Seems like just yesterday I was writing about our escapades of moving into our apartment on Plum St. It’s a disaster in here all over again, but very excited to move several blocks over to Cherry St in a few weeks. Then I think I’m done moving forever. Or until next summer 🙂

Elijah had to get a tooth pulled. “They told me I’m not allowed any strenuous activities”, he said. That means eating icecream is ok, and washing dishes is not.

Speaking of Elijah, he gives quite the crazy golfcart rides. The blurriness of this picture just proves that. But look at his grin, just trying to scare his sisters.

Carolyn and I decided to take the train to Philadelphia for a day to see how complicated it was. And well, we wanted to spend a day in Philly of course. I think the trains in Europe have scared me into thinking the world’s train systems are impossible to accomplish. I shouldn’t have bothered worrying. The amtrak station in Lancaster only has 3 platforms, each heading to only 1 direction. And they make announcements in English. It’s almost too easy. Whats the fun of riding a train if you aren’t worried half the time you’re heading the wrong direction?

The art museum. That’s alot of steps on a hot day.

Pretty sure I could paint that, I say as I stare at the beautiful painting. It’s a nice thought.

Ahh… summer.

My love of cooking has a direct link, naturally, my love of eating good food. And that colorfully picture of a delicious looking plate draws me in like none other. Can we go to a restaurant where the menu has pictures, please? 

This brings me to Pioneer Woman. If you’re not sure who I’m talking about, well, what kind of housekeeper are you?? (notice I didn’t say housewife. Being single just means you have even more time to cook good food :-)) Really, it’s ok though. Maybe just stay far away from her blog/cookbooks/food. 

Stawberry Sparkle Cake. My family just might remember something about this dessert. I’ve had to wait for some time to even talk about this to let my heart heal a little. I mean, really,how can you mess something up that has step-by-step picture directions. If you looked at the link, WARNING: Do not even be tempted. Or if you give it a go, don’t come to me for consolation when your efforts are in vain. The first step in this recipe is to make an angel food cake from scratch. Enough said. Buy the box mix, just give in and buy it! 

I like to bake in my Mom’s kitchen. She has every ingredient under the sun, all the right sized baking dishes, and of course she’s just a shout away when things start looking scary. Part way through the process my Dad suggested I just make a big trifle out of the whole thing. I probably glared a little. 

Yes, yes the cake ended in a trifle with the jello part (supposed to be inside the cake) mixed around it, layered with whipped cream. It really did taste pretty good, but looked like a 6 year old was aloud to play in the kitchen for a day. Dad, you were right. I’ll admit it. And maybe just start out making a trifle next time. 

When I found myself seriously considering another recipe on Pioneer Woman’s blog, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through the heartbreak again. I called my mom, “I kinda want to bake something. It’s on Pioneer Woman’s blog. Should I even try?” But, look at those pretty pictures! How could I resist trying these Sweet Rolls? I won’t admit how much I paid for my little carton of blueberries. Wait till they’re in season, maybe? 

But this time, sweet success. Truly sweet with just a hint of lemon and blueberry. 

Pioneer Woman I might keep looking at your pictures and giving in to my idea that I can create art in the kitchen. 

I think the cold weather makes me not want to write as much. It’s hard to unwrap my arms from my blanket to get to my keyboard. Not like our house is even that cold, except that the thermostat goes down to 55 overnight. But it is January, and living in SE Pennsylvania means its going to be cold out. And in. 

I ate wild mushroom rice for supper. It was interesting, but I have to say it was pretty good. Sorry for you if you don’t like mushrooms. 

I realize that the last two paragraphs I wrote were about food and the weather. As much as I could wonder why people never get past such small talk, there is something about it all is so normal and kind of comforting. 

For fun, I decided I want to take a picture every day in the month in February. Rida tells me that’s what photographers do to get out of a rut of what pictures they take. Well, considering I’m not photographer, I’m in really looking to get out of a rut. And my pictures may all be of food and the snow. And we’re back around to eating and the weather again. Like I said, kind of comforting. 

