Hiking at Rainier and St.Helens

This has got to be one of my favorite photos. I love the flower, bee and Rainier combination. The essence of summer. The photo was taken on the Goat Mountain trail that is between St.Helens and Rainier. We spent the weekend camping in Iron Creek Campground and exploring the area. The weather was fantastic the entire time, and the wildflowers were in full bloom. I did not count how many there were on this hike, but on a hike to St.Helens last weekend I counted 28 .



The following day we actually went up to Paradise to do some hiking (almost snowshoeing, does it count as snowshoeing if you're not wearing snowshoes but are slopping through super deep snow?). On the way we drove past this amazing canyon. I had not noticed it during our previous drives and loved how it contrasts with the whiteness of the mountain. The deep crevasse compared to the openness of the rest of the landscape.



This was at the start of a hike to Harry's Ridge at St.Helens. Unfortunately this was the only time that the top of St.Helens decided to come out of the clouds. Still, the weather was only partly cloudy, the wild flowers were in full bloom and the scenery was magnificent. I love the geography/geology of St.Helens. Seeing the trees that are left over from when it blew up, and the desolate landscape is absolutely mind blowing.

Weekend in Colorado

Two weekends ago (I know...) I went to Colorado to visit my mom, who was on a conference there. We started off by going into the Rockies toward Vail, then up to see Stillwater Reservoir and Flat Top Mountain, and up to Steamboat Springs. The second day we went through Rocky Mountain National Park to Boulder. It was an amazing trip and unbelievable that so much can be squeezed into just two days. I have the full set on flickr, but here are a few glimpses.



The wildlife was the highlight of the trip for me. I do not see much wildlife hiking in Washington State, so seeing some in the Rockies was a real treat for me. We saw two giant heards of elk, a couple of moose, some pikas and a marmot. Delightful! I wanted to see more marmots, but we saw so many last year I think some elk is a great treat this time around.



I also loved the great expanses and lakes all around. So beautiful! The bright blue sky all day long, with beautiful thunderstorms in the afternoon. Such a dynamic weather range!



On the flight there, Rainier was close up. I mean we flew right over it. I could see the bends of the glacier and even spy Paradise Inn on the south side. Amazing! I love the circular crater (is it a crater?) on the top of the mountain. I also love that it is so diverse with such different formations on each side. I really have to explore more sides to it (though getting to the top is a little too intimidating for me).



I spied Rainier on the way back again (pardon the double plane photo, but it was the most interesting thing I saw all day in my morning flight home). It was further away but still beautiful, and I got to examine it from the north side. I also got to spy on Crystal Mountain Ski Resort (left middle part of photo) and the road up to Sunrise part of Rainier. Love it!

Seattle glimpses

I was grabbing some dinner one evening and eating it outside at the Seattle Center before heading to the opera. To my luck, the sun was shining in the perfect location to give me a bit of a rainbow. A rainbow combined with the Space Needle? What more do you need in life? Oh, I was also eating sushi at that time. Yes, now life is good.



I love Seattle in the summer. The weather is not too hot, and the skies are blue and the trees green. The vibrancy of the colors is love for me. Unfortunately, this is the coldest summer we have had since the 50s... so I'll have to treasure the few real summer days we get. This view is from the top of the Columbia Center.



This is a block away from my apartment. This dog has two different color eyes and has a habit of looking out the window. It also amuses me that he lives on top of the bookstore that has a cat as a mascot. This is a glimpse of the neighborhood I live in.



This photo is very simple, but I took it while wandering in Downtown Seattle. The tree canopies were in full stretch and you could only see the sun peering through the top of the leaves. I might have upped the vibrance of this photo a lot, but I love the bright green color.

Post-Iceland, but non-Iceland, photo dump

Pardon the long absence from photo posting - the trip to Iceland was wonderful, but it also involved an intense amount of time by the camera. This means that when I got back... I had no desire to get anywhere near a camera. So this means patchy photos for the past week and a half. But I think I am recovered now I am getting back in the swing of things. To celebrate that... I am not going to post about any Iceland photos (because I have not processed any... Ryan processed them all), but I'll post the random shots I have taken since returning.



