Wallace Falls

And, we're back!

Spring is all over the place up here and we couldn't be happier.  We have had a full week of sunshine and it has been awesome.

Dandelions so bright, they blind you. 

So, what do you with a week of sunshine when it has been raining for a thousand years? Of course, we went to see a waterfall.

There is a picture of a waterfall in the hospital where I work.  It looks awesome and I vowed to go find it.  A little internet research and we thought we found it in a place called Wallace Falls State Park.

We had a bit of a drive, this place is a little northeast of Seattle. It took us two hours to get there.

But it was worth it.

There are lower, middle, and upper falls.  The big ticket item on this one is the middle falls.  We set out and started our first real hike of the year.

Don't we look rested and refreshed?

It was a beautiful day. The kids tolerated the drive well. They were even willing to pretend to be happy about the hike right up until we hit that first hill.

Combined elevation gain ended up at around 1500 feet.

On that first hill, we realized we hadn't been hiking in a while.  There would be an adjustment period.

Luckily, the kids are troopers. We pressed on through the forest and over those lovely little wooden bridges the trails people build. We even got a waterfall preview called small falls.

Ahhh, there we are.  Back out in the woods where we belong.

Small Falls? I wonder what that could be.

Small, but very pretty.

This waterfall picture is better with a Max in it.

The day grew warmer, the trail a little steeper, and the kids a little grumpier.  We had to fight a little harder and cajole a little better, but we kept at it.

With frequent rest breaks

One person was a little less enthused... Guess who.

 After an hour and a half, we made it to the lower falls. There is a picnic pavilion. We didn't bring a lunch though.  Maybe next time.  I can think of worse places to have a picnic.

You can just see the middle falls in the background

Stage one of the lower falls.

Stage two.  They continue cascading down below this, but the pictures weren't very good. 

After a brief pause, we got back on the trail and continued on to the middle falls.  More trail, more up, more cajoling.  We did find the occasional distraction.

I mean, just look at that forking tree!

After an hour and fifty-two minutes, I checked, we made it to the middle falls overlook.

In the picture from the hospital, there are people sitting down close to the base of the falls.  That would have been fatal on this day.

The falls are over two hundred feet high.

Nope, doesn't look safe down there to me.

Then it was time to head back, and down.  For some reason the trip down seemed easier.

Just keep heading down until you hit the road.

We found a little Maxie Raccoon cooling himself in a stream.

We found some other wildlife too.

And this cute little guy.

Then we passed this one bench, and the light was perfect. 

Come on! That light is awesome. Just missing one thing.

That's better.

An hour later, we were back to the car and finished with our first hike of the season.  It was good, but we need to work on our fitness after a long winter of not doing much. We hope to have lots of adventures to share this year. 

One down.

So busy, so much rain, so few pictures.

Pretty busy here, finishing up the Adventure Nickel book.

The fine folks over at Scribophile are doing wonders for the finished product.  Heck, it might even turn out to be readable by the time it is all said and done.

I guess, I should be happy about all the rainy weather.  It should make for a marvelous and green summer. It has kept me indoors and working on the book more.

It has helped destroy my marathon training plan though.  I went ahead and faced reality and changed to the Capital City Half-Marathon instead.

But, despite the rain, we have been out a few times looking at various interesting things.

Did you know there was once going to be a nuclear power plant near here? They actually got to the point of building the cooling towers when the money ran out.  It is pretty cool to see.

Not even Homer Simpson could get a job here.

Jumping the fence to get a closer look would set a bad example for the kids... right?

Instead of getting arrested for trespassing, we went to an early Easter egg  hunt.  This one was dog-centric.  Yep.  They had a doggie Easter egg hunt with a doggie fashion show and expo.  They did have an Easter egg scramble for the kids too.

The doggie fashion show may have been a little too risque to appear in a family blog.

Let's just stick to the kids and the eggs.

Of course, being us, that wasn't enough.

I know, I know. Abandoned nuclear power plants, rain, easter eggs, rain, dog nipples, rain, what more could a guy want?

We decided to head south to the gorge and check out the waterfalls in the wet season. We were hoping for a nice day, or even a few nice hours in the day.

This is what we got.

Not to be deterred, we had fun anyway.

The waterfalls were worth it.

More dedicated photographer.

A rare instance of all four of us in a picture.

Love this one.  Zoom in to see Sarah and the boys on the bridge.

My Greatest Accomplishment

I was going to say belching The Star Spangled Banner, but then I realized I have never done that.