I could talk about my New Years goals. Which really are all the same goals I’ve ever had, except typed out in a word document. If we’re going by percentages of improvement, I’d say I’m probably at a 8%. Which means I’ve read 1 book so far this month, I haven’t been to the gym yet, I’m partially keeping to my budget, and I have made basically no changes in my electronics usage. I’m still torn over having many extensive goals versus one small habit to form. I.e, flossing my teeth every day. I went for the extensive list this year, which I think is even a first for me to do at the beginning of the year. 

For fun, here’s my mushroom soup. 

This is my blog, I will now delve into my thoughts on recent political events. Ok never mind, on to better things

I’ve always loved clouds, and there’s been a few clouds in my life lately. No this is not my way of saying I’m depressed, quite the opposite actually. It’s more the thought of wanting to somehow be able to reach out and touch that soft white fluffy cloud. But in some small ways, I can.

This is my favorite yogurt. It probably should not even be allowed to go by the name of yogurt, because it’s so rich and creamy. In short,  it’s like eating a cloud. They have many fruit flavors, all delicious. I don’t recommend the chocolate. And don’t buy it when it’s on sale, it’s probably outdated and then loses its thick sweet flavor.

Other clouds include a large amount of delightfully soft and fuzzy pants, socks, blankets, and robes to survive the winter. It’s like sitting in a cloud, except you don’t fall through and crash to the ground. I really need to get onto some plans for spending the cold months somewhere warmer.

Another favorite right now which has nothing to do with clouds is Jon Acuff’s book Quitter.  So hysterical. I didn’t buy it for a long time because I thought it wouldn’t apply to me. It’s classed as business/motivational. But you want to read this book. Even if you don’t even have a job. I might even let you borrow it, but not all at once, please.

Maybe I should turn this into a food blog for all the food pictures I want to share. I’m holding out on pumpkin times, not ready for the peppermint influx that happens in December. Here’s the pumpkin cream cheese crepe from Rachel’s I had for a little personal celebration. Celebration of pumpkin of course.

And just one more picture for humor, and nothing to do with food or clouds.  I was in Va Beach visiting my bestie. She’s probably right now wondering what came over me that I just used the word bestie. It’s obviously my best effort ever at taking a picture.

Sunday most definitely started sometime before midnight Saturday night.Yeah, we weren’t getting much sleep, and decided to get up early and get on with the day rather than continue somewhat futile efforts at sleeping during the rain and thunder. When Karen mumbled a, “finally! It’s 5 a.m.”, I wasn’t sure if I were also glad, or grouchy about having to deal with wet tents. (ok, all you backpacking haters, I will admit it. I really hate this part of backpacking. But really, I got over it the minute our wet campsite was cleaned up).

It was so misty Kim and Karen almost stole our neighbor’s bear bag. But just about the time we headed out, the sun was peaking through the haze. After continuing our journey up, we entered the most gorgeous highland meadows.

These pictures might show about .01% of the beauty? Shall I stop gushing? Sorry, not yet.

We met a couple coming from the other way, who gladly took a picture for us. It was a gorgeous spot, and the fog had lifted. “you know there’s snow ahead, right?” Yeah, we know.

The shoes of the guy? He had those new toe running shoes. We all noticed and laughed about. But this story may end differently without those shoes.

The scenery gradually changed. From meadows we entered more rock and evergreen land. We dodged piles of snow. We passed many tarns:  (not sure what tarn is? look it up, expand your hiking vocabulary. And no, sorry, I did not post a link for you).

More snow and rocks appeared as the trees gradually disappeared. We pass by some more snow patches. “I think this is the snow fields they were talking about”, said Kim. “Hmm…” I reply. I really don’t think so, but maybe?

The wind has a new feel. It’s that icy, it’s-going-to-snow feel. We’re now above the tree line. There around clouds surrounding us again. Did we accidentally walk off into Siberia?

And then we saw it, the snow. This was no snow field for the faint of heart. It was a rather steep uphill snow field, with no away around. And with the mist and fog, we couldn’t even see the top of it. Besides that, our path had basically disappeared. Do we really just hike up onto that thing? Then we saw it.  There were new, fresh imprints in the snow. Our fellow hiker had left us a trail with his toe-shoes.

