Skip to main content

A hiking we will go!

The weather has been sunny but cold (highs are in the 30s!) which makes it perfect hiking weather. Well, that's not really true, but it's nice to not be cooped up indoors and once we're bundled up and trekking along, it's not actually that bad. Bonus that it tires the girls out! 

While we were on Orcas over the weekend, we decided to try Turtleback Mountain. We've never been before and reading the hike descriptions made it sound not too bad - medium impact, benches for stopping at, groomed trails and great views. Seemed easy enough! 

In reality, we learned that it was quite a steep hike for the littles. Considering we didn't have a backpack for Nora, was kind of arduous to get up to the top with them. It was fun nonetheless! It helped that we doled out little snacks and treats to keep the girls pumped. We were rewarded with almost no one on the trails and spectacular views of the island and the surrounding San Juans.

Forgot our backpack? No problem!

One of several stops along the way.

My buns got a good workout!

Evie was pretty tired. She walked the entire hike (probably 2 miles r/t).

At the top!

Lots of islands in the distance

Neat heart rock stuck between 2 trees

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Family time

I had to do a quick trip to LA towards the end of July to say goodbye to my Uncle Pang, who passed away a few weeks earlier. I have fond memories of fun cousin time at his house in Palos Verdes and Uncle Pang taking us to the beach when we were younger. I remember how he delighted in making us kids squeal with laughter by pretending the car ride was a rolleroaster - we'd take sharp turns and all of us kids would slide to one side of his Volvo station wagon or he'd slow the car down to a roll and we'd all chant that we couldn't let the car stop and it would inch slowly forward at a stoplight.  Although it was a sad reason to get together, I think he would be happy to know that the weekend was also a wonderful get together with family. Because it was fairly last minute, none of the kids flew over which meant us "adult cousins" were able to have long talks and linger over food. Kin and Meredith were able to host a summertime bbq at their house and we had a nice t...

Happy new year!!

Goodness, it's already 2025! It's been a really long time since we posted!  We had a very lazy new year. We flew back from LA on the evening of the 31st so spent the last remaining hours of 2024 cozying up on the couch and then fell asleep before it even hit midnight! On New Years day, we slept in, cleaned up the house and then did a quick hike the next day. All in all, a good start to the year! Nora's new blanket hoodie. Cold and muddy trails. We're not in LA anymore! We hiked the Primrose trail that follows Coal Creek.  

Cousins trip: Banff!

Just 2 weeks ago I was in the beautiful town of Banff enjoying girl time with my cousins and taking in the picturesque landscape and now I'm holed up in front of my computer doing work. Oh how I wish I could go back! This was my second trip to Banff (first time was back in 2019 on a roadtrip with the family ) and I got to check out other parts of this beautiful National Park while laughing it up with these girls to celebrate Frances' big birthday..  We all met up at Calgary airport on Friday morning and after a quick lunch at Calan Noodles for hand-made beef noodle soup (yum!), we hopped in our rental car and drove the 90 minutes to Banff. I was surprised and impressed at how easy the drive was - even easier than driving to Whistler because of the wide and well maintained freeway.  That first afternoon in Banff we walked around town and did some shopping before making our way to Brazen, a bistro serving "Modern Canadian" fare. What's Modern Canadian you ask? We di...