This was a week filled with anxiety, frustration, and finally, thankfully, celebration. Andy and I, and much of the rest of this country, have been waiting four years for this particular celebration, and Saturday morning when we woke to the news that the Associated Press had officially called the election for Biden, I immediately climbed out of bed and popped open a bottle of sparkling wine. Not the same bottle from four years ago (bubbles don’t last that long around here) but close enough. And it turns out that celebrating Kamala Harris as our first woman of colors, first daughter of immigrants, first so many other things vice-president felt just as good as I’d expected celebrating a win for Hillary in 2016 to feel. After a year where so little has gone as anyone has expected or wanted, it felt so good, for once, to have something to celebrate.
Read moreLife: Week 48
After a year full of epic adventures with Alpine Trails Book Club, Ashley and I decided to end the year with a low-key get together, especially since December can be such a hectic month. Last fall, the two of us had spent a relaxing day walking through Seward Park, followed by brunch and some book browsing at the Seward Park Third Place Books, and we agreed that a repeat of that trip would be the perfect outing for our group. I gave my friend Ingunn a ride into the city, and as we waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, we were confused to find flowers blooming abundantly as if it were early May and not early December. We even spotted a few hummingbirds darting between the flowers. Even after the group arrived, we took our time swapping stories of recent travels and plans for the holidays before setting off on our short loop around the park. After our walk, there was still plenty to discuss over an absolutely delicious brunch before it was time to head home with a pile of new reading material. I can never resist picking up a least one new book when I’m in a local bookstore!
Read moreLife: Week 43
Whidbey Island is my favorite place to be in stormy weather. Sheltered in the warm and cozy in the cabin, I can watch as the sea and sky both turn a steely grey, and rain and wind lash the windows. Luckily for me, we had perfect stormy fall weather on our last minute weekend trip to the island. Before heading to the cabin, we stopped in Langley for coffee and some bookstore browsing, and I picked up the perfect weekend reading material. For the first time I can remember, we hadn’t packed a ridiculous amount of food, and we wound up having a dinner of chips, salsa, and breakfast sausages. Oh, and plenty of red wine. Not sure what we’d been thinking when we packed food for the weekend, but we survived!
Read moreBagley Lakes
I think it’s safe to call the group of adventurous ladies who showed up on a brisk, damp morning are all pluviophiles. For the first time, our book club was joined by the author of our book for the month, and the clouds had descended to accompany author Maria Mudd Ruth on our hike. We’d originally planned a longer hike of the Chain Lakes loop, but as our group gathered at the Bagley Lakes trailhead, with icy wind blowing rain at us from every direction, we quickly made the decision to opt for a shorter loop around Bagley Lakes.
Read moreLife: Week 20
In a stressful and overwhelming spring, with many long days spent alone in my stuffy home office, Alpine Trails Book Club has twice provided exactly the escape I needed to maintain my sanity. This time around, it our weekend away as much closer to home, and it was my turn to host a few members of our group Saturday night at Andy's family cabin near Lake Wenatchee. We left home to a light spring rain and arrived to sunshine, wildflowers, and an unholy number of mosquitoes at the cabin. Being so early in the year, I hadn't expected the tiny bloodsuckers and we'd come completely unprepared! Thankfully there was some (probably very old, but still functional) bug spray in the cabin, and others had thought to bring some. The smoky fire we built seemed to help too, but after an hour or so, a group of us fled to the park at the south end of Lake Wenatchee for a peaceful walk that provided an escape from the swarm. By the time we returned to the cabin for dinner, it had started to rain, but we didn't let that stop us from roasting sausages over the fire! Some strategically placed bark kept both the fire an our dinner dry while we hid on the covered deck of the cabin. Sunday morning, we packed up and headed for Leavenworth for a pre-hike coffee (with a fantastic view!) before meeting the group for our hike on Icicle Ridge.
Read more