Vashon Island: Ducks and Coffee Shops

with nothing much planned this weekend, we took advantaged of the empty time to head over to Vashon Island. we left early [for us] in the morning to catch the ferry. i [brooke] love our impromptu day trips; not much planning and a whole lot of improvision. we always seem to find things that we never thought/planned we'd see. take for instance, the original boeing airplane company's red barn.

while on vashon island, we looked around the 'towns' of vashon and burton. there are a few shops that sell various knick-knacks. andrea found a mug of her own!


we also found this cool little boat ramp park with two charming ducks. if you don't know, my wife loves many things...one of them being ducks!


we hung out here for a while, trying to lure these two mallards into our car to take home...at least that was andrea's plan!

after a few photos, we decided it was time to retreat to the car and move on; but the ducks followed!


there was something about this mallard that just melted our hearts. she had a slight limp and fell a lot, but seemed very happy to be a duck.


on our way back to the ferry we stopped at a coffee shop/antique store. although we weren't ready for our 'coffee house time,' we thought we'd have a look-see in the antiques. as i moved towards a misson style floor lamp, my eyes saw what was standing in the corner behind it: a greenland style kayak paddle. a sought after kayak paddle, this one was handmade and only thirty bucks... and it was meant for me!

crumby picture, i know...it's hard to photograph an object that's eight
feet by four inches. check out more examples here.

we finished our day by hanging out at cafe luna and reading some books and magazines. we're planning on hitting up vashon island again in the spring when it's not so cold to bike a 32 mile loop around the island.

Mowich Lake | Mount Rainier Snowshoeing

since our fall camping/hiking trip to mowich lake, we often conversed about heading back to do some snow camping. with being on a weekend schedule of snowshoe, ski, snowshoe, ski...etc, we had the weekend to 'scope' out the route.

after checking our maps, books, and internet resources, we found that 'theoretically' we could drive up to the park boundary, then snowshoe ten miles round trip up to the camp site and back. looks great on a chalk board doesn't it?!

after eleven miles of this snow covered mud and gravel road, we reached a point to where we didn't think we should proceed. the snow deepened and the frequency of people [normally a good thing] diminished, we decided to halt our adventure with four wheel drive and continue on foot via snowshoes.

moments after buckling up our snowshoes and setting off, a full size truck came rolling through, plowed into the deeper snow, and quickly stopped. as we jaunted by, lofting on top of the snow, my heart and head had a quick discussion about what it meant to value people over myself. my heart won. we unbuckled our snowshoes and helped dig the snow out from around the family's tires. we tried to push but the heavy, four wheel drive, V-8 truck was stuck. after another heart to head discussion, our xterra was hooked up via tow strap to the beast-of-an-american-truck, and we were pulling it free...in the deep snow.

the way i looked after andrea told me what a man
i was. she said, 'did you see how you just pulled
that big-ass truck out of there?!'

after an hour and a half of vehicle extraction we were finally on our way snowshoeing to one of our favorite camping spots.

we hiked about three miles in uneven, rutted, icy snow, when we rounded a bend to a beautiful vista. i, brooke, was happy to arrive as my leg was in some pain. i guess i'm feeling the pains of getting old?!

for mom k: even though i was in pain, there's always a smile for a wide-open-mouth photo.

although i didn't feel like going one step further, andrea sweetly encouraged me to keep going. she felt that the entrance to the park was right around the next bend. what do you know...it was!

she was rather happy!

with daylight fading, we quickly head back three miles to the car, stopping only for the necessities: water, me to rest my leg [and swear a little], and photos.

just as darkness closed in around us we arrived back at our truck. we were tired, i was in pain. but the whole trip was worth it.

now back down the mountain with the hopes we won't get stuck...as it was way after dark and no one was around!

REI ski trip to Snoqualmie Pass

One of the cool things about working at REI is all the fun adventures I take with my co-workers on our days off. This past Tuesday a few of us headed up to Snoqualmie Pass (where I-90 crosses through the Cascades) to hit the slopes.

