End of Day 2

We have had a great first two days! After a quick nap and shower after getting in yesterday we spent the day wandering Cusco. Its a pretty cool old city and there was some sort of festival going on with traditional dancing also. We got a lot of arrangements made for things we will be doing the rest of the trip, had some great food and drink and just got to get a feel for the city. Today we hired a taxi for the day who took us around the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley is just outside of Cusco, and aside from being beautiful has a lot of great Incan ruins. We visited Pisac, Olantaytambo, and a few others. Thats all for now. Tomorrow morning we head off very early for the start of our 5 day trek which will culminate in a day at Machu Picchu. We are super excited! Catch ya after!

M&M

We made it to Peru

Hi everybody!

We made it to Peru safe and sound. We just got here and have only had a few hours of sleep so are feeling pretty tired but are ready to get out and explore Cusco today. More later when we have actually done something.

Peru Preview

Here's a little preview of what we will be up to:

Friday May 21: Matt turns 25. Ok, that has nothing to do with our trip, but happy early birthday Matt!

Saturday May 22: Flying, flying. I <3 sleeping pills

Sunday May 23: Hang out in Cusco

Monday May 23: Explore the Sacred Valley area around Cusco. Cool markets and Incan ruins

Tuesday May 24-Friday May 28: Hike the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu. 16,000ft passes and lush jungles.

Saturday May 29th: Explore Machu Picchu! (Pictured above)

Sunday May 30th: Bus to Puno, which is on the shores of Lake Titicaca

Monday May 31st: Tour of floating islands made of reeds that people live on in Lake Titicaca

Tuesday June 1-June 2: Head over to the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca and relax on the Isla del Sol

Thursday June 3: Death Road bike ride outside of La Paz Bolivia. Don't worry Grandmama, its not dangerous anymore. Mountain biking down 13,000 ft through lush jungles

Friday June 4- June 5: Climb Huayna Potosi a 19,975ft mountain outside of La Paz. We are going with certified guides, don't worry.

June 6-7: More flying, more sleeping pills.

Its going to be a busy, busy trip but we are super excited about all of it and so excited to spend two weeks with Ashley + Steven!

We promise we will try to post more often than when we were in Chile. Don't expect anything too long until we get back beacuse we will be busy having fun! We will try to check in with some updates though.

Camp Muir, Mt Rainier......and other things I have pictures of

We are leaving for Peru & Bolivia in 10 days (!) and are going to attempt to climb a 20,000 ft (!) mountain while there, so we decided we should probably do a little something in preparation. There's only so much you can do to prepare for 20,000 ft in Washington but we gave it our best. We dragged Lance along (you will have to ask him if he regrets it) at the last minute and made an early morning run up to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier. Camp Muir is the high camp for one of the most popular routes of summiting Mt Rainier and sits at about 10,200 feet. The route is non-technical since there are no glaciers below the camp. I had done the climb before in late summer when everything looked very different, but Matt & Lance had never been up there before. You start at 5,200 ft so its 5000 ft of elevation gain, a little more than half of the elevation to the summit.

Since it was still spring we had to be prepared for anything. I had snowshoes, crampons, trekking poles, and an ice axe strapped onto my pack.

We had the most beautiful day anyone could have asked for in early May. We started out just before 8am without a cloud in sight. Throughout the day a few rolled into the distance covering our view of St Helens but nothing got close to us and the temperature was very comfortable.

Just above the parking lot

St Helens in the distance

da boys

It was very white. very white.

Getting closer

Camp Muir at the top of the rise

Lance on the final slog up. Way to go!

Up top.

This is me up top. I am happy.

This is me up top last time I did the climb. I was not happy. I was not in shape.

Lance glissading down the mountain. One of the funnest things ever.

A well earned reward at the end of the day.

****Side note. I very very highly recommend sunglasses on such expeditions. And I do NOT recommend snowblindness. It is very painful. Painful. I say this from newfound experience. I will leave it at that because, because, well, it was dumb, and painful. But wear your sunglasses people!

On other notes:

We partook in Seattle Restaurant Weeks 3 for $25 deal at Palisades. Three courses for $25 at Palisades. That's right. I highly, highly recommend you make a reservation as soon as Restaurant week comes around next year.

