Wonderful weekend! – Friends, Volcanoes and Trains

My lovely friend Nicki and her husband Ryan were in Seattle Friday night!  They live in Delaware and have been on the west coast for their honeymoon!   We went to Bamboo Garden for some dinner. We ended up sitting there and talking for four and a half hours! We then stood in the parking lot at their hotel for another hour and a half. It was so good to see Nicki again! It’s been at least four years since I had last seen her. Meeting Ryan was great too! I was happy to finally meet him after hearing Nicki talk about him for many years! They’re so cute together!

Saturday morning Eric and I left around 8am for a trip to Mt. St. Helens. Juniper was trying to be extra cute so we would stay at home and play with her.

We picked up some Mighty O donuts for the trip.

Our mascot kept watch while we drove through Mt. Rainier National Park on the way to Mt. St. Helens.

Welcome!

Behind that cloud in the center of the photo is Mt. Rainier.

The fog clung to the mountains near Mt. Rainier.

We accidentally missed our road and drive 20 miles before figuring it out. We had to turn around and backtrack, but we did have this view!

There’s Mt. St. Helens with a little cloud cover!

We were going to see Mt. St. Helens via Windy Ridge. On the drive to Windy Ridge you can see more of the destruction and blast zone than you can going to Mt. St. Helens on the other side. The destructive power of nature is impressive, no?

There is only one road to Windy Ridge and it JUST opened two days ago! Much time is spent fixing the roads after harsh winters in the area.

This car (barely) survived the eruption of St. Helens. This was 9 miles away from St. Helens.

It’s the end of September and the wild flowers are still blooming!

Those light colored rocks are actually pieces of pumice from the explosion at St. Helens.

Weird little stump creepin’ down the hill.

The pumice is really light! They almost feel like you’re holding a handful of marshmallows.

Today was a rare day that I actually needed sunglasses!

That giant rock is called a hummock and it was actually part of the top of Mt. St. Helens that was blasted into the sky during the eruption.

Eric was busy taking photos on his vintage cameras!

And there’s Spirit Lake! The lake now sits 200 feet higher than it did before the eruption! Crazy!

The weather was beautiful for our trip!

There are hundreds (thousands?) of logs floating in Spirit Lake from the eruption. The force of the eruption pushed the water 800 ft. up the nearby hillside taking out thousands of trees along the way before it settled down…200 feet higher than before!

Yesterday was Nation Public Lands Day!

At Windy Ridge you can walk up roughly 3 millions steps…well…361 to be exact…to have a beautiful view of Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake. My legs are hurting today! While I was standing by my car after the walk down I could seriously see my legs shaking. I felt like a little baby deer!

Mt. St. Helens and Spirit Lake!

On the way back home we took a small road that is literally falling to pieces. It won’t be there for many more years! The ground from the blast just continues to settle.

You can see where the blast zone stops. There are lush pine trees just outside of the blast zone line.

We hit 65,000 miles while on that rickety back road!

And any trip isn’t complete without at least one train sighting right?! This is the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.

Fall is really here, huh?!

Good night and safe travels!

Come on Friday!

This week has been another long long week at work!  I work for a sports company and since fall sports are starting up we’re busy as can be!  I’ve been working overtime most weeks, but I sure am sleepy!

Look at that little pink mouth!

I’m so excited for tomorrow though because a close friend of mine is visiting Seattle from the east coast!  She will be here with her husband on their honeymoon.  I can’t wait to catch up with her and show her around the city.  I miss my friends from the east coast so much!  I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again…it is not easy at all to make friends out here!  I don’t know how to go about it anymore.  I have tried to meet up with people I’ve met online…fail.  I met up with a vegan screen printer and she just kind of flaked out and didn’t return messages about meeting up again for real.  She gave me her number though.  I thought maybe it was me…but she gave me her number, so I don’t know what to make of it.  I seriously have more friends that live in other states and countries that I’ve met online and through blogging.  I love you all dearly too!  I wish ya’ll would just move up here!

Elbow macaroni with marinara sauce, soy curls and crimini mushrooms.

I like Seattle but it kind of makes me feel like a downer.  I like the city, but I just wish I would have found more people here to be social with.  I miss going to pointless coffee shops with friends and movies and just sitting in cars and talking.  Sigh.

I am super excited for my friend Nicki to be here tomorrow  though!!  Cheer up sad Smartz.

Eric, kitten, me.

It was super sunny today! I’m soaking in as much sun as I can before the rains begin!

The first squash!

Today I baked my first squash of the season!  I cut this little carnival squash in half and baked it.  And THEN I roasted it!  Happy Fall!

Tofu too!

Skirting Seattle.

Yesterday Eric and I drove around on the outskirts of Seattle to find some weird things that we hadn’t seen before. We found this cow. Moo!