My first weekend back there were two things that had to happen: a bike ride and a hike in the mountains with real trees. I did not get any photos of the first activity (though it was a wonderful ride of 26 miles!), but this photo was snapped on our hike to Kachess Beacon. The hike was featured in the 'not snowy even though it is super snowed in everywhere else' section, so I went for it. Seattle is about a month behind in the whole 'summer thing' so there is a huge amount of snow in the mountains. This hike was snow-free and delightful (and very steep). There were very few people and amazing wild flowers at the top. Loved it! Perfect hike to get back into the Cascades. :)



This.... is some mushrooms growing in my apartment. My friend Kallie got me some seeds to plant some herbs and got some soil so it would be super convenient for me. Well.. being the lazy person that I am I have not done this... a month and a half later. So then Ryan looked over at the bag of soil which is poofing up a big. Turns out some mushrooms started growing in there! Pretty awesome! This means I had a living thing survive in my apartment without putting in any effort! Amazing! This was a shot before I let the mushrooms loose in the back yard.



I was surprised to find last Thursday that there was a farmers market right in the middle of the Amazon campus. Turns out that Pikes Place is going there every Thursday for the summer. Amazing! No effort to get fresh fruits and veggies? I am in! That day I bought some strawberries, raspberries and cucumbers. :)



I was attempting to get some shots of the sky today.... but no matter how I tried to tweak the settings, the clouds would end up being clipped white. After many unsuccessful shots I tried going to auto mode. Perfect shot immediately. Why do I bother trying to set my own settings on a nice camera again....?

New camera, meet blog

This lovely Canon Rebel t2i joined my camera family last Wednesday. It was a long and turbulent joining. First there was the long debate of whether the family needed to expand. Then there was a lot of delay in delivery... something about tornadoes in Illinois making the poor Rebel get stuck there for a while? Oh the horrors of refreshing the tracking notifications with the words "delayed due to natural disaster". First world worries definitely.

But here it is! I've been thinking about getting a new body for a long time. My current body has been the Canon EOS 20d. It is a great camera, but it is getting old. Not responding very fast, images not crisp when I am trying to view them and horrid auto-focus. Not wanting to spend two grand on the high end Canon cameras (and being attached to Canon because between the lenses I inherited from my dad and the ones Ryan has, there is quite a Canon lens army in this apartment), I went for the Rebel line. True they are often considered flimsier and criticized for their sensor, but I think that this camera is a great improvement over my old regardless. Definitely worth the price.

I am very excited to take the Rebel out more - but I am protective of it. Don't want to get it all scratched up... and the camera 'purse' I ordered is not getting here until this Friday. The horror! It has so far only gone out on a hiking trip and a very careful trip in my current purse. Want to make the new addition feel welcome. :)

So yes - camera, meet my blog. :) We'll have lots more adventures to come together.

Weekend in Coastal Oregon

A little bit late posting about it, but my pre-Memorial Day weekend was exploring the northern shores of Oregon. The weather was not supposed to be spectacular that weekend so I opted for a trip to a place where it is beautiful no matter what the weather is like.

We drove down the coast stopping at Disappointment State Park while exiting out of Washington. Not disappointing at all! A beautiful cape and place to watch giant ships go by.

Then we slowly made our way down the coast to Cannon Beach, the lodging for the night. The photo above is on the beach right in front of the hotel. Beautiful boulders all around. Ryan took 99% of the photos for the day so I have little to show for my work... just a couple of shots I snapped while wandering the beach. Still waiting on him to process the rest of the beautiful photos from the trip.

I'd recommend Cannon Beach as a place to go to relax. I'd personally only survive a night there. Any more would be torture and boring, but that is me. There are lots of cute shops, walking trails and restaurants. I do regret not having a fire on the beach.

