BecAndKyle.com

Dog heaven continued with a visit to New Hampshire to see Aunt Cheryl and Curtis.

We went on a lot of nice hikes.

Visited the extremely large Madison Boulder, a glacial erratic – can you even see me in front of it?

Picked a LOT of blueberries (…The Mother should have waited to make Dad’s blueberry pie!)

Hiked to more waterfalls – here we are at Arethusa Falls.

Visited the Mt Washington Hotel,

where I had poutine for lunch. It was good, but maybe not as good as the many delicious breakfasts, dinners, and desserts Aunt Cheryl made for us.

The Bigs forgot to take pictures of our amazing meals but at least got a shot of the TO DIE FOR breakfast cookies!

I took a dip in the lake near Cheryl’s house.

And spent all my free time with Curtis.

We also took a day to climb Mt Washington (the tallest mountain in the Northeast). We headed up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail.

It got pretty chilly by the time we reached the Lake of the Clouds Hut. We stopped for a snack of breakfast cookies and to put on some layers. The Mother was very grateful Aunty Cheryl insisted she take a hat.

We reached the summit in just over 2 hours. The view was fog as far as the eye could see and the winds were on the order of 50+ mph.

On the way down the Jewell Trail, the sky cleared and we had amazing views.

After dinner that evening, we couldn’t resist walking to one more waterfall. We checked out Diana’s Baths.

Next stop: Cape Cod.

From the Adirondacks, we headed across Lake Champlain into Vermont. We went for a bike ride on the Colchester Causeway, north of Burlington. It is an old railway bed that crosses Lake Champlain to Grand Isle.

There is a short gap in the causeway to allow boats to go through. When it was a railway, there was a rotating bridge here.

Now, a bike ferry shuttles bikers back and forth across the gap:

From there, we headed to the Northeast Kingdom, where we did a two-day bike ride:

Covered stair bridge:

The weather started out nice, but, with about 10 miles to go to our destination of Morgan Center, the skies opened up and started to pour. We got soaked, and cold:

It soon cleared up, and we got to go swimming in Lake Seymour. This is a view from the porch of our inn:

There was one restaurant in town, right across the street from the inn, The Pho Farm. We got Beef Pho. It was delicious:

We had nice weather for our ride the next day. We stopped at Lake Willoughby for a swim along the way:

After our ride, we headed to JP’s place in East Burke, for a few days of mountain biking on the Kingdom Trails:

Burke Mountain in the background:

Black Bear was FUN!

My favorite part of the visit was probably JP’s and Stephanie’s dogs, Alta and Minerva. Here I am with Alta:

And, we had a bonfire, of course:

Maple creemee. Mmmmmm:

The Bigs got maple creemee coffee floats:

Biking and playing with dogs wiped me out. Resting up on the way to New Hampshire:

After driving through Canada we stopped at Niagara Falls it was cool.

From Niagara Falls, we headed to visit Nana in Cazenovia. We went on lots of great road bike rides.

One ride took us past Toggenburg, the now-closed ski area where Dad learned to ski.

We also went on a couple of mountain bike rides. Here we are at Highland Forest:

Wind turbines:

We visited the Cazenovia Library. This guy is not the mummy:

This guy is:

One of our bike rides took us to Chittenango Falls:

We also visited Delphi Falls with Nana:

The Mother made a blueberry pie for Dad’s birthday. Maybe she should have waited (see upcoming NH post):

We found great mountain biking at Morgan Hill State Forest, and only got a little bit lost:

From Nana’s, we headed into the Adirondacks to see the trolls at Tupper Lake:

After the Dakotas, we spent a night in Minnesota and then headed towards the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. On the way, we stopped in Wisconsin for a nice bike ride along Lake Superior to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.

After the ride, we dunked in Lake Superior.

The next day, we toured some waterfalls in the Michigan UP. First up: Kakabika Falls.

Next stop. Bond Falls

Then on to Peanut Butter Falls and…

O-Kun-De-Kun Falls.

We finished up the day with a hike along a trail at Canyon Falls.

We eat pretty well while on the road. You may be curious how we cook. Here is our set up. This particular evening we were having veggies and sausage on pasta. Yum.

On occasion, we had a fire at our campground…which means roasted marshmallows! We get to have fires so infrequently that our marshmallows had melted into a big old clump. No complaining here.

The next day we headed to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (on Lake Superior). Our first stop was Munising Falls.

Then we did a hike to Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach…

and then out towards the Grand Portal Point.

