Recovery
Have no fear, I am on the mend. At first, it was slowly. Too slow for my liking. It is not easy, nor fun, to go from 90 MPH to 5 MPH. But, this week has been a new week and every day I feel a little better. J said he is almost ready to…
We are celebrating our 7-year itch in a unique way
On Monday, J & I hit 7 years of marriage. How do most people celebrate their anniversaries? Dinner date, movies, maybe even a weekend getaway somewhere. But, we like to live a life less ordinary, so we settled for a hospital admission for a life-threatening condition called pulmonary embolism (PE). I had this whole blog…
Eastbound
Our Colorado time culminated with a James Buuuuffet concert. My 5th, J’s 14th. One of the main reasons I go to JB is for the tailgating entertainment. Plus, Jamie/SIL Adventure and Rachel/DocDoc had never been, so taking newbies is always a treat. Since they had to work (damn those people with real jobs), we couldn’t…
Strike a pose!
Back when we started our contract with BP, we got an e-mail from our boss asking if we were available for a photo shoot on July 19. Of course we complied, thinking it was probably related to the tour. As the photo shoot got closer, we received the contract and were surprised to see so…
10 days in Colorado … 10 things we have done
We’ve been in Colorado for 10 days now. And in no particular order, here are 10 highlights of our time here so far. 1) J’s Bday We celebrated J’s bday with football watching (that is a Sunday tradition regardless) and a home-cooked dinner and Rum Cake made by Rachel/DocDoc with some friends. 2) Speaking of…
Bucket List Item Checked …
We now have Phil Keoghan on speed dial. Okay, that’s a little of a stretch, but it was really fun to be chummy with Phil for a day. Earlier in the afternoon, we met Phil only briefly before our presentation, and thankfully, I don’t think I showed how star struck I was. Then the evening…
You TOO can see our presentation!
All summer long, friends and family asked if we would be coming to a town near them because they wanted to see us present (or maybe they just wanted a chance to win cool prizes). Well, the good news is if you are free Tuesday evening at 8:30pm EST, you can watch our presentation LIVE…
Happy birthday J!!!
First of all, happy birthday to my old man!! For the many, many years, he would tell people he was 22 when they asked his age. Lately, he’s been saying 31. Getting closer to his real age, but still in denial! J shares his bday with a number of our friends and friend’s kids ……
Saying Goodbye to the “Bu”
I love those stories about being in the right place at the right time. But this is a story about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In March 2012, we bought our bright blue, shiny Malibu. It got me to and from my The Job I Loathed for 6 months, then it…
Highpoint #34 – Mount Whitney in California
Our whole summer has been speckled with spur-of-the-moment decisions and seizing the opportunity because we’re there. This weekend was no different. We had 2-3 days in southeastern California and wondered what to do. We knew we couldn’t hit the high point of Nevada even though we were driving RIGHT BY IT because the 14-mile road…
Hot Texas
There are only a few places this summer where we stayed for more than a few days. Texas was one of them. 10 hot days. I lost 2.5 lbs just by breathing in Texas. Thursday, it finally rained in Texas (yeah for them!) and Friday, as we were driving the last bit of the Longest…
From the Northwest to the Southwest
We’ve traded in coniferous trees and high-alpine lakes in the Pacific Northwest high country for barren landscapes and prickly cacti in the Southwest. We had forgotten how HOT it is in the Southwest, even though it is approaching “fall,” but we’re still hiking! Lately, we’ve had local “guides” on our hikes. In New Mexico, we…
High Points #32 & #33
We knocked off 2 more high points as we have been making our way to the Southwest … this makes 7 for this year! With 17 left, you’d think we were in the home stretch. But many of the high points left are daunting with their elevation and difficulty … and we know how I…
One Last Shout Out to the Pac NW!
As I said in my last blog post, our time in the Pacific Northwest was wrapping up. But I couldn’t go without one last blast of pictures from Crater Lake National Park in Oregon because this place is too good to be true. Almost as unbelievable as its beauty is its formation. Something like 7,000…
Washington: An Education in Ecosystems
I love Washington … always have. How could you not love a state with such diverse ecosystems? We have been lucky enough to come to Washington 3 different times this year and get to really experience its diversity. You already heard about our experience in the alpine ecosystem up on Rainier. But to get the…
Visiting Film Locations
I’m going to switch gears from backpacking to pure road tripping in this post. In our travels during the last few weeks, we’ve stumbled onto a few cinematic hot spots. Admittedly, they are not the coolest of movie locations, but you can still geek out and get excited. Astoria, Oregon Location for: The Goonies (1985)…
When in Oregon …
… you have to stop and smell the roses, literally and figuratively. The last couple of days have been splendid. We have been staying at University of Portland’s Holy Cross Court, mostly apartments for priests, but we have our connections. UP is a pretty sweet campus, set far enough from the city in that there is…
Adventures in Idaho
We just spent the last week exploring Idaho. For those of you thinking Idaho is not so cool of a state, think again. It is way cool. This state is covered more by national forest and wilderness land than anything else. The state even survived a mysterious volcano and earthquake, so brownie points for that.…
Civilmony
It seems like we have been jetting all over west these days. We went from Mt. Rainier (climbing) to Salt Lake City (Outdoor Retailer Trade Show) to Denver (Civilmony Celebration) to Idaho Falls (Event #9). While all of these events were cool for their own reason, I am only highlighting one of them: Jamie/SILAdventure and…
It’s not easy to get to the top of the world
I’ve always said it is about the journey, not the destination, and this is certainly true for my experience on Mount Rainier! As you all probably know by now, J successfully summited, along with Fire Marshall Mac. In J’s words, it was the most difficult outdoor recreation thing he ever attempted–even frightening at times–but he…