Birthday Trip

We picked a lot of cherries. While picking, we did quite a bit of eating…but then we noticed little holes in the cherries. So, we cut one open. See the little green maggot in the one on the bottom? Yuck. We threw away all the cherries.

We didn’t have much time to feel sad about our cherries because we had to leave on Dad’s 50th Birthday Road Trip!

First stop. Hood River for windsurfing. I tried it and LOVED it.

Dad did some wing foiling in addition to wind surfing.

We also hit the orchards and got some cherries to replace the maggoty ones.

12 pounds, in fact. And we ate them all in one week!

We also did some fly fishing on the east fork of the Hood River

and at Lost Lake. Still fishing, not catching.

We also stopped at Ferment for beers,

a pickled platter (pickles, sauerkraut, and kimichi), and a charcuterie board.

We also met up with two of Dad’s old friends, Jay Griffin and Ben Webster, for dinner at Taqueria:

Then it was on to Leavenworth, ‘a Bavarian-styled village in the Cascade Mountains, in central Washington State’.

We did a day hike to Eightmile Lake. It was ~100F outside.

You better believe we swam in this lake.

After the hike, we hit the Nutcracker Museum. TWO floors of nutcrackers.

They had a whole collection just for Pop’s birthday.

And the Queen, of course.

I did some shopping too. I loved this hat. Loved it. But I could not part with the $85…

Then we hit the Munchen House for brats, beer, and pretzels.

I covered my brat in dill relish, raw onion, sauerkraut, and yellow mustard. Mom gagged a bit, but I loved it.

For the rest of our trip, we planned on backpacking. The Mother did a shoddy job of planning this part, so I took over. I mapped out a route and we started out on Chatter Creek trail on Sunday. The forecast called for a high of 103F.

The Bigs started to get worried when we had already climbed 1000 ft by lunchtime and this is what we saw in front of us. Ut oh.

Here we are on the top. Cloud cover kept it from ever hitting the predicted 103 F.

But we weren’t done. We had to go down.

And through snow.

Until, after 4800 feet of climbing (this is a LOT people) we made camp at Lake Edna.

This guy came a little closer than we were comfortable with.

and the bugs were horrible. But it was a beautiful spot.

In the morning, we decided we would hike to a few lakes, but not take our heavy packs. The day before was a bit much. We hiked through tons and tons of wildflowers…

until we got to Flora Lake. I had my rod, of course…but what are the chances there are fish in an alpine lake in the middle of nowhere?

Oh, there were fish. I caught three before my rod BROKE!

Next we went for a second swim (we swam in Flora) in Brigham Lake. Yes, that’s snow.

I had to rock climb down to the water. It was awesome.

Two lakes weren’t enough, so we headed to Upper Florence Lake.

More snow. These were REFRESHING lakes people.

The wind starting picking up in the evening. At first we were excited because it blew the bugs away.

But it blew all night and we were sure the tent – though reinforced with ropes – would collapse on our heads. It did not, but it filled with dirt. There was not much sleeping.

In the morning, the wind had stopped. And everything was beautiful again, even the toilet.

Then it was time to start the long hike down.

The Bigs thought I picked an amazing route and could not believe all the beauty we saw or my amazing endurace. To be honest, it wiped me out.

I’ve been sleeping in a lot, but I’m recovering quickly. I made breakfast burritos for dinner this week.

And mango sorbet just for fun.

Now it is time to get ready for our trip. I listened to podcasts on the American Revolution, Paul Revere’s Ride, and the Boston Tea Party in preparation for Uncle Jim’s. I also supervised while Dad packed my bike.

See you soon!