Yesterday was my first “real” backcountry snowboarding adventure – a trip to McClellan Butte a few miles from North Bend. It was a pretty epic day, but not because of the primo snow conditions. The day started with a 7:30am meetup at the Mercer Island P&R to sort out rides. JJ and I packed in [...]
We picked up our tree a few days ago (from Dunshee House, supporting a good cause), but it’s been sitting bare in the living room since Tuesday. Meagan’s mom is visiting, which provided good motivation to string up the lights and put on the decorations. The completed tree. We’re pretty sure no one else has [...]
We have a bit of a tradition to head up to Stevens Pass for some hiking, riding, and grilling when Stevens has enough snow to ride but before they’re officially open. Well, this year, the snow fell so fast that we didn’t get a chance to beat them to opening day! But, the area we [...]
It might seem silly at this point to blog about something that happened almost four months ago, except that your wife becoming a doctor struck me as something that I should write about, even if it’s a little late. I’m also slowly trying to unbury myself from a mountain of unprocessed photos. And given the [...]
What better way to spend a Sunday then to get up at 4:30am in Centralia, drive 90 minutes east to a small Washington town called “Packwood”, and bike 115 miles with 7500 ft of elevation gain in 92F heat? If you answered, “riding the 2011 High Pass Challenge“, you’d be correct! It was probably my [...]
The last stop on our Asia trip was at the Banyan Tree Phuket resort. Our visit here was in many ways much like our previous stay at Phi Phi Island Village: lots of eating, swimming, and relaxing with a bit of activity sprinkled in here and there. The main difference was that, while Phi Phi [...]
Continuing on the recap of our trip… After two weeks of backpacking and site-seeing in Bangkok, Luang Prabang, and Siem Reap, we were eager to hit the beach for the final week of our Southeast Asia adventure. We had two such places in Thailand lined up, and the first one to visit was the island [...]
Our three week adventure to southeast Asia continued in the temple-surrounded Cambodian town of Siem Reap. As I noted in the Luang Prabang write-up, we didn’t originally plan to visit Cambodia, but when an unseasonable and unfortunate series of tropical storms pummeled the island of Koh Samui, Thailand (our intended next stop) and closed their [...]
After our introductory sojourn in Bangkok, our Asia trip continued to the mellow Laotian town of Luang Prabang. I didn’t know much about this place before arriving, which made my enjoyment of Luang Prabang even greater. There’s seemingly little “to do” in Luang Prabang, but surprisingly that suited me just fine. Situated along the Mekong [...]
Our three week adventure to southeast Asia (Thailand and Laos) is underway and so far we’re doing pretty well. We’ve now checked off Bangkok and checked into the Apsara in the welcomely chill town of Luang Prabang, set along the Mekong River in central Laos. Sunday / Monday: The 24-Hour Crossing Our trip started on [...]