Chain Lakes

We hiked the Chain Lakes trail out by Mount Baker on Monday with Eric, CJ, Rhino and Bix (Eric's dog). The sun was out, and so it was a gorgeous, dry day. Blueberry bushes were all along the trail, so Tyler and I filled 3/4 of a Nalgene with blueberries (he made jam today, but I haven't tried it yet).

As you can see at the end of that slideshow, the boys decided to jump in the lake. It wasn't cold outside — but it was warm either — so we all thought Eric and Tyler were crazy for going forward with their plan. Here's a video of their plunges:



After that, Eric decided to jump in again. When he was out of the water for the second and final time, he said that it wasn't any better than the first time.

"I could cut a diamond with my nipples," he said.

We all then hiked back to cars, and drove straight to the North Fork Brewery for some pizza and beer. The brewery is staple end-of-the-hike stop out the Mt Baker Highway. Tyler and I stayed for the first quarter of the Bronco's game, and then had to hightail it back to town to watch the rest of the game at Coconut Kenny's. After the game, Tyler's phone wouldn't stop ringing because everyone was calling to talk about the Bronco's victory.

6-0...who would've thought?

Sailing in October

We encountered a lot of wind when we went sailing on Tuesday. All of us got sprayed from the water, but Steve managed to take shelter for a few minutes.

Fall hike

We made it

Tyler and I have now been living in Bellingham for more than a week, and the dogs are finally settling in to their new home. The drive was long, but we had some great friends to help us move.

Ryan and Kent followed us up from Lake Tahoe in Kent's truck. We managed to fit almost everything we own into his vehicle (below), which was pretty impressive.



We left on Sept. 14 and drove about eight hours to Sutherlin, Oregon to stay at Memoree's and Russ' place. They are both good friends of my parents, and when we showed up Mem cooked us veal, potatoes and gravy.

The next morning we decided to drive up the Oregon Coast and camp by the beach. We found a great spot at Cape Lookout where the dogs could run around and stretch their legs. In the morning we were rained out, so we booked it up to Bellingham to sleep in a dry place.

Since we've been here, we've seen a lot of friends and family. Tyler's aunt and uncle — Missy and Larry — were in town when we arrived. We had dinner with them, plus Steve, Karen and Catherine on Monday. My mom arrived Tuesday and picked up my dad at the airport Thursday, so we've been busy visiting with everyone, nesting and getting back into a routine.

Both of us are happy to be back in Bellingham. Our house is in a great location — a bakery and a produce market are just around the corner from us, plus Trader Joe's is within walking distance. Life is good.

Alaskan home