Well hello everyone. It's been a long time since I actually made an entry here. Nikki is usually the one who writes and I support with editing and photos. Katie just visited and I thought it appropriate that I be the one to write the entry, since she is my sister. So here goes. Katie's trip started with a wild cab ride to the airport to catch an early flight to avoid missing her connection at JFK. Her cool head prevailed and she was able to finagle her way to the head of the line not only at the ticket counter, but also skipped the ENTIRE security line. Who does that? Nice work sister.

We started the visit off with a couple a beers at The Pub. CHEERS!


For the most part we hung around La Conner, but we did manage to get up to Vancouver and out to the San Juan Islands. My mind was blown when Katie told us it was her first time to Canada. I don't know why that was so surprising but it was.

Katie and Maya stop to smell the roses in Stanley Park.


Katie and I deciphering a map of the park . We like maps.


After the park we headed over to Grainville Island for some fish and chips at Go Fish. If you're ever in Vancouver and you're into fish and chips, go here. It's a little shack on the fishing wharf. Soooo greasy and goooood.


The next day we headed over to Orcas Island in the San Juans. While having lunch Katie and I reverted to our childhood and fought over a sandwich. An epic battle followed:





Thanks sister for coming all this way to hang out. We had fun and can't wait to see you and Ronan soon.

its the cheesiest

I thought I'd let all the readers who think we're "crunchy weirdos" know that we're eating our fourth consecutive dinner of boxed Mac and Cheese tonight. Although maybe that only eliminates the "crunchy" and not the "weirdo".

Not sure, but being so cheap, easy and delicious, Mac and Cheese satisfies all our requirements for weeknight dining. Our favorite is Annie's Homegrown, but we generally just buy whatever is cheapest or on sale with reckless disregard for sodium content or other health considerations. We've found Mac and Cheese to be a most chameleon-like food. It pretty much adapts to whatever we throw in it, and we definitely like to throw stuff in. Tonight's M+C is spiked with spinach from our CSA share, tuna, and a fair amount of Cholula. Sean tipped me off on the Cholula thing...Cholula is God's gift to Mac+Cheese. Last night we added some pesto, which Sean has been making from scratch- pesto is the best way we've found to use up the truckload of basil we get each week from the CSA.

But pesto, schmesto. This post is a tribute to carbs and powdered cheese! Let me resume: the night before last we added chicken, black beans, and hot sauce. The night before that its simple side shined as a side to some skirt steak.

It never complains about the frequent changes, just goes down easy. It's awesome when we're tired and lazy. It's pretty much awesome whenever.

Thank you powdered cheese pouch.

We love you.

shatastic

I just realized that I never posted the pics from our Shasta trip. The next week or so isn't looking like it will provide time to write a comprehensive report, so I'm gonna shirk my blog duties and just provide you with a brief pictorial review...

Our first intimidating glance at the mountain from the highway.


Day 1. Starting the trudge upward. That's me in the back...


Base camp at 10,000 feet.

My friend had her golden 30th birthday and skied her 100th day this season, all in one weekend. Pretty rad birthday party, too.

Sean and Dave on Day 2, probably 5 hours into hiking...we started at 3am and just kept climbing and climbing and climbing.

Sean taking a break from the slog and smiling for the first time in 2 hours.

SUMMIT ROCKS!!!

And then we skied down 7,000 vertical feet to the cars, which are way in the distance where the trees start. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the actual skiing...I was too tired to even think about the camera anymore.

You can check out the rest of our pics here:

Sean and Nikki's Adventures on Shasta

This was definitely the most difficult thing I've ever done in terms of mental stamina. Can't tell you how many times I wanted to just stop and ski down from wherever I was. Then, at about 9:00am on summit day, these bionic humanoids that started from about 6,000 feet after we started from 10,000 feet started PASSING our group. Amazing. But Sean and I both soldiered on and I'm so glad we did. I had to ski down right away to keep myself from puking...the air is pretty thin at 14,000 feet...but it was still awesome finally getting to the top of something you've struggled for over 10 hours to reach.

One of my best weekends ever, for sure. Thanks Megs!

magic skagit

I hate grocery shopping.

