Modern day adventurers

When you spend as much time hiking as we do, it gives you a lot of time to think. Oftentimes, I think about how pristine these places are we visit and how rugged and utterly breathtaking they must have been back when Lewis and Clark first laid eyes on them. From May 1804 to September 1806 they were the first American expedition to cross the western region of the United States. Their primary objective was to explore and map the recently acquired territory while documenting the plants, animals and geography.

Over this past year when my heart has felt heavy missing our son, I have focused on improving my childlike wonder and amazement in all of God's creations- from the tiniest rock to the daintiest flower. I like to think Cameron and I would have been fantastic explorers. We have just the right combination of curiosity, guts and drifter in us. I would have been in charge of cataloging and naming all the flora and fauna, while Cameron would have been in charge of setting our course and hacking our way through the forest.

A day in Seattle and where to find me today on the web

Today I will be guest posting over at Melinda's Musings about my favorite way to spend a Summer day in Seattle.

And the for the fun of it, here are just a few reasons why I think Seattle is so great:

1. We have access to some of the freshest seafood in the United States both in our own shores and from Alaska.

2. You can leave the city, drive up into the mountains and be surrounded by trees in a mere 30-40 minutes.

3. Water, water everywhere. If you enjoy sailing, kayaking, SUPing, canoeing, or boating there are endless waterways to explore and sights to take in.

4. How many other places can you take a water taxi, or kayak into the city?

Fernweh

I love the world "fernweh, it literally means, "farsickness" or "an ache for the distance". For any of you experiencing fernweh, here are some stellar trips we have taken both far and wide.

Arizona

My good friend is moving to the desert, which has me dreaming of cactus, brilliant blue skies and desert hikes. If you find yourself heading to the desert soon too, you should check out these links:

Our favorite thing to do in Arizona, Hiking in Sedona.
A great place to beat the heat, the Phoenix Library.
There aren't many places where you can enjoy city hiking.
Spend a day in the wild west town of Goldfield and hike along the Flatiron Trail.
A Christmas in Arizona.
Rawhide, a western town of fun for all ages.
Rule #1 in Arizona: visit Sedona

Lake Powell: Hiking to the Natural Bridge

Aside from all the PDA, we were able to enjoy another natural site on our Lake Powell tour. On the mid point of our tour we docked and were given time to hike and explore the Natural Bridges National Monument. One interesting tidbit, I believe it is one of the few national monuments you have to access by boat. If it weren't for our tour or being with someone who knows the area you might not even know it existed.

Road trippin'

In celebration of the first official day of Summer, it only seemed fitting to discuss the classic American vacation; the family road trip. I am certain as a child I logged as many miles as most of you as we made our pilgrimage to Southern California or our annual trip to Montana. Now that I am older and have a family of my own, we have made it a tradition to go on many road trips over the years. 

Where am I?

Have you ever experienced that moment right after you wake up when you think to yourself. "What day is it? or Where am I? After the past couple of weeks of traveling, being in different states and time zones I have had this moment on one or more occasions when walking up inside a tent. While we were hiking around Durango every time I looked around I could not help but think I was back home in Washington. The mountains, the greenery, it all looked familiar although I had never visited Durango before.

Zion National Park: how good it is to feel small

Far below the towering rock cliffs I am reminded of how small I am. My problems, my worries, my life is really small in comparison to this whole wide world. I am grateful for my faith, my personal power I cling to. No matter how small or insignificant I might feel I am happy to know this great big beautiful world was created for me to enjoy. I realize it was not created solely for me, but when I am hiking amidst the hovering pine trees or the red sandstone and there is no one else around, it certainly feels like this was all created just for me.

A lesson learned at Horseshoe Bend

While we were hiking down to Horseshoe Bend a gentleman passed us and told us, "You are too late, the lights are out, it is over" Confused and yet undeterred by this man's comments we continued to near Horseshoe Bend as the sun was setting. We decided to stop here after a full day of boating and slot canyon viewing. Since it is the most photographed section of the Colorado River we wanted to see it for ourselves.

Lake Powell and a whole lot of PDA

One of the single best parts of traveling are the wild stories you are able to reflect upon and laugh about once you are home. It was not until we found ourselves in Southern Utah that we realized thousands of Europeans make what they call a "Grand Circle" tour of the national parks in the Southwest. Most of our time was spent surrounded by retirees who drove enormous RVs and people speaking French. Apparently, there is significant advertising efforts drawing record numbers of European to otherwise remote places in the United States. As part of our tour, we decided to spend a day at Lake Powell. We wanted to be able to see the lake without needing to rent a houseboat, so we opted for a scenic boat ride around the lake. Now this was not a one hour tour, but rather a seven hour tour. We were on this boat and surrounded by the same people for quite some time.

Heading to the Southwest!

After much deliberation on where to vacation (our top choices were: Amsterdam, New Zealand and Kauai) we finally decided on hiking our way through the Southwest- completely random I know! We found inexpensive flights to Las Vegas and then made our way through Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and then Arizona. This was the first time we have taken a ten day vacation with the sole purpose to hike and visit National Parks.

By the end of our road trip I realized we had nothing in the way of souvenirs besides post cards because all we had done was hike, eat, sleep, drive and then repeat. Cameron and I have been fortunate enough to go on some epic vacations over the years, so this simple vacation was embarked upon with low expectations, which oftentimes equates to more fun. While I sift through the thousand or so photos I took, here are just a few to give you a taste of the Southwest through our eyes.

Dwellable

If you are a long term reader of Finding the Extraordinary in the Ordinary, than you might be able to sense my excitement and passion for travel. Many of you have asked for easier access to my travel posts, so I am happy to announce I have teamed up with Dwellable to feature many of them. You can go here to check them out, and I will be adding more in the upcoming weeks. Happy travels!!

