Spring Has Sprung?!

Apparently my wish from a previous blog entry for a 'spring dump' of snow has been granted. We have seen LOTS of snow in the past several days. I just got home from a horrid drive (or shall I say 'sit') on I-90. It started snowing heavily in North Bend and accumulating quickly on the roadway. So I went slow in the slow lane, as usual, and watched all the confident/idiot drivers pass me. Then, I met them all, spun out across multiple lanes just a couple miles further. The lame part about this is that their idiocy affects us all...we were literally in a wall-to-wall traffic jam b/c of the multiple spin outs. If it were just me and a few other regulars, we would've been fine...slow, but not at a stand-still. As it was, it took me one hour to go 2 miles.

Enough about the traffic, here's the real point of this post: All this snow means I might be able to go skiing tomorrow! Hmmm...if they don't cancel school, should I play hooky?!

And the secondary point of this post: just drive slow and easy in the snow, please.

Arielle & Doug's Wedding

I've now been a part of many weddings, but none as well-planned and fun as my dear friend, Arielle's wedding. Brandon & I headed to D.C. a week before the wedding, with the intention of doing a bunch of tourist stuff and helping out in the final wedding tasks. Instead, we enjoyed a whole week of tourist fun and good times with Arielle and Doug, who were remarkably calm and had the whole thing all ready to go! I was very impressed! The whole event was a display of Arielle & Doug's generous souls.

The Rehearsal Dinner was held at a restaurant with tasty tapas and sangria in every possible flavor. It just kept coming! It was a fun, lively atmostphere. A huge thanks to Doug's mom for a great night.

On the big day, we all got beautiful in the Hotel Monaco, with the St. Patrick's Day Parade going on in the Alexandria streets below. Arielle was a lovely bride, just beaming with beauty and happiness. (I know that's cheesy but it's true!). And Doug looked dapper in his tux and sunglasses. He actually needed his sunglasses, as it had gone from 20 degrees and snowing to nearly 70 degrees in one week!

The wedding was held at the George Washington Mason Memorial, a regal building that stands tall at one end of Alexandria. The ceremony was light-hearted and fun...Arielle even giggled part-way through and I couldn't help but giggle too. The reception was a lot of fun, with great food & drink, dancing, and a cariacature artist doing 'portraits'. Afterwards, we headed back to the Hotel Monaco for more fun and time with great friends.

We didn't get any pics of the wedding, but here's a good one from the professional photographer. Thanks again to Arielle and Doug for letting us be a part of your special day...it was a lot of fun and really beautiful to see. I love you, Air!!!

Urban Adventure: Washington D.C.

In our 8 years of marriage, we have never taken a 'non-outdoor adventure' trip together. We've taken all kinds of fun trips: skiing into yurts in Oregon, camping & climbing in Southern Idaho, ice climbing in Colorado, flyfishing (and camping) in Montana, backpacking in Washington state, and so on. So when my dear friend Arielle announced that she was to be married in Washington D.C., we thought it was due time for us to take a different kind of vacation.

The idea was to stay in a comfy hotel, explore the city, help out with the wedding, and enjoy the special day. We stayed for a full week, but there is so much to see and do in D.C. that we couldn't fit it all in, believe it or not! Here are a few highlights:

Old Town- We stayed in Alexandria, or Old Town. It is quaint but lively, with original cobblestone streets and narrow, old houses. This is a very cool neighborhood and a great place to stay in D.C., with easy access to the rest of the city via the Metro.

Our super posh hotel

Museums- It is truly amazing how much time could be spent visiting museums in D.C. Many of them are free, all are extremely interesting and worthwhile. We looked through the Museum of American History, the Museum of Natural History, the National Archives, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Art Museum, and the Crime & Punishment Museum. (italics = favorites)

Memorials- Our camera died the day we visited most of the memorials, so we're sad to have no pics. At the Vietnam Veteran's memorial, we were astonished by the enormity of the wall, which is inscribed with 58,256 names of those who gave their lives in service in the Vietnam War. We also really enjoyed the Lincoln Memorial. Brandon got to spend some time in the Arlington Cemetery. He was impressed by its size, the sheer number of men & women who have sacrificed much in their lives of service for our freedom.

