All the Fun I've Been Missing

I finally got a bike.  I haven't had my own bike in YEARS and the last bike I had was "borrowed" by someone and then lost forever, but it was a cheap one so I wasn't super devastated.  After a few months of looking and trying to decide on the type of bike I wanted, I found this vanilla Electra Townie and I'm in love!  I also bought the quick release wire basket that mounts to the front because I'm mostly going to using it to get to friends' homes for BBQ's and to run down to the farmer's market on the weekends- all of which are within a 3 mile radius of my home.

And Mr. got a bike too!  So the first thing we did on Friday night was ride around the neighborhood and then ride to a friend's house.  Because why not?

Mr trying on MY bike helmet, for whatever reason.

So now I'm going to see if I can ride my bike to the max station and take the train to work a few days a week instead of driving.  Hopefully it'll work out and I can save a little on gas and get my dose of fresh air.  

Yay bikes!  Yay summer!

The Ford Family Plans an Adventure

I cannot tell you how insanely excited I am for our upcoming vacation week at the end of August.  Originally, Mr and I discussed taking a week off together so we had some downtime before he started the school year again.  When we started planning what we were going to do with that week, we decided we really need to get outdoors and that our first ever backpacking trip together was in order.  Actually, this will be Mr's first backpacking trip ever in his life!

About a week ago, Mr started looking up places in the NW that would be good for beginners and after researching a few, we've landed on the Pamelia Lake area in the Mt. Jefferson wilderness.  A few permits are required (which thanks to the magic of the internet I've just purchased) and a little background research on the area and I feel ready to go!  Our plan is to hike from the trailhead up towards the lake a find a good campsite on Day 1.  Day 2 we will leave our camp and just venture out for the day further up the trail, but return to the same camp that evening.  Day 3 we will pack up and hike back out.  Short and sweet, but long enough for us to get a good feel for backpacking.

The prep for this trip is the hard part- trying to make sure we have everything we need without over packing and making our trek too heavy to enjoy.  Right now I'm researching good food options, which I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality and variety that the freeze-dried meal companies now offer.  I am a little nervous about not trying them out ahead of time, so this next week I might pick up a few just to taste test before we are stuck out in the wild without other options.

Also on our upcoming adventures is bicycles!  We've both just recently placed orders for bikes so we can cruise around town and go to the markets without having to drive one of the cars.  I have no idea where we are going to store them, but I guess we'll figure it out!

Here's to our upcoming adventures!

I Want to Go to There!!!

Check this out and then come back...

http://theowlmuseum.com/home.html


Because that is TOTALLY A PLACE  I NEED TO VISIT.  It has now made my bucket list.  Malaysia was not on that list until now.


Ok, that was all!