Weekend Adventure: Mount Townsend

This weekend was another packed full of plans. My husband is attending SWAT class all this week, and left me on my own for the weekend. I was excited when my coworker, Jeremy, asked me to go hiking with him.

Jeremy and I started working together at the dispatch center three and a half years ago. We were hired in the same group, trained together and have worked the majority of our shifts together since then. He's become one of my closest friends, and he's someone my husband and I enjoy spending time with. And when it comes to work, I trust his ethic and judgement and I love having him there when we come across a challenge.

I'd heard about the Mount Townsend hike last summer when I had taken Kenzie in to the vet after hours for a problem with her eye (we found a piece of foxtail grass in it a week later, poor girl), and my vet told me about it. The summit sits at 6300 feet after a 5.2 mile hike. Views range from the coast of Victoria, BC down as far south as Vancouver, WA. He said it was one of the coolest things he'd ever seen, and if my husband and I were up for a reasonably difficult hike, this would be great for day or overnight.

Unknown to me, Jeremy had been on the hike that summer as well with friends. He wanted to make another trip of it and asked me to head out with him. We thought there would be about three feet of snow at the top, but given good tree cover we were sure the trail would be passable. Our adventure started much earlier than that, and made for a really fun day.

Warning: This is a picture heavy post, but I couldn't just pick a few.

 This hike took us across the Keystone/Port Townsend Ferry again (previously mentioned here).

It was another beautiful morning for a ferry ride.

We got lucky with a front row spot, no need to get out of the car for the view.

Port Townsend is a cool little town. It makes for a great day trip. Fort Worden is there too, which is an awesome place of history and kids love it. So much to do. I need to get back over to walk their downtown area for shopping again sometime soon. They've got some great little shops and restaraunts.

This woman cracked us up. She was the only walk-on passenger on this trip across. We saw her sitting upstairs brushing her crazy long hair. I was loving her brown courduroy bellbottoms she was sporting.

After stopping at the Quilcene Ranger Station to see if a day permit was needed, we headed out with our map. Well, of course Jeremy was sure we needed to head down Lords Lake Road when the map said Penny Creek Road. Lords Lake & Penny creek did intersect after going about six miles out of the way on a dirt road and this is what we found just beyond the intersection.

A lake. I did trust him when  he said the puddle wasn't deep. I made him drive across on his own, and I chose to just walk around. And take pictures.

That's the look of 'don't take pictures of me' and 'I told you it wasn't deep'. He's an excellent multitasker!

This is part of an old tree left surrounded by a lot of new growth. Though it's dead, it had another tree growing from the top of it. When you actually make it to a true old growth forest, you'll find so many beautiful things like this. The benefit of growing up in Washington is learning so much about the nature around us.

Dirt road with huge puddles and pot holes turned in to this after 10 miles. We thought 'this isn't bad, right'?

Until the car was stuck and wouldn't go any further. He's inspecting the ruts and how he might get around this. Mind you, to the left is the cliff. I wasn't about join the thrill ride of getting any further up the hill.

The views are spectacular, aren't they?

We left the car where it was and started to trek to the trail head on foot. We had gone about a half mile when we hit this point. Then we realized we still had another mile to the trail head. He was not going to let us be defeated.

Hike away Jeremy, hike away.

I was poking fun at his shorts, green wool socks and hiking boots. He'd later regret this decision when the snow was so deep it came in the tops of his boots. He ended up with an inch of water in the bottom of them.

Again, that mountain in the background was just beautiful. I wish I had a camera that really capture what the eye can see. The differences of depth and size were just breathtaking in person.

The trail head! We made it! Mt. Townsend #839

This was the last picture of hiking the actual trail that was taken. The snow was only a couple of inches deep here, but once it hit knee deep and we started feeling the effects of wet feet, we were just too tired to pull out our cameras. It was lots of snow and lots of trees. We hiked aimlessly for about an hour and a half upwards.

Here's where we signed in and out. Hikers hadn't signed in since the 7th, and we had the trail all to ourselves. Is that a good thing? Yes and no. Yes, it wasn't overly busy and we didn't run in to anyone like the 30 some groups he had run in to in the summer. Bad? Sure, since we had no cell service and had come across reasonably fresh bear tracks, elk tracks and some of the biggest quail I'd ever seen.

