Simply Active

Weekend Roundup Oct 20

2012-10-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was pretty low-key.

Saturday we went out on our bikes and rode about 53 miles around the East Bay, like this:

I love the Oakland/Berkeley hills for the views and the hill climbs!

Post-ride recovery meal:

Omelette with leftover roasted butternut squash. I was super hungry after the long ride so that's 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg.

After the ride, I was lucky enough to get a follow-up massage to keep working on my back and shoulders. Felt really good, but also made me completely unmotivated to get anything done, so Saturday was definitely a fun/lazy day. For dinner we just had leftovers--chicken, wheat berry salad, green salad.

Sunday we got a ton of chores done. Adam cleaned out the gutters on our house, and just in time because it started to rain that night! And for dinner we ended up going to my parents' house and having dinner at them. As always a fun evening. My dad grilled chicken, my mom made some cauliflower and I made some green beans.

Last Week Wrap-Up and Meals + Workouts Week of Oct 22

2012-10-22T09:57:00.002-07:00

This past week was SUPER busy! My work is so crazy and we had stuff going on after work too...it just flew by.

My plan for this past week is located here with links to the recipes. Even with the busy, we still managed to make everything on the mealplan!

Three pictures above: wheat berries; one dinner including sesame soy broccoli, wheat berry salad, and chicken sausage; and the leftover broccoli and wheat berry salad making a lunch appearance.

The apple stuffed chicken breasts were awesome. Adam made them and they lasted for lunches and dinners for a good part of the week. We made brown rice (cooked in low sodium broth) and salad to go with them. The beet fries, wheat berry salad, sesame soy broccoli, and chicken sausage were all great (I will definitely make the broccoli again!). I also marinated and we grilled a london broil steak. We sliced it thinly and had it with salad.

Friday night we had friends over and because I had to work overtime and then got stuck in traffic, Adam cooked an amazing dinner for everyone! He made lemon roasted chicken and roasted butternut squash (used walnuts instead of pine nuts) and I threw together a salad. Our friends brought wine and ice cream and I quickly made some brownies. It was super fun! Of course I was enjoying myself so much I never took a picture....

Exercise-wise, the week ended up looking like:
Usual early morning workout/run with the dogs everyday
Monday-Grocery shopping
Tuesday-After work meeting
Wednesday-Plyometrics P90X workout
Thursday-Shoulders and Arms + Abs P90X workout
Friday-Friends over!

Would have liked to get another longer run in there but it just didn't happen.

----------------

This coming week I expect more of the same insanity, possibly even worse.

Meals I plan to cook during the week:
Spaghetti squash with meat sauce
Mexican meat and bean "slop" (sounds to delicious!) with salsa and avocado*
Omelettes made by Adam**
Salads

We'll have more to eat after some weekend cooking as well (that will be in the Weekend Roundup I'll post on Monday).

I'm keeping it realistic--nothing too fancy or time-consuming.

As for workouts:
Two nights of cardio and one night of weights
One or two nights with abs

Thinking:
Monday: Grocery shopping and cooking
Tuesday: Legs and Back P90X + Abs
Wednesday: Kenpo P90X
Thursday: Run with the dogs--aim for just 4 miles
Friday: Finish up chores!

*"Slop" is something my husband loves, and while it's not very appetizing sounding, it is really good. It's just cooked ground beef or turkey, salsa, beans (either fat free refried or whole black/pinto). It's good with tortillas, tortilla chips, or just as a main dish served with green salad and avocado.

**My husband loves to make omelettes ever since we watched the Julia Child episode where she makes approximately 50 omelettes during the show, each time using about 2 tablespoons butter. It was mindblowing, the amount of butter she used! We make them using her method but with the pan sprayed with canola oil spray instead.

Weekend Round Up Oct 13

2012-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

This past week was sooo busy I forgot to post anything during the week! Here is the Weekend Roundup from last week.......

This weekend was another spent at home. This summer we traveled every other weekend with regularity, but lately we've been staying home more. I actually don't mind; I am liking the breaks on the weekends since work has been so busy.

