double-g?

Been busy the last couple days, so in substitute for our goings-on, I provide you with Dramatic Chipmunk:



I watched this like 10 times before it lost even an ounce of its initial funniness. In fact, it didn't lose anything, it just got funnier. And funnier. He reminds me of my good friend Gregg, whose sense of humor has a similar flair for the dramatic.

Anyway, Sean is taking me on some sort of mountainous surprise adventure tomorrow and Monday. I am to bring skis. He is bringing the camera. Check back Monday or Tuesday to find out what we did. It'll be hard to compete with Dramatic Chipmunk, but we'll try.

Reason #73 Why My New Job is Awesome

Our office has a cat. She lives outside, right near our back door. At one point one of our folks tried to take her home but she kept coming back to the office. Can't say I blame her, its a great place to be.

She's a sweet, social little thing. She has an awesome handmade wooden Cat Condo but right now her residence of choice is an Alaskan Amber beer box.

Olivia

La Estancia del Gato

I guess her choice to live in a beer box makes her a minimalist? To me it just makes her cool.

pedestrian living

Today, like yesterday, like tomorrow, I walked to work. My commute is a grueling 1 minute, 30 seconds of quiet walking down a street lined with Victorian homes and then down forested gravel path. At 10:00 I met with my mentor in her warm, wood heated home. How did I get from the office to her house? I walked. Then I walked back to have lunch with my manager. We went out. We walked. Guess what I did after work? Walked to the post office. And then walked to the town bookstore.

I love bookstores. The smell of cut paper and coffee. The colorful covers, the quiet. And books are my splurge, my weakness. An independent bookstore within 5 minutes walking distance of my house? I can envision a few too many book purchases walking onto my credit card statement.

I should probably walk to the library tomorrow. And walk out with a library card.

All this walking is great though. I'm loving it.

last day of freedom!

So, Sean and I bailed on skiing this morning. Today was the first day in three weeks Mt. Baker has had below freezing temps. Skiing on frozen slush didn't sound fun, so we ran some errands and got Sean a haircut to shed four weeks of road trip shagginess. We're hoping his enhanced good looks will help with the job search. I'd hire him, but then I'm his wife. Wife recommendations probably carry about as much credibility as Mom recommendations.

Anyway, we ended the day with a sunset walk on the beach (wait, is this a personal ad?) at Deception Pass State Park.

Man and dog make their way through the rainforest to the beach:


Only 20 minutes from our house. We can't believe we live here now...


Diggin' it...


Driftwood dog...


I start work tomorrow! I actually can't wait. Look for a more reflective post after things settle down this week. By the way, we love your comments and emails. We can't figure how to respond to the comments on the actual blog, but we read them all. Thank you for sharing our adventures with us.

we're home

Quick post for outside pics of our cute funky little place in La Conner. Inside pics coming after we get a few things sorted out, like furniture and curtains.


Our door is on the right...

Our first visitor is coming this weekend. We're hoping to ski Baker on Sunday before I start work on Monday. One last hurrah. Maybe it'll snow. Nah, probably not. :)

I can't stand to read it.....

This is a quote from an e-mail I received from a friend about our blog.

I realize your close to your final destination. But you need to continue with the blog. For me, it's like a car accident. I can't stand to read it, but I can't not. You two are the sappiest, earthy, crunch, weirdo's I know. Reading the blog each morning is similar to walking into Trader Joes' or Starbucks. I feel uncomfortable but I kinda like it.

We're going to take that as a compliment and continue the blog as requested. We're having fun writing and we're glad that you all enjoy reading it.

We arrived in La Conner this afternoon. And right on schedule it's finally snowing in Wyoming and Montana. We're busy getting moved in and set up, so it might be a few days before we get pics up and make a real post. Our new home is very cute and cool, so stay tuned. Also, stay tuned for an update on my (Sean's) job search that begins right about......NOW.

our inaguration day in canada

We thought it wise to spend this historic day in Canada cat skiing as the only Americans in a group of Canadians and Brits. That way, if something went horribly awry with the ceremony, i.e., if George W somehow found a way to get sworn in for another four, we'd already be in Canada instead of just in line at the border.

