We try to make it back to Wisconsin every year for Christmas, but this year it was just not feasible. So this was our first Seattle Christmas! Although we miss everyone and wish we could be there, modern technology (Skype) has allowed us to connect with our loved ones. We were even able to open some presents together!
We started the holiday by sleeping in until 9:30– a gift in itself after a long and busy week. We were also blessed by mother nature with some beautiful weather so we went straight to Sunset Hill Park to catch some stellar views of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound.
We then stopped at Caffe Fiore for some coffee and pastries. Coffee is a part of our daily routine, just like most Seattleites, but it is not every day that we get to sit and leisurely sip our “java” (or “Norwegian holy water” as Grandpa Ed calls it).
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Leaving Caffe Fiore, we heard the seals at nearby Golden Gardens Park calling our name. They were barking with excitement for the lovely sun beams and all the Puget Sounders were paying tribute by walking its shores, sailing, and kayaking. It’s hard to believe it’s possible to enjoy outdoor water sports in the winter so far north.
Across Puget Sound from Seattle is the lush and mountainous Olympic Peninsula. The tallest peaks in this picture are “The Brothers.” It’s m-shaped and there’s the North Peak (on the right) and South Peak (on the left). They are about 6500 feet. We always know we are close to home when we can see these peaks. See all the seals piled on the buoy?
This one is Mount Constance at 7760 feet.
When we got home, the sun was already starting to set and the sky was glowing. These are views from our roof. Looming over the city is Mt. Rainier at 14,411 feet!
We didn’t make a huge meal, but for two people we had more than enough. We made our usual vegetarian stuffing, sauteed asparagus, and took a shot at Grandma C’s homemade noodles. For a first attempt, they were pretty good.
With dinner we shared this bottle of Stemilt Creek wine from Wenatchee we picked up a few months ago when wine tasting.
This year we decided to not buy gifts for one another. We are trying to save money plus we decided that we wanted to focus more on the experience than on material goods. We are thankful for each other, our health, our kitties, our friends and families, and the relaxing day we spent enjoying the natural scenery. In the new year we are also looking forward to a weekend of snowboarding in the mountains– something neither of us have tried.
Merry Christmas from our home to yours! Mele Kalikimaka!
Angela cooked up some amazing plans for my 31st birthday weekend in October–a trip over the Cascades for a mountain biking adventure in Winthrop, Washington! We’ve been exploring the east side of the Cascades whenever possible and it was a treat to revisit the Methow Valley (pronounced “Met-how”). The last time we visited the Winthrop area was around 2003-2004 and the valley is still awesome!
Saturday morning we tossed our mountain bikes in to the back of the car and headed north from Seattle toward the epic North Cascades Highway (Hwy 20). Highway 20 starts in the fertile farm fields of Skagit Valley but makes it way steadily east along the banks of the Skagit River.
The landscape quickly changes from agricultural to lowland forests to foothills before plunging into a landscape of towering mountains, looming glaciers, ice-cold lakes, and gushing waterfalls. When you’ve reached this final stage you know that you have arrived in North Cascades National Park, one of the least visited but most amazing national parks in the country.
Artistic rendering of North Cascades Highway near Diablo Lake
The drive through North Cascades Highway is filled with trailheads, waterfalls, and other roadside excursions. Every time we drive this route we get excited about planning multi-day backpacking adventures into the wilderness. You could spend your entire life just exploring trails inside North Cascades National Park and never see the same place twice.
One of the most popular stops on the highway is the Washington Pass Lookout. The view from this rocky perch never grows old. Rarely can you get such amazing views with so little hiking!
The afternoon shadows were growing longer so we hopped back in the car and headed east toward the amazing Methow Valley. Angela rented a cozy cabin at the Winthrop Mountain View Chalets and we quickly got into our east side groove by grabbing food and beer down the road at the Twisp River Pub. They make their own beer and delicious veggie burgers at the Twisp River Pub so if you are in the area and are hungry (or thirsty) you should definitely check it out! We will be back.
The next day we grabbed breakfast at the Duck Brand Cantina before heading into the foothills for some amazing mountain biking on the nearby 13 mile Buck Mountain Trail. This was our first real mountain biking adventure since moving back to the Northwest and even though we were a little rusty this trail brought out the best in us! The trail starts on a forest service road that winds up, up, up for about three miles before finally veering off into ponderosa forest and single track. The trail is also on grazing lands and once you bike over the cattle grates you don’t have to go far to find cows! Sometimes they presented a challenge since they positioned themselves directly on the trail in front of us.
Luckily we didn’t run into any trouble with the cows although we were definitely wary of their presence at times.
We gained most of our elevation at the beginning of the ride while the rest of the trail looped back and forth along grassy ridges in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Biking in the Methow Valley reminded me of previous trips mountain biking in Colorado. The singletrack was smooth and winding with a few technical sections but otherwise perfect for an intermediate rider. And if you want to amp the trail up to expert level then just ride faster!!!