After about 2 miles up the trail, leaving us about 2.2 miles short of the summit and knee deep snow, we decided to sit down for lunch and then head back down. It took us about 30 minutes to get back down versus our hour and a half it took to get up. This is why downhill has it's advantages. We pretty much ran and slid down the whole thing. It was a lot less work, and a lot more fun.

We made it back to the car and posed for a picture after our 7 mile hike. We were proud of ourselves.

We headed back down to Port Townsend and waited for our ferry home. We were lucky enough to get on without a reservation (small ferry means reservations on busy days to ensure you get across). Just a note, Mondays are their least busy days. This works in my favor, I have Mondays off. We were tired since we'd both been up really early and were ready to head home for a nap.

Today I'm sore. My back, hips and thighs hurt. I was disappointed in my level of fitness, but again it's hard to hike in the snow. We mentioned to each other quite a few times that my husband would absolutely love this hike. He loves the outdoors and we plan to take him next time we go. We're planning to try again next month, but we'll take our truck up in case we hit snow again. Jeremy and I have decided to plan on hiking a local Whidbey hike every Saturday we're off work. It will get us out to enjoy where we live. And the exercise never hurt.

I'd recommend this hike soley based off what we made it through yesterday. Make sure you pack well, plenty of water and snacks to keep up your energy. Get a good early start so you have plenty of time to make it up to enjoy the views and back down. Plan to be gone all day. It's well worth it. I'm looking forward to reviewing more hikes as we go.

Today I'm headed to my mom's for our first run together. She's teaching me a new recipe tonight that she'd like me to feature on the blog, and I'm really looking forward to that!

Thank you to my readers, you keep me going! Have a wonderful day!

Wardrobe Basics: I need help

I'll just say it: My wardrobe is kind of dumpy. I'm lame, plain, and have no sense of adventure.

Following a few of my favorite fashion bloggers has got me to thinking about what I might want to change. I love keeping up with Veronika @ Veronika's Blushing, Stephie @ Superficial Obession and Amber @ Amber's Notebook. These girls really know how to dress. They kind of remind me of when I used to be a little more creative, but after taking my job at the dispatch center (3 years ago) it just wasn't a priority anymore. I went from working in a bank, where I dressed nice on a daily basis (uniform style, mind you) to working where I can wear my yoga pants. Who doesn't want to take up that offer every so often?

I want a change. I want to try and rebuild my wardrobe. I want it to be simple and stream lined, I don't want a TON of stuff filling my closet. But I also want enough stuff that I can continue to create different outfits with interchangeable pieces. I'm just not sure where to start though. I've heard about lists of wardrobe basics, but I just don't know how practical they seem.

This one in particular is Tim Gunn's 10 Essential Elements - Must-Have Basic Wardrobe Pieces for Any Woman:

•Basic Black Dress - The basic black dress has been around for a long time. It is often called the "Little Black Dress", and it's true that shorter skirts on the basic black dress, when they hit you in the right place, can be more flattering than a long black dress.

•Trench Coat - The trench coat is one of the pieces that is both classic and currently a hot fashion item. Most any store sells this piece now. It is great for fall and you can pick it up in a wide range of lengths.

•Dress Pants - Although it doesn't say black, this is probably what you want to look for. Black is flattering on all figures and goes with everything.

•Classic Shirt - The white shirt is a definite classic. But it can also come in many different styles to make it look trendy and not dated or like a man's piece of clothing. Find one that accentuates your best attributes and minimizes trouble spots. For example, if you have wide shoulders, stay away from large collars.

•Jeans - Everyone has a pair of jeans, but does everyone have a pair of jeans that make them look great? The wider leg, low-rise jean style has been popular (and still is) but a narrower leg is coming back along with a higher waist, which eliminates the unflattering "muffin top" look.

•Any Occasion Top - Find something you look great in that can look respectable under a jacket but bring on the fun after hours.