On Saturday I went for a 4 mile run with the dogs and then Adam and I did the Legs and Back P90X video. We hadn't done that one in a while because I'd been having knee troubles, but it was actually totally fine. I thought that video had more jumping but it was mostly a lot of lunges which were no problem. At noon I went to get a massage because my back and neck were hurting so badly...it was amazing! I will be doing that again soon. That afternoon I cleaned house and then we went to my parents' for dinner which was fun. My mom made an amazing baked pasta dish with ground beef (we never cook pasta at home so it was a total treat) and they even had mint cookie ice cream on hand for dessert!

Sunday Adam and I were both sooooore from the legs workout! Ouch. We went on an easy 4 mile run with the dogs, and then did the Chest and Back P90X video and the Ab video. We shortened both a bit so the whole thing took about an hour. I think the lunges in Sunday's workout also worked our abs...we were were dying during the core portion of the workout.

For lunch we made cream cheese salmon spread and ate it with veggies and Wasa crackers. The salmon spread was just made up as we went and included low fat cream cheese, greek yogurt, canned salmon (from Costco, I really like it on salads or with steamed veggies), dry onion, lemon, salt and pepper.

I had my cracker with salmon spread and pickle relish on it. (I am a pickle lover.)

Sunday afternoon we did some reading, I mowed the lawn, and talked about our plans for next weekend (yeah we plan ahead occasionally!). We have been talking a lot about eating better quality food (not the as-cheap-as-possible bonus pack of chicken breasts..), so we decided to go check out two different butcher shops in Berkeley. We went to the Rockridge Market and to Ver Brugge, a meat, fish and poultry market. We bought some chicken breasts and chicken sausage from Ver Brugge. We also walked up College Ave to Ici, a local shop that has interesting flavors of delicious ice cream, but there was a long slow moving line so we decided to skip that.

Rockridge Market

On the way home we stopped to get ginger beer...my most favorite non-water drink (currently).
The best one I've had so far is Fentiman's...sooo spicy!! The best. Plus there's a dog on their label.

For dinner Adam made apple stuffed chicken breasts. They were so good! We used sherry instead of white wine and parmesan instead of cheddar because that's what we had on hand. I made a quick green salad, baked acorn squash, and used our rice cooker to make brown rice cooked in chicken broth. It was a very good dinner, and we have enough chicken for three more meals for both of us (leftover rice and squash too).

Leftovers packaged up for Monday lunch. Chicken, squash, rice and sauce.

Last Week Wrap Up and Meals + Workouts Week of Oct 15

2012-10-14T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we did pretty well last week with our workouts and meals.

I did make the meatballs, butternut squash soup, and grilled chicken. I still never made the black bean cakes! The soup was really good and great with the chicken. The meatballs were also very tasty, but we thought they had too much onion so next time I'll probably half the onion. We ate the meatballs with salads.

Salad prep Monday night.

The week ended up looking like what I planned exercise-wise.

Everyday before work: Run 2+ miles with the dogs plus "extra" exercises as referenced in previous posts.
Monday: Grocery shop and cook
Tuesday: Back and Biceps P90X + Abs
Wednesday: Cardio X P90X video
Thursday: Run - I got 4 miles in with the dogs. Not much but better than nothing!
Friday: Relax

Other that eating and exercising, I had a busy week because my coworker was out of town and I was manning the office solo (which I don't mind but I'll be glad to have her back!). That lead to less time in the evenings (got home late) but I still managed to work out--I needed it because I was sitting all day long and my back was really hurting by Friday.

I know lots of folks say you shouldn't treat yourself with food...but I do it anyway. After my long/rough week I got myself a hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant from Panera on the way home. TOTALLY WORTH EVERY CALORIE. So good.

This upcoming week I am planning to make:

Meals:
Apple stuffed chicken breasts
Cajun chicken sausages (purchased from local butcher)
Seasame-soy broccoli
Beet oven fries (just roast beet fries we cup up using our mandolin in the oven with a little olive oil and S+P)
Wheat berry salad
And one more meat item to be determined after seeing what's on sale at the grocery store.

And workouts will hopefully look like this:

Everyday before work: Run 2+ miles with the dogs plus "extra" exercises as referenced in previous posts.
Monday: Grocery shop and cook
Tuesday: Plyometrics P90X video
Wednesday: Shoulders and Arms P90X video
Thursday: Run
Friday: Relax

Monday morning is coming too soon! Got to go to sleep soon!