A day in Granada, Nicaragua

The sun scorched down on us as the market was a whirlwind of activity. Pedestrians, cars, and bikes jockeyed for position along the street. With a lack of sidewalk there was no clear path to take. Endless interesting items, most notably soft white cheese in plastic bags peeked our interest. Plastic bags seemed to be the container of choice, everything was put inside those little bags. I remember feeling a strong sense of sensory overload, but tried my best to not look bewildered. This crowded, bustling street market was the place I bought my first baby item. At that point, I was relatively certain I was pregnant, but had not completely convinced myself. I knew I wanted to buy something as a souvenir, so we peeked into several shops and after much indecision purchased a beautiful white hand embroidered dress. For some reason, I assumed we were having a girl and I tucked the little dress into my suitcase for "someday" soon. Buying my first baby item seemed surreal, but it was actually what I needed to do to process that yes indeed we were going to be having a baby.

Spring Travel: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Fort Lauderdale is a lot like Miami, it has the same spectacular blue skies, sunshine and abundant beaches, but without the frenzy. To start our exploring off right, we headed to the canals and hopped aboard a water taxi. The water taxis offer hop on hop off service all around the city which allow for plenty of exploring without a lot of back tracking. We were able to hop off at one place for lunch and then hop back on for more exploring. One thing I did not realize about Fort Lauderdale is just how many wealthy people gravitate here to build mega mansions or who call these waters home to their yachts. While we were there, we were able to see the Walmart family yacht, Elle Magazine yacht and too many celebrities to mention.

Spring Travel: Granada, Nicaragua

I like places with a little grit. I want to feel a little uncomfortable, I want to ask myself a time or two if maybe we should have gone somewhere else, I want to know I am no longer at home. And if I have moments of feeling ungrateful and even a bit ashamed of my gluttony back at home; it is even better.

I like travel which changes me, that gives me a more global perspective. Last year Cameron and I planned a two week Central American adventure with a bookend Florida getaway. We have already been in Belize, Guatemala, and Costa Rica and wanted to check a couple more Central American countries off our list. Our trip went a little something like this:

Travel hot spot: Costa Rica

In a couple of weeks I am planning on discussing all my best recommendations and travel tips for Costa Rica. I know Costa Rica has been on the trendy list of places to go for the past several years, but having visited there in 2007, 2009 and most recently 2012 I can promise you there are still unspoiled beaches, fabulous resorts and a reason we keep going back for more. In order to discuss the topics of most interest to my readers I thought it would be best to leave a comment if a particular region or place is of interest to you. I am really looking forward to this discussion, travel is one of my very favorite things to talk about. Here are a few images to get you excited about planning your Central America getaway.

Spring Travel: 24 hours in San Francisco

Ferry Building

One of the reasons I like to visit San Francisco so often is because there is no better place to walk, shop and eat. I can think of no other city where I know exactly every stop I would make if I was dropped off there for 24 hours. Ideally, I would hit the ground running by catching a 6am flight from Seattle to be down there in time for breakfast. We always fly into SFO because it is easy to catch BART and ride it into the city. By 9am I would be walking around the Ferry Building and if I am lucky enough to be there on the weekend I would enjoy the Saturday market spilling out all around the building. There are so many incredible places to check out in the Ferry Building, but here are a few of my favorites:

Cowgirl Creamery: Steamed caramel milk is a must try.

Roli Roti Gourmet Rotisserie: they have the most delicious sandwiches and roasted potatoes.

Roli Roti sandwich

Spring Travel: 24 hours in Miami

When most people think of South Beach, they think of the artificial side with all the clubs and wild parties, but there is also a lot of history, great food and architecture. Cameron and I visited South Beach last May and although it was only a couple day stop over before we continued onto Central America, we found there is a whole lot more to see and do than the party scene.

Money saving tip: To save a ton of money select a hotel in downtown Miami, not in South Beach. You can hop on the bus and be down to where all the action is in no time. Downtown Miami is sleepy on the weekends, so you can stay away from all the noise of South Beach and enjoy a good nights sleep.

1. Beach time- There is no shortage of sand for sun bathing, surfing or having a picnic lunch. Bring your own towel/mat and save yourself from renting a pricey chair and umbrella from a hotel. If you don't like the sun, it can be a bit intense, so make certain to bring plenty of water and sunscreen. I cannot tell you how many times we have had to purchase sunscreen on vacation and it is usually expensive and extremely annoying when we forget to plan ahead.

Cookie brilliance

Do you ever have those moments when you see a clever idea and say to yourself, "why didn't I ever think of that?" While dining at The Meatball Shop we had one of those experiences. Aside from the menu being a series of boxes to check off with a whip off marker (to ensure proper ordering) something else caught our attention. It is not often I am swayed to order dessert when dining out, but the waitress made it known the ice cream sandwiches were well worth the indulgence. Once the dessert menu appeared it offered the same boxes to check, so our waitress suggested we get a different top and bottom cookie. Brilliant! I have never had a mismatching ice cream sandwich and it is safe to say I will never go back. This particular evening I enjoyed vanilla ice cream sandwiched between a peanut butter cookie and a double chocolate cookie. Divine and such a clever little idea I would have never thought of on my own.

Have you ever tried a mismatching top and bottom cookie on your ice cream sandwich? If so, could you ever go back to matching cookies?

Cheap thrill

If you enjoy great views, a free ride and don't mind freezing your buns off than a ride on the Staten Island Ferry is your ticket. It is easy to board, you don't need a ticket and since you walk on it is easy to ride over and catch the return ride back. Living in a region where there are a lot of ferries and they can be pricy, it is hard to believe that such a great ride is 100% free.