Big Ol' Vacation Post

Here's a little chronicle of our trip to Winthrop, a little town northeast of Seattle in the Methow Valley.

Day 1
Friday was a half-day for E and me at work last week. We left Seattle at noon and headed home with the intent to be on the road by 1:30...well, by the time we were about half-way home we realized that wasn't going to be quite enough time, so we settled on 2:00. Naturally, we grossly underestimated the list of things we needed to get done. So, after packing up the car, stopping at the grocery store and filling up the gas tank, we finally got going at 3:00.

We were on our way! Next stop, Winthrop, Washington. Well, not quite the next stop. It had been years since I'd been farther north than Lynnwood, so it was like the first time for me. We took I-405 up to I-5 and then headed east on the Scenic North Cascade Hwy 20. What beautiful country. Again, my escapist fantasies started kicking in. We drove past lush green farmland and fields dotted with hay bales and cattle. Foothills and mountains flanked us to the north and south. It really was beautiful.

Mel vs. Huge Cows...
After about 30 or 40 minutes cruising on Hwy 20 Mel started getting pretty whiny and was literally shaking. Not knowing what he needed and definitely not wanting to clean up anything messy, we pulled onto a side road. Of course, it was a 2-lane road with no shoulders, but after a minute, we found an access gate-turnout to pull into. So, while Mel was proving to be the 'dog who cried wolf' I stood at the gate and watched huge white cows lumber around their pasture. At some point I realized that the lumbering was getting closer and closer. Mel sniffed around the gate for quite a while, but moved on to looking for all of the choice spots on which to leave his calling card. The cows moo-vement toward the gate was probably because they were under the impression that we were delivering their dinner. Um, no, not the case. We put Mel back in the car and were getting ready to climb back in ourselves but decided we needed to see just how close these heffers were going to come. Let's just say, they came really close. Being the brilliant adults that we are, we decided we needed to see what Mel would think of the close encounter. So, we popped open the hatch and called him out. Except he didn't come. He was sniffing the air and not making any move. We called him a couple more times before his "good dog" gene kicked in and he hopped out. He took one look at the huge bovines and was back in the car before we could even try to coax him closer. Yeah, he's a courageous little wonder dog.

The rest of the drive was beautiful but uneventful. The trip took 4 hours and 15 minutes, exactly the amount of time that GoogleMaps told us it would take. When we arrived at Pearrygin Lake and found our friends, E got to work setting up our tent before we lost any more light. Our wonderful friends saved us some yummy chili, corn bread and salad for dinenr. Once we had a home and were fed, everyone moved over to one of the sites and a nice fire was built. I got to work making a hobo dessert to share. Bananas split-open and stuffed with chocoalte and marshmallows, wrapped in foil and tossed around the edge of the fire. So good, and inspired by D. Jen Harris of Homeplates Personal Chef. It was a hit, afterall, what's not to love. Afterward, we all gathered around the fire and said the rosary. We had brought our visiting statue of Mary along for just such fireside prayers. It is so edifying to be able to surround ourselves with such faith-filled and faithful people. We are continually blessed by St. Monica's.

As we settled into bed, we were lulled to sleep by the symphony of the coyote packs on all sides of the valley. Yes, it was as comforting as you'd think. But we did manage to sleep.

Day 2
Here's something that most people don't know about me and probably wouldn't guess...I'm a big, fat, morning person when I'm camping. I'm up at 5:30 am, ready to make some coffee and breakfast while watching the sun come up. And not grudginly, it would not be inaccurate to label my manner chipper.

Once the rest of the group was up and around, E and I resolved to go for a run. We were joined by our friend Katy, though she may have just been taking a break from her two kidlets. ;) Either way, I was happy to have someone closer to my speed than E. Somehow, my memory from the day before and our drive in was completely wiped out. I had absolutely no recollection of the loooooong downhill that we drove on the way in. Which means that the loooooong uphill when we started our run was a complete surprise to me. And, not what I would call a particularly pleasant surprise. We were also joined by Johnny, who caught us on the big uphill. Yeah, it was annoying to be caught so easily, but he's a young, sprightly thing with boundless energy and really long legs. I have no idea how far or fast E and Johnny went, but Katy and I ran a respectable 3.5 miles.

The rest of the day was spent eating, lolling around on the beach, eating, watching the kids splash around, eating, going for a walk through Winthrop (to get ice cream), eating, and then helping get dinner ready...for 23. That's right, 5 families, 23 people. We're Catholic, enough said.