We head up the snow. Finally Karen called out from ahead, I see rocks! A huge cairn greeted us at the top. (Don’t know what a cairn is? Better look that up too, never know when you’ll be hiking through snow and might need to know).  However, along with the welcome cairn was another realization. Another huge un-ending snow field lay ahead.  This one had a pretty good trail marked, so we headed out, I admit with a few feelings of trepidation. Karen vocalized our thought, “So do you think if we’d get lost here we would ever find out way out?” Karen, Karen, we’ve been following the cairns! we won’t get lost. Not to mention all the random cairns I’d seen NOT along the trail.

In this moment, I was glad I had bothered to ask Google if there are wolves on Mt Rainier–there are not. This most definitely looked like wolf territory.

It’s like snowboarding. Except you’re carrying your board. And you fell off the ski-lift. And there is actually no ski-lift.

We tarried on, after the 2nd uphill snowfield, we crested our portion of the mountain. Unfortuantely, there were no fabulous views, due to the fog, but we were ecstatic to be heading downhill. Trees again! Mixed in with some more flat snow fields, but the wind had lost it’s blizzard chill.

We entered elk country. With no elk unfortunately. Only a lonely marmot.

yeah, I’m ready to hike out.

A few more miles of meadows, forests, creeks and waterfalls followed. One last uphill trek couldn’t stop us now. Mowich Lake, we have returned!

A final very grungy group photo. We really were quite happy, although we look mostly tired in the picture. Can we make it the last 200 yards to the car? And basically thinking about food and getting out of my rain gear pants into clean clothes.

Yay for DQ! If the lady at the counter was concerned about 4 limping, dirty, I washed my face in a creek this morning and haven’t looked in mirror since girls, she hid it well.

The thoughts “ouch” and “brrr” collided in my brain as I woke up.  It was probably in the 50s or warmer, but I guess I’m a little hard to please as I wake up. And my calves were pretty upset at the abuse they suffered from our downhill climb the day before. But hey, nothing eating some hot cooked oatmeal can’t fix, right?

Thankfully the sun was out bright and beautiful, and we only had about 7 miles of hiking planned for the day. A more relaxing day was in store. Our water bottles filled, and tents again in our packs, we headed out.

Gorgeous scenery ensued. We spent most of the day hiking along the Carbon River. Huge trees lay like toothpicks across the river, results from floods and river changing its coarse over the past few years.

After not being able to see the glorious peaks of Mt Rainier since the afternoon before, we were again delighted and awed by it’s beauty.

Setting a camera on self-timer is not so hard. However, it’s hard to get up from the rock you’re sitting on, while wearing a 20+ pound pack and into the picture before it starts taking. Sorry Kim 🙂

and success.

Now time to move on into the interior rainforst. This inland, temperate rainforst was a fascinating ecosystem for sure. I was fairly sure I saw a fairy fluttering around some large mushrooms, and  a few gnomes peeked out from under mossy rock piles.

Our travels continued to a side trail where could hike up to the the tip of the Carbon Glacier. Cool right? A glacier. I had pictures of a gorgeous white snow mass. None of us really thought it through too much. Because what we found was this:

A rock pile? Sometimes I fail to think clearly on some matters. Like the fact that it was September and hadn’t snowed for  5 months. And that rocks apparently fall in onto of a glacier as it melts in the summer? I don’t know, but the Carbon River is sourced by this glacier, so it’s pretty powerful. I’m sure had we bothered to hike further we would had better views. But we continued on, still in slight shock at how strange (ugly?) this glacier was.

A suspension bridge took us over the river. We chatted with a middle aged couple relaxing on some rocks eating subs. When we asked them where they were going they preceded to describe the same trails we were doing. However, they we doing our 3 day trip, in one day. Flabbergasted we continued our now steeply ascending trail. How could anyone do this trail all in one day? And how could they be sitting so relaxed on those rocks?

We stop for a minute to rest when a couple passes us up on the trail. Kate talked to them.”Well” she said, “I told them, ‘I thought we’d be seeing you soon’ ” Confused, we looked at her. “weren’t they the couple we talked to back further?” No…… The poor lady was probably a little concerned for us all. She’d never seen us before, but Kate says that we’d been expecting them. We laughed for a while over that.