Not only is the view cool, but the food was amazing. Our entree was two lobster tails. Two. I stole this from their website:

"Duet of Lobster Presented Two Ways - Poached in Plugra-butter and served over ravioli and tempura fried with spicy hollandaise sauce."

A couple weeks ago we had my best hometown buddies Natalie + Joe over and showed them a good time Sunrise Heights style. Sunrise Heights is the lil sub-neighborhood of West Seattle that we live in and they hosted a Poker Night. We got there a little late so we got seated at the losers table, but I'm pretty sure that just made it even more fun. It was $5 for a bottomless cup on Mannys (delicious local brew) so I'm pretty sure that helped too. Somehow Matt won the losers table prize of $25 certificate to Hooters. We are still pondering what to do with it.

Matt and his 'winnings'

Josiah & his loot

The whole crew

Happy Hour at Taberna Del Alabardero with its $3.50 Sangria (or $14 pitcher!) and delicious tapas is highly recommended 

...As is the Olympic Sculpture Park on a sunny day

It's a fake tree. Not a real one. But I like it.

That is all. For now. As I mentioned we leave in 10 days. I'll be posting a lil preview of our adventures in the coming days.

More Medford

Yay, Jeri sent pics! Ones with humans!

Matt & Andy ran in the Pear Blossom race. Its 10 miles. Apparently its a big deal in Medford. Matt ran real fast. He got in the local newspaper for being in to top 200 (105). hahaha

Me, Matt & Andy

(did I mention I got a haircut?)

Jen & Jeri

Jen's fam, down from Issy

Baby shower time!

Matts not eating in this one. Thats good.

Cute preggo Jen opening presents

Friends and fam at the shower

Matts Homeland, Medford, OR

Last weekend we made the long trek down to Matts homeland of Medford, OR. I was able to get Friday off and Matt was able to work from 'home' that day, so we left after work on Thursday and made a late, late night out of it. Long night, but it was worth it to have three days down there before making the trip back up.

I realized when I got home and loaded the pictures on the computer that I didn't actually take any pictures of people. Which is the reason we were there. I think I have a complex about taking pictures around Matts family because all the boys give their mom such a hard time for taking pictures all the time and I don't want to add to the suffering.

We had such a nice time getting to spend time with Matts mom Jeri. She was throwing a shower for Matts sister in law (is she my sister in law too, or is there another name for that? I'm not quite sure how all this marriage thing works yet) who is 7 months preggo and super cute. We are so excited for them to be parents and it was fun to be a part of the festivities.

I always make fun of Matt for being a country boy, but really Medford is not alllll that small of a town. But he does have cows in his backyard (actually they are in the neighbors yard) so I think I am justified in calling him a country boy. Here's the neighbor pets

Cheese is one of my favorite things ever and blue cheese is one of my favorite favorites. Rouge Creamy is known for its delicious blue's and is just a few minutes from Matts house so we got to stop by. Yum Yum. I. love. samples.

I had a play date with Tug who is Matts brother Greg's doggy. He's a 1 yr old black lab puppy who is super energetic. We didn't get along very well most of the weekend (he had this terrible habit of licking me all the time, especially when I had just woken up) but we had a bonding moment outside with the tennis ball. And he is good at fetch, I will give him that.

One of the other aims of the weekend was to pick up Matts motorcycle. Its one of the many that he had in high school and it broke down way back when. He and his Dad took it apart to rebuild the engine and never quite got around to finishing it. Its almost totally in working order now though, so we brought it home with us. Matt just needs to put a few more parts on and he is sooooo excited to be on two wheels again. Its a cute lil vintage guy.

We also got to have coffee with Matts band director from high school and his wife which was really fun. We spent some time with Matts high school bff Jeremy too and it was great to catch up with him. Lots of good catching up with parents, friends, and family. We had a lovely weekend. I'm trying to get some photos from Jeri so you can actually see humans as opposed to just beasts of burden but.....

Spring!

Just a little bit of spring time goodness from our yard!

We are in good ol' Medford this weekend enjoying Matts family so I'm sure you'll see an update on that in the coming week. :)