I mean, C'mon, who has the time for that?

Instead, I will say that my greatest accomplishment is my relationship with my wife. And yes, it is an accomplishment.  A relationship like this doesn't just happen. It takes thought, communication (tons of communication), sacrifice, compromise, and commitment. It doesn't happen to you, you do it. Or, at least, try.

You see, I had a conversation with a writer friend of mine, about her book. Hers is a love story.

Through our hypothetical conversation she asked if I would still defend my wife if I found out she was a serial killer. I get her point, but I think she missed mine.

HA.

Serial killer?  Who has time for that? 

We spend ninety five percent of our time together unless I am working. And when I am at work, she has the kids. I'm pretty sure Michael would tell me if mommy was trolling the waterfront for victims instead of going to hot yoga. And I know Max would. There is just no way.

She said this was a cop out to a mental exercise. And I replied it wasn't.  It proved the point I was trying to make. 

We are so attached, so involved in each other, and so committed to the idea that our relationship that there is no way she could possibly be a serial killer without me being complicit too.  It is absurd.

And this isn't just me.  She works as hard at it, if not harder.  We understand that everything we do builds off of the strength of the bond between us. Without that, no adventure is possible.

So we work at it.

We strive to keep common interests with each other.  Sometimes it is supporting their natural interest, and sometimes it is trying to germinate the interest in them. But always with consideration for the other.

We always communicate. That is so important.  We agreed early on to tell each other everything. EVERYTHING. The corollary is that neither of us can freak out about anything the other says.  No freak outs.  Instead, we do our best to attempt to understand where they are coming from and give them the benefit that they are coming from a good place.  And mostly, that works.  When it doesn't we just chalk it up to living with an interesting weirdo and that's just part of life's rich pageant. 

It is work, but it isn't effort spent.  It is effort invested. And the long term rewards are pretty great in my humble opinion.

So, of everything I've ever done, that is what I am most proud of.

Might work on that Star Spangled Banner thing though, if I get some free time.

Uhhh...February already?

I know.  No excuse.

I've been gone too long.  I'll tell you why.  It isn't all bad either.

First, January and February in western Washington is, indeed, as rainy as they say.  While that hasn't stopped us from going out entirely, it has slowed the pace.  And pictures? Sorry, man, the fog and clouds make it tough.  We haven't done adventures on the scale you have become accustomed to lately and I won't put up just anything.  You have to have standards. 

Second, I'm writing a book.  Well, re-writing actually.  I wrote a book about the first few years traveling and I am in the final stages of getting it ready to put out in the world.  It is exciting and scary and weird to say the least.  With limited time and energy, I figured it would be better to work on the book than blog our 15 minute hike over mud puddles through a dimly lit, foggy forest. 

Third, we are plugging in to the community here in Olympia in a way we haven't for years.  Since Houston.  The kids are in martial arts classes and we are trying to get them into music classes.  Lots of moving parts here.  We may stick around this area for a while. 

So, don't think I've gone away.  I will be positively bombarding you with news, updates, pictures and adventure again soon. 

I'm in the lab, working on something new. 

It's coming. 

In the meantime, here are a few shots from clear days.

Rainier from Olympia

Trying out the panoramic feature on the new phone.  Hope it works.

A lake at Millersylvania State park. Yes, that's its real name.

December

Wow, there has been a startling lack of adventure this December.  Too few nickels too, I suppose. 

That's the way it goes when there is only sixteen minutes or so of daylight each day. 

But now we are past the solstice and the days grow long again.  I think we had eighteen minutes today.  We decided to use all that extra time to go out and find some snow.  We had heard there was lots of it nearby, but couldn't see more than a mile or so out, due to the rain.  We pointed the car toward Rainier and started driving.  Sarah found a webcam up at Longmire that showed several feet of snow on the ground, so we went for it.

Then traffic happened. 

After the two hour drive, there was a line heading into Rainier National Park that wasn't moving very fast.  I guess going up there over the Christmas holiday, on a Saturday no less, is a thing up here.  The daylight was trickling away and we made a desperate decision.  We would turn around and go back toward a city park we passed earlier and just let the kids have at it.  It's important to be flexible. 

We weren't the only people that had that idea.

Ready for snow, what should we do first?

Belly flop.  Always a strong choice.

I love how it looks like it's snowing, but it isn't.  It's just snow in the trees.

Maxie being cute.

Now going in to eat some snow or something.  Both of them...