We got to our campsite pretty early and set up, and started getting supper ready when it happened. It started to rain. I’ll keep this short, but our tents weren’t necessarily ideal for rain. Specifically the 2 person tent.

I don’t even know how to talk about that night, the tents, and the rain without wanting to burst into giggles with tears mixed in. There were 4 girls in a 3 person tent. It rained. It thundered, loud, echoing, rolling thunder.  I woke up hoping it was morning for how uncomfortable I was. Kim was sitting up, so I hissed, “what time is it?” Kate immediately says, “Did you sleep yet?” Oh, Karen is awake too, “guys….it’s not even midnight yet” We laughed and laughed, tired, desperate to sleep giggles.

A trip to the west coast! Repeatedly, people would ask, “So what brings you to Washington?” Hmm… to see Washington? It’s an interesting story, but to put it simply, 4 friends jumped on a plane and headed to Seattle.

Fast forward to later that evening in a motel in Seattle. Last minute details were arranged, and bags packed. Sadly, we never had a scale to weigh our packs, so insert here how heavy you want to imagine them to be. Pretty sure mine started out somewhere in the 20 pound range, and was at least 60-70 pounds by the time we hiked out.

In the morning our excitement grew as we drove towards the gorgeous hibernating volcano. I kept my vivid imagination to myself, which involved anything from an unexpected volcanic explosion, to a rabid mountain lion (or an entire pack), to someone falling off a cliff. (none of this happened, in case you are concerned)

The trailhead was at Mowich Lake.  With such incredible beauty, what might be waiting along the trail? We said goodbye to the car, and headed out into the forest. I was delighted to find a beautiful, well-kept trail. I can’t even describe the scenery, you really have to go see it for yourself. But huge evergreen trees surrounded us, with rock ledges above and below us.  Occasionally we had sightings in the distance of the snow-capped wonder. After a mile, we turned off the main trail to head uphill a mile to Lake Eunice.

The rather strenuous extra 2 miles were completely worth it with this fabulous view.

Back on the mail trail we met some charming ladies at Ipsut Pass who took our picture before we headed the next 5 miles down. Down. Down. And down. “How is is possible to keep going downhill?” Our toes became very frustrated with us. But switch-backs continued our way down.  Creeks and streams sang beside us as waterfalls tumbled over mossy rocks. (Places like this just can’t be put into words. It’s more a feeling that only those that have been there can still feel somewhere deep inside of them. Trust me on this). But after a while we could hardly care about anything other than getting to our campsite. We stayed the night at Ipsut Creek Campground. The advantage of this campground is that it used to be car accessible until a flood washed the road out several years ago. So we were quite pleased to have accommodation of bear-lockers, picnic tables and an outhouse.

I’ll put my confession here. I never really looked at the elevation of our descent/ascent of the hike we were doing. By the time we pulled out the topographical map that first night, our feet already told us what we would find.  Our campsite was about 2400 ft ASL, 2900 ft lower than Lake Eunice which sat at 5300 ft. (That’s over twice as far down as the world trade centers were high) Is your brain going where mine was? Would we have to hike back up that same elevation? No, actually higher. The peak of our trail would occur at 6300 ft. Thankfully, the climb would be spread over the next 2 days.

We had a gorgeous evening next to the Carbon River, which is sourced by the Carbon Glacier we would hike to the next day. Over rice and beans I smiled at my co-hikers. Don’t worry, your pack won’t even feel heavy when you put it back on tomorrow morning. And those blisters and sore muscles will just heal right up over night. And even if I’m lying, would you like to turn around and go back up that hill we came down today? No, I didn’t think so…

I’m drinking my second ginger ale for the day. Or is it the third? It all becomes muddled from skipping across these great united states on multiple flights. I’m quite sure that in the moment if buying the plane ticket a decision was made, something like this: “let’s get the cheapest one possible! It starts out by heading west instead of east? With 2 layovers? But 18 dollars cheaper!”
But we already know the pains of traveling by air, so I’ll skip talking about that.
Because as a matter of fact, I’m feeling fairly content with life at the moment. there is something to be said for returning to a normal schedule after the chaos of a vacation.
I experienced so many incredible sights and adventures on this trip. But here’s a shout out to the best travel partners, Karen, Kim, and Kaitlyn. They endured the backpacking portion of the trip with great excitement and hardly a complaint.