•Skirt - If you need dress pants then you also need a skirt. A skirt is womanly and can be flirty or businesslike. Nowadays women do not wear many skirts or dresses, which makes a lot of them fall into a rut of dressing sloppily or like men. See number 8.

•Day Dress - Women also are not wearing as many dresses anymore. It was certainly liberating to go from the '50s when women wore dresses every day to wearing more practical pants for gardening, exercising, and so forth. But the dress does not have to be abandoned altogether. They can be very flattering, and there is nothing wrong with "dressing up" for daytime.

•Jacket - A jacket does not have to be masculine. Find one with a proper, fitted shape. Women's jackets should follow the silhouette of a woman's body and accent the hourglass curve at her waist. It is also a perfect piece to put with the skirt or dress pants, and white shirt. Or make it casual with a pair of jeans.

•Sweatsuit Alternative - As mentioned before, women wear fewer skirts and dresses these days. But some women have taken casual to the extreme and spend days on end in sweatsuits. It is possible to be casual and comfortable without looking like a slob. Find a comfortable material (that's why this doesn't say jeans again – denim is not as comfortable as a nice soft cotton) that you would want to wear every day. It could be khakis, cords, a cotton dress, or much more

The only thing I have from this list are jeans, and would they be jeans to Tim's standards? I'm probably thinking not. Does this list seem practical? What exactly am I looking for when it comes to wardrobe basics? Perhaps I should contact one of my favorite bloggers and see if they would be willing to help a poor soul like me and create a post on fashion basics for the beginner.

What kind of style do you have? Do you think these are reasonable basics? I'd love to know!

9. Apple Fritters

You'd think one of these days I might consider making a recipe from someone other than the Pioneer Woman. Well, I'd think anyway.

But guess what! I have found a recipe from someone else other than PW. And I'm really excited to make it, because it sounds delicious. But this recipe just happens to not be that recipe. Sorry.

This weekend our friend Dave came to visit again. With his rotating schedule we don't always have the same days off and can go over a month at a time without the opportunity to get together. I believe when he arrived at the house the other day, my husband said "my boyfriend is here". I'm not kidding. These bromances are getting serious. A little too serious.

So these two guys like to eat, and they like to eat food that is NOT good for you. And food with lots of cheese, or butter, or milk. Just dairy as a whole, which isn't compatible with me (not like that, geez). But that's a story for another time.

Dinner was chicken marsala, so we had that twice in a week. It's easy and tasty so I didn't mind. But the best part was breakfast the next morning.

Hello homemade biscuits and gravy (and poor picture quality)!

And of course, golden deep fried little devils called apple fritters! Oh, they were so divine. I've never made a homemade "donut" of sorts, nor have I actually deep fried anything. It was an adventure. A successful adventure. And here we go (as I marvel at my photo skills to come. NOT).

Apple Fritters

courtesy of the Pioneer Woman

Mushy, sticky dough just ready to be plopped in some canola oil.

And there they are just deep frying away.

Yeah, those just look like they're waiting to kill you. Deep fried, glazed heaven. Oh, and I might mention to you that she lists the glaze as optional. I will assure you this step is not optional. I mean it, don't skip the glaze. It's the least of your problems here.

In the end these were a huge hit. Next time I'll half the recipe for three people, the left overs are completely unnecessary. I'm sure I've gain a ridiculous amount of weight this weekend. Way to just throw all my yoga work out the window. But if you're going to splurge, or want to impress your husband who happens to love apple fritters with how amazing you are, then try these!

Apple Fritters

Ingredients

FRITTERS
2 cups All-purpose Flour
½ cups Sugar
3 Tablespoons Sugar
2-¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
1-¼ teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
2 whole Large Eggs
¾ cups Whole Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter
2 whole Granny Smith Apples, Peeled And Diced
Powdered Sugar (optional, For Dusting)

GLAZE (optional)
1-½ cup Powdered Sugar
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Vanilla
¼ cups Milk


Preparation Instructions

In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork, then add milk, melted butter, and vanilla.

Gently fold dry and wet ingredients together until just combined (do not overmix.) Fold in apples. Add enough apples to make a very chunky batter. You want the apples to shine though!