I don't know what it is, like they lost a contact lens or something

Of course it was only a matter of time.

The first casualty

Even Mommy got into the fight.

Max found an ally.  He could donate ammunition.

Maybe hiding is a better bet.

Or you could feign peace by making some gesture.

"You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya...Mom?  Mom?!"

Chillin'

Somebody found a happy place.

I don't think they're looking.  Get 'em.

I think it was a good idea to turn around.  We had a pretty good snowball fight with some of the other kids there.  The boys built snow forts and snow angels and nobody ate any of the yellow stuff.  Maybe we can hit Rainier on some other, non holiday, non weekend day. 

Until then...

Yes shave December

This year I decided to play along with the No Shave November thing. 

For those of you who don't know, this is when guys (and gals sometimes) grow facial hair in November to raise awareness of men's health issues, primarily prostate cancer. 

I decided to play along because when you see my face, I want you thinking prostate!

Mmmmmm...hot, fresh, prostate.

One of the fun things about No Shave November is Yes Shave December.  This is the thing I just totally made up where, on the first day of December, you have fun shaving off all that beard!

I mean, with such a fun palette, why not play?

Shall we?

Let's start with a little something I call the Metal Man.

James Hetfield, eat your heart out.

By request, Ruthie, here you go.  The standard.

By request of the children: The Tony Stark.

The Southern Squire, now with Max!

The Doc Holliday, Val Kilmer version.

The Ned Flanders AKA Sarah Hates It

And finally...

The bare faced, please don't think of my prostate.

Happy December everybody. 

Winter is coming!

This is our first time wintering over in a place that actually has winter in a looooong time.

Let's see.  We lived in Houston for 10 years.  Nope...no winter there really.  If it gets below fifty degrees everyone puts on a parka with a fur lined hood and refuses to go outside.

Then we went traveling and spent that first winter uhhhhh...back in Houston.

The next winter was in Del Rio, TX.  Nope...no winter there.

Then we split the winter between Tyler, TX, OKC and a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Oklahoma gets pretty cold, but I don't think that really counts.

The one after that might sorta count.  We spent the first half of the winter in Virginia.  That is pretty much the archetype for American Winter.  It has a Norman Rockwell-esque look and feel to it that comes straight out of the imagination of what winter and Christmas is supposed to look like.

But we barely made it to the New Year.  Then we hightailed it out of there with the first real winter storm on our heels. We spent the second half in...uhhh, Houston.

Last year was in the San Francisco bay area.  Yeah, it rained!

So, this is a new experience for us.  We are planning on staying planted in a cold(ish) weather state over an entire winter. (Yeah...ish.  It's not like we are in Montana or Minnesota or some other M state where the winter turns your porch into a better freezer than your freezer.

Rainy and cold, that's what we get.

We heard of this wonderful sounding little event called the Olylightstravaganza.  Yeah, I know..right.  How awesome does that sound.  Apparently there was this walk through light display and on the occasion of the first lighting they were having free cookies and cupcakes (sponsored by local business) and cider if you brought a donation to the local food bank.  Man, that sounds right up our alley.  Locally oriented, Christmas lights, cookies, how does it get better.

So we packed the kids up in near freezing temperatures and off we went.

We were a little surprised when we got there though.

It was just this one house.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a nice house.  It was really heavily lit. And they provided a neat little path for your passage through the display.  Heck, the cupcakes and cookies were pretty delicious.

It's just when you hear, lightstravaganza, you develop certain expectations. I mean, maybe a neighborhood or a business district or something.  Nope.  One house.

Then they turned on the lights.

Yep.

So, I backed away to a nearby hill to attempt to catch the grandeur and majesty of the whole thing.

Light-a-palooza maybe.  Not sure it is a stravaganza.

But hey, we brought a donation.  They did have cookies and little mini cupcakes along with hot cider.

Might as well walk around.  There were only a hundred or so other people on this guy's lawn. 

And there were lights. 

It was cold.  That is the universal, "My face is going numb" look/

But...cider.

It didn't take too long to see it all.  We headed back to the car, cranked the heater and left.  Since I brought the big camera and tripod and all I figured we could stop and take a few pictures of the state capital on the way home.  It is pretty when it is all lit up at night.

Glad I did.

I love that cloud.

Then we packed it in and went home.  Such are the pleasures you find in a smaller city.  It's neat.  Olympia has this weird blend of large and small that makes it very interesting.  Someday it will grow large and homogenized, but until then, I think we will enjoy it.