A Look Back at the Summer, WA, OR, & TX

Ah glorious summer. My favorite time of year. We actually didn't have a camera most of the summer (it mysteriously disappeared after our Ireland trip) but here is a quick look back at some of the highlights we were able to capture.

Just prior to startin' up our blog I (mackenzie, solo) took a weekend trip out to good ol' Texas to be at my cousin Jeff's wedding to his beautiful bride Katie. I got to see all the fam and had an awesome visit.

Yum, yum, Tides Tavern. My parents took us to their favorite establishment in Gig Harbor for lunch. It even has its own dock so we just boated right up to lunch. Neat.

Matt catching some sweet air on the wakeboard just in front of my parents house.

We took a day trip with Valerie + Lance in the kayaks to Blake Island. The whole island is a state park so you can boat up, camp, hike,etc. Its beautiful. A bit of a long (challenging) kayak trip but thoroughly enjoyable.

Seafair! Seattle's ultimate summer-fair. haha.

While we had seen the blue angels a number of times we had never been to the pits to watch the hydro-plane races, so this year we scored some cheap tickets and got to watch these boat w/ jet engines go 200+ mph in the water. Cool

Some of our awesome friends who joined us at the pits

Val, Lance, Steven, and Jenna

The Blue Angels. Always amazing.

Well, our camera was MIA. But we drove to Walla Walla, in Eastern Washington and did some amazing wine tasting.

On top of Black Butte, in Bend, OR one of our other favorite places in the world besides Seattle.

We went on an awesome river rafting trip on the Deschutes with our friend Chico and his family.

We went camping at Dungeness Spit up in the Olympics and took a walk out on the spit which stretches FIVE MILES out into the ocean. It was a cool experience.

baby cairn

Enjoying some of the first sunny weather of the summer out on the spit.

There were many more amazing moments but there's some highlights for ya!

Melakwa Lake, WA

After our backpacking trip last weekend the four of us decided a training regimen was in order. The plan: Saturday morning hikes every weekend until we leave! Week #1: Melakwa Lake, off the I-90 freeway, 9 miles roundtrip, 2300 ft elevation gain.



Our plan to get an early start was somewhat thwarted by our wonderful friend Jaci's awesome b-day celebration Friday night, but we were on the trail by 9 am....in the pouring rain. Welcome to fall in Washington. We all started out with good attitudes: what a great opportunity to test the waterproofing capabilities of our gear before we get to South America. The mood itself turned somewhat south when a few rain jackets began to let the water in. Lance's especially. He was absolutely soaking and ended up hiking in a t-shirt for a little while through the pouring rain. Until a mile later Matt realized he actually had another rain coat with him. Way to save the day!

Lance & Valerie, Our rainy beginnning, but before anyone had a chance to actually get too wet

We hiked under I-90. It was actually pretty neat.

Waterfall round 1: wet, trying to look happy.

4.5 miles in/up finally made it to the lake to eat lunch. The lake was beautiful!

Purdy!

Falling apart?

Waterfall round 2: everyone is much drier and happier.

The rain tapered off (as promised) just about the time we finnished our lunches at the lake and by the time we got back to the falls everyone was recovered, dried off, and a couple other hikers had even ventured out so we were able to coerce someone into taking one of the four of us. Fun!

Grand Lake, ONP (Olympic National Park)

In honor of our upcoming South America trekking trip we decided to take a mini practice run with Lance & Val. You know, test the legs, test the gear. We chose Grand Lake as our destination: 9 mile loop through Grand Valley and Badger Valley with a 1 1/2 mile side trip up to Moose Lake and Gladys Lake. Sounds pretty casual for a 2 day hike but everything changes when you throw 40lbs on your back. Oh yeah. I've been laid up with a knee injury pretty much the entire summer, so this was quite the test run for me.