Day 3 or "An owl, a goose and a duck walk into a bar..."
I wish that I could wake up so easily and in such a good mood all of the time, but alas, it doesn't seem to be in me when I'm at home. Sunday morning started bright and early for me, 5:30 bathroom break followed by a 30 minute valiant effort not to keep Eric awake. During that last 30 minutes, I was just laying there, I'd lost my ear plugs so I was listening and trying to drift back off. Every sound becomes very apparnet when you are trying to fall asleep. I started to hear a little pattern of sounds. There was a little owl somewhere close by who would make a sweet, sleepy little "who...who, who" every few minutes. The owl was almost always followed by a goose's "honk, honk, honk, honk" and after the goose came a cackle from a duck "quack, wack, wack, wack, wack, wack." You can see why sleep didn't exactly come right back to me. At home this would surely have annoyed the heck out of me, but here in the wilderness, I became so very amused that I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. As the conversation between the feathered friends continued, I started to imagine them sitting around...the owl would start a joke, the goose gave the punch line, and the duck cracked up laughing every time. :)

We attended St. Genevieve Catholic Church, about 15 minutes away in Twisp. Father Gustavo Ruiz said a lovely Mass in the small white church. They have a beautiful San Damiano crucifix behind the altar with the tabernacle. There were also some lovely icons including one of thier patron and Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

On our way back to the campground, E and I stopped at the Sweet Shoppe (why the extra "pe" I really don't know) for some fresh cinnamon rolls and an apple fritter. Mmmmmm. Once back at camp, we all had some "real" lunch. Since Mass started at 10:30, the day was more than half over by the time we'd finished eating. E and I had planned on leaving around 4:00, so at 1:30-ish we started taking down the tent and packing up the car.

At about 2:30 a hike was proposed, we figured we could fit in a hike. It would be good to get some excercise before the 4-hour drive home. Off to the Okanagan National Forrest we drove with our friends Anne and Roger. The map that we used to choose our trail was a tourist map that turned out to have a very inaccurate scale. It took us about forty-five minutes to actually find the trail that we hiked. The hike was a quickie (30 minutes out, 30 minutes back) that followed a nice little stream. Mel, true to his Mel-ness, dropped 10 years and ran around like a 2-year old puppy. Surprisingly, he was not noticably stiff or limpy the next day.

We were quite surprised as we drove into the Okanagan to come upon free-ranging cows. Just big black cows moseying along beside the road. We also had an adrenaline-surging, close call when a cow jumped up onto the road right in front of Anne and Roger's car. Quick reflexes and skillfull breaking saved the day...and the car...and the cow.

All-in-all, we had a great time and enjoyed spending time with all of our friends and their awesome kids!

6 blissful years

E and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary last weekend (7/27). We spent time with friends (Ted and Jennifer) whose anniversary is on the same weekend. Each year they throw a huge party to celebrate and we usually don't get to go...because we generally like to spend our anniversary in a bit more romantic fashion. Anyway, we thought camping would be good fun, so we spent Saturday afternoon and night camping about 30 minutes from our house.

What you should know is that Jennifer is a personal chef. That means that we weren't eating chili from a can. What we did have was beer can chicken basted with something ridiculously yummy, a lamb roast rubbed with rosemary and lavender, and the masterpiece, a pork roast that was spiked with garlic and rosemary and rubbed with smoked paprika. It was amazing. The pork and the lamb were roasted over a spit that they brought with them. These are not "ultra-light" campers by any means. :)

Sooooo good. The smells wafting off of these things made the vegetarian among us pause to take it in.

Nothing like a chicken with a beer can stuck in its tuchas (it was Rainier, in case you were wondering).

The sides were perfect compliments, a tabouli-like salad made with bulgar, a cheese ravioli salad, and my favorite, a roasted vegetable salad.

My niece, Miss O, was there for her first camping experience. Though they didn't sleep over, her little brother was at home feeling under-the-weather, O and her mom did all of the requisite camping things. We roasted hotdogs on sticks, went for a hike by the river, set up tents (and some of us took naps in them), made s'mores and sat around the fire chatting. All-in-all, a good first experience for Miss O.

This was a lovely, spontaneous victory stance from Miss O. I have no idea what she's celebrating, but wanted to document it just the same.

My boys, Mel and E. Mel morphs into a mountain goat whenever we are negotiating precarious rocks. He scrambles over them like a pro...this is unfortunate for the poor soul who holds the leash and tries to keep up.

On Sunday, our actual anniversary, we ended up taking a 3.5 hour nap...aparently we are out of practice as sleeping in our tent. Regardless, it was a memorable weekend. Thanks to Ted and Jennifer for including us in their celebration and helping to make ours. Happy anniversary, Honey.