Playing tourist in Portland

One thing you need to know about Portland is that our summers consist of 3 months.  The remaining 9 months are gloomy and/or rainy.

I'm ok with the rain and gloom - but it  doesn't make for a good time to have visitors.  The hikes are limited.  The outdoor walking is limited.  The coast is chilly.  

But the 3 months that we DO have of summer are amazing.  We always say we put up with the 9 months of rain for the amazing 3 months of summer.

But the hard part about only having 3 months of good weather is that means there's only 3 months where people can visit.  What does that mean for us?  Back-To-Back-To-Back Visitors.

BUT we love having friends and family get to experience our city - so it's a price we pay!

We recently had the hubs' family in town for 4 days, and then the next day my Aunt and Cousin came to town for 5 days.  

We.

Did.

Everything.

I got super sick (of course) so I was more focused on trying to see if I could work in a nap time with my head cold, but I still put my big girl pants on and played tourist in Portland.

We hit up the coast, the gorge, Hood River, berry picking, and all of Portland (did a West side day, an East side day, and a West + East side day).

Cannon Beach

Crepes!  

Our berry picking view of Hood

Salt and Straw

While I love my city - I learned that I'm a horrible tour guide

I loathe driving, parallel parking, and navigating new neighborhoods.  I was probably more stressed than I needed to be and couldn't quite enjoy the time.  But we got to hit up all of Portland's finest (Salt and Straw, Food Carts, Pittock Mansion!) so I'm not complaining one bit.

Climbing Mount Saint Helens!

Guys.... I DID IT!!

I climbed Mount Saint Helens.

Hubs has been on a kick to do a climb (aka: something bigger than a hike).  Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens - he was on a kick.

Thanks to kidney stones, I've successfully evaded the past few weekends of climbing.  Then also thanks to Aaron's overtime, I was able to avoid Mt. Hood the weekend before last.

But this last weekend we didn't have anything.  I was hesitant to go on a Sunday b/c I knew I'd be exhausted for the remainder of the week (AND I AM!) but I took the plunge and we. did. it.

With a 3:00am alarm clock and on the road by 4:00am, we were able to have trekking poles in hand, backpacks on backs, just in time for go-time at 5:45am.

Yes, folks, on our luxurious Sunday morning we were hiking at 5:45am.  Don't be jealous - I have the bags under my eyes to prove sleep deprivation is a nasty thing.

But I digress.

We pushed on.  The first half of the climb was snow-less which I was thankful for.  While it was steep we kept a good pace and passed several of the larger groups.  Aaron brought his skis to ascend the snowy parts where I intended to boot pack it.

Boot packing was definitely the wiser decision - but we won't tell him.

Oh and did I mention - we were climbing on Mother's Day which means everyone wore DRESSES!  Aaron's stage name was Ginger Pop.  And he was a B-E-A-U-T. Not to mention - he wore his 20 pound work vest just to add an extra level of challenge. #CantKeepUp


After having read about the false summit, I thankfully was prepared (as others around me were NOT).  It was nevertheless any less discouraging slightly to reach the incredibly steep false summit just to continue on to the real summit.

Ginger Pop making her way up

SUMMIT!!! 

After we summited and almost lost my jacket, my trekking poles, and Ginger Pop's wig we decided it was time to book it back down.  Hubs had skis and the few people who left before us all left on their butts.

That's right.  Slid down the mountain on their butts.

It's called glissading, and it's as terrifying as it sounds (when it's ice).

But when it's NOT ice - it's one of the most FUN things you'll ever do!!

Oh you know - just sliding down on my butt

Have you ever slid down the mountain on your bootay?!  I might be bruised on my entire backside, but it was worth it.

And on another note - I'm desperately looking to learn to edit photos.  If anyone has any suggestions/tools/resources I'd love to hear!

Happy FRIDAY!!

Annual Dog Mountain hike

TWO YEARS AGO...

