Hiking the Olympic Peninsula

Oh my dream came true. I finally made it to Seattle long enough to do some hikes on the Olympic peninsula - thanks to Ruth Ann for having Janie and I at her cabin on Marrowstone Island and for joining us!!

We flew in late Friday night, July 20, so we had all day Saturday to do our first hike: Marmot Pass. It was awesome. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Everything you would think a hike in the Olympics would be like. The Washington Trails Association website wasn't kidding when they said this was the hike to do if you only had one day and could only do one hike on the Olympic peninsula. This was a 10.6 mile hike with 3,500 feet of elevation gain. It was a bit of a beast. But we did it! And we loved it. It started out having us hike along the Big Quilcene River among old growth and moss-covered everything. Then it started really climbing although it didn't feel too steep - we really felt the steepness when we came down it. We hiked through "meadows" (really just bare mountain slopes) that were full of wild flowers, and then the Mystery campground - there were a ton of backpackers up there and they were all staying in this beautiful campground. Then we switchbacked up the last half mile to a true meadow where we saw a marmot sunning himself in the sunshine - appropriate don't you think? And then we crested the pass and my breath was literally taken away by the view of the peaks. They were craggy and still covered in snow. We ate our lunch at the top. We also met Will the mountain goat - he was too big to be Billy. Then we headed down. We ate at AJAX cafe that night where we wore some fun hats and I had fisherman's stew - with all the seafood I could dream of!

Sunday, Janie and I went in to Sequim for church because we found out Sequim was having their Lavender Festival so we decided to spend the day there. We toured the different lavender farms, had our pictures taken, tried white chocolate lavender flavored ice cream (which was actually good!), picked raspberries at the u-pick farm, and got our fill of nature's intention for aromatherapy! That night Ruth Ann cooked us a couple fresh crabs and some fresh prawns. We had corn on the cob and green salad with it. We also ate some wild lettuce in our green salad and it was pretty good, and we didn't die. :)

Monday, we drove out to Lake Ozette to hike the 9-mile Ozette Triangle, which took us from the ranger station to Cape Alava, along the beach to Sand Point and then back to the ranger station. Most of the trail between the coast and the ranger station was on a boardwalk. Hiking along the beach was wonderful. I loved all the sea stacks. We even saw a sea otter, and I swear we saw a whale - I could see it's spout spray . . . but alas, we are not sure it was a whale. The sand was a little fun to hike in . . . for three miles . . . so we got pretty good at walking along the drift logs that had wash up on shore. At one point, we had to take overland trail since we were hiking at high tide, but to get onto this overland trail, we had to use some ropes to pull us up and help us down the slopes because they were so steep. Crazy.

Tuesday, Janie and I went into Seattle via the Bainbridge Island Ferry and then we went into Pikes Market. We hung out there and had lunch until it was time to catch our flight that afternoon.

Sad News at My Office

Today and the next few weeks are going to be very somber in my office. My boss and director, Matt Smith, passed away unexpectedly this morning.

This is how I will always remember Matt.

I walked into the office around 8:15 am and saw Forrest and Scott (two of my previous bosses; Forrest is the Assistant Vice President over all of HRS) in our reception area talking to Marie. Forrest said he had some bad news. I was thinking I was busted for showing up late, so I was stunned when he shared the news. Apparently, Matt had sleep apnea, the kind where the brain stops telling you to breathe, and he had some heart issues; it was the heart issue that caused his death this morning. 

Matt, and his wife, just returned a year ago from serving as a mission president in Tahiti, and his youngest daughter is due to serve a mission to Japan this coming September.

It's just so shocking. I met with him just yesterday about the computer changes we're about to do in the department. He was so wonderful. He went to bat for me many times, gave me great insights to my work, allowed me to work autonomously, and was just a hoot to work with because of all the fun jokes he would play.

