The clear skies of Monday feel oh-so-far-away at this point. After another lovely backyard tea (so lovely I forgot to take any photos!) celebrating my neighbors baby due this fall and an afternoon of pizza & beer with Andy's sister and mom, we were caught completely by surprise at the wildfire smoke that quickly rolled in as we were enjoying a dessert of plum cake. By Friday the air quality had rocketed up to Unhealthy, so we had the house entirely closed up, and were only stepping outside as absolutely necessary. By Saturday, conditions were wavering between Very Unhealthy and Hazardous, so we spent the entire weekend revisiting an old favorite video game - Fallout 4. It felt especially bizarre to find clearer skies in a post-apocalyptic video game than we had outside, but 2020 just seems to be one strange and uncomfortable experience after another. One hilight in a gloomy week - after hoarding my slicing tomatoes for about weeks (stupice, if your curious), along with my first harvest of jalapeños and a precious onion (of which I planted far too few) I made my first batch of homemade salsa. Charring veggies under the broiler with such poor air quality probably wasn't the best idea, but it was well worth it. Thankfully Andy managed to fabricate an air purifier for us using an old fan from our woodstove and a couple of HEPA filters, so we were able to keep out indoor air safely breathable after my broiler adventures!
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This was a short but stressful week at work, with Monday off for the Labor Day holiday and Friday off for a short anniversary vacation. Happily, the long weekend more than made up for the stress of the short work week! After much debate, Andy and I decided to spend the weekend at my parents cabin near Snoqualmie Pass. This was definitely a good choice, even if it was made mostly because we’d recently purchased a new mattress, and the old one had been siting in our living room until we could take it up to the cabin to swap it out for one of the horrendously uncomfortable ones there. Since it’s such a short drive, we decided to bring our cat with us, and it didn’t take long for him to get settled in. When I mentioned our plan to my dad, he was dubious, and bringing our cat did turn out to be a bit of a mistake, but only because now I’ll feel terrible any time we go to the cabin without bringing him along!
Read moreLife: Week 36
We spent our second week in Hawaii roaming the island, starting with a drive from Kona to a tiny studio cottage in Pahoa. After driving all day, we spent the afternoon reading on the small patio and enjoying our new jungle setting. We split our two days on the west side of Hawaii between a visit to our favorite snorkeling spot from our last trip to Hawaii and a long day in Volcanoes National Park. Both were just as good as we remembered from our last trip to Hawaii, especially the National Park, since Kilauea was much more active than the last time we visited in 2012. Another change from our last visit to Hawaii - the Saddle Road is now much safer, so you can drive a rental car on it without invalidating insurance, so we took that route through a lunar landscape back to Kona. With our last few days on the island, we visited one last beach and had lunch at Kona Brewing for a second time. We ended the trip perfectly with drinks and a free Ledward Kaapana concert at Don's Mai Tai bar. I always love visiting Hawaii, but I was very happy to come home to some clouds and cooler fall weather!
Read moreLife: Week 36
A full week on Whidbey Island, and what a lovely week it was. Originally, our plans for our anniversary were to spend a week backpacking on the Spider Gap - Buck Creek Pass loop. Unfortunately, the Buck Creek fire got in the way of those plans. We briefly talked about a few backup multi-day hikes we could do, but since my feet have been bothering me so much, we decided to take it easy and spend a week on Whidbey Island instead, something we haven't done in years! With a whole week, we had time for many of the things we always talk about doing but never are able to make the time for. On a rainy Wednesday, we took a ferry to Port Townsend to taste lots of delicious Washington ciders. Another afternoon, we visited Fort Ebey State Park to hike some new trails and explore the old bunker. We also made it out on the water in the kayak a couple times and found the water mysteriously filled with jellyfish. Naturally, we also spent plenty of time just lounging around the cabin too, knitting and reading in the sunshine. While I still am disappointed our original plans for the week, it's hard to imagine a better anniversary vacation than the one we wound up with!
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