Labor Day Weekend Photos

2012-10-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

Better late than never...Labor Day Weekend recap.

We did a lot that weekend, but these photos sum it up nicely. It was relaxing.

Yes, that is a very large oatmeal-chocolate chip-peanut butter cookie baked in our dutch oven!

Meals+Workouts Week of Oct 8

2012-10-08T05:41:00.001-07:00

(Side note: I don't really have any interesting photos that go with these weekly posts, so I'm just using old photos I have in my files! This week it's wedding pictures. Ha.)

I had a very relaxing weekend at home. This week should be really busy at work. My coworker will be on vacation for three of the days, and that usually means very little down time. Sometimes it's stressful, but I definitely prefer that to being bored! (Though I am jealous of her travels!)

Random photo: My parents and me at my wedding last year.

Meal planning:
Black Bean Cakes with Mixed Greens and Eggs (never got around to making those last week)
Easy Meatballs with marinara sauce and salad
Butternut squash soup with greek yogurt (recipe from a class I took at the Davis Food Co-op) served with seasoned grilled chicken breasts on the side

Me with the dessert table at my wedding--cookies made by my family and friends.

Workouts (may not be in this order exactly):
Everyday before work: Run 2+ miles with the dogs plus "extra" exercises as referenced in previous posts.
Monday: Grocery shop and cook
Tuesday: Back and Biceps P90X + Abs
Wednesday: Cardio X P90X video
Thursday: Run
Friday: Relax

I still have the idea that I'd like to get in one last after-work bike ride before it gets dark too early...this week might be the last chance I have. If I feel inspired/have time I'll do that instead of the run!

Random picture: My hair for my wedding last year.

Weekend Round-Up

2012-10-07T18:09:00.000-07:00

While Adam was off doing his annual Epic Mountain Bike Ride up in Tahoe, I had a relaxing weekend at home.

On Friday night I decided last minute to sign up for a half marathon (the Wolf Pack Events Fall Showdown) that was being held near our home. I'm so glad I did! I had knee problems earlier this year. The last half marathon I ran was in June, and I could barely walk after it thanks to knee pain (pain due in thanks partially to my own stupidity..). I really pulled back on mileage and reduced other impact activities this summer and am so glad I did because my knee has been much better recently. I'd been able to run 6-8 miles easily without any pain on recent weekends so I decided to go for it. The course was easy so it was a good one to try out. I ended up getting my first sub-2 hour time and got 3rd in my age group. Yay!

Post-race happiness.

Because Adam was out of town, Saturday evening I watched a "girl" movie: What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was cute and funny (though not terribly realistic..) and I'm glad I rented it.

This morning (Sunday) I took the dogs on an easy 4 mile run and then did the Chest, Shoulders and Triceps P90X video + Abs. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow (that hurts-so-good feeling...love that).

I made myself a recovery smoothie this morning. I've been tweaking my recipe everyday recently because I got into a rut that wasn't actually that good! Today I had a really simple one that was very good:

~1 heaping cup frozen banana chunks
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 scoop whey protein powder (unflavored)
1 T peanut butter

Turned out the perfect consistency and tasted great. I should just stick to simple instead of getting fancy with lots of ingredients like I last reported.

Simple! Tasty.

Adam is home now and I'm roasting some veggies for dinner. Getting set for the busy week ahead!

Week Wrap-Up

2012-10-07T10:36:00.003-07:00

Each week I'm going to post a week plan (with workouts and meals) and then at the end of the week I'll do a reality check to tell you how it actually went down!

The plan for this past week can be found here.

For the Menu, I did make three of the four meals.

The Chicken with Garbanzos, Tomatoes and Apricots was quite good. We had it for dinner and there was enough left over for one lunch. I put extra chicken in it than the recipe called for.

With the remaining chicken from the "bonus pack" I bought for that first recipe, I grilled those pieces that night and we ate them on salads for lunches and dinner.

Working lunch at the farm.

I also made the Citrus Tilapia. It was edible, but I won't be making it again. I'm not sure if it's the type of fish, or the sauce, or both, but it had a definite bitter taste. Because I didn't like it very much I was never inspired to take a picture!

