Summer’s End Risotto

The week sure started off cold and gloomy. Waking up on Monday was one of those days where all you want to do is stay in bed. The weather was grey and chilly, and not inspiring at all, but finally towards the end of this week things cleared up and we are supposed to hit 75 today! Woohoo, one last dose of summer?

This weekend is going to be awesome. Matt managed to get off both Saturday and Sunday from work (yay!) and we are going to my friend Ellie’s wedding in Harrison, ID (double yay!). Tomorrow morning we are going to head out on a real road trip, two whole days away from the city armed with homemade blueberry muffins, some iPOD playlists, and two whole days to spend together…awesome! The wedding is at 4:00 on Saturday, and we are going to stay in a cool little B&B in Harrison that I booked a few months ago. This is going to be so much fun.

Since I stopped training for the marathon, I started getting back in the pool more (not nearly often enough, but I am getting in!). I love swimming in the outdoor, 50m saltwater pool in West Seattle. Too bad it is not open for much longer this season. I have also been coaching swimming, giving private lessons to one of the women I trained with prepping her for her first triathlon. I love coaching. I love to teach. Getting paid for it is pretty sweet too. Last night we had a lesson in Lynnwood and she has improved so much.

When I got back from the lesson Matt and I made scallop and shrimp risotto. Yum. He is a really good cook and I like playing sous chef. Now it is my turn to come up with a menu for dinner tonight…we should register for dance lessons too. That has been on our to-do list for a while now.

Girls Weekend

What happens when you get 5 girls together for a week of fun? Giggles, smiles, and crazy times! This past week my 5 cousins ages 13, 12, 11, 8 and 5 were visiting my parents in Ferndale. A week with Aunt Teri and Uncle Billy! Well, of course my dad gets called out of town on business so it was really house just full of girls. My mom carted them from one fun activity to the next: water slides, tide pools, tea parties, you name it! I was jealous enough that I took Friday off of work to hang out with them on their day trip to Port Townsend. I barely make the ferry as I careened into the parking lot minutes before it left. We went to Fort Warden for a picnic, then the marine exhibit, and finally back to Don’s Drugstore for ice cream sundae’s in the soda fountain! Great day. On the way home I stopped at Ross and had somewhat of a dress shopping spree…really fun and I found some good work and play dresses!

Saturday we woke up to another hot and sunny day and headed for the hills…literally! We loaded up the van with sleds and lunch and went up to Artist’s Point on Mt. Baker. Sledding in 80 degree weather!? Yes please! It was awesome. Then we hiked the Table Mountain trail for a stunning view of the valley and peaks around us. It is hard to compete with days and places like this. When we got down to sea level again we headed for the beach for a crab cookout. We got 7 beautiful Dungeness crab to go with our corn, baked beans and salad on the beach. My littlest cousin Genevieve really liked learning to kill the crabs…hummmm. Should we be worried? We made a bonfire and roasted marshmallows, and were treated to a brilliant clear night sky full of stars. We watched for satellites and the moon set was breathtaking. Snow, mountains, beach and a sunset and a moonset all in one day?! I love living in WA.

Beach Nirvana

There is not much that beats a camping weekend at the coast with your best friend. Jenny and I peeled out of Seattle around noon on Friday to drive over to Rialto Beach on the Olympic Peninsula. Since the Port Townsend ferry is using a small boat, we decided to take the long way…50 extra miles but no ferries to contend with. Friday afternoon traffic in the summer is always bad on 1-5, especially when we know that we need to get to Mora in time to find a campsite. We stopped for lunch at Trader Joes in Olympia, realized we forgot a tarp and pillows so then stopped in Aberdeen for those, and finally made it up to Mora just after 6 o’clock to snag one of the remaining 3 sites. Phew. Huge sigh of relief. We pitched my tent (first time using it!) and got dinner set up. Jenny made spaghetti for the first night and it was really good. We popped a bottle of champagne to toast to our friendship and Jenny’s birthday…of course that did not go as planned either…the cork broke when we popped it and so had to attach the bottle with a knife, effectively getting everything sticky. We drank our champagne out of thermos mugs…classy camping style. I think we just really needed to catch up and back away from our busy lives in Seattle. We talked and talked and talked…campfires are great to talk around. We slept so soundly after all that talking and driving. We both needed it.