I'd recommend Crepe Neptune for food - super delicious crepes and super small and cozy. Perfect breakfast/lunch snack. For dinner we went to Wayfarer Restaurant. I thought that place was delicious - I had steak with shrimp on the side. Perfection. And some mushroom dip to start? Oh yes. We were there after dark but it is right on the water so at most times you get a beautiful view (and amazing sunset!). I would recommend that place very much to passerbys. :)


On the second day of the trip we drove south along the coast. Our first stop was Neahkahnie Mountain. There is a three mile loop to the top of the mountain which has the most amazing view down the Oregon Coast. You can get a similar view from the road, but being in solitude on top of the (small) mountain with a view from above is a lot more delightful.

After that we headed out to the Tillamook Cheese factory for some lunch. The factory has a 'tour yourself' area where you can watch the cheese being made and packed (though mostly packed... cheese making is a hands off process for the bulk of the time). It was quite fun to watch the production line.

The cheese itself was surprisingly good. Or more like I really enjoyed the cheese curds (the squeaky cheese!). Their normal cheese is a little bland but the garlic/spicy ones are wonderful. I'd recommend this is a stop if you're driving along the coast. :)

From there on it was a drive back up through Portland to Seattle. The Oregon coast is surprisingly (well sort of) far away. I miss the east coast, where states are smashed together so closely. I liked the trip to the coast, but I think I prefer weekend trips to the mountains, or at least more outdoorsy adventures when at the coast. :)

Random details

I am fairly far behind in posting. I take photos but... uploading them and editing and posting is a different problem. I think my pattern is upload once or twice a week and then take my sweet time posting. Well in the spirit of catching up I'll do a couple in one post here.



I guess the theme can be 'details'? A flower alone. A pretty detail of a building. It makes me happy to see little details like that on a building. This is not London or something where there are ancient relics inside of a modern building, but it is still great to see somebody put in some effort to make buildings special. Make them look a little different from the once next to it.



And then there are failure days. Days when I didn't get a good photo and then tried to come up with something cool and it does not work. I was trying to take photos through the lights in the apartment.... none of them looked very cool. It was sad. Maybe another day when I don't remember about photo taking until 11pm? Maybe.

Cupcake Royale versus Trophy Cupcake

There is a happy hour at work every other Friday on my floor with a theme. Last weeks' theme was cupcake wars. Aka - cupcakes from Cupcake Royale and Trophy Cupcakes for all - which one is better? An excuse for a huge amount of cupcakes is always yes.

Hands down Trophy Cupcake for me. I love their cake moist batter and rich frosting. I find Cupcake Royale to be too dry and the frosting too similar from one cupcake to another. And minus maple bacon (which I don't even like), Trophy Cupcakes has much more awesome flavors (like smores!!).

I believe Trophy won in the official count (not by much). Though there were a couple of people that voted for Pizza and Beer (the other parts of the happy hour).

I was amused when I went to their sites that Cupcake Royale calls itself 'Seattle's Best Cupcakes' and Trophy Cupcake calls itself 'Seattle's Most Celebrated Cupcakes' in the header. Though both have the 'Seattle's Best Cupcakes' later down the page. I guess they do not trample each others' territory completely? Though where does the 'best' come from?

The photo above is from Cupcake Royale box. I was going to post the Trophy Cupcakes one but it was not as colorful so not as fun to post (their cupcakes are much less colorful. I love less artificial color).

So yay cupcakes. No need to have huge slices of cake - just a small cake for all. We actually had to cut the cupcakes in half so that more people could try them... but still - small slices and samples are awesome.

Daring Bakers March 2011: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection
and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue
Coffee Cake.



I really liked this challenge - delicious and not insanely difficult or time consuming. I made only one screw up - I rolled one of the cakes in the wrong direction... whoops. I got a crescent coffee cake instead of a round one. Looks don't really matter, right?



I filled the cake with pecans, chocolate, cinnamon and lots of sugar and whipped eggs. Delicious. I especially loved the dough of the cake because it is so soft and chewy and not dry like the coffee cakes I have tried in stores.



You can find the recipe for the cake here.

I am different

I saw this tree walking around on Friday and loved that there was a single different color flower in the tree. It is growing in the tree - it is not separate.