Thanks to our Navy family & friends...part of the Navy Memorial

Washington Monument, in the snow

Good Food- D.C. is known for its food...but we struggled a bit in this category. There were almost too many options to pick from. Plus, we are accustomed to less expensive -but still high quality- restaurant options. In D.C., we ended up paying too much for less than amazing food a couple times...so we decided to check out Ben's Chili Bowl, on recommendation from Arielle & Doug.

a line out the door, music bumping loud, chili dogs & pump cheese fries

...a great place for cheap, grease-bomb food and people-watching!

Government Buildings- We couldn't get in to see the White House, the House or Congress. But we admired all of the buildings from the outside. Unfortunately, the camera died just after a visit to the Capital...so again, only a few pics.

The Supreme Court

in front of The Supreme Court, the Capital behind us

The inside of the Capital dome

We love the Metro!...maybe it'll catch on in Seattle?

In Search of Ice and Snow- Banff '09

Whenever Canada has a low snow year, they typically have a thick ice (waterfall) year. And so, given the low snow conditions consistent across the West, we headed to the Banff area for some ice climbing. We threw in the skis, just in case.

Our first venture was into the Ghost, a remote and beautiful canyon with several ice climbs. Since we haven't really had the ice tools out in a couple of years, we started with an easy classic climb that we were familiar with. This House of Sky is a rambling climb, with short 'steps' of ice that just go on & on. With two other parties on the climb, it was more crowded than we would've preferred but it was still fun.

[See the steps of ice below B]

After a few days of indulging in good food, the requisite trip to the Upper Hot Springs, and some general touristy wandering, we left Banff and headed up the Icefields Parkway to Num-ti-jah Lodge on Bow Lake.

At 2pm, we strapped on all of our gear and headed across the frozen lake to Bow Falls. Given our late start time, we agreed that we might need to do only one of the four pitches...but this is never how it goes with us. After the first pitch, we justified doing the next pitch, and then it only made sense to complete the climb.

[Bow Falls climb mid-photo]

I topped out at 6pm, the dusk light waning quickly. A party of two had gone before us that afternoon; since they didn't rappel down the route, we assumed there must be a good walk-off trail. Part of that assumption was correct...they had made a walk-off trail, but it wasn't any good. We spent the next two+ hours post-holing through deep snow, falling in up to my waist and then crawling out again. At one point, while sliding down a snow-covered cliff, the water bottle popped out of my pack, which we only figured out later when we were super thirsty.

[The small speck on the top pitch is a climber.]

Finally, we arrived at the end of the frozen lake, which meant easy, flat walking for the next 1/2 hour until we arrived back at the lodge. Exhausted, hungry, and dehydrated, we hoped the lodge staff would take pity on us and feed us a meal, despite the fact that we were now nearly two hours past their scheduled dinner hour. Thankfully, they did. We ate well and then slept really well.

This adventure had opposite effects on the both of us: I was exhausted and needed some rest, Brandon was energized and wanted to get out for more. So we took a day off to hang around the lodge, reading, enjoying the views, and playing games.

[From the Lodge, Bow Falls reaching up to Bow Glacier.]

[Num-ti-jah Lodge]

We headed out for one last climb the next day (Shades of Beauty), but only did one pitch as the top two pitches weren't well-formed.




Most of the climbs we saw were like this, with nowhere near the flow of previous years. The ice was thick enough but the routes were narrow and often chandeliered. And so...we headed to Rogers Pass, hoping to find some snow. We enjoyed seeing the pass, where they have tremendous avalanches that crash down from tall Selkirk peaks and over the avalanche sheds that protect the roadway...quite an engineering feat. The skiing was not great, mostly survival skiing over death cookies and tracked-out snow.



And so, the search continues. We're hoping the snow will come to us in a spring dump. Do your snow dance!!!

Finally!

It's snowing.