It turned out we had a perfect weekend and an absolutely beautiful trip. We camped at Heart O' the Hills campground Friday night, had a leisurely breakfast (bacon cooked over the camp fire included) and headed out. Ok, after getting our passes, stuffing all of our food into the bear cans, and driving down a highly precarious mountain road it was actually 1pm by the time we headed out. After a steep decent into the valley (to be followed by a long ascent the next day. Who invented making the second day harder?) we scored an amazing campsite hidden in the trees with a fabulous view of Grand Lake and spent some time resting our feet (brand new boots for me) and skipping rocks, while Lance fished. No luck Saturday night, but he caughty a hefty 10incher early the next morning. We were all geared up to see some bears (thanks to our highly incorrect national forest person...thanks pablo!) and while there were no bear sightings we did see lots of marmots + Bambi and his mom! yay!

Trailhead

Gettin' started. Odd barren terrain for the Olympics.

The ladies, with Moose Lake in the background

Grand Pass in the background. The plan was for our side-jaunt to take us all the way there but we ran out of daylight. Oops. Spent too much time on the bacon I guess.

Fall is setting in. Nooooooo

Bambi mama

Group shot. I <3 self-timers.

Grand Lake, our backdrop for the weekend

Love the meadow

....and finnishing up.

After some grueling switchbacks at the end you can see the valley below that we ascended from. Yay!

All in all it was a lovely weekend, filled with great views and great friends. I can't believe I've lived near Seattle my whole life and never explored the Olympic Peninsula until this year. For those of you in the same boat...I highly recommend it. And its really not that far of a trip either! Plus...who doesn't love a ferry ride on a sunny day.

*Thanks L&V for the photos and your sweet camera. (Not to mention your company :)

The Ranch, Wisdom Montana

Our lovely friends Tom + Kelsey Whalen were kind enough to invite us to a Labor Day weekend of fun at Kelseys grandparents ranch in Montana. The family has 10,000 acres...a real cattle ranch. If you don't know what 10,000 acres even looks like (I sure didn't!) just think...pretty much as far as your eye can see in 3 directions. After a long drive over with Tom, Kelsey & Sarah Sullivan we met up with some other folks and spent the weekend riding horses, eating, enjoying a rodeo, making new firends, riding dirt bikes, lounging, sleeping in, fishing, and generally having a fantastic time.

Matts first time ever riding a horse. Good job honey!

Beautiful. The mountains and sky were sooo pretty.

Fields and horsies.

We went for a 3 hour ride our first day there, and boy was I ever sore after that! We went up into the hills and to a sweet rock (shipwreck rock? something like that...). Matt got his first taste of horseback riding and enjoyed it though he admitted he will always be a dirt bike boy (more to come on that later). The horsies were a bit rowdy but by the end of the trip we had learned all about controlling them, saddling them, and watching out for their teeth (poor Christina).

Rodeo cowboy

These guys are nuts! They get tossed around on the horse, tossed off the horse, and then have to avoid 6 pair of trampling hooves.

The crew. Tom, Sarah, me, Christina, Paul, John, and Eddie.

Thanks for taking the pic Kelsey. And Matt is....off buying beer?

Amazing sunsets.

We took a 4 hr (RT) ride up to a cabin in the national forest. These are our sweet rides.

^ My grand accomplishment of the weekend.

Dirt bikes are Matts first love and I was nervous about giving it a try but its something he loves, and hey, I'm always up for a new adventure. Matt patiently went through the tedious process of teaching me. "Hey, I can't even drive a manual car, you want me to shift and use a clutch on a motorcycle that could tip over on me at any second??" -Mackenzie  "Here is how you shift to second gear" -Matt "Woah woah, I am definitely not ready for second gear yet!" -Mackenzie

We persevered though and I managed to 'master' the art of riding a dirt bike. After a half hour lesson on Sunday I decided to attempt the ride to the cabin in the bike instead of the quad. We had a few minor incidents at the beginning but the bike and I both made it home alive and well. And now I want one of my own. (Sorry Mom).

And then we rode off into the sunset. Actually we had a 9 hr drive back in a mini van. But thats cool too.

MANY thanks to Tom, Kelsey, Cheryl and the whole Huntley clan.

Welcome!

We are on the road all the time. Four out of the last four weekends for example. We never want to be the boring bloggers who tell you every time they take a shower or go grocery shopping, but we would love to share some of the more interesting things we have been up to. We have some big trips coming up and know that some of you will want to keep updated. So here you are. Hope you enjoy!