May 10th – 27th, 2019
HOME SWEET HOME. We had a wonderful few weeks being home and visiting everyone. I stayed between my Mom and Dad’s house and got to spend time with both grandmothers, MaMa and Nanny. I saw my brother and Kimi, and my Aunt Michelle and Aunt Tracy who happened to be visiting from California. It was also wonderful to see our dog Sadie!!
I did a couple hikes around the area and took her for jogs and walks. She seemed to have aged in the time I was gone. For the first time in Sadie’s life I was able to out-exercise her. Usually we had to go to great lengths to get her enough exercise, but it was different this time. After a difficult hike and a long jog that day, I realized it was too much for Sadie. That night she couldn’t get out of her dog bed. It was so sad, and Mom and I immediately restricted her to “senior” walks only.
I also got to visit several friends which was really fun. Brendan came up to Tacoma for a couple days and he did a hike with me. We both were a lot stronger from our travels, especially in our legs. The Pacific Northwest is very beautiful, and we have many things to explore right in our own backyard. I was eager to start checking some trails off the list. I hiked Mount Si in North Bend with Sadie which I had never done before.
Then Brendan and I did Mailbox Peak which was another North Bend hike. Sadie had to stay home for that one. I knew it would be more strenuous than Mt. Si which crippled her afterwards. Mailbox Peak was almost ten miles roundtrip with the last 40 minutes being pretty steep with a hard push to the top. We severely underestimated the amount of water we brought and had to go into major conservation mode towards the top where it was the hardest and we were extremely thirsty. I felt so dumb that for the last three months, I had lugged around water purification straws and light pen but didn’t think to bring it on our day hike. We made it to the top anyway and it was very pretty.
I decided to have the goal of climbing Mt. Rainier summer of 2020, and these hikes will be good training for me to do again before then. Brendan found a protein bar in the mailbox at the top, but I was too afraid to share it with him as it might have made my thirst more severe. After what seemed like a very long trek down, we finally made it to the car where we had more water.
I think we were both spoiled by our Moms’ making us really good food. I had numerous fresh salads which is what I missed most on the trip, and Brendan got smoked meat which he had been excited about.
Brendan was really busy while in his hometown of Cottage Grove, OR. He spent time with family, friends, and helped his sister at the race track and got our party bus ready to go again. I spent my last weekend traveling down to Cottage Grove. I stopped for a night to visit friends in Portland then got to see Brendan’s family as well as a few of my close friends. We drove back early Memorial Day to Tacoma and got ready to fly out the next day.