If you know me well, you know I don’t impulse buy anything. Each new purchase is usually researched, mulled over, sampled in person, and mulled over some more. Hell, it took me a year to buy a new bike after my old one was donated for scraps. There’s a caveat though. I don’t impulse buy anything...except for flights. In the depths of winter, from my hibernation position on our comfy couch, I thought it was mostly a good idea to cram four trips involving flying within about two months. Now, three trips down, one to go, and I’ve finally come up for air long enough to share some stories!
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| New bike: it was worth the wait |
Trip 1: The scene is Boston in early April for my bachelorette party! On my late night flight from CA, even armed with my red-eye flight kit (Zquil, a bandana to cover my eyes, and one of those free blankets from the airline), I didn’t sleep a wink. Nevertheless, I felt rejuvenated after a shower and a catnap the next day. I am so grateful that my friends came up, over, and across all corners of the country to celebrate the last few months of my status as a bachelorette! Highlights involved going on a group run while wearing our “bridal party” sashes, shotgunning a can of cider for the first time on a cidery tour, and enjoying lots of well wishes from strangers while we rocked out to great live music at a bar.
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| Downeast Cider House |
Trip 2: My sister’s graduation from Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, in May. Somehow, I got out of going to Kelli’s undergraduate degree graduation last year, so there was no way I was getting out of her MBA graduation too. Plus, I genuinely wanted to go. (I swear, Mom!) This time on my overnight flight, I said screw the red-eye flight kit since it proved useless on the way to Boston, and I went the minimalist route: only a magazine and water. Unsurprisingly this didn’t work either- I stared at the back of my eyes all night. A New Jersey bagel and a shower worked wonders though, and I felt rejuvenated the next day. Kelli’s graduation weekend reminded me of one basic fact about college kids: they love their cheap alcohol. Kelli introduced us to a drink called “Hey Ya’ll” which is a southern style hard iced tea, brewed in Canada, and is like $5 for a hundred cans. I casually sampled it while we walked around campus.
Owen’s mom’s 60th birthday extravaganza, in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, was exactly a week later and by a stroke of luck I got approved to telework from my parent’s house in NJ in between. I spent my days working either in front of our woodstove or outside on the porch, depending on the fickle East Coast weather. By night, I sampled NJ’s finest foods with my parents. Then, it was off to Delaware for the weekend. I was a little overwhelmed by all the babies at first (Owen’s got four young nieces and nephews) but by the end of the weekend I was playing with babies like it was my job.
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| Prime teleworking conditions on a cold, rainy day |
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| I was shocked at how green NJ was |
Trip 3: Memorial Day weekend, Seattle, to visit my friends Madeline and Evan. This was my first trip to Seattle, and my suspicions were confirmed- it sure is a rainy place! I got caught outside without a rain jacket once and quickly learned Rule #1 of living in the Pacific Northwest: always bring rain gear. There was a break in the rain though, and we got lucky since it coincided perfectly with our impromptu camping trip to Olympic National Park. Yes, you heard that right: we planned a last-minute camping trip to a National Park on a holiday weekend. Honestly, it was never too crazy though. We sat in bad traffic once, but whiled away the time listening to the Harry Potter soundtrack and working our way through all our snacks. Then there was the issue of where we would sleep. For those of you that have discovered the magic of dispersed camping, if you’ve already guessed that we found a beautiful, secluded, free spot to camp in a National Forest, you would be correct. I always feel like I’m getting away with something when I dispersed camp.
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| Lake Crescent |
In the two days that we were at the park, we did a big driving loop through the Olympic Peninsula, stopping at the highlights that were suggested by a friendly employee at the visitor’s center, who had an advanced degree in map folding, as he dead-panned to us. There was Lake Crescent, where I got my first glimpse of the quintessential Pacific Northwest mossy rainforest. There was Sol Duc hot springs, where we soaked in the rejuvenating water while spotting wildlife both majestic (a bald eagle!) and mundane (a racoon). The next day, we finally made our way out to the coast, first to Rialto Beach, and then to Ruby Beach. I didn’t know where to look: at the gorgeous sea stacks, the mossy forests, or all the dogs. Later that day, we dipped back into the interior of the park to walk through the aptly named Hall of Mosses trail in the Hoh Rain Forest. Even though we had a long drive back to Seattle, Madeline and Evan were never short on providing entertainment: we listened to a Harry Potter audiobook and wolfed down our remaining snacks. Feeling pretty grungy after our road trip, we decided to do something classy on our last day together, and took a ferry to Bainbridge Island to go wine tasting… and cider tasting… and rum tasting. The ironic part of this trip? I fell asleep in an instant on the flight back to CA.