Just kidding. It was cool sharing the day with an interested international crew, and we proudly watched the ceremony and speech on YouTube when we returned to our room after a day of skiing above the clouds. Sometimes technology rules. I'm tired, so I won't go into how environmentally conflicted I felt using a huge, gas guzzling cat to access the backcountry or how cautiously hopeful I feel about our new president. You probably don't want to hear it anyway. Instead, some pics!

Sean loading up at the bottom of a run.

Me stepping out at the top


Soooooo nice to see sun again!

This fuzzy stuff is called hoar frost. It was day's primary skiing surface. When buried by new snow it will make the snowpack very sketchy. We were happy to tear it up as much as we could. Beautiful though, eh?

In the cat



We're waiting on some great pics of the actual skiing. We'll get to those later, maybe. We're off to Sandpoint, ID tomorrow AM.

a tribute to a spork

For the past three weeks Sean and I have eaten the majority of our meals with our Snow Peak Titanium Sporks. My relationship with my spork, which is carefully bent at the end to facilitate an easy fit into my similarly dorky titanium camping cookware, has deepened to the point where I'm now regretting registering for full placesettings when we got married. I should have just registered for 12 sporks. Granted, our table would've been a little less festive at Thanksgiving and the fine folks at Crate and Barrel would've missed making yet another killing off a young couple caught in the wedding whirlwind, but really, what else does one need whilst eating? It ladles, it stabs and grabs, it cuts. And most importantly- and this is very important given the "most importantly"- it is the best ice cream tool I have ever had the pleasure of shoveling with.

So thank you, dear Spork. From the bottom of my, well, bottom. Which happily maintains its proportionally large claim on my center of gravity due to your sensational scarfing capability.

Speaking of bottoms, we're currently in Fernie, BC at the bottom of more endless mountains that we can't see. This fog makes everything look just like New Hampshire. Catskiing tomorrow though. Here's hoping they find us some decent, non inversion crust snow. Please.

I'm old and out of touch

Two bandanas: one on the head, the other around his neck. Headphones. What does he do with the hat while he's skiing? These pics were snapped at the summit lodge, so he either skis with hat on or tucks it away whilst skiing and then busts it out in the lodge for vibe emitting reasons. Maybe I'm just jealous that I could never pull this off.

Inversions are cool

Maya really enjoyed the snowshoeing yesterday. We left her in the car and she got into the food and ate an entire loaf of bread! She's not feeling too good today, but I bet she has no regrets. There's an inversion going on right now so we skinned up Whitefish Resort to get some sun. An inversion is when it's warmer at the top of the mountain than in the valley. It's usually accompanied by a low cloud layer, which makes for some cool views. It was nice to finally see the sun again, honestly I don't think we've seen it since we were in Casper, two weeks ago. Tomorrow we're off to Fernie, British Columbia to do some catskiing. Here are few pics from today, if you want to see them all click here.

Alpine Start! (11:45am)

Nikki trying to ditch me in the fog.

The fog breaks

Plugging along

Skiing above the clouds

Anybody have duct tape?

Oooooooo....pretty.

cabin fever?

The best part of our day yesterday was eating a grilled cheese with bacon and fries at a local bar and washing it down with a PBR. When we got back to our room I witnessed Sean standing in front of the TV but staring blankly at wall, scratching his arms and back with a plastic fork. Too much information? I'm taking it as definitive proof that the lack of new snow is making us loopy. I'm offering this picture- taken at Snow King earlier in the trip- to the snow god...please make the high pressure and fog go away!
We're off to snowshoe in Glacier NP. TTFN!

Still no snow...

