Snowshoe Mt. Rainier

April 15, 2012

Today we snow showed at Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park. We drove up to the Paradise Visitor Center to talk to the ranger about trail conditions. We are still getting used to our new DSLR camera. The first photos we were taken are completely over exposed. The snow has white-washed all the surroundings. Please excuse the amateurs here. The sunlight reflecting off the snow was blinding. Good thing we remembered our sunglasses.

Joe fell down.

Cloud cover must have helped since we started to take normal looking pictures.

Mt. Rainier, near the Nisqually glacier, one of 26 that cover the majestic mountain.

“dream of para-para-paradise Oh oh oh oh oh oh-oh”

Cascade mountain peaks.

New profile pic?

Don’t ask what he’s doing.

Now that’s a seriously sneaky Asian look…

Snow shoe tracks.

Snow shoe action.

Mt Rainier.

Hikers skiing back down the mountain.

Cascades.

Joe licking the nipple.

Close-up of the summit.

Serious.

Our snow shoe tracks.

Joe

Mt Rainier.

After a few detours it was time to head back down the mountain.

Some of us don’t handle going down steep mountains well in snow shoes.

We had a great day hiking in the snow in mid April! We drove over to Seatac to pick up Dave Howard who was in town for job orientation & training with Alaska Airlines. It was great to catch up and over dinner and drinks at Elliott Bay Brewhouse in Burien. I love their coffee stout. Good times. Who knew that friends from NC would meet again under these circumstances? Can’t wait to see him, Alexis and their son Jack in August when we head to Juneau for a few days.

Bike Snohomish

April 14, 2012

Even though I can’t run that won’t stop me from biking 11 miles in the beautiful weather with Joe on Centennial Trail.

Afterwards we got beers at Fred’s Rivertown Alehouse.

The Snohomish valley is beautiful.

Mom I know you’ve been asking about what is in bloom here in Washington. Here are the trees in our yard.

I believe this is a rhododendron bush outside our dining room.

Puget Sound Park Hop

April 8, 2012

With my foot injury on a beautiful day we decided to drive around to different beach parks along the Puget Sound from Edmonds to North Seattle.

Edmonds, north of the ferry terminal.

Edmonds waterfront houses with Mount Baker in the distance.

Richmond Beach Saltwater Park in Shoreline.

We drove by Golden Gardens, the Burke Gilman Trail in Ballard and then took a beer and food break from the glorious outdoors at Naked City Brewery & Taphouse.

Kerry Park on Queen Anne hill overlooking the Space Needle and downtown Seattle.

Today was a great way to spend Easter! HE IS RISEN!

Architecture Tour Guide & Long “Run”

April 7, 2012

I survived giving my 4 stops on the Seattle Architecture Foundation Architecture 101 tour as a volunteer guide trainee. We had a large group which made it really hard to project your voice over the noisy crowded downtown streets, but I think most enjoyed it.

My next challenge of the day: manage to run 12 miles on this gorgeous day along Elliott Bay!

Goodbye viaduct.

Olympic Sculpture Park.

Elliott Bay Trail.

Marina & Mt Rainier.

My body did not agree with me on the run today. Around mile 5 I injured my foot. The outer edge of my right foot felt like my arch had been flattened.  I kept running since my whole obstacle with this thing is mental and usually if I keep running my tight shin splints pain goes away especially when I run on a more forgiving surface like grass or wood chips so I was hoping that this would be the same case. I think I only totaled around 10.6 miles with shortcuts and pit stops. All of my muscles were in shock. I hadn't eaten for 4 hours before my run and a glass of water before running upset my stomach. I know this injury is probably due to my shoes. I have been running in the same pair this whole time. I just added up all the miles I have run in my New Balance's since I started training in January: 111 miles. I've read every 300-500 miles you should replace your shoes. I've had these shoes for awhile so I'm probably around that mark. The bad thing is this was my last long run and I was transitioning to shorter ones after this I could give my body some recoup time for the big race. I was also planning to go to the specialty running shoe store to get properly fitted for new shoes this weekend. It's not my ankle that hurts or the bone connecting to my pinky toe, but it’s painful around my cuboid and peroneal tendons.

I never thought I’d be mad/jealous and DEPRESSED that I can’t run anymore. I’m convinced I either have cuboid subluxation or a street fracture. Looks like I won’t be running my first half marathon in 2 weeks L all that training for nothing…

Update after a week and a half of rest, I’ve been diagnosed with tendonitis. X-rays at the doctor came back clean, no broken bones, no dislocations. 2-4 more weeks of rest and I can try running a short distance again.

Lent

April 6, 2012

Even though it’s lent and I don’t eat meat on Fridays, Joe still makes some amazing meals.