You may be wondering why I’m inside on my computer on this fabulous day. Well, I am heading outside soon. That is, if walking to my car to go shopping counts as being outside. Don’t get too pushy, I was feeling proud of myself for getting up at 8:30 this morning. Night shift does strange things to this girl.

Driving home the other morning and the car in front of me slows to a crawl.

Why was there a buggy on my street? Where was this buggy with a ladder strapped to the side headed? If only I knew the answers to the hard questions of life.

I now am sure that I know even less about plants and gardening than I realized before. A few weeks ago I was so happy that the raspberries were finally dying so I could get past them without having 5 branches of briers stuck all over me. On my way to work last night I once again am scratched by the berry bushes. And low and behold, they are live, green and covered with raspberries once again. So now raspberries come back to life for a 2nd picking? Goodness.

(If the rest of the world already knew this fun fact about raspberries, please just allow me to remain in my thinking that this is some freak of nature. )

Too bad the raspberries aren’t mine for the eating, but my landlords. To me, all they are is a nuisance to between them and the ever-growing pumpkin plant that is rapidly taking over my fence.

I spend every day over estimating how much I can get done. I go to bed thinking about the 3 things I didn’t accomplish. Maybe if I go without a to-do list I’ll be happily surprised at the end of the day with what I got done. Maybe?

Well I’m off to buy some hiking shoes. Can I possibly break them in within the next 2 weeks? I’m considering sleep walking with them on. Pretty sure my feet may hate me this is all over.

Happy Friday!

Scene 4: I came home late at night, which is always worse for finding a parking space on my block. I drive around the block, nothing. Coming around again, I decide to try a spot that will obviously only contain about 3/4 of my car. But since my roommate’s car is the one in front of the space, I can tap her car if necessary to fit, right? (ok, I do have to live with her, but at least I know she’s not gonna send a hit-man after me or anything. Some of my neighbors I can’t be completely sure.) Sorry Carolyn.

Parallel parking skills come shining through…. Problem is, even if you have the best skills in the world, if the spot is too small, it’s just too small. But I keep trying. And trying. And trying. Maybe I can get this? I look around to make sure no one is watching me. No one. Finally I decide it’s good enough. I’m in, with only a few inches between my car and Carolyn’s. Oh well.

I reach in my car to get my bags over groceries and make eye contact with a grandma, sitting on her porch about 5 feet from where I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to park. She just stares. You crazy white girl…. If only this was the first time she’s watched me do this.

I confidently awkwardly grab my too many bags of groceries and start walking up the street. Hitting the lock button on my key remote, my car alarm blares. Apparently that was the panic button? I rush into my house, glad it’s dark out.

Scene 5: I’m at the eye doctor, helping my sister pick out new frames. While I’m there I ask them to tighten up/straighten my glasses. She lays them down on the table, they’re obviously crooked. I stop her before she begins to straighten. “I think my ears aren’t level” I’ve been through this before. She works on them for a little and hands them back to me. I put them on, and she thoughtfully looks at my face. “Are they straight?” I ask. “Well…” she keeps looking at me “Can you put your one eyebrow down? It’s higher than the other”

Help… I never really knew I had control of my individual eyebrows. Focus Alissa. Straighten those eyebrows. I laugh, which immediately makes things worse. I don’t even know which eyebrow is the one in question here. She laughs too. It’s hard to tell if those glasses are straight when my eyebrows are all out of alignment. God must have been trying to balance things out “Well since her one ear is a little higher, lets fix that by having the opposite eyebrow a little higher. It’ll keep her from getting headaches”

Now don’t be looking at my face strange next time you see me trying to figure this all out. Your ears probably aren’t centered either.

Scene 5: We get back to my parents after picking out the glasses, only to discover that Amy’s new frame are identical to Kaitlyn’s frames. Same color and everything. I had been a little suspicious of this but thought they were at least slightly different.

The bad part of all this? I helped Kaitlyn pick hers out too. Here’s your warning–get Alissa to help you pick out glasses, and you can join the caramel Liz Claiborne glasses club.