As Nikki said, our last day in Bozeman was cool. After lounging in the Boiling River, we stopped into Spark R&D's shop and got a tour from Will. Will is the owner of Spark R&D, which makes the only splitboard binding in the industry. It was cool to meet Will, talk to him about designing the binding, owning his own business and getting to see how the bindings are made. It was impressive. By the way Will is the most laid back person I have ever met. Nikki and i consider ourselves to be laid back, but hanging out with Will opened our eyes to a whole new level of chill. Will and his fiance Becca also put us up for 3 nights in Bozeman. Thanks Will and Becca.

Here's a photo of the Spark R&D's shop:


Early (is 8:45 early?) the next morning we set out for Whitefish, MT. The drive was beautiful. The Mission Range to the east of Route 93 are some of the most majestic I have ever seen. Truly. And then there's the Miracle of America Museum in Polson. Talk about breathtaking. It came highly recommended by our friend Derek, who once spent a full day at the Mall of America in Minneapolis and purchased a tuxedo t-shirt. Unfortunately the museum was closed so we could only snap a photo from the outside. Sorry Derek. From what we could tell the museum consisted of a collection of stuff made in America, like planes, helicopters, tractors and Flessie, the monster that inhabits Flathead Lake. Miraculous indeed.
Mission Range

The Museum

Flessie


BTW - Still not snowing.....anywhere in the West.

lava makes things hot

Wow, lots to tell you all about. We're in Whitefish, MT right now but had a great last day in Bozeman. We went swimming. Outside. In Yellowstone. In winter.

Okay, so it wasn't really swimming, more of a soak. The Boiling River is a scalding hot lava-heated spring. It meets the cold mountain-fed Gardiner River in a cool little pools backed by rock formations, resulting in a natural hot tub. We soaked for a couple hours or so after checking out the Mammoth Hot Springs. Some pics...

The entrance to Yellowstone in Winter...no cars, no traffic, nobody!
Checking out Mammoth Hot Springs
Where the Boiling River (right) meets the Gardner (left) Best hot tub ever Unfortunately Maya had to stay in the car for this one. This is where she decided to hang out while we were gone. What a weirdo. These dudes and dudettes were a bit more peaceful than our neurotic dog. We saw them on our way out and thanked them for hosting us in their home. It was a really cool day. Made me want to brave the summer Yellowstone tourist scene and see the park in its prime season. Maybe someday...

Smile and a wave....

People are nicer out here. I came to this conclusion long ago, but I guess I forgot about it after 3 years of being in the North East. An example: We were driving through Livingston, MT the other day just cruising through town looking at neighborhoods and the such. Like a complete tourist, I rolled right through a stop sign at a four way stop. The lady whose turn it was to go rolled out and hit the brakes when she realized I wasn't stopping. And then....and then....she SMILED AND WAVED ME THROUGH! I'm talking a real smile, not a sarcastic "Well sure pal go right ahead" smile. I smiled and waved back apologetically. Had this happened back East in say, South Boston, the lady would have laid on her horn for a solid 8 count, then given me the finger while calling me an F$%@ing asshole and to top it off probably would have thrown her cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee at my car.

There have been more and more instances where Nikki and I have had friendly encounters with people in situations where they didn't have to be. Nikki mentioned the guy at the autopart store in Jackson earlier. I think I will start keeping tabs on these and sharing them here. Stay tuned.

bozone

Quick post as we're on our way out the door to sit in Yellowstone's Boiling River. No snow out here lately...and none in the forecast. I'm starting to feel like my friend Sally. Sally has the worst snow luck ever. An awesome athlete, Sally is also naturally positive, humble and funny. This makes her super fun to ski with. Her presence on a ski trip, however, pretty much guarantees she'll get blamed for a week of high pressure and 60 degree weather. Which is what we're sitting in right now. So maybe its not Sally...she's back in New England, where its dumping, while we're camped in Montana's gorgeous mountains without a flake on the horizon. I'm still trying to find a way to blame her though, if only for old time's sake.

Normal people probably can't understand why we're hoping for lots of snow and cold temps. What can we say? We love winter.

