Danskin Triathlon!

I did my first triathlon last weekend. Even though I heard thunder when I woke up (rare for Seattle), the weather was perfect for the event (70's and sunny). For our women, it was an amazing event. All but one woman finished adn they were all smiles at the end! For me, I went in my age group (not the survivor wave) and thought I'd catch up with some of the women. But most of them beat me! The swim in Lake Washington was beautiful but my goggles kept filling up with water. The run was way easier than I thought it'd be.

I did it in 1:30:25.

Alrighty. You asked for embarssing photos. Here they are. The bottom photo is a training photo. We often swam in Lake Washington off of Seward Park.

We had an adventure filled weekend!

We headed up to Mt. Baker on Saturday in the rain. We arrived at the trail head with all of the climbers and gear. It's a beautiful hike with waterfalls and dicey river crossings. It's about 3.8 miles one way to base camp with 2400' elevation gain. Christian loves his GPS unit! Above tree line, the wildflowers are out and the glacier was blue-blue. However, also at tree line, the rain turned to sleet. Brrr. We were sopping wet from head to toe. We didn't stay there for long for fear of hypothermia. We hiked down to the car, talking of warm drinks. When we got to the car, we realized that there was still one bag of gear to carry up, including two sleeping bags and climbing gear. It got lost in the shuffle in the morning. We had to take it up. Christian and Brian decided to make the second trip up to base camp. They raced up the mountain to stay warm and made it back before sunset (phew!).

Cold, wet and tired, we decided not to camp in the rain and instead drove home. On the way back to Seattle, we stopped in Bellingham at Boundary Bay Brewing for some burgers and fries. Yum yum. After hitting the evil Everett traffic (at 12:30am on a Saturday!!!), we made it home really late.

On Sunday, we slept in and relaxed and cooked and watched the movie "21" (not as good as the book, Bringing Down the House).

I went to the farmer's market yesterday right before they closed. I got a bounty of organic raspberries and blueberries for cheap!

What to do with them before they go bad? I made a berry pastry. The crust is pretty easy- butter, flour, water, sugar, salt.

The key is fresh berries. And trying not to eat it all in one sitting.

Mt. Baker

The Team Survivor Northwest Mount Baker Climb starts on Saturday! We have a team of 7 women who will be summiting the mountain. Most of the women climbing have never done anything like this before. It's not a technical climb but still a trek. They'll hike in Saturday to base camp, do snow school on Sunday, and summit early Monday morning.

Megan, Christian, Brian and I will be "sherpas" for the trip, hauling up gear and food for base camp. Once we've hauled the gear, we'll be free to explore the area. We went to Mount Baker in December but haven't been in the summer. I'm excited for the marmmots and wildflowers.

We have internet!

Our home internet service has been down for a while. We now have a new modem. Note to Clearwire users: don't buy the modem, just rent it for the extra few dollars a month. It does break pretty often.

Sorry to be slow on the blog for a while. Here's what we've been up to:
- backpacking trip with Brennon and Vaughan to the Enchantments
- TSNW's annual golf tournament
- trip to Portland with friends
- Brian's birthday baseball game
- James and Andrea's rocking 30th birthday party

We'll keep you updated a little more frequently now.

Brian started full-time at the City after graduation. He took one personal day in July and we headed to the Oregon Coast. Beautiful (see photos above)! Thanks Janine for your advice.