Bandera Mountain

Summer is in full force here in Seattle. 
Kate and I chose to brave temperatures in the upper 80's to 
hike Bandera Mountain on a gorgeous, clear Monday. 
I only have photos from my phone, so pardon the lack of quality. 

Once we reached the steep meadow area the bear grass was phenomenal. 

We also saw plenty of paintbrush, lupine, and many other 

wildflowers I don't know the names of. 

Rainier was beautiful and once we hit Little Bandera 

we could see more of the jagged Cascade profile that I love. 

We had a short snack break at the summit before heading down. 
The bugs were BAD. We borrowed DEET from the two other 
hikers we saw on the way up. Too bad I already had several bites 
including a horse fly bite on my knee swollen to half-dollar size. 

It was an excellent hike which I would totally do again. 
Thanks, Kate, for joining me! 
Next time, bug repellent. 

k a u a i

This post is months overdue because this trip happened back in January. 

Joe and I went to Kauai for six  blissful days. 

We stayed at the north end in a condo in Princeville. 

Most of our days were spent on the beach and in the water. 

There was record high surf so the north end beaches were closed, 

but we spent some time snorkeling in Poipu and ended up 

finding a favorite beach down 'Aliomanu Road in the northwest area of the island. 

We had the beach pretty much to ourselves there, which was perfect. 

Other highlights were driving to the end of the road past Waimea canyon, 

discovering a lime tree at our condo and making amazing margaritas, 

and watching every sunrise, sunset, and moonrise. 

Here are some favorite photos from the trip. 

We will definitely be going back here again. 

Snowshoe Paradise

I'm going to pretend like it hasn't been nearly five months 

since the last time I posted here and just jump back in, ok? 

The first Saturday in January happened to be gorgeous, 
so Joe and I drove to Mount Rainier for a day in the snow. 
We hiked around Paradise in the glorious sunshine. 
The wind was crazy and caused some amazing little blizzards. 
One of my gloves blew off a ledge and was long gone in seconds.  

I'm so happy we were able to enjoy this beautiful day on the mountain. 
I'll try to be back before another few months pass by.