Can't complain though, its not like there's nothing to do around here. We skied Bridger Bowl yesterday. What an awesome place. Bridger is what ski resorts used to be before they became subsidized by major real estate development projects. Even on a sub-par snow day it catapulted its way to the top of my 'Rad Places to Ski' list.

And now we're off to Yellowstone for some hiking and soaking. We'll report more later. For now, Maya says Hi!

at the laundry place in bozeman...

Wow, laundromats have come a long way since my college days. Wifi, satellite radio, cafe tables...this place is better than our old living room.

Anyway, we're a day late arriving in Bozeman, having made a last minute decision to stay one more day in Jackson and ski the 12 inches of goodbye gift that surprised us Sunday morning. And good thing we did- the snow was awesome and we ran into my friend Karl from NH and his son Dieter. They were with their friend John, a 25 year Jackson resident. True to the Obi-Wan-ness described below, John invited us to his home for dinner 5 minutes after meeting us. We accepted and spent a fun night hot tubbing and eating with Karl, Dieter, John and his wife Linda. John and Linda were wonderful hosts and a home-cooked meal (complete with homemade pumpkin pie!) was a treat compared to a dreaded third round of salami and cheese sandwiches. We went to bed full and happy, which is no small thing.

And then we drove to Bozeman this morning. Took 191 North through Yellowstone. Saw these guys along the way.

We don't really have a plan for anything at this point. You'll find out what we do right after we do. Cheers for now!

yes, we are nerds...

Sean and I are happily holed up in our little Motel 6 room with sore legs and a tired dog and I'm typing this post during commercial breaks of Empire Strikes Back. Yoda just gently put the smack down on one of Luke's whining fits as only Yoda can gently smack. Watching this makes me think the people of Jackson are all Jedi masters. We skied the resort today. People who can ski like the folks in Jackson ski must use the force somehow. The 5 year old youngling we saw soaring over jumps in JHMR's park definitley did. He was barely pushing 2 feet. As Yoda says, "size matters not. Look at me, judge me by my size, do you?"

They're also just NICE. Like, Obi-Wan nice. Before heading up to ski we stopped at an auto parts store to snag a retainer clip for our car, the final fix from our little accident in South Dakota. Retainer clips come in packages of eight. Upon realizing we only needed one, the guy at the auto parts store tore open the package, pulled out a clip, installed it and tried to send us off sans charge. We insisted on paying the $3.40 for the whole package, but still. People here seem to know and live another Yoda-ism: "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."

It's going to be hard to leave these luminous people, these beautiful mountains, this awesome place. But leave we will, for Bozeman tomorrow. Right after we finish dorking out to Star Wars.

Teton Pass - day 2

Yesterday, our friend Quinn took us up Mt. Glory. It was Nikki and my first trip up Glory's infamous boot pack, a 1500 ft stair case up the side of the mountain. We took our time getting up, reminiscent of Josh Freve's pace up Mt. Washington. We made it to the top and warmed up in the shack. Since avy danger is still ridiculously high and the wind was blowing hard out of the SW last night, we dropped off the backside rather than skiing Glory Bowl. The snow was perfectly windbuffed and smooth. The trees perfectly spaced. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face when we got back down to the road. I can't believe I lived here for 3 years and never did this. We've been here 3 full days and haven't been to the resort yet. We haven't missed a thing. Skiing off Teton Pass is incredible. When I lived here and met people who never skied the resort, only skiing the Pass. I didn't get it. Why would you do that when you have one of the best resorts in the world at your fingertips? Well, now I know. Thanks Quinn.