Afterwards, we stopped for pasties. What is a pasty? A traditional, handheld savory meat and root vegetable pie wrapped in a flaky pastry crust. The recipe was brought to the Upper Peninsula in the mid 1800s by immigrants working in the region’s iron and copper mines.

On our drive the next day, I took a dunk in Lake Michigan,

had lunch and a dunk on Lake Huron,

and stopped for a dunk in Lake Ontario (Canadian shore) too.

If you are counting, yes, that is all the Great Lakes except Lake Erie. We will have to swim in that one on the way home.

From Montana, we headed to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, where we did some hiking:

We saw some fluffy cows (do not pet):

and some interesting geology:

Next, we headed a bit further south and camped along the Maah Daah Hey Trail, where we did some mountain biking:

The trail is unrideable when wet, and a storm was coming, so we turned around a bit earlier than planned. Just in time, too; it started to pour soon after we got back to the truck.

Next, we headed to South Dakota, where we visited Mt. Rushmore:

and Crazy Horse:

Progress on the Crazy Horse memorial is slow, though they have made a lot of progress since we saw it eleven years ago. Here’s what it will look like when finished:

Up next was Needles and Custer State Park. We drove though some very narrow tunnels. After folding our sideview mirrors in, we just fit through:

We went for a nice hike and saw lots of cool rock formations:

Custer State Park had plenty of fluffy cows:

Up next, Badlands National Park in South Dakota:

We camped here:

and enjoyed a nice sunset:

The next day, we rode through the park:

We followed up our ride with trip to the world-famous Wall Drug:

Wall, SD is also home to the world’s largest jackelope:

After a delicious lunch at Wakin’ Bacon, we were back on the road!

Stop 1: Hiawatha Trail – Lookout Pass, the border of Idaho and Montana

The trail follows an old railway line. We went through 10 tunnels (one tunnel was 1.6 miles long, wet, and DARK),

and over 7 trestles in 15 miles.

Up next, a visit with Jameson at Flathead Lake in Montana. But first, the world’s best huckleberry shake in St Regis.

It was cold and rainy, but that didn’t keep us from having fun fishing, swimming, and playing with fireworks.

Then, a drive through Glacier National Park. It was foggy.

We were pretty close to the border:

Part of our winnings from the Pole Pedal Paddle was a gift certificate from Mountain Burger. I had a strawberry shake with my burger. Yum!

Last weekend we went bike packing on the Aufderheide Scenic Bikeway. We started at a cool covered bridge.

Here I am with Dad. Where is The Mother? This is a question we asked a lot. The answer was always – far behind.

It was cold.

The campground was very nice and had BIG trees.

In addition to being cold, it was rainy. We tried to dry our clothes, it did not work.

There was steam coming off the wet road in the warm sun in the morning.

It wore me out it.

This weekend was The Dalles Omnium. On the first day, we did a 22 mile road race. My bike computer said the max temperature was 104 deg F. It did not stop me from charging.

I ended up with third place.

I recovered with a raspberry sorbet.

The second day there was a time trial. My bike computer registered 102 deg today. It did not stop me from charging.

2nd place!

The Bigs tried a few new recipes. Thankfully they tried this one – Spinach and Herb–Stuffed Mushrooms with Blistered Cherry Tomatoes – the day I went to Jameson’s for dinner. I was happily eating gnocchi when this one rolled out. Phew.

They also made Pan-Seared Squid with Serrano Chile, Whole Spices, and Lime. I prefer the fried calamari you get as a restaurant appetizer.

Lastly they made Grilled Balsamic Chicken with Peaches and Basil. It was fine.

We busted out a bunch of new and different recipes and a ton of landscaping the past two weeks. We started with kimchi miso ramen.

We decided to stay home over the long weekend and tackle a project we’ve been putting off for a while. The front yard. The grass was full of weeds, ugly, and used lots of water. It had to go. This is what the yard looked like at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend.

The Bigs and I removed the sod by hand. Not fun, not efficient, and very hard.

At some point, I decided my skills would be better put to use making refreshing beverages for The Bigs as they worked away in the heat. I made blueberry basil limeade.

Refreshed, The Bigs were able to finish the sod and unload 4.5 yards of dirt.

We all looked like coalminers when we were done. For example.

There is no rest for The Emmett, so after a hard day of landscape, I made one pot shrimp piccata.

Day 2. We had a large pile of dirt and all the landscape places with rock were closed…

except one in the middle of nowhere. We bought some rocks. It seems weird to buy rocks but they had them and we needed them, so there you are.