Heat a couple of inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat. When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.

Drop teaspoons of batter into the hot oil, six or eight at a time. Sometimes they’ll flip over by themselves; sometimes you have to flip them. Just watch them and make sure they don’t get too brown, but cook them long enough to make sure the batter’s cooked through, about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes total.

Remove and drain on a paper towel. Dust very generously with powdered sugar, or dip fritters in a light doughnut glaze (mix all glaze ingredients together, then dunk warm fritters).

Serve warm!

**May be heated up the next day in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes.

8. Kate's Chicken Noodle Soup

I'm having some real issues here people. Let me tell you why.

First, I started this post and had it almost finished. Then my crazy hand aparently hit an extra button, created some magical shortcut (I still can't figure out how to make it happen again) and deleted my ENTIRE POST. I was already feeling a little cranky and stressed anyway, so that didn't help.

Second, as an earlier post states, my camera vs computer vs photo hosting site is being muy difficult. I can't get my weekend cooking pictures uploaded. Lame. However, I did find pictures I didn't think were on my photo hosting site, on my photo hosting site. Hence this post.

Alright. I feel a little better now.  Let's move on.

Last weekend I asked the lovely Kate to share her homemade chicken noodle soup recipe. I asked and I swiftly received. Kate is lovely, have I mentioned this before? I find her lovely and I find her beautiful, beautiful daughter Annika quite lovely too. If you haven't checked out her blog, please do. She's a doll.

Kate's Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

6 cups chicken broth

Onion

Carrots

Celery

2 chicken breasts

Egg noodles

Salt

Pepper

Garlic & Onion Powder

Maggi Soup Seasoning

Directions

Dice onions, carrots and celery. Cook with a little olive oil over medium heat until veggies are tender. Season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and Maggi Soup Seasoning.

Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Once boiling, add the chicken breasts. Once chicken is cooked (about 15 minutes), remove, dice then return to the soup. Add noodles and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

And your soup is ready!

My recipe was modified based on what I had in the house. I don't think I strayed far from Kate's recipe and the soup turned out amazing. I was awesome and aparently only took 3 whole photos during this cooking session. So I'll post two, because I've deemed the third useless.

Ingredients: Chicken broth, 2 chicken breasts, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, McCormick Season All, garlic salt, sea salt & pepper.

I've never heard of Maggi Soup Seasoning, and perhaps that's because Kate lives in Canada and I don't. (Now listen here Canada, I don't think it's fair that you don't share some of your cool stuff. Like pickle chips, ketchup chips, Kinder Surprise and Maggi Soup Seasoning. But that's just my personal opinion). So I substituted Maggi for McCormick Season All.

I didn't have garlic or onion powder so I used a little sprinkle of garlic salt. But I did add chopped garlic in with my veggies to add that garlic kick. It's one of the things I cook the most with, so I probably would have added it even if I had garlic powder. That's just how I am.

I found these whole wheat egg noodles and was tickled pink. I have the hardest time finding whole wheat pasta in every variety in our local grocery store (just like mascarpone cheese, thanks a lot Safeway), but was very happy they had these. I figured these would be a bit healthier, and I like the slightly sweet flavor wheat pasta tends to have. They were a delicious addition!

This soup was made for work week lunches. I loved it, my husband loved it and I will definitely make it again. It's so incredibly easy and I think this next time around I'll have husband grill up a few chicken breasts and I'll shred them in to the soup for a nice smoky flavor. I'm beginning to think we're "smoke" happy around here.

Thanks again, Kate! I appreciate you sharing your delicious recipe!

5k! Here we come!

A year ago this month I started running. I didn't have any hobbies (that I thought were hobbies anyway), and wanted to do something that had a purpose. I decided I wanted to run as long as I could without stopping. Ok, no - that doesn't have a purpose, but at least I was doing something.

I did well to run most of the year and even completed a 10k. Then I slacked off. For months. And I'm still slacking. Now, if you've read back to the beginning and about my objectives for the year, you'd know running was one of them. Mark that as a royal fail so far this year. FAIL.