...the hubs and I did our first hike up Dog Mountain.  I stopped at almost every switchback (which equates to a ton of stopping) and did a lot of huffing-and-puffing.

The hike was "sooooo steep" that I even lost both of my big toenails from the descent (and my toes jamming into the front of my shoes).

LAST YEAR...

...I kicked Dog Mountain's butt on the way up.  You might remember from this post that I was incredibly proud of myself for the progress I'd made on my fitness.  While the ascent went swimmingly, the descent ended in severely spraining my ankle causing me problems all throughout summer.

THIS YEAR...

...was third time the charm!  With Crossfit 3x per week and our hiking regimen, hikes like Dog Mountain seem like another walk in the park (a hard walk in the park, though, with lots of heavy breathing).

The wild flowers were in SERIOUS full bloom!  And with full bloom comes full crowds.

The hubs got off his10:00pm-8:00am shift, came home, and we booked it to the mountain.  He's such a trooper :-)  I was super proud of our early start and expected to have pick-of-the-litter for parking spots.

Wrong.

The trail head was a ZOO.  We had to park in the overflow parking which is AT LEAST an additional half mile away from the trail head.

But that's ok - because it's wild flower season and this girl was STOKED.

We brought primcess Polly who was a total champ until the last uphill stretch, and a majority of the downhill portion.  We passed a man with his pug in a front-body-carrier aaaaand I may or may not consider purchasing one for Polly.
Don't judge me - she's my babe.

And on that note - here are photos from this year's Dog Mountain hike!  We may or may not have had a mini-photoshoot of Polly in the flowers.  My sweet hubs is such a trooper.

Update!!

It never fails that the busier you get, the more you forget to bloggy post.

I had a crazy (good) summer.  It was the first summer in a few years that the hubs and I actually got to:

1. See each other
2. Hang out
3. Spend more than 1 weekend together

We saved pretty much all of our vacation time for this summer, and while things didn't pan out as expected we still made the most of our time up here in the PNW.

I'll let my pictures do the talking - but you'll notice a couple common themes:

• Gorgeous Lakes
• Hiking

(P.S. - because there were so many photos I've added them to a slideshow below - feel free to use the left and right arrow keys to sort through these)

Enjoy!!

...

Happy Heart - Vesper Peak

My heart could not have been more happy this past weekend.

Aaron and I were supposed to hike Mount Saint Helens. However after reading reviews of recent trip reports we decided we'd wait until winter to hike the mountain.

 Plus I've been wanting to hike Vesper Peak for some time now, so it seemed like a perfect weekend to cross that off our list.

 Vesper Peak is about 4100 feet elevation gain and 9 miles. There's a completely-clear lake on your way, and amazing views at the summit.

 We chose to backpack the mountain so that we could overnight it and breathe some mountain air.

 And friends - it was amazing.
Breathtaking.
Gorgeous.
Perfect.

 If these photos don't make you totally swoon over the mountains then we can't be friends :-)

 Jk jk I love you all.

We started off at about noon on Friday since yours truly took some time off work.
A Friday start was perfect - we were one of four groups on the trail so we practically had it entirely to ourselves.

Why is that perfect?
…because you get the pick of the litter when it comes to campsites.

I had a hard week since my car decided to blow a head gasket costing me $2800.

My little heart was broken for my little car.
… and my wallet.
Actually, my heart was entirely broken for my wallet.
#firstworldproblems


So this trip was exactly what the doctor ordered.

On our way down Aaron noticed the aquamarine colored water and had to stop.  The river was gorgeous!  If that's all we did the entire trip I still would have been a happy camper.

This was our original camping spot.  

Then Aaron told me you're not allowed to camp within 100 feet of a water source.

So I panicked thinking the cops were going to get us.

#naive

Summit shot!!

Summit proof!

GOOD MORNING!!

Do the views get any better than this?

Nope.

The answer is nope.

Home means Nevada