Here's Yates getting the truck all chained up.
Ohio friends: Can you believe all this madness?...chains are legal? 4WD vehicles? snow covered express ways? no salt?
Washington friends: I guess this is normal...


Found a spot on the 'street' and got all our stuff lined up and ready to go!


We picked a perfect day...the Pass got about a foot of fresh powder that day, and there was barely anyone else there to pack it down (except for 150 Australians...but they mostly hung out inside.)

empty....


I snatched up a great pair of skis (at an even better price) at our recent garage sale at REI. I was finally able to get out and break 'em in. They were pure butter.


Taking a break for pizza and beer.
The gang: Lisa, Sarah, Eric, me, Kirsten, Chad (taking picture)


Sarah and Lisa after a few drinks


Kirsten and I sporting the bling.
I couldn't even see out of these things!...come to find out I was using night goggles.



After a round of drinks the more-experienced skiers took us less-experienced skiers on a couple larger runs (seemed like a fantastic idea after a beer.) This was before the frustration set in...still in good spirits: Chad, Lisa, Sarah, me (where's Yates?....must've gone in for another Irish Coffee)


My chair lift buddy: Lisa


Sarah and I gettin' nuts on the chair lift.


After a long hard day of skiing...we head in for one more beer.
Was this picture taken in the 70's? Hold on...let me get out the slide projector...


It was a great, fun day of skiing with friends!


I love how the snow is so blue out here.


Quiet winter scene

To view all pictures from this event:
http://picasaweb.google.com/thetrislers

Snowshoeing in Hyak - New Year Style!

family and friends often ask us how much snow we get in seattle. we reply, 'none.' then they precede to ask us why we bought new down hill skis and snowshoes. we reply, '45 minutes into the mountains; crap load of snow!'

to ring in the new year we headed out to hyak, washington [60 minutes into the mountains] to test out our new snowshoes that we got each other for christmas.

to start our day, we stopped at sawdust coffee company. although it's in a strip/outlet mall, it probably has the best view of any strip/outlet mall in america! just look at those mountains!

we ordered two sandwiches, which we would save half for a little post-snowshoeing recharge.

hyak has miles and miles of groomed trails for cross-country skiers and plenty of untouched powder for the snowshoeing crowd. they even have quite a few sledding hills for the youngsters. this was the perfect place for us to learn how to snowshoe.

we quickly got strapped in [brooke practiced quite a bit in our living room], and headed out on our maiden voyage. we quickly learned a few things. 1 - don't step on your snowshoes while walking.

2 - step flat. if you don't, you'll sink down through the powder. andrea unfortunately sank down 2-3 feet!

3 - take time to observe your natural surroundings. we were excited to test out our new binoculars that mom and dad trisler got us for christmas! they are amazing! we could zoom way in on a...well...we really didn't see any animals, but we could zoom way the hell in on a bunch of tees and mountains! thanks!



4 - there might be obstacles. proceed with caution and help others. in this case, we ran into a log [covered with snow] crossing over a stream. did we have to cross it? no. but would not crossing it have been fun? no.



the folks we helped cross were kind enough to take our photograph.



after a couple of hours of wandering through the snow, it was time for a break.



time to air out the sweaty gloves!



which in hindsight really isn't a good idea, because if you drop your water bottle into two feet of powder you'll be fishing it out with bare hands! no more warm, sweaty hands.



brooke got cocky and tried to run a 45 degree hill covered with 2-3 feet of powder.



he did not see the results he had expected.



we saw these crazy people and all of a sudden felt somewhat normal again. with a snowboard strapped to their feet and a kite strapped to their waists...use your imagination. these folks were nuts! now we had something to look at through our new binoculars!



we had a great afternoon!



time to gear-down, jump in the car to warm up and eat our left over sandwiches!



mmmm....cold turkey and cranberry!



mmmm....cold bbq chicken! it's going to be a great new year!