I randomly came across a new race in my area on April 24th. It's a 5k, so that's nothing I can't accomplish with the tiniest bit of conditioning. The best part was, the race supports an awesome cause! I was doing the happy dance knowing I could be a part of something so cool. Even if no one else noticed my contribution, it makes me feel good inside. So I committed.

I'll be participating in the Fun with the Fuzz 5k. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Behind the Badge Foundation.  The mission of the Behind the Badge Foundation is to honor the sacrifices of officers who have suffered a line of duty death or catastrophic injury. Memorial services are put on by the Behind the Badge Foundation, as taxpayer money can not be used to facilitate these large services. Our law enforcement community is closely woven, and the links to one another can stretch forever. It would be more comforting to know if their foundation ever found a reason to help me, that I knew I had once helped other families by supporting them financially.

The part of this race I'm the most exicted about is that my mother is going to run it with me. This will be her first race ever and I'm so happy for her! She's been working hard on her training program to get ready for race day and I trust she'll give me a run for my money. My mother has struggled with weight issues throughout her adult life, but now lives a healthy, active life at a healthy weight. Even with a previous leg injury, I know she'll be successful at this race.

My mom and I at a family wedding in April 2007

She's been using the Couch to 5k Running Program and has positive things to say about it. She's just started her fourth week of training. I love how she sends me a text to update me on her progress. I'm so proud of her every time I get one of her messages. It's very motivating and inspiring to know in just 9 weeks she'll be ready to run with me. She found their online resource all on her own, and has downloaded their C25k App to her iPhone. The app has really helped her with her interval training.

My mom and I will start training one or two days a week together next weekend. I'm really excited to see the skill she's gained and spend a little one on one time with her. This is a big thing for us, and I'm excited about the special memory we'll get to keep. 5k here we come!

Technical difficulties

I'm beyond frustrated right now. My computer tends to not agree with me often, causing me to have no interest in using it. I've been struggling to get pictures uploaded, then transferred to my photo hosting site. I've done plenty of stuff over the last week to post, but haven't been able to access my pictures. I've had nothing but problems with my lap top since I bought it last year, and part of the reason I don't send it in on it's warranty, is because I wouldn't have a computer for an extended period of time. Not fun.

I've tried my new Yoga Meltdown dvd by Jillian Michaels. You'd think she'd make a terrible yoga instructor, but she's actual really mellow and supportive through the whole video. It was a great workout, I felt absolutely amazing. I'm looking forward to alternating it with running. I've got a 5k coming up with my Mom (her first race ever!), April 24th. She's been training for over 3 weeks now, so I should probably work on catching up.

We're half way through our weekend, and tonight we're heading to my parent's church for a new couples group. Their first meeting was last week, but we were feeling well and didn't make it. I'm hoping tonight we'll be able to catch up with what they've already gone over and I'm hoping it's something we really like. We enjoy church, but with our schedule it's so hard to make it Sundays.

I'm enjoying the sunshine right now, but only after some freak snow we had for 30 minutes this morning. It's March in Washington. It's always bound to snow. I think today is going to be our last day of sunshine for a while before some good rain over the next week, so I'll work on taking advantage of it.

Hope everyone enjoys their week! I'll hopefully have things sorted out and get my new recipes and such up soon.

Dear Yoga, Our relationship starts today

About a month ago I saw that Jillian Michaels was coming out with a new workout dvd. This time it was yoga. And my first thought was, Jillian Michaels instructing yoga? That has to be an oxymoron. I mean, I've never heard of a nice drill instructor. But I like her, so I waited for March 2nd to roll around.

It came out on Tuesday, in which I promptly ordered it from Amazon and it arrived in the mail yesterday.

Boasting two levels, 1 &2. Burn mega calories for a total body workout.

This equals the Jillian Michaels Yoga Meltdown.

Dear Yoga,

Our relationship starts today. We don't know each other, but we will soon. I hope I like you. I'm trying to go in to this open minded, because well, I don't really like most (exercise) right off the bat. Let's see where this takes us. And remember, please be kind.

Sincerely,

Me

I'll be sure to report back on how it went. And I'm honestly hoping well. I've gotta get something done.