Tolmie Peak, Mt. St. Helens, Friends at a Distance, and More Cooking

I've been dragging my feet on posting more, because I've had some difficulty moving photos from my phone to somewhere that I can use for the blog post. Don't despair, for photos are working well now, and this post will prove it.

We continue to hike on Tuesdays. I like to call it Adventure Tuesday, but mostly it is a good, off-peak time to use the trails. I particularly enjoyed the Tolmie Peak Fire Lookout trail that leaves from Lake Mowich in Mt. Rainier National Park. Unfortunately, there were clouds of mosquitoes starting at Eunice Lake to the top. I came home with my legs covered in bites. I did use my bug hood, so at least my head and neck were protected.

Lake Mowich at the start of the trail

Eunice Lake with the Fire Looking on Tolmie Peak above

Through the looking glass into the watchtower.

The wildflowers were amazing.

At the top. If the clouds hadn't rolled in, you would see Mt. Rainer behind Russ.

We didn't get this view until we were driving out.

Mowich from above on the return.

More flowers. Flowers everywhere.

Our next hike was at Mount St. Helens. We drove to the Johnston Ridge Observatory (it was mostly closed because of COVID-19, and hiked along the Dana Point Trail and the Boundary Loop Trail. I haven't been to the north side of the mountain in years. We have typically climbed St. Helens, which is done from the south side (so the crater isn't in the way). It was an amazing day out and we did get nice views into the crater and down valley. I also enjoyed the drive up. The town of Toledo is so cute. It would be fun to come back and camp near here to explore further. We stopped for pie at Spiffy's on the way home. The perfect finish to a perfect day.

The crater, lava dome and the path of destruction.

Locations in 360 Degrees.

Few of the trees in this area remained on site; they took a direct hit here.

Mount Adams in the east with a cloudcap.

Overexposed.

Replanted forest. It's strange to see a forest with trees all the same.

Mural in Toledo, WA

The Toledo Library.

Check out the mile-high banana cream pie!

We are continuing to hike the Point Defiance outer loop trail on Fridays with our friends. This past week we stopped on the way back at the home of a retired friend (we worked together for about 15 years) and his wife. It is so nice just to sit around the yard and talk with friends. I miss people so much since social distancing became the new normal. They have an amazing rose garden and also a pea patch food garden.

Puget Sound from the Outer Loop Trail at Point Defiance.

Keep your distance.

The last of the summer squash.

 Russ and I also will do a local walk when we have to stay closer to home. So we walked the Ruston Way promenade along the south shore of Commencement Bay.

The old Dickman Mill site.

Mount Rainier and the Port of Tacoma in the distance behind Russ.

Cooking is one of my favorite diversions from the worry about the corona virus. I've continued to make old favorites and try new recipes using produce from our local farmers market.

Sesame peas with orzo and Caprese salad.

Muffins made with fresh market blueberries.

Fish Taco with Mexican Rice (contains fake chorizo).

Fake meat burger on jalepeno roll with cauliflower soup.

Muffin with mint julep.

Summer vegetables with faro salad. So refreshing on a hot day.

Tomatoes from my garden This was the second harvest.

Soy and rice casserole with Caprese salad over greens.

Vegetable lasagne with green salad.

Tuna and red bean salad sandwich on rye with a book.

Raspberry waffles with more berries and fake meat links

Gazpacho soup with grilled cheese.

Stuffed green pepper with Caprese salad (again with the tomatoes).

Panko crusted cod with corn and roasted potatoes.

A tomato flood. This was 2.5 pounds of delicious.

Shrimp with zucchini and tomatoes over penne with a Gin and Tonic.

Tomato-cheese gratin (used up the 2.5 lbs.).

Broccoli cheese soup with jalepeno bread.

Now I'm hungry again. I'll head off to cook dinner. It's pizza again tonight using up more of the zucchini and the chanterelle mushrooms.

Curtains, estuaries, and delicious food, plus more food.

Another month at home brings us more of the same. We hike; we eat; we do chores. My mother helped us by sewing new curtains for the bathroom out of some pillowcases that had been hand embroidered by my great-grandmother. They had been sitting in my linen closet for years, but now I am able to enjoy them every day. She also made throw pillow cases from more of them for the bedroom. I do know how to sew, but my mom is a real expert. Russ' mom is also an expert seamstress. I like the idea of it, but don't like the process, so I stick to knitting and crocheting. We fixed fried green tomatoes for lunch after she measured and finalized the finished length. Green tomatoes are a childhood favorite of both me and my mom.

I love the heirloom embroidery.

Perfect length. The old curtains were too short.

Fried green tomatoes.

Mom enjoys her reward.

I've continued to work on learning Spanish every day using Duolingo. I recently reached a streak of two years of doing at least one lesson every day. I am improving, especially at reading and translating in both directions, but I haven't done what I need to do in order to speak fluently. I need to talk to people more, until it hurts, really.