The sentiment is probably a remnant of childhood shopping with my amazing yet frugal mom, who effectively stretched our budget but taxed my short attention span with hours of exhaustive price analysis in search of the best deals on tuna, yogurt and canned green beans while holding me hostage in a metal jail on wheels. To be fair to Mom, we probably didn't shop for an overly unreasonable amount of time. I mean, four hours is unreasonable, but not overly so. Plus, I was a kid, so I probably have a skewed memory of the whole thing- any time comparing price per poundage is torturous when there's a whole sunny world of dirt to be eaten outside!

Although it no longer keeps me from my dirt, grocery shopping still seems a mechanical and unromantic task, anticipated about as much as I anticipate sweeping dog hair. Or cleaning the toilet.

Luckily, these days I get to avoid the grocery store (and my own apparently inherited version of price analysis compulsion, which my mom, like so many of her quirks, has sneakily passed directly to me) most of the time. Why am I able to do this, you ask? Because Sean and I joined a CSA! CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and its a great way to get uber fresh produce and reduce our carbon footprint without ever having to endure dairy aisle goosebumps.

Instead of goosebumps, we get a box of fresh veggies every week. We pick it up at a local farmstand. We pay in advance. No opportunity for price comparing! Glory, hallelujah!

Here's what was in our box today:

1 huge bunch of spinach
1/2 lb lettuce mix
1 bunch arugula
1.5 lbs shallots
2 beautiful beefsteak tomatoes
1 bell pepper
1 bunch radishes
1 bunch italian basil

It doesn't sound like much, but pounding it all down in a week (before the next box comes) is actually rather daunting. Soooooo....we welcome any recipes you have that involve the ingredients above, especially radishes, since we still have to use the ones from last week as well.

We're loving the convenience and freshness of the CSA program so far. And I'm loving avoiding the grocery store. Although I do miss picking out ice cream. And I miss the free cookie too. And, of course, the hours (and hours) of quality time with Mom.

olympic national park

So, today is the first slightly cloudy day we've seen in over two weeks of touring the Pacific Northwest. A perfect day for some dorking out on the computer.

In case you haven't already figured it out from previous posts, our good friends were in town last week. One of the highlights of their visit (besides seeing them, of course) was checking out Olympic National Park. Olympic is a HUGE park and we only had a couple days, so we toured it the good old American way: lots of driving, lots of beer, lots of interpretive signs. And oh yeah, a couple short hikes as well. Driving, which is not my favorite thing to do, has its benefits...we got to see Rialto Beach, the Hoh Rainforest and Hurricane Ridge in less than 3 days. The diversity of landscape in Olympic is absolutely amazing. I'm not sure where else you can tool around with tide pools on the beach, nuzzle nurse logs in a rainforest and watch mule deer in a high alpine environment in under 3 hours. Incredible.

Unfortunately I only have pictures of Rialto Beach...at least they're pretty cool.

Walking toward the cool spiky beach things

Sean checking out anemones next to the creatively named "Hole in the Wall"

For scale, Kel and Dave on the other side of "Hole in the Wall"

These babies were everywhere...

Group shot!
Kelly and Dave have the rest of the pics from this trip, including those from the Hoh Rainforest (just picture a forest with a thick bed of green ferns, huge cedar trees and creepy yellowish moss covering everything) and Hurricane Ridge (just picture beautiful snowy mountains), so here's the last important one I have from our two days in Olympic...

Sean eating S'mores at camp! Mmmmmmmm...
We had a great time, Sean mostly because he got to go 3 days without showering or shaving, a luxury for him. After dropping Kelly off at the airport on Friday we drove directly south to Mt. Shasta. That report is coming next, stay tuned!

the ice cream worked!

Quick update from the library: after spending a few days in Olympic National Park, Sean and I drove 9 hours south to celebrate my friend Megan's 30 birthday by climbing Mt. Shasta with her and 12 of her friends. We have tons of pictures, which we'll post later, but after over 10 hours of climbing spread over two days, Sean and I both summited. I guess all that spoon to mouth training really paid off.

Highlights included weathering a thunderstorm at 10,000 feet hunkered down in our tent, both of us huddled in the lightning position and protected only by two thin sheets of nylon; waking at 3:00am to start our summit bid under the most beautiful starry sky I've ever seen and then subsequently watching an amazing sunrise from 11,000 feet; and, of course, finally making it to the top of a 14,179 foot mountain after climbing nearly 8,000 feet of vertical.

Stay tuned for pics of Olympic and Shasta later this week.