Pitch out the pitchfork

2005-07-21 - 11:31 p.m.

I'm really excited because this weekend I'm going hiking with some guys from work. The instigator of all this is one of our interns who recently graduated, got his license, and was hired on as a pharmacist. I've decided to call him Buzz because he's always keyed up. Buzz was born in the same year as me and he's married. Anyway, we've talked about hiking quite a bit but we've finally set a date for this weekend. And he invited Lolo to come with us and today Frosty said he wants to come with us and he will "if the stars line up just right." I think it would be totally awesome if Frosty could make it. (For some inexplicable reason I totally have a crush on Frosty. Other than being a nice guy, he has no crush-worthy qualities but this crush hit me the moment I saw him. I don't know what's wrong with me. Frosty is 47 and looks his age, he's sort of chubby, and he's balding and what hair he has left is graying. Oh, and he's married with two kids. Heh heh, I'm nuts.)

We're planning on hiking up Mailbox Peak. It was recommended to Buzz by one of his professors and apparently it's a real buttkicker. It's six miles up with a 4000-foot elevation gain. Woot, fun stuff! I'm just hoping I don't keel over dead and embarrass myself.

So last week was a blast. My brother flew in from Houston and my parents drove up from Sacramento and we went camping out on the Olympic Peninsula. We camped on Lake Ozette where it rained four out of four days that we were there. It wasn't too cold though and we did get in a 9-mile hike one day starting from camp and heading 3 miles to Cape Alava, three miles south down the beach, and then 3 miles back from Sandy Point. We stopped for a little surfing at Sandy Point, too. That was fun. Because of ocean currents, the water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington is much warmer than the water off the coast of California. It's crazy, but true. Another day we went up to Cape Flattery which is the north-westernmost point of the continental US. That was absolutely beautiful. I'd love to go back there with a sea kayak and do some exploring. And then we played a bit in Olympic National Park while we were there too.

My brother had to go back to work then so we went back to Seattle, dropped him off at the airport, and headed out the other direction to the North Cascades. I hadn't been there before, which is why I suggested it, and it rocked my world. There are so many hiking trails there! And it's beautiful! Why waste a day driving to Montana (my favorite Glacier National Park) when we have all of this right here in Washington? We spent one day exploring the park mostly by car because it was all new to us and another day hiking one of the myriad trails. We hiked up the Cascade Pass trail. It was so awesome. I totally need to post pictures, don't I?

And then it was back to work. It's been nearly 80 degrees here all week and everyone is melting. It's funny really. And it makes me miss Sacramento's heat. I never thought that's what I would end up missing about home. I was looking at the weather and seeing that it was 108 in Sac last week and I was totally sad that I wasn't there to enjoy it. Instead I was sitting here in Seattle's wimpy 70's. It feels like April to me. Pretty soon fall is going to get here and my body is going to be really shocked because it's still waiting for summer to arrive. Hey body, this is summer, get used to it! The sad thing is that pretty soon I will be used to it and I'll be melting when it's 80 out too.