Saturday morning we slept in till almost 10, and then went to the beach to hike down to Hole in the Wall. The air was cool and it was totally fogged in. We made it to the Hole, climbed around on some rocks, found some cool wood for Jenny to take home to Brian, and then camped out for lunch on a huge log. Just when we started to eat the sun came out. Rialto is beautiful all the time, but when the sun comes out, it is breathtaking. We totally lucked out with our afternoon of sunshine. Jenny and I went back to the car to grab our swimsuits and went to the beach to catch some rays. As soon as the sun went behind the fog we were back in sweats and headed to Mora to cook dinner #2: chicken kabobs over the fire! Matt had helped me cut up all the veggies and chicken so it was a pretty easy but really yummy meal. We bought a six pack of Drifter to go with our kabobs and then realized that we did not bring a bottle opener. That led us to ask out Husky neighbors (painful for a Coug to do…) to borrow one and he ended up teaching us a really great trick…the metal latch in the car door is a perfect bottle opener! Brilliant! We roasted some massive marshmallows to make s’mores then curled into our sleeping bags for another good nights sleep.

10am Sunday morning we crawled out of the tent, broke camp, and headed to the beach for a half hour of chilly pondering. I love sitting next to the ocean, just listening to the waves and letting thoughts pass through my mind. It is so relaxing and that is what I needed. I found a huge log jutting out over the sand and climbed up to sit on the end of it. Total relaxation. Rialto beach is seriously my favorite place to escape. We are so lucky to have it so close.

When we got cold Jenny and I hopped back in the car for the long trek home. Traffic in Olympia was horrible but I made it back around 5 and stopped in the Fish Company to surprise Matt and say hi. That was pretty fun, I like going in there and he likes showing me off. I went home to clean my camping gear, air out the tent, and see my poor neglected kitty cat. Then I went over to Matt’s for dinner…he made really good halibut cakes from the shop. Yum. Phew, long great weekend. I am heading home for the next 3 so August is just going to fly by. I am making a point to enjoy every second of it.

Road Trip to Rialto Beach

• Tent…check
• Sleeping bag…check
• Garbanzo bean cake…almost check

 I am off on a weekend camping trip with my best friend! Jenny and I are staying true to our routine and heading out to Rialto Beach on the Olympic Peninsula tomorrow afternoon. I can’t wait. We did not think that we would be able to make it all the way out to Riatlo, but bit the bullet and put in extra hours this week so that Friday we could scoot out of the office for the drive. We are each in charge of one dinner, and I am making Jenny a garbanzo bean chocolate cake (one of our favorite recipes ever!) for her birthday which was on Wednesday. Road trip here we come!

 This week has been busy (what’s new?) with work and lots of fun stuff going on. Tuesday night Matt and I went dancing in the park, a free Blues lesson and 2 hour social dance, it was a ton of fun. I love all the outdoor stuff happening in Seattle in the summer. Last night was the TNT halfway party so I got to hang out with all my teammates. I miss seeing them at practice, and it was good to catch up now that I am no longer running.

 It has been so hot during the day that I have just been leaving my screen door open at night to sleep in the cool summer air. Alki likes it too…glad she has not figured out how to scratch the screen yet. This afternoon I am off to the store to pick up a few last minute camping supplies, packing the car and then getting a good night sleep before heading to Rialto tomorrow!

Ski to Sea 2010

DBOM Squad vs. SODOlicious

We put together two teams at work for this year’s Ski to Sea race in Bellingham. Most of my teammates crashed at my parent’s house for the weekend and it was a blast! This was my 4th Ski to Sea race, but this time I tried a new leg…the cross country ski. It was so much fun being on the mountain and hearing the dynamite start for the race. The course was good, and it was a beautiful day. I kicked butt going up hills (all the marathon training paying off!). However I ran into some problems when my left boot broke about 2/3 of the way through the course. I had to limp/ski my way back to the finish line and lost a lot of ground. The rest of the team (DBOM Squad) made it up though, and we ended up finishing 162nd out of 450+ teams. And we beat SODOlicious! Awesome weekend! It is really fun having so many cool coworkers who will go out and do these sorts of things. We are stoked for next year, and have plans to do even better during the 100th anniversary!

Tour de Alaska!