The best joke he played on me and Collette was just a few weeks ago. Whenever he'd go to Forrest's directors' meeting, he'd take notes, scan them and email them to me and Collette so we could see what was happening in the rest of HRS since we are quite isolated in HRD. In this particular meeting, they talked about raises for the full-time employees in HRS. Well, he wrote in his notes that he donated our raises (meaning mine and Collette's) to the other directors to give to other employees in the division. Both Collette and I emailed him accusing him of writing that in his notes just to see if we actually read his notes, but he stood by his joke and said that's what he thought we wanted him to do. Collette, not knowing him as well as I did, believed him at that point and was pretty upset. But I still wasn't going to believe him. I went into his office and told him I wanted to see the whites of his eyes when he told me that he gave away my raise. He still tried to hold onto his cover, but his laughing eyes gave him away and he gave way to actual laughing. It was a pretty good joke.

I'll miss him - even if I only worked closely with him for a year. (Before him, we didn't have a director because the previous director left during the hiring freeze so we couldn't replace her, but since we were close enough to Matt returning from his mission, we left the position open for him to return to.)

Four and a Half Years of Piano Lessons

I received some bittersweet news from my piano teacher, Deanne, at my last lesson: that it was going to be my last lesson with her because she was turning in her papers to serve a mission. Her husband passed away suddenly at the beginning of April earlier this year and she has been struggling to keep busy enough to distract her from her sadness so she decided to turn in her mission papers. I will miss her greatly! I've been taking piano lessons from her for four and a half years! She was so fun - always asking about my love life, offering to set me up, always telling me to be more expressive, keep my fingers curled, elbows in, shoulders down, and start slow. Now to see if I can keep her hard work (and mine I suppose) in practice. Bon voyage!

Conquering & Relaxing

I conquered a Utah Valley must-ride classic today: the Alpine Loop. It is a paved road that goes up and behind Mount Timpanogos. Kendra and I started at her house in Orem and went out toward the freeway then directly north through Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills, climbed up the American Fork side of the loop, descended down the Sundance side of the loop, and finished the ride down the Provo River Trail. The ride ended up being 45 miles, over 4,200 feet of elevation gain, and took us almost four hours to complete. Definitely the hardest road ride I've ever done . . . so far. I'm proud to say that I did it! I conquered it. I'd probably do it again. Here is a pic of me at the summit.

That evening I relaxed by going fishing at Payson Lakes with my friend, Deb. We didn't have any luck. We caught a lot of sticks and snags, but we had a yummy deli picnic dinner! I was ravenous from my long ride, so it all tasted so good to me. After a while I gave up on the fishing and ate some of my German chocolate cake and laid on the bricks and just enjoyed the beauty of the great outdoors. When life doesn't give you any fish, I suggest eating a German chocolate cake! :) 

A Hike & Block Party

Last night, I went for a little hike with Lindsey and Rob to Upper Falls in Provo Canyon. I'd always wanted to hike to the falls and see it because I've ridden along the Provo River Trail and have never seen the water cross the trail that comes from the falls. We found out that the water goes underground! Immediately after tumbling over the falls. Crazy. We had to cross a bridge over the Provo River to start the hike and it had a chain link fence and gate around it with a little hole that we squeezed through. But Lindsey had a tough time squeezing through because she is seven months pregnant! Apparently, their baby, Charlotte, kicks quite a bit, but after the squeeze she quit kicking for a while so Rob was pretty distressed. But Lindsey says she tends to quit kicking when Lindsey is active anyways. Just to be sure, I checked in with Lindsey today to find out if Charlotte survived the squeeze and started kicking again, and she did! Yay!

Then I joined Janie and Carrie for their neighborhood block party "Cul-de-sac of Fire" fireworks party. Holy Frijole. There were a ton of people there, lots of good treats, way too many errant flying flowers (fireworks) that went onto house-rooftops, into vacant dry fields, and in spectators' seats - all of which were chased after with hoses due to the high fire risk we have right now. And there were many big-air, and I think illegal, fireworks that seemed way too close. But! It was super fun. 

Mundane Monday: Tale of Two Fridges

Teri and I just love the stark difference in our fridges. Meet Teri's Tetris fridge:

And my cooler: 

Ha ha! I know. This is a repeat post, but Teri and I still talk about it frequently whenever we are at each other's homes.