Lifting all those rocks wasn’t enough physical activity, so we went out for a bike ride. We rode the Twin Bridges loop. It is a ~30 mile ride from Bend to Tumalo and back.

For dinner, Dad made Pork Belly Okonomiyaki (okonomiyaki is a savory Japanese pancake that roughly translates to “grilled how you like it”)

On Tuesday, it was back to school. I got a new road bike from the Horner Cycling crew and I just wanted to try it out, but it was my night to make dinner. I was very much the grumpy gourmet while preparing my fish taco dinner.

When the weekend rolled around again, The Bigs were ready to finish the yard. We got more rocks and made a wall.

We got a cool tree. A little gem spruce:

We are almost done. We still need to plant a bit more and mulch. But for now. Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Dad made a Shrimp Okonomiyaki after all this hard work.

Last weekend, we went for a road ride near Madras. It was beautiful:

That night, I made pesto tortellini and a caprese salad for dinner:

Sunday, of course, was the Day of the Mother. I made an awesome banner to celebrate:

The Mother requested cottage cheese pancakes for breakfast:

and pizza for dinner (this is just one of four):

The Mother made some “ice cream” for desert. It had silken tofu and a lot of nuts in it, but it was delicious:

We filled our planters with rosemary plants from Costco this year:

I’ve been really into road biking lately, Check out my drawing of Tadej Pogacar:

This weekend was the Pole Pedal Paddle race. The mountain closed very early this year, so the ski legs (alpine and Nordic) were replaced with two additional running legs. To top it off, following a week of 80+ degree weather, it SNOWED on race day! Not cool (cold, but not cool)!

Dad did the first leg, a running loop part way up the mountain. Here we are at the hand off:

I did the second leg, a run from West Village Lodge to Sunrise Lodge:

I handed off to Dad, who rode his bike to town, then tagged me to start yet another run. This one along the river. I was fast:

After my run, Dad did the paddle board leg, followed by a sprint to the finish:

We got mugs for finishing in the top three in our category:

And we won the Family Pairs category, so we got a really nice bag full of prizes and gift cards:

Papa and Yaya were in town for the weekend. On Friday, we spent some time in town, and played mini-golf and went to the arcade. They watched the race on Saturday, and on Sunday we went to Shevlin Park:

Peterson Rock Garden:

and the alpaca farm:

followed by dinner at the Yacht Club:

I’ve been pretty busy biking and cooking.

Last week, for dinner, I made shrimp bowls. Rice, avocado, watermelon radish, shrimp, and an Asian sauce.

The Mother went to another one of her ‘art’ classes. This time she made a silk scarf dyed with botanical dyes. She used marigolds and logwood bark.

I’ve been doing a lot of biking – both road and mountain. I’m getting fast and I never get tired. The Mother is getting used to this view.

My buddy Jameson B, not to be confused with Jameson G, had his birthday party at BMX park. AWESOME.

The Mother made lemon raspberry pancakes with raspberry compote for breakfast last Sunday. The secret ingredient? Cottage cheese. At least it wasn’t kale.

I demanded a haircut this week. I was starting to look like a Muppet. I went to a new barbershop. They were not impressed with my previous haircut.

Dad made Super Savory Mushroom Bacon Dashi Spaghetti for dinner last Sunday. The Bigs loved it. I thought it was OK. Still not a fan of mushrooms.

MBSEF had its annual award ceremony this past Friday. I won the Sportsmanship Award. My prize? A mug. The Mother is not pleased – she was pleased about my sportsmanship, but not the mug. So many mugs. So little cabinet space.

This weekend both days were 70+ and beautiful. On Saturday we did an awesome mountain bike ride with lots and lots of climbing.

When we got home, I made Chicken Marbella for dinner (chicken, capers, olives, dates, oregano, wine, and pomegranate molasses)…

and a caprese salad.

The Mother made za’atar bread. I did not like it – turmeric, oregano, and feta. No thank you.

On Sunday we rode up McKenzie Pass. It is still closed to cars and freshly paved, so it makes for a really nice ride. When I was little, The Bigs called it the Castle of Dragons ride…because there is a cool observatory at the top that looks like it could be inhabited by dragons…and they thought I needed encouragement to get to the top. I am too big for that now…I mean shoot, I was passing adults on the way up.

Today, the Mother made a loaf of spelt bread.

And, I made cheesy polenta bars.

The Mother made za’atar turkey meatballs for dinner. They were okay.

What was good about the meal? It was our first dinner on the back deck!