Here are some pics of our day:
The Bootpack:

Warming hut:

Quinn Lance: "The Almost First Son of Jackson"

Money!

maya wasn't born to be an alabama dog

We're pretty sure Maya the Dog loves Jackson, snow and mountains as much as we do. It's so good to be back here. This first pic is from our walk along Cache Creek yesterday. Maya met lots of friendly mountain dogs and generally had an awesome time stretching her legs.
Avalanche conditions in Jackson's backcountry are currently as scary as JHMR's ticket prices, so the three of us skinned to a mellow meadow off Teton Pass for some beacon practice and easy turns.
Practicing with avalanche beacons is sort of like a treasure hunt, but I'm still learning and I'm not sure how calm I'd be if I had to actually find Sean instead of just his beacon. Sean finds mine super fast though, which is reassuring, because I'm sure he sometimes wishes I was buried in avalanche debris instead of bossing him around. :) Good husband.
Anyway, Maya is pretty psyched on snow. She went on a bit of a bender today, rolling and snorting snow with the pure joy only dogs can show us. A far cry from the Shelby, Alabama animal shelter, hey Maya?

WHEW!!! - Finally made it!

We finally pulled into Jackson around midnight last night. Car is fixed (just needed an alignment to adjust for the extra weight of all our crap) and handling great. We took a southerly route as they were calling for 6-10" on Togwatee Pass. Roads were clear all the way to Pinedale and then we hit the snow. The car handled as a Subaru should. It was slow going but we got here. Today we're taking Maya for hike -she deserves it after 4 straight days in the car- and maybe take some runs at Snow King. We are psyched to not drive anywhere.

Tomorrow will be our first full day of skiing. Hopefully we fare better than this guy.

From here on out the blog should be focused on fun stuff and not interstate highway travels...stay tuned.

creeping along...

Our trip west continues at a creeping pace. After refusing to pay to see Mt. Rushmore we snapped these fabulously composed pictures from the roadside. Mt. Rushmore was pretty cool though. Smaller than I pictured, but impressive. And the Black Hills are beautiful!

With scary memories of slippery roads long behind us in Minnesota, we cruised to Casper, WY before small patches of slush again sent the Subaru drifting around the highway. The car has been handling like a shopping cart in any road condition other than Clear and Dry the entire trip. Experienced winter drivers, Sean and I have been perplexed watching white haired grandmothers in boatlike cadillacs blow by us as a half inch of warm slush causes a vehicle known for its all-weather handling to float over the road with the predictability of a drunken frat boy.

So, rather than white knuckle and teeth clench it the 5 mountainous, snowy hours to Jackson, we threw in the towel and are now sitting in the comfortable waiting area of White Mountain Subaru in Casper waiting to find out WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH OUR CAR. And, of course, how much its going to cost.Nice place though. They have a water bowl for Maya, cable TV (a luxury for us even when forced to daytime programming) soft drinks, WIFI and friendly Wyoming folks.

Hopefully you'll hear from us in Jackson next. And hopefully we'll still have cash left for the rest of the trip.

the day in south dakota

First off, I want to thank Missy Big Wheel- who I have a sneaking suspicion is either Logan or Derek- for posting the informative history of the Blue Earth, MN Jolly Green Giant statue.

The next mystery for you to sleuth is Wall Drug in South Dakota. Whoever started this thing is genius. We counted upwards of 50 Wall Drug signs on I-90 between Blue Earth and Wall, SD. Enough to make me a little loopy about finding out what it was. But when we finally got to Wall the store was closed! Closes at 5:30pm. What? Shouldn't they inform you of their archaic hours at least once during your 6 hours of Wall Drug billboard bombardment?

At least the Mitchell Corn Palace (as suggested by our friend Bob) was open. Awesome. Check out the 100% corn facade. I want to know who they hire to do this. Is there a school for corn mosaic design? Do kids in SD grow up dreaming that someday, if they've got what it takes, they might, just might, have their corn art immortalized in Mitchell? Even Maya was impressed.
Whether they dream of corn palace fame or not, people here are really, really friendly. Everyone we've met, from the lady at the Mitchell UPS store to the woman behind the Rapid City Motel 6 desk, has been helpful, cheerful and smiling.

We'll be sad to leave when we drive out of Rapid City tomorrow. We'll hit the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore before (hopefully, barring any further terrifying weather situations) finally making it to the motherly arms of the Tetons. Jackson. We can't wait!