Sadly I did not get such a great photo of this beauty - focus is on my friend. I was trying to focus just on the flower in the center of the frame. The photos looked great on the small viewfinder, but then they were all focused just off of the flower when I got to see them on the computer later. Sadness. So this off-center shot is the best I got.

Thats not how you go down a climbing wall

I brought my camera to the climbing wall again this week. This time people were ready to pose for the camera. The posing mainly involved climbing up the wall and falling off in strange and mysterious ways. Forget doing awesome climbing - awesome falling is so much better. :P Nobody was harmed in the making of this photo. If they were it would have been me because somebody would have fallen on me.

:)

Getting to know a new neighborhood

My work has recently moved into the South Lake Union neighborhood in Seattle. All brand new buildings and no need to take shuttles across half the city for a meeting. Great, but it is an adjustment to get to know a new neighborhood.

For one thing - what the heck is that thing sticking off the building? I realize I am not the person who knows modern art very well, but that looks like more boogers to me than some sculpture. They have those things all around my building and it is extremely odd in my opinion. Extreme confusion.



So yes - we've moved in. Now time to figure out where to eat for lunch, re-program my auto-pilot to walk to the correct work location, and get used to the new office. I've got the office part down. Getting used to the walk to work (I'll stop complaining about it when it gets warmer out - 15-20min walk to work is actually pretty great). The food choices will take longer. I miss being in the International District of Seattle - lots of asian food of all varieties anytime. I miss me some good thai, pho and easy access Japanese. But I am sure I'll find places in the new area eventually - and if all else fails, apparently you can make Whole Foods cook food for you? That sounds pretty awesome.

Snapshots of Life

Is that HAIL????

Well no. Just the super odd dots on the windows at work (they form grass looking drawings on building when you look from outside). But it did hail today... while there was blue sky. Super confusing, but maybe this means spring is finally coming? I am in.



Lately there has not been much sunshine. Not that there is not sun during the day, but I am not outside for it. Start at my little sun toy and that is my sunshine.



And just not enough of being outdoors. Yes that is an indoor plant. I felt like I needed more plants in my photo project... but all the ones outdoors look depressing. Some trees are starting to bloom so I am excited for the beauty that will soon be here. :)

Glimpse of Vegas

Not many photos were taken on this Vegas trip, but I really like this one. I know everyone and their mother goes to see and takes photos of the fountain, but that does not stop it from being beautiful. We watched it twice in one day - the morning one was much better because it was a nice breeze as it was warm and the music was working. The night show had no music which is not nearly as cool.



It was also very cold while we were there. You can sort of see that there is snow in the mountains there. I heard a little fell at night, but I was happily asleep for that part. The awesome part is that you do not have to spend much time outside. It was beautiful Sunday so we spent the day wandering the whole strip - from Luxor to Encore. It is a long way! But lots of beautiful buildings and exploration. Even finally saw the Bodies exhibit (cool but incredibly gross).

I would have gotten better photos but...





... was a little bit busy drinking tea/OJ/water. The plus side about being sick in Vegas is that there was a $20 spa at the hotel that I could use. Steam away the sickness? Heck yes! :) And unlimited tea and bad magazines while I chill there? No problem.

Daring Bakers February 2011 Challenge: Panne Cotta and Florentine Cookies

The February 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mallory from A Sofa in the Kitchen. She chose to challenge everyone to make Panna Cotta from a Giada De Laurentiis recipe and Nestle Florentine Cookies.



Unlike the failure of the last daring bakers recipe, I really enjoyed this challenge. It was not extremely difficult, but not something I had thought of trying before. It turned out delicious and I am excited to try more panne cotta flavors.



Mine was rather simple since I just used the ingredients that I had in the house. And a little bit makeshift in transport. Though I was excited to use these cups that I've had for a while.



The cookies were also very fun - I think I spread them out a little too far so they were a bit hard to peel off.



But in the end - delicious. And that is what counts. And I think the final product looks good! So lots of wins.

Oh and I brought them to a superbowl party. That part amused me. Almost none of them got eaten though between the chickenwings and such, but my coworkers were kind to finish them off... so that I wouldn't.