We made a stop at Snoqualmie Falls. We’ve been here many many times before, but it’s always nice to stop back here and say hello!

In the town of Snoqualmie we stopped at their railroad museum. We poked around here a bit and then listened to the older gentleman in the gift shop tell us some of his best jokes.

Dining car.

If you haven’t noticed…we stop to take pictures of trains on almost every trip we take! I told Eric it’s time for us to get a bumper sticker that says “I brake for trains.” I don’t think he’s ready for that commitment just yet.

We finally made to it Jimi Hendrix grave as well!

He has so many lipstick kisses!

There’s a sewage treatment facility south of Seattle that has this grotto type structure open to the public.

All of the ponds around the little walkway were drained…or they had some nice green slime on the water.

I like rock art!

We were the only people at the grotto so we took a sneaky photo!

I found these white berries near the grotto. I bet they’re not edible.

A giant cowboy hat and pair of boots!! I love some nice cowboy boots!

This are at a park and the boots used to be male and female restrooms.

Trying them on for size.

The park is near the airport so there was a lot of air traffic overhead in the few minutes we were there.

Perfect!!

Vegan Butterscotch Krimpet Cake!

As promised…I made Eric a cake for helping me put that elliptical machine together! The recipe for the icing called for some butterscotch sauce. They so kindly provided a recipe for that too! The butterscotch is awesome! As it cooled it thickened to a consistency of a sauce you put on ice cream or that chocolates are filled with. It also really really tastes like butterscotch! This was such a good find AND it’s easy to make!

The cake is pretty much a normal cake. There is quite a bit of butter in it. The recipe also called for some salt, which I think I will leave out next time I make this. The cake was just a little too salty.

Mix that icing! There’s my first squash of the season too!

This was overall a success! The butterscotch sauce I think was the shining element of the whole recipe!

 

 

 

Keep it movin’!

A few days ago I purchased an elliptical machine!  I like to eat.  I like to eat sweets.  But I also like to fit in my jeans.  I’ve tried to be a runner, but it’s just not for me.  I want to stay active so….welcome elliptical machine!  I tend to be a little depressed in the winter so I’m hoping some exercise will help with that!  I’m not looking to drop pounds, but I wouldn’t complain if my rump would firm up a little bit!

Look at those Vibrams! Aren’t they just hideous?

The elliptical machine had to be put together with an assortment of bolts, nuts and other weird things. Eric was the biggest help EVER in putting this together! I started to put the machine together by myself and then things went downhill after I picked up the first bolt.

Eric deserves a reward for his help tonight.  Tomorrow I’ll be making some Butterscotch Cakes for him!  If you’ve ever been to the east coast you might be familiar with Tastykake.  Tastykake is a company on the east coast that sells mini cakes in grocery stores, gas stations and other places that sell individual snacks.  They sell Butterscotch Krimpets and they were oh so good!  I’m hoping these are a sweet reminder of Tastykake!  Yay for buying an elliptical machine and yay for talking about eating cake!!

Listen!

I’m rather bored with the music I have on my MP3 player.  I listen to music most of the day while at work so I’ve been on the hunt for some new music.  These are a few of my favorites I’ve either just found or have finally added to my music collection!  What are you listening to right now and what else should I be listening to?

(Does anyone else feel like calling CPS after watching this?!  Creepy!)

Happy Tuesday!

I had this pair of frumpy jeans that didn’t fit me. They were super long and super wide. I decided to make a pair of skinny jeans out of them! I put them on and pinned them where I wanted to sew them.

The jeans were inside out when I pinned them so I sewed them on both sides and then cut off the excess material.

My trusty little Singer buzzed right through the jean material!

Annnnnd jeans that fit!! I have a hard time finding jeans that fit. I have long legs and most pants I buy are saggy below the butt and in the crotch.

I also tried that recipe I posted last night for the pumpkin spice latte. No thanks! It was rather gross. It probably needed sugar, but I’m not a fan of adding tons of sugar to beverages so I don’t think I’ll be making that again. I just settled for a cup of blackberry tea. My Calamity Jane book arrived in the mail today! She’s my favorite bad girl at the moment!

Eat, drink AND sew!

I’ve been saving up some recipes and crafty goods for the fall months!  When the seasons change I start to crave different kinds of vegetables and warm beverages to keep my occupied!  Here’s a few of the fun and fabulous things I can’t wait to make over the next few weeks!

Raw AND vegan! Cashew stuffed peppers!

The Bear and the Blackberry has been posting some delightful raw recipes!

Pumpkin spice latte!

Pumpkin Spice Latte!  As soon as September hits everyone talks about nothing but pumpkin.  And I will talk about it too!

Find some vegan leather and make a bag!

Let’s see if I can actually follow a pattern for once and make this!  Kidding!  I’m going to make a bag similar to this, but a little bigger AND I’m going to put a strap on it!  I do have some vegan leather to use too!