Poetry

From time to time, we begin class with a poem (this is not helping my "i'm not in hippy school" argument). Regardless, here is one we read this morning that i wanted to share, as well as a photo from this past weekend in the Cascades. Enjoy:

For the Children : Gary Sneider

The rising hills, the slopes,

of statistics

lie before us.

of everything, going up,

up, as we all

go down.

In the next century

or the one beyond that,

they say,

are valleys, pastures,

we can meet there in peace

if we make it.

To climb these coming crests

one word to you, to

you and your children:

stay together

learn the flowers

go light

Rock Cairn marking the summit of Liberty Bell

Objects of Thirst

About a month ago, i walked out to the truck and handed Frankie two Vitamin waters and had bought a third for myself. Then Frank posed the question/challenge.... We should stop buying beverages in plastic bottles and just use our nalgene's and just keep refilling them. I decided to take it one step further and attempt to only buy coffee if i had my travel mug on me.

I dont think we ever realize how much waste we generate when we buy disposable beverages. Before that one moment, i didn't even make the connection until i looked down and saw three empty plastic bottles. I can't say that since that time i've adhered strictly to our challenge, since i bought a cup of coffee yesterday sans travel mug... and i just realized the protein drink I just finished was in a plastic bottle. However, I have definitely made a concious effort, and notice that i am drinking a ton more water out of an old dirty nalgene then before.

I dare you to try to do the same... even if it's just for a day. At Starbucks, they'll give you a cup discount if you bring your own mug, so at least there's some economic incentive here, as small as it is.

Obviously there are a few items that do not apply to this event, and they are:

Kombucha - comes in a glass bottle

beer - in a glass bottle

and High-Life in a can

A Trip Down the Skagit

We had our first field trip on Friday for class. We loaded up the vans at 9am, and headed to the first key stop of the day: a bakery. After getting fueled on a gigantic cinnamon roll, we headed to the Padella Bay Estuary. The Estuary is right on the bay and looks out onto the oil refineries in Anacortes. It was a low tide day, so we were able to poke around and lift up rocks and run around in the sand.

One of the side projects for the day was to also identify the birds that were singing all around us. I can safely say that i have no idea how to identify any birds except a seagull. So, i obviously failed miserably at this. However, after Friday i think i can identify a thrush... but i'll get back to you on that. We also had to begin identifying some trees, and i successfully identified a Douglas Fir, but that was after i was scolded for saying you could identify fir trees by looking at their "pine cones." whoops.

After our trip in the Estuary, we headed over to Mount Erie where we had stunning views of the valley and North Cascades below. During our time sitting on rocks, i learned some fun facts:

- Puget Sound was under approximately 4000' of ice during the Pleistocene era.

- The olympic Mountains receive the most rain per year on average - 180"

- Bellingham & Seattle just receive 34 - 36" a year

- The Piedmont Glacier deposited rocks from Canada all throughout the region during the glaciers melting period.

- Eagles are pretty cool.

I gotta run to class, but here are some more photos.

Class on top of Mount Erie
Talking about the various birds flying around the estuary

Learning about various sea grasses

Update

I've been in Bellingham for 3ish days now. Not going to lie, it's been a rough three days with trying to tackle finding things such as:

- food

- a place to sleep

- the financial aid office

- the bus stop

- the trail to the arboretum

But, Bellingham has been graced by 80 degree and sunny weather the past few days so it's hard to have a bad day. Class has been great, we finally started diving into some of the material this morning and will be going on our first field trip tomorrow (hooray!!!)

I've taken some photos, so i'll post them this weekend as well as a legit post about field tripping in the Skagit River Valley.

WFR'ing it

So, i'm going into day 6 of my 80 hour WFR (Wilderness First Responder) course. This course will allow me to save you with tree-sap, whiskers from a squirrel and birch bark... not cedar though.

Some of the key highlights to date were inserting a nasal passage into one of my classmates:

Learning about Testicular Torsion, and how to fix it:

And how to inject someone with epi into their muscles:

I've also learned how to fix sucking chest wounds, and whining. So, next time you are in the back country with me, you'll be all set if you get injured. Unless it's yucky and gross, then you're totally on your own.

10 more days

I start school in 10 days
I move to Bellingham in 9 days

This is what I'm going for

This is where i'm living:

I'm excited.

In Search of the Perfect Nacho

In "Jitterbug Perfume" the main character is in search of the perfect Taco, per her fathers dying wishes. Throughout the book, you learn that the character has moved from mexican restaurant to mexican restaurant all throughout the US in search of said Taco, to only find herself in Seattle... tacoless. By the end of the book, she realizes that her father did not mean for her literally to find the perfect taco; but instead to find the keys to having an amazing life. Which happen to be in the form of a beet.

I on the other hand... am in search of the perfect nacho. literally. The key to the perfect nacho is:

1. even distribution of toppings (this is key when nachos are layered)

2. no soggy nachos

3. no naked nachos

4. even amount of toppings (who wants a ton of cheese with a spoon full of salsa)

5. crisp nachos (but not burnt)

I have spent the past 6 years searching for the perfect nacho, with the hopes of writing a book one day on how to create said nachos, and also the top nacho establishments in the nation. In the interest of time, and your attention span, i'll just list the top 5 places in the greater Seattle Area:

1. Mission

2. GLC

3. Chupacabre

4. North Bend Bar and Grill

5. Gorditos

However... the best place i have had nachos to date was about 7 years ago in Maine:

They baked their nachos on a pizza pan, and only had 1 layer, which ensured even distribution. After the nachos were made, they were placed in a wood fire oven to cook. I have yet to find 1 single nacho that even comes close since then.

So, for those of you that ask what i've been doing since I quit my job, and before school starts... I've been packing up my house, running, biking and dreaming of the perfect nacho.

Acadia National Park

view from sand point beach

Bass harbor lighthouse

biking through the park

friendly frog in the nature preserve

Acadia National Park is pretty amazing. I spent three full days in the park exploring via road bike, car and trail running shoes. The park is unique in that the land was originally private land, that was then put into a land trust in the early 1900's to preserve it's rugged landscape. In 1919 the trust gifted the land to the National Park service, which is when it became the first national park east of the mississippi. Due to this unique heritage, you can be on park land one second hiking one of their many carriage roads, and then find yourself on private land looking at someone's backyard. If you want to learn more about the parks history, you can check it out here:

http://www.ohranger.com/acadia/history

Got back into Seattle late last night and am looking forward to a week of no work, no class and all packing. 17 days until school starts!