This was one of the best mountain biking days of my life and after barreling down a long sage brush filled ridge with views of the Methow Valley unfolding below us I was all smiles. I can’t wait for us to go back and ride this trail again. I also can’t wait to see what other trails the Methow Valley is hiding.
As you can see, the climate in the Methow Valley is very different from the Skagit Valley. Since the weather arrives from the west, the Cascade Mountains have an opportunity to suck much of the moisture out of the clouds before it reaches the east side of the mountain range. The effect is that the west side of the mountains is in a coastal zone which means places like Seattle experience lush, cooler, and cloudier weather. By contrast, places like Winthrop and Leavenworth experience drier, sunnier, and more continental weather patterns.
Methow Valley:
Skagit Valley:
After an amazing weekend in the Methow Valley we decided to return home along a different route. By traveling south from Winthrop and Twisp via highways 153 and 97 we were completing the eastern part of the 440 mile long “Cascade Loop“. Highway 153 is also known as the Methow Valley Highway and it winds through an amazing landscape of orchards, cliffs, dry valleys, and small towns while crossing the Methow River dozens of times along its course. At almost every bridge crossing you can look into the water and spot people fly fishing for dinner in one of the most picturesque rivers you can imagine.
Eventually the Methow River empties into the Columbia River and we followed that south toward Chelan.
South of Chelan we met up with Highway 2 which winds westward back toward the Cascade Mountains and Stevens Pass. After stopping for coffee in the Bavarian themed town of Leavenworth we pulled over along the Wenatchee River to watch enormous salmon jump from pools of cool clear water. Unfortunately, they were jumping too quickly for us to snap a picture of them, but trust us–they were there!
We finished off our journey by driving over Stevens Pass and back down into a rain storm on the western side of the Cascades. What a wonderful weekend! Thanks Angela! More adventures await…
When you hear the civil rights movement mentioned, if you’re like most, you probably think of the South. However, Seattle– like other cities in the North and West–has its own civil rights history.
This year marked the 50 year anniversary of the famous Freedom Rides where hundreds of black and white students went head-on to challenge racial segregation of busses and interstate travel facilities. Their efforts to integrate were met with fierce resistance, including firebombs, KKK mobs, and the constant threat of violence. The viciousness of those who tried to stop the Freedom Rides, contrasted against the riders’ commitment to non-violence was so appalling that the federal government had to intervene. To commemorate the 50 year anniversary, PBS produced an “American Experience” film on the story. If you haven’t already seen it, you should definitely check it out! (It’s available online for streaming.) In collaboration with the film, there is a traveling Freedom Riders exhibit that has been at Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) for the last month.
To celebrate the exhibit visiting Seattle, MOHAI collaborated with the Northwest African American Museum (NAAM) to offer a walking tour of Seattle’s own civil rights history. As newcomers to Seattle, we jumped at the opportunity to learn some important local history and visit the Central District, Seattle’s historically black neighborhood. We met our tour guides and fellow tourists at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (home of the African American Film Festival) and were given a quick intro to Seattle’s African American history. We learned about the racial restrictive covenants used to keep non-whites out of particular neighborhoods, the Seattle School Boycott of 1966, and Seattle’s chapters of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality), the Urban League, and the NAACP.
One of the first stops was nearby Edwin T. Pratt Park. Pratt was the director of the Urban League and was murdered outside his Shoreline home on January 26, 1969. To this day, no one has been charged with his murder.
We also visited the Douglass-Truth Library, a branch of the Seattle Public Library, which boasts one of the largest African American collections on the West Coast. The branch used to be named after Henry Yesler, a former mayor of Seattle, but in 1975 the branch was renamed after Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth in an effort to better reflect the community it served.
The highlight of the tour involved meeting Maid Adams, a white woman involved in Seattle’s CORE. Among other projects, she helped to create the “Crosstown” bus route (now the #48) which ran from the University District down to the Central District. Apparently, before the #48 existed, residents would need to transfer downtown and CORE activists charged the city with not providing adequate services for the residents of the Central District which were majority African American. Told that no one would ride the crosstown bus, CORE and the Central Area Motivation Program joined forces in 1966 to prove to the transit authority that this bus was needed and would be used.
We ended at Garfield High School where Stokely Carmichael spoke in 1967 around the time that Seattle’s Black Panther Party was formed. Seattle’s chapter was the first to form outside of Oakland, CA where the BPP originated in 1966.
Garfield High School’s pool is named after Medgar Evers, a civil rights activist assassinated in Mississippi in 1963. Here is a mural outside the pool.
We enjoyed visiting some new places and learning about this important history. Fortunately, the University of Washington has done a great job collecting materials on Seattle Civil Rights history. If you’re interested, check out their website. They have tons of photos, oral histories, and old newspaper articles organized for the public to view!
We look forward to checking out some more tours like this and we have numerous museums to check out!