Loved this challenge. Hope for more like this.

Lacking a better title for catching up on photo of the day posts....

So I am a little behind on photo of the day postings... alas. I have been sick this week so very uninspired in photos, but trying to take something interesting. This one is from Wednesday on my walk to work. I love the space needle and how it stands by itself. It was fun playing around with the color balance of the clouds/sky afterwards. Otherwise... rather plain shot. I'm sure I'll have more shots containing the needle sometime.



Ryan's banjo. I got it for him for the holidays. It's been fun (and loud!) watching him practice. Its such a chipper instrument - can you have a depressed banjo? Even the name of it is chipper in my opinion.



There was a bit of snow today which of course makes the city freak out. I ventured up on the roof this morning and was the first one up there. I find untouched snow to be extremely peaceful. And the chair in the middle added some more tranquility. I'll get better photos of the actual view from there another time - but for now... a peaceful moment with a little bit of snow.

In the Eye of the Lens holder

Me: "I am tired and I have no idea what to take a photo of today! Wah wah wah!"
Ryan: "I have an assignment for you! Try to take a photo through another lens!"
Me: "Huh?"
Ryan: "Let me show you!"

So I present you the result. I love how the whole process is seen in this. Me taking the photo, Ryan holding the lens, the lens inverting and inflating his eye, and his ear getting in the way of my shot through the mirror.

It is hard to get a good shot of the eye in my lighting conditions - either a flare off the lights or my reflection or the eye is too dark. Discarded quite a few photos - and well, this one is most amusing. Still - a fun experiment and quite a few laughs.

In case you're wondering - he's holding a 50mm 1.4.

Fire and Lobster

The one thing I required when visiting the east coast was Lobster. It is so much more expensive on the West Coast so it had to be done. I have been craving it so much since seeing lobster tails at Pasta Freska, so this was a necessity. The location was Tackle Box. Small stop in Georgetown - you can get the fancy stuff upstairs at Hook. Order at the counter and sit where you want. I loved the chill hole-in-the-wall style atmosphere, and the delicious lobster. I've never had it grilled and it was a delightful combination. Amazing to get a craving satisfied! Would recommend the place for a quick bite - the regular grilled fish/two sides were 13 dollars, though the lobster was more.



Sunday's photo is of the fire in the stove at my parents house. There have been some intense storms this winter so my grandparents burn the branches that fall in the yard in the stove. It was great to sit and chat in front of the stove - as long as I sat away from the smoke - not fun to have a plane flight smelling of campfire smoke (especially when your place in stuck waiting to take off for 1.5 hours and they will not let you use your electronics and you finished your paper book....).

Glimpses into the house in Maryland

My grandpa. The bread was bought by my parents for Valentines Day. Apparently they kept saying that this is a meaningless holiday and such and such but then they were at the bakery and well... it was love. And it is sourdough so I will not complain. Also it was used for dipping into cheese fondue. Double happiness.



My parents have a huge amount of flowers around the house. There are lots of windows and the light lets them flourish. I was popping around taking photos. Sadly, even though it is 70 degrees outside no flowers are blooming. Well not quite sadly because it will most likely get cold again and then they'll all die.

The temperature is especially amusing me because I was in Maryland at this same time last year and there was snow everywhere. This was the great blizzard of 2010 and I was even surprised I got to fly in and out without getting stranded. I prefer this because I am looking for some adventures outdoors.

But today was spent mainly indoors. I have made 6 batches of ice cream since I got here. I got here at 8pm last night. It's been fun. :) There is chocolate, Thai tea, lemon, raspberry and coconut ice cream in the freezer. Which to pick first?

The typical post V-day post

[insert message about how amazing my boyfriend is] 

<3

It is a little amusing that at every occasion for flower-giving, I only get to enjoy the flowers for a couple of days. We left for Vegas a couple of days after our anniversary. I left for Christmas vacation a couple of days after my birthday. I am going out of town tomorrow right after V-day. Sad to not enjoy the flowers for a long time, but at least I can capture how pretty they are. And this is the first time I've gotten roses in my flowers from him. :)