I have been on the road and sea with my parents and grandma for the past 9 days touring around the state of Alaska. We started with a cruise from Vancouver, BC on the Coral Princess. We saw Skagaway, Ketchikan, Juneau, Glacier Bay and College Fjord before disembarking in Whittier. We saw whales, the old gold rush trails, lots of Alaskan fishing boats, and my favorite, the glaciers. Glacier Bay was awesome. Calving glaciers sending huge chunks of ice cascading into the icy water. Beautiful weather the whole trip, we really could not have asked for better. It has been between 60 and 75 every day, with glorious sunshine. We even ran into two of my high school friends who are driving tour busses in Juneau…walked off the boat and there they were! Totally unexpected…I knew they worked there but never dreamed I would actually run into them!

The cruise itself was fun, rather lacking in passengers my age which was a bummer, but I still had fun. People knew me all around the ship after I got hypnotized one night at the show. Joy. We would go out dancing in the evenings, I even got mom and dad to dance one night! We had a blast. I hung out with some of the cruise staff who were my age and that was fun. And of course we had way too much really good food.

Now we are on our land tour through Fairbanks, Denali and Anchorage, aka: lots of time in the car. Fairbanks we hung out with one of Troy’s old boyscout buddies, Josh, who is driving busses for Princess this summer up here. We got our own personal tour of this no-so-exciting place. Glad we saw it though. We went to the town of North Pole and were slightly disturbed with all the santa and candy cane paraphernalia around town.

Today we were in Denali, taking the green school bus tour of the park. It really is much more spectacular when you drive in. It was again a beautiful clear sunny day, and we saw moose, bears, caribou, fox, hares, and dall sheep. Things are just starting to bud out now, so it was still pretty barren looking. This park was not really what I expected (well neither is AK for that matter), not bad, just different from what I had pictured. I expected to be absolutely blown away. It is pretty, but I think we are spoiled living in Washington and so this is nothing too out of the norm. I think the cruise is defiantly the way to go, the AK coastline is far more impressive than the land in my opinion. It has been a great trip though. I am not ready to get back to work on wednesday…

Wipe Out at Hyak

[Cue Wallace and Grommit music] That was what was going through my head the whole day cross country skiing at Hyak (Snoqualmie) today. Swooshing up and down hills in the sunshine reminded me of that weird refrigerator alien in that Wallace teaches to ski on the moon. If you have never seen it you are missing out.

Anyway, this morning I woke up to a beautiful clear Washington morning, sunshine streaming in a little more than usual just because of daylight savings time. I threw on my warm clothes and headed for the mountains. Snoqualmie Pass has a nordic ski park at the Hyak exit, so I headed there for a day of solo skiing adventure. On my first downhill section I totally wiped out. It shook me enough to where I was seriously considering just doing some easy green loops and calling it a day. Hills and me on cross country skis were not a pretty pair. I made it successfully (enough) to the main intersection of trails and was looking at a map when I started chatting with two older women that had been on the ski shuttle with me. They invited me to join them, and so we ended up skiing together for the rest of the day. They gave me some great pointers and by the end I was able to make it down most of the hills in much more control. Yes, there were still some complete wipe out spills but I am much better than that first discouraging run of the day. We were out there for almost 4 hours, exploring all sorts of trails with beautiful views of the Cascades. We stopped for lunch and during our chatting time, one of the women, Lee, and I realized that we had actually met at a beach cleanup earlier this year! Small world! She works at the Re-Store in Bellingham and was just down for the weekend. Small, small world. She has done the cross country leg of Ski to Sea, and was giving me some insight in to that race as well. It was so much more fun skiing with these women than being out there alone all day. It always amazes me how welcoming people are.

I was exhausted by the end of the day. Tired feet and legs, but really glad I made the effort to get out and enjoy the day. I am making an attempt at a turkey meat loaf, it is baking right now but I think I added too many veggies because it was not staying together very well. Regardless, it should taste yummy! Baked potato, meatloaf, broccoli and movie with my kitty cat, great way to wrap up the weekend!

