Monday, March 29, 2010

Seattle Sounders

I went to my first Seattle Sounders pre-match game against the Portland Timbers. Christopher's friends from Portland came up and we ended up in the Timber army section. I can't believe I was routing for the Timbers even though I love our Sounders so much. Call me a traitor! It was exciting to see how passionate the fans are.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

More Photos

I am so excited to have gotten the rest of the coast photos from Matt. Woohoo! Click here to see more or you can click my flickr page too. There are some real funny ones of Christopher and I doing the hustle on the second morning :) Obviously the dancing gene does not run in my family, ha!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Day 3 Yellow Banks to Ozette Lake

Things I forgot to mention before I start on Day 3...waking up from our first camp night at Starbucks Mine with dry warm socks only to put on wet shoes making my feet instantly wet. wasn't expecting that! got a few laughs from the guys about my naivety. Matt forgot to bring camp shoes and found himself one left foot flip flop in the logs. I believe in the power of prayer and asked the good Lord to provide a right foot flip flop in his size, so we were on the lookout for that too. Our 2nd night we camped at Yellow Banks and had a beautiful spot perched above the ocean with a spectacular view of the waves and sunset. Christopher was completely stoked and it made me happy to see him so happy.

Day 3 the clouds started to come in and we packed up early and headed north around 9 a.m. only to encounter again higher than normal tides. (btw...as we were leaving guess what Christopher found in the logs? A right foot flip flop for Matt. We laughed about that for some time.) We should have been able to walk around the rocky cape, but instead had to go over slick rock with waves coming in. I wanted to wait it out as long as possible because I so did not want to get maytagged again especially on our last day walking back to the car.
Unfortunately, the guys wanted to go and so we go. They were especially accommodating to me and Matt carried my backpack and Christopher made sure I didn't get swept out to sea. Once we got thru that, I put my pack back on and continued on mostly sandy beach the rest of the way with a nice rain coming down on us. Again I am pretty exhausted, putting one foot in front of another pushing myself onward. We arrived at Sand Point Beach and started the 3 mile trek inland to our car over slick boardwalk. It was such an exhilarating feeling to have started and finish this hike. All I wanted was a hot burger and fries!

I wish I could say the trip went fantastic, but alas I couldn't believe I got car sickness on the way home. Started to feel nauseated plus Matt was driving like a demon around the S curves equals Sandy puking her guts out on the side of the road! I no longer craved a burger and fries and ended up getting Sprite and a baked potato.
When we arrived home there are things you want to do: take a shower, wash clothes and chill. Can you imagine our surprise when we see a sign hanging on our apt. door that says the City of Seattle will be shutting the water off from 8 p.m. Sunday to 4 a.m. Monday.

Holy Sh*t and Uneffingbelievable were words that crossed my mind. I checked my watch and it was 8:04 p.m.!!! I figured city workers weren't very timely so I wagered the water would still be on and gosh darnit I would get my shower. And that I did and as soon as I finished I start yelling at Christopher to take one too because there is no way he's coming to bed smelling the way he did, LOL! We had quite the adventure!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Day 1 & 2 Rialto Beach to Yellow Banks

On Friday, Matt, Christopher and I ventured up to Port Angeles to meet up with Christopher's hiking buddies for a 3 day 20 mile hike from La Push to Ozette Lake. I will begin by saying that I have never hiked with a heavy backpack before nor would I call myself gung ho for camping, but this is what my man loves to do and I wanted to experience it for myself. We arrived at Rialto beach around 11 a.m. and began our hike with the most wonderful weather you could have asked for and believe me I was praying for dry warm weather.

Unfortunately, the tides were higher than normal creating a difficult trek for us midway through the 1st day. My new vocabulary word for this trip is "Maytagged" which means getting hit with a wave. I can't even count the number of times we were trying to get over and around two capes that we got maytagged. Luckily, I had on my rain pants which lessened the shock of getting hit by a wave. I must say I was quite pleased with my gaiters and rain pants! Now my feet are another story! Sore doesn't even cut it. But I will pat myself on the back for trudging on thru putting one foot in front of another and continuing on without complaint. We backpacked thru what I call rock heaven, log heaven , baseball heaven (round rocks the size of baseballs), low tide flat heaven, and sand heaven. Every time we hit sand heaven "Thank you Jesus" rolled off my tongue!

One of my most challenging parts included a 30 foot vertical rope climb. Once Christopher pointed out what we were going to do I said to myself "Oh My God!" At this point, my feet are wet and throbbing, my quads are aching, and my energy level is depleting, but the show must go on and I take hold of that rope and pull/walk myself up that hill without stopping. I had the biggest smile once I got to the top. Seriously couldn't believe I had the energy to do that, but I did and we had to do it again further up the trail! Our second day of trekking we scored yet again beautiful warm sunny weather. It is quite remarkable we hadn't been drenched by the rain. We met up with Christopher's buddies who started the trek in reverse from Sand Point Beach to Rialto and met up with them some ways past Norwegian Memorial. It was very enjoyable to share lunch with them as we continued heading north and they south. Our day's journey had at least 4 miles of walking on rocks something I would never imagined myself doing. It was such a relief to hit pebbled beach even if it only lasted a couple minutes. I was glad to hear I wasn't the only one with sore feet. When rock heaven finally ended and we hit sandy beach Matt fell to the sand and pretended to sleep.

I have been wanting new adventures and having a partner like Christopher is the best thing for me. I would have never done something like this without him. I couldn't even imagine a trip like this and I am thankful I get to share it with him.
Looking forward to the next trip!

low tide flat heaven - we backpacked at least 4 miles of rocks!

view from our camp site at Yellow Bank 2nd night






the crew meet up on the 2nd day
first site of christopher's buddies on the second day- more rocks!

me doing the robot!





christopher 2nd day backpacking thru low tide flat heaven