our best bet at that point, so we booked it back to the car. We were both soaked and frozen when we got there, so it felt good to get out of wet clothes and pump up the heat! We still had about a 4 hour drive to get back to Seattle, so the day wasn't over quite yet.
Once we finally got back, we made a huge mess laying out all the gear to dry and clean off. Luckily we still had Monday off, which ended up being a good thing so we had time to relax and clean up after the weekend. It was a really great first backpacking trip for me though, even if it was cold and rainy. I got to climb a mountain! I know there are a ton of other awesome trails to explore around here too, so I'm excited that I am well equipped now, and can't wait to try it all out again!!