Cider Pressing

When life gives you apples, you make apple cider. Well, in our case, when you grandfather gives you an antique cider press (circa 1869), you rebuild it, find apples, and make cider! I celebrated Halloween and my 23rd birthday at my parents house with a group of friends pressing cider. 55 gallons worth actually. It has been raining all week, torrential downpours that really made you wish you had an umbrella (I am a big believer in being a “real” Washingtonian and not using one, but am about to give in. Well, we woke up Saturday to sunshine and a clear fall day! Perfect weather for pressing cider! My mom and I spent the morning cooking (black forest birthday cake, turkey, carrot puff, bean soup, ribs and smoked pork…it was a harvest feast!) and then headed outside to press cider. We had so many good friends come over for the afternoon, parents friends, my college friend Katharine, Ben and Kelly came up from Seattle, my favorite science teacher from 7th grade, the Seck family, Dentingers, Burdicks, it was a great group. We ate and pressed cider until after dark, turning out back patio into a sticky, apply mess, but filling gallon after gallon jug with beautiful, clear brown cider. It is so good, especially hot when you have chilly hands! That night The young crowd made a fire out in the fire pit and hung out there till almost 11 (39 degrees finally got to us and we came inside to escape the cold). It was a great 23rd birthday party.

New development: I am signing the lease on a new apartment! I found one about 2 miles from my current place, also right on the water but not a beach. It is a great little place in the basement of a house, complete with deck and patio and a breathtaking view of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound. I am signing papers today and should be moving in a week or two. I cannot wait to have my own place! I am so ready.

23 is going to be a good year. Each one just seems to get better and better. It will be exciting to see what adventures this one brings.

Weekend in Ferndale

I decided to go home this weekend and help my parents do some manual labor (ok, really I decided to go home and got roped into doing manual labor…that is more accurate). I left Seattle around 6:30 on Saturday morning and had a beautiful drive up to Ferndale. I got there just as mom and dad were getting up and so after breakfast we loaded up into the truck to go get a load of firewood. It feels pretty cool going and getting your heat source for the winter. My parents heat their house with wood and never even have to turn on the heat (ok, another inaccuracy: they DO need to turn it on sometimes but they DON’T…yes, their house is freezing in the winter. No wonder everyone lives in the living room within 15 feet of the fire all season.) We got wood then ran errands around town. We grandma and my friend Daniel over for dinner…complete with an amazing fresh apple pie for dessert. We have so many apples at home and they are all amazing. It is fun walking around the orchard and trying each different kind. We also cleaned out all the miscellaneous building crap that was all around the driveway. We had a massive bonfire and burned all sorts of rotting boards. It feels good to tackle a manageable project that will really make an obvious difference. My parents really need to get a barn. My idea was to have a barn raising party next spring and get one up.

Speaking of apples, we decided to have a harvest party in honor of the cider press that dad is refinishing (better get it done quick!) on Halloween weekend. It will be fun to have people over to press cider all day and hang out and carve pumpkins. I am hopefully going to have some of my Seattle friends come up too. Good way to celebrate my birthday as well!

Sunday I went to my friend Kelsey’s bridal shower. It was the first one I have ever been to, and it was really fun. She had it at Camp Casey, the old military fort down on Whidbey Island…beautiful day looking out from an old fancy house on the cliffs going down to the Sound. Absolutely beautiful. It was fun to catch up with girls I have not seen in year. Two have babies about 2 months old now…it is strange being in this time of life when some people are in school, some are moms, some are just getting married, some have no plans at all, some are living at home and doing nothing…everyone is going in a different direction. I have to say I am pretty happy where my early 20s have put me.

One Final Blast of Summer

Late summer gives us Washintonians some beautiful days. Today is already warm and sunny, just waiting for everyone to get outside. It was a long week at work, but I am not very stressed, probably mostly because iv the fact that my roommate is out of town and I know that I will be coming home to a clean apartment and not taking 45 minutes to clean every time I walk in the door. It makes my evenings much more relaxing.

On Thursday evening I met up with my best friend Jenny and her boyfriend Brian for the Weezer/Blink-182 concert. It was really fun and a beautiful night for an outdoor venue. We watched Mt. Rainer in the evening sun and then stars come out with a bright orange moon. Good night.

Today I am headed for Quest field in Seattle for the WSU vs Hawaii football game with a group of friends from college. Should be a great day for a game. I am planning to take the water taxi over and walk to the stadium.

No plans for tomorrow as of yet. I may try to find a hike somewhere and enjoy the last bit of this amazing pacific northwest summer.