Whistler Village

December 11, 2015

To celebrate our 10 year anniversary, Andy and I took a four day trip up to Vancouver, B.C. It's so beautiful up there during the holiday season. It was an easy drive up to Whistler Village on Friday morning. Shops were not quite open yet when we arrived at 10 a.m. so after having some hot buttered rum at the bottom of the slopes, then grabbing london fogs at the cafe, we took a hike to upper Whistler Village.

Hot buttered rum by the fire

There are some side trails (Bridge Meadows and Valley Trails) on the way up to the village which we hit on the way back down. I guess it was more of a stroll, but that's besides the point! It was the perfect day up there - a one day break between drenching rains and no crowds because it was a weekday.

Fancy-pants Andy

Fitzsimmons Creek

Check out my big, comfy snow boots

As you can see, the trails were wide and well-packed. The Bridge Meadows Trail takes you past the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Center which we visited as well.

With the day still young we finally decided to visit the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park. We practically had the whole place to ourselves and once the sun set, the whole place lit up. Definately a fun place for kids. My favorite part was "Treetops Adventure" where you walk on seven suspension bridges through old growth Douglas-firs. Magnificent.

Main suspension bridge

Treetop Adventure bridges above me. The fallen tree below me was a 46 ton tree the fell during a storm in 2006.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, folks! My resolution for 2016 will be to go hiking or backpacking at least once per month. We were a far cry from that that year, weren't we? Sayonara, 2015! I'm welcoming the new year with open arms :)

Deception Pass State Park

October 24 - 25, 2015

A car camping trip at Deception Pass was in order the day after I came back from my work trip in Missouri. The fall foliage was lovely.


 

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Since Deception Pass State Park is just over an hour drive from home I was able to sleep in before we packed up and headed out Saturday around noon. We had reservations at a great site in Cranberry Lake campground.

Side note: last month we scored big at the REI garage sale and snagged the Big Agnes Fairview 4 tent for 15% of retail (of, not off) and also the REI Alcove Shelter for $15 or something ridiculous. It was nice to have the shelter as it rained the first few hours on site and late at night. The tent was a palace for two people and a dog. We slept on a queen size inflatable mattress with a couple down comforters from Costco. We will need to rethink the sleep setup as the mattress, filled with air, is quite cold at night and the quilts don't stay on when there's a dog stomping around. I think I'll stick to my sleeping bag on cold nights.

He was adamant about standing on the picnic table. See also the giant tent and shelter. 

After enjoying a beer with our take-out lunch from Shrimp Shack (soft-shell crab burger, fried oysters, and popcorn shrimp) off we went to explore the area.

Cranberry Lake

Heading towards the beach

The next day we headed out early to hike the Goose Rock Summit Trail, Perimeter Trail, and Discovery Trail. These were all easy, well-maintained trails. It took us about two hours with plenty of stopping for photos. Only ran in to three groups during the hike, one of which were biking.

The Goose Rock Summit Trail is only a half mile off the Perimeter Trail and offers lovely views. The Perimeter Trail connects with the Discovery Trail which is part of the Pacific Northwest Trail, a 1,200 mile trail that goes through three states and ends at the Washington coast.

Goose Rock summit

Goose Rock Perimeter Trail

Views for days

I feel positive about this hiking season. It will likely include more day hikes with Toby :)

Coal Creek Falls

August 29, 2015

While Andy was at the WCSS event in Port Townsend I decided to take Toby out on his first hike and my first solo hike. I wanted to take it easy and chose Coal Creek Falls in the Cougar Mountain area. A gentle climb and proximity to home made it an ideal hike even though there would be no water or waterfalls to see.

Despite the rain and wind in Mill Creek, the east side was blue skies and sunny. There was plenty of parking just before 9 am and also plenty of trail map print outs. We took Red Town Trail up to Coal Creek Falls and made a loop back to the car. All in all it took us about an hour.

During the hike I ended up stepping on a giant slug. It was a dense one so ended up rolling under my shoe instead of squishing. I think Toby will do well on future hikes. He happily stepped off to the side to let other hikers pass. We have some work to do on leash pulling, but he slowed down when I said "Toby, with me". He would deliberately walk through the small water puddles on the trail and then get all buck wild and run down the trail. It was a good workout for both of us!