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| Getting up close and personal with a sea stack |
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| Ruby Beach |
Now, I don’t want you to think we’ve been neglecting our home state of CA. One of my favorite parts of living here is its diversity of landscapes, and this spring we’ve been able to sample them all, from the mountains to the ocean to the desert.
While I didn’t quite master the art of snowboarding this spring, I definitely held my own. Successes included riding down many blue runs, and even surviving an accidental, very short stint on a black diamond. One of our last days of the season I finally experienced a powder day which was quite epic: Owen and I had to chain up our little Yaris, and they were dynamiting the mountain to prevent avalanches. Oh also, fun fact: I watched a guy punch his snowboard and start yelling at it while struggling down a run. Perhaps the best feeling of my ski season? Finishing my last run on our last day without breaking a bone.
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| Finally had a reason to use our snow chains |
No one wants to break a bone, but I particularly did not want to break a bone because I was signed up for an ultramarathon. The 50K was up in Marin, north of San Francisco, the second weekend in March. To be honest, I hadn’t trained as much as I’d hoped but my goal was just to have fun and finish. Heck, I didn’t even really know where the course went. The race was called MUC, short for Marin Ultra Challenge, and that name turned out to be very fitting for the course conditions. Boy, was there muck! Which was not surprising because the first half of the race, it poured. My lightweight rain jacket eventually wetted out to the point where I got so cold, I couldn’t even tear open my energy gel packets.
This was Owen’s favorite ultra to crew me at because he could drive right up to all the aid stations, as opposed to the long hikes he was accustomed to from prior races. Luckily, this meant I saw him at every single aid station. At Muir Beach, about 15 miles in, I swapped out my soggy shirt for a dry one and had him open every remaining energy packet for me, in case my numb hands never warmed up. I didn’t need to worry though- after I saw him there it finally stopped raining and I pretty much felt invincible. Don’t get me wrong, there were some challenges the second half of the race. There was a solid three-mile long climb, and for some reason my foot hurt so badly I thought maybe a bone was broken but other than that, I was genuinely happy. I sprinted into the finish line, a first for me in an ultra, and spent the rest of the day feasting on all my favorite food groups: pizza, bagels, chips, beer!
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| I literally dunked my shoes in a tub to clean them afterwards |
Owen and I are pretty unconventional when it comes to celebrating holidays, so we figured what better way to celebrate Easter than with a motorcycle camping trip? Our destination: Alabama Hills, an area on the eastern slope of the Sierra in the Owens Valley. We left on a Friday afternoon and by the time we arrived at nearly midnight, I couldn’t see a thing. We were meeting up with our friend Doug from high school and his girlfriend Kyle, who had texted us their campsite number before heading to bed. As quietly as we could, we pitched our tent next to what we hoped was theirs.
When we woke up the next morning, I was pleasantly surprised at how gorgeous the area was. We spent the next few hours wandering around the rock formations, checking out wildflower blooms, and ogling at Mount Whitney. Since there was still snow on most of the hiking trails, instead we planned to drive up to Whitney Portal, the highest the road goes below Mount Whitney. Our plan was quickly thwarted though- the road was closed several miles below Whitney Portal. There was a big parking lot right before the closure filled with cars but with no one in sight. We assumed they had all decided to hike on the road to get a better view of Mount Whitney so we did the same. The funny thing was, even after hiking for a mile or two, we barely saw anyone on the road.
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| Goofing off at one of the arches |
It turns out that the "road closed" sign leading to Whitney Portal was more of a suggestion than a mandate, as a local informed us. Plus, our curiosity got the best of us so the next day after Doug and Kyle departed, we decided to drive past the barrier and see Whitney Portal. When we finally made it to Whitney Portal, the view of Mount Whitney was great, but even more impressive were all the mountaineers coming down from the mountain that had summited the day before! They were completely decked out with snowshoes, ice axes, crampons, and even glacier goggles. It definitely inspired me to hike Mount Whitney, though not in late April! It also explained the mystery of all the cars in the parking lot. I still can’t believe I thought they were all just going for a stroll on the road, while meanwhile they were battling deep snow and whiteout conditions on top of the mountain.
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| The area is fondly called "Nevadafornia" because it feels more like Nevada than CA |
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| Heading up to Whitney Portal |
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