Russ and I have continued to get out. Recently we hiked at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. It is quite close to where we live, just 20 miles south on I5. The land has been restored from a farm to a natural salt/freshwater estuary over the past 25 years. It is amazing now. We enjoy bird watching there. This time the local sea lions were in Medicine Creek. It was funny how they kept pushing each other off smaller and smaller hummoks as the tide came in up the creek. I was unable to get a good photo with my phone, but Russ managed some nice shots with his telephoto lens.

Mount Rainer across the estuary toward the Nisqually River.

They replaced part of the old farm levy with this boardwalk.

Trees from the old farm were mostly killed from salt water intrusion.

I'll finish up this post with a random collection of other things we've been doing, plus food! We stay busy, even as we stay near home and socially isolate. I try not to get lazy about making dinner for just two people. Usually, I can make enough to freeze for lunches.

We drove past Seattle. I love this view from the Ship Canal Bridge.

Crab-Stuffed Peppers with a Horny Toad Cocktail.

Salad Nicoise.

Summer vegetable tart.

I thought this was funny and managed a picture at the stoplight.

We hike with a friend every Friday (wearing masks). This part of the old trail eroded over the cliff.

Mushroom ragout with polenta. Tomatoes are from my garden.

Chambers Bay Golf Course. There is a path around the course that is well used.

Greek pasta. It's a favorite with feta, fresh tomatoes and basil.

This hummingbird perched in front of me while I meditated.

Russ looks at the moon. We used the telescope to see Comet NEOWISE.

Fresh basil pesto with zucchini and chanterelle mushrooms.

Paul Peak, Peak Flowers, and Favorite Foods.

It has been a strange time. I think that is true for everyone, but I feel especially grateful that we have no worries about finances. I used to be concerned that we would retire into a recession, and boy have we ever, but because it was a concern, we planned for a long downturn early on in our retirement. Planning for the worst has paid off. Of course, we also are not spending on travel as we had expected, which helps. We are staying close to home, but trying to enjoy what is right in our backyard.

Our first mid-week adventure turned out to be on a rainy Tuesday. We planned to go to Twin Falls at Snoqualmie Pass, but it was raining so hard that Russ just said he wasn't going to hike in misery and kept driving. He drove all the way over the pass until the rain stopped at Cle Elum, Washington. We hiked the hastily found Coal Mines Trail, which turned out to be a gem.

An old coal tailings pile.

We have started to drive slightly longer distances to hike in some of our favorite areas: Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier National Park, Snoqualmie Pass, and at Wright Park and Point Defiance (city parks). When we went up the Mowich road at Mt. Rainier, it had just opened, but the last five miles were closed because of snow, so we chose the Paul Peak trail, which goes around Paul Peak and down, down, down to the Mowich River Camp on the Wonderland Trail. We did this section of the Wonderland years ago (backpacking), and I remember climbing up the ridge to finish our hike at Mowich Lake. I definitely remember how sustained and steep the last uphill push was. It wore me out! The Paul Peak trail was marvelously soft and great hiking, but down to start and up to finish trails are my least favorite. It was still a great day out!

Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River

Upper Twin Falls.

Lower Twin Falls

Lower Lena Lake in Olympic National Park. Russ models his mask.

Selfie at Lower Lena Lake during our lunch break.

Friends we hiked with to Lower Lena.This pic is the only one I took without masks.

Me standing on Cathedral Rock with Lower Lena Lake.

The Paul Peak Trail and Mt. Rainier. Log Bridge.

The Mowich River. We hiked down to it.

Mr. Rainier from the Paul Peak trail.

We hit peak wildflowers at Paul Peak.

I infused more vinegar for cleaning the kitchen. I use the lavender from our yard to improve the fragrance of the vinegar. The internet suggestions were to use either lavender or rosemary. I find the lavender works better to take the sharp bite out of the white vinegar fragrance, plus I like that it turns bright purple.

Before.

After one week.

 

This should be enough to get me through to next year, which is good, since the lavender plants are looking like they are done for the year. I've continued my cooking adventures. My garden tomatoes are ripening, so we are moving into a new season of old favorites.

The first two. I always grow cherry tomatoes.

Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella from the farmers market.

Green chile Boca burger with Tim's chips.

Fresh blueberry pancakes with fake link sausage.

Salmon chowder with toasted garlic bread.

Whole wheat crust pizza with zucchini, spinach, and chanterelle mushrooms.

 

I'm amazed, a bit, with how much time I use to just keep our regular home life going. The routine chores, making yogurt, making vinegar, refilling bird feeders, shopping, preparing food, keeping the tea pitcher full, laundry, cleaning. I sometimes try to remember how I got it done when I was working a full-time job and had a 3 hour total daily commute. Mostly I remember that I did less. We went out to eat a lot, plus the house was never really clean. Maybe it was tidy... as minimalists, we don't usually have excess stuff around cluttering up our space, but the floors got cleaned once per year if I was really disciplined during the winter holiday break. I'm discovering the pleasures of simple chores done regularly.