Nice wide trail

No water here

Tree tops, but no apple juice

Sittin' on a bridge near the restoration area. 

Hi

The morning of Summer Stormpocalypse 2015 was actually a perfect morning for hiking..

Toby ♥ water puddles

Selfie!

We got home just as the big storm was beginning and prepared what we could for Andy's birthday weekend!

Cape Lookout State Park

 May 24 - 25, 2015

Our one year wedding anniversary coincides with Memorial Day weekend so Andy planned a fun weekend in Oregon. We stayed Friday and Saturday night in Portland doing city stuff and grabbed three growlers of beer from Deschutes Brewery before heading to the coast on Sunday morning.

Andy's a Subaru car guy now so we were able to pack a lot of goodies with us to go car camping at Cape Lookout. He was able to nab us one of the nicer more private spots a few weeks earlier. Beach access was literally across the driveway. It seemed like almost every campsite brought their furkids so we've planned a trip back here in August with all the dogs and their humans.

Chop, chop

We arrived at the campsite on Sunday afternoon. As you can see above, we brought our roomy 4-person Coleman tent :) After setting up camp we went down to the beach for some beer and frisbee.

Looking south

Sittin' on the beach

Hang-gliders!

Andy cooking dinner (steak, bell pepper, onion, garlic kebabs and beans). I'm a lucky gal. 

After Monday morning breakfast we tore down camp and drove up to Cape Lookout trailhead which is less than a 5 mile hike roundtrip. It's an easy, wide trail with a section of mud but nothing to worry about. We started our hike early and ran into a local man on his way up. On our way down around 10 am we ran into at least six groups going up.

On the drive up

Beginning of the hike

Pictures from the end of the hike are not posting correctly so oh well. We didn't see any whales, but saw some seafoam lining up in the open water. Currents must have lined up just right or something. I had forgotten how much nicer the beaches are in Oregon compared to Washington. 

Of course we stopped by Tillamook Factory on our way home! It was our first time. All you really do is eat and shop. You can look in to the factory floor, too. Reminded me a bit of Ikea. We bought five or six different kinds of cheeses, fudge for our friends, and some meat sticks. Yum yum! My kind of trip.

Me: Black Cherry; Andy: Black Cherry, Wild Mountain Blackberry, Oregon Blueberry Patch

El Yunque Rainforest, Puerto Rico

January 30, 2015

I recently took a week long "sister's trip" to San Juan, Puerto Rico for all three of our January birthdays. We left the SO's at home, but we all agreed next vacation we'd bring 'em.

Laus on the loose

Of course one of my must-do items included visiting El Yunque Rainforest. We hit it up tourist-style first by stopping by the visitor's center. From there we decided to do the easy in and out La Mina Falls Trail.

Hello!

Heading into the Visitor Center

On the drive to the trailhead we made a quick stop to check out Yokahu Tower. At this point it was pouring rain. No matter - we were in shorts and tanks with swim suits underneath.

Yokahu Tower

Raining in the rainforest

View from the top. We got a peek of the city through the clouds.

Lush

Thoroughly soggy we hopped back into the rental car and drove up to La Mina trailhead. Restrooms are available here and the entrance to the trail is just a little farther down. The entire trail to the falls is essentially all paved/rocked with some concrete stairs so we just hiked in flip flops. Surprisingly it wasn't very slippery. There were several covered picnic shelters for the first part of the hike but none were being used at the time.

La Mina River was on our left side the whole time. It was a lovely hike at just 0.7 miles long descending the whole way. Once we arrived at the waterfall, there were about a dozen people in the water. There's a second pool towards the right. That's were my sisters and I decided to dip our feet in. After taking pictures and watching the kids jump and climb the rocks, we headed back across the bridge.

Looking up

Neat rocks

Final set of stairs down to the waterfall

La Mina Falls

My sister, Diana

To our surprise there were at least 30 teenage kids waiting at the bottom of the stairs to get into the water. So glad we started the hike early. We left just in time.

We had such a nice vacation. Loved it here.

Castillo de San Cristobal in Old San Juan