Let me tell you how that East Coast storm (Pax? Can’t keep track of these stupid names!) affected us all the way in CO on Wednesday. 9am – Find out our friends’ (Fire Marshall Mac & Alex) flight from DC on Thurs is cancelled and they can’t get rescheduled until the 16th. Their visit is…
I suppose this could be in the interest of “Throwback Thursday,” but J & I are always reflecting on the awesome summer we had and I realized I never shared some of the best scenes from the road. When you drive 30,000 miles through 37 states over the course of 5 months, you are bound…
We have spent a number of Christmases with my family, but with that niece and nephew getting older and outgrowing the jolly obese guy in a red suit, we are switching sides. Especially because there’s this guy (nephew on J’s side) and he has lots of years to believe in S. Claus. Lil E definitely…
Well, we survived our almost 2 months in NJ. I say “survived” because J should really be granted sainthood for holing up with his in-laws in a box no more than 660 square feet. No one should have to do that in their life. I had to laugh at last night’s Saturday Night Live skit…
Cliche or not, I would like to jump on the bandwagon (albeit a few days too late) and tell you what I am most thankful for this year. Well, besides the obvious thankfulness for surviving my blood clots in my lungs, that is. I am most thankful for y’all. This summer while we traversed the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 ……
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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)…
… 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…
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.…
We are leaving Colorado tomorrow to head to Rainier!!!!!!!! Our summit climb attempt is July 25-29!!!!!!!! Overuse of exclamation points is meant to express my trepidation!!! Just do us a favor and think of us specifically on Sunday morning when you are sitting comfortably in your home and drinking your coffee … because hopefully we…