Some people might mark the beginning of winter with snow flurries, others might wait until the winter solstice. Here in Cascadia we know it’s winter when the beer isle is full of Winter Seasonals. Last week we did enjoy some dark stouts, but tonight we bought our first 12-pack of winter ale. To kick off the season we chose Deschute’s Jubelale.
Each year Deschutes (a great brewery in Bend, OR– go visit if you haven’t already!), picks a different label for their “festive winter ale.” This year they used the artwork of Central Oregon artists Cara Thayer and Louie Van Patten. The brewery describes their beer as: “A dark, malty celebration ale with layered flavors and beautifully balanced hopping. Jubelale pours deep garnet in color, medium bodied, with notes of chicory, earth, spice and fruit. To beer lovers, it’s like Yule fire and family.”
It’s a strong ale. ”What’s a strong ale?” you ask. Beerpal.com offers a good definition. They say: “The strong ale category includes ales of essentially any style with higher alcohol levels (generally at least 7%) than what is common for that style. The amount of alcohol can be quite high in a strong ale (over 20% in some cases). The category is essentially a catch-all category and incorporates multiple base styles into the group, except for those styles that explicitly have their own strong (often “imperial” or “double”) category. The target of strong ales should not be overpowering and harsh flavors, but instead an enhanced overall quality from the additional alcohol.”
The first Jubelale label that we remember is from back in 2001.
You can check out all past labels on their flickr page. It’s a great way to support local artists and we can all do our part and drink local beer! Cheers!
In Fall 2001, we first ventured on the most amazing hike in Washington—Cascade Pass. We recently revisited this beautiful place. One of the most popular hikes in the North Cascades, it is easy to understand why. Ten years later, we look a little older, but the mountains look equally breathtaking.
Here we are back on September 19, 2001:
And here we are September 4, 2011. Still loving hiking and each other.
But wait, we’re jumping ahead of ourselves… With the intention of reaching the North Cascades, we decided to take a different route, one a little more scenic and slower than the usual interstate. After Jon worked in Everett in the morning, we caught the Mountain Loop Highway and drove it to Darrington. It has been closed in previous years due to flooding and erosion, but we made it the whole way even though it got a little slow and bumpy. This route offers numerous hiking opportunities, great camping, and old-growth forest. One of the lesser-known gems of the Northwest!
From there we took 530 North, following the Sauk River. We found a great place to camp for the night off the Sauk River and catch some sleep before hitting the trail the next morning. Check out the bar that previous campers built in the trees!!
The next morning we continued on 530 until we reached Hwy 20 and followed it east along the Skagit River. We stopped in at Clark’s Skagit River Resort in Marblemount where we grabbed some breakfast and coffee. We used to stop in here whenever we traveled on Hwy 20, so we had to stop in again and see if Tootsie was still around. To our excitement, she was there relaxing and enjoying breakfast with her family. After fueling up, we took a quick look at the tiny “Wildwood Chapel.” It only seats eight, but if you’re looking for an intimate wedding getaway, it doesn’t get more intimate than this! After signing the guestbook inside the chapel, we were ready to hit the trail!
From Marblemount, turn onto Cascade River Road and drive it 23 miles until you reach the parking lot. The road is long and slow and you’ll likely feel like the only one out there until you see the parking lot full of other adventurous lovers of Cascadia. Don’t let the many cars scare you—it’s worth it! It tends to be snowy until late July, which probably adds to the crowds anxiously awaiting news that the trail is clear.
The trail climbs steadily to the pass, only 3.7 miles away. At the pass, there’s a nice lookout with views of Eldorado, Johannesburg, Magic, Mixup, and McGregor peaks, as well as the Sahale Arm to the left and Pelton Basin below. The trail keeps going—all the way to Stehekin if you are feeling so inclined. The great thing about this hike is that it opens up to some amazing backpacking, but it’s also easy enough for a dayhike in the alpine. The folks at the park service say Cascade Park is the most popular day hike in the national park! By now, I bet you are starting to understand why!
There is something special about this hike. It is relatively easy and accessible, so don’t expect to have the trail to yourself (unless it’s a rainy weekday or early/late in the season). But its beauty is on par with almost any backcountry hike in that it offers expansive views, breathtaking meadows, ample wildflowers, and dramatic glaciers.
Highlights of this trip included meeting some fellow “Wisconnies” in the parking lot. They were visiting from Green Bay and they made a joke that it sure looked a lot like Eau Claire. Sure does, huh? You betcha. On our way back down the Cascade River Road, we also saw a Subaru with Wisconsin plates and a Russ Feingold sticker. Apparently news of Cascade Pass is reaching the Midwest!!
Our last stop on the way back to Seattle was at the Cascadian Farm on Hwy 20. You may have seen some of their jams in your grocery store– everything is certified organic! We shared some homemade blueberry shortcake with blueberry ice cream on top and coffee and then wandered through their gardens full of sunflowers. Beautiful end to a beautiful day!
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