I am going try to make the Black Bean Patties and Zucchini tots this coming week.

Workouts:

With my commute, life is very crunched in the evenings. Usually I can pull three workotus but this week it just didn't happen. We ended up skipping the Legs and Back workout because both of us have sensitive knees and I've been doing a lot of running so didn't want to exacerbate anything by doing too much impact in one week. So here's what happened:

Everyday: Morning 2+ mile run with the dogs, plus these exercises before and after the run (I mix up the ab exercises and don't usually do plain crunches).

Evenings:

Monday: Grocery shopping and cooking

Tuesday: Kenpo X P90X video

Wednesday: Core Synergistics video

Thursday: Visited family

Friday: Got home late/relaxed and Adam left for a weekend trip

Those two workouts definitely got me sore, so I know I did something good! And I'm having an active weekend so I'm not turning into a blob too quickly.

I took this picture on Friday after a stressful day at work. The dogs and I took a walk before driving home. Only one more week with water in the canals, so we are enjoying the views before they dry up!

Donner Weekend

2012-10-03T20:06:00.000-07:00

In September we spent one weekend around Donner Lake, Mt. Rose, and Squaw Valley.

On Saturday Adam and his friend went on an epic mountain bike ride starting at Mt. Rose. While they did that, I road the Tahoe Sierra Century (with great views of Donner Lake!) and hiked the dogs in and around the meadows at Mt. Rose. If you haven't done the Tahoe Sierra Century before, I do recommend it. I've done the 60 mile route twice (wanted to do the 100 mile this year but didn't work out with our schedules). It starts at Squaw Valley and goes over Donner Summit to Cisco Grove and back. It's actually quite an easy ride--don't be scared by riding up Donner Summit! It's not steep and not even very long. They close the road so it's much safer and it's a fun descent on the way back.

After our bike rides we had dinner in Tahoe City at Rosie's Cafe. I had a turkey burger and Adam had Hawaiian pizza. Adam also ordered us some drinks...after all that exercise the gin and tonic went straight to my head! Here I am looking awkward:

The Tahoe area was busier than usual that weekend because the Tough Mudder race was at North Star that same day. The guys sitting behind us were sharing their war stories from the race the whole time we were there. "Dude, when I was on the monkey bars..." Tough Mudder people were everywhere that evening!

The next day we hiked Castle Peak via Hole in the Ground trail. It was a good one, I hadn't done Hole in the Ground before but I had been to Castle Peak a bunch of times via the PCT.

Here are a couple views from Castle Peak. It was overcast that day but nice.

Good weekend! We even got home before dark--amazing!

Fig Time

2012-10-02T17:27:00.001-07:00

The fig harvest at work was completely dismal this year. We went out one time and were happy with what we got, but when we went back for more the tree was picked clean! We got probably 1/6 of what we enjoyed last year.

With my small basket of figs, I made one batch of jam.

I got five half pints and one 4-ounce jar from this batch. I was a little disappointed though, because I boiled it just a little too long and the jam set up to be very firm. It tasted fine, but to be spreadable has to be heated up. It will work well for a glaze for pork, and Adam managed to mix some into plain Greek yogurt so I'm sure we'll use it up!

Hope for more figs next year! Fig trees produce on new growth, so we are planning on giving the (huge) tree a strategic trim later this Fall in hopes of increasing production. Also hoping for more rain--last year was so dry I think it reduced fruiting as well.

How I Eat. What I eat.

2012-10-01T08:26:00.001-07:00

I have no idea if anyone is even interested in what I'm eating...but I'll tell you anyway just in case someone out there is...

My weekdays are busy. My weekends usually are too!

Because my commute is an hour each way, I drink my breakfast on the way to work (smoothie) and don't have a lot of time in the evenings to cook anything that takes longer than about 30 minutes. I do my best to meal plan and have a few recipes to do each week, and we always eat leftovers for lunch. For weekdays, I have a general formula that I follow.

Berry banana smoothie.

Breakfast: Smoothie with a small snack once I am at my desk at work (usually dry cereal with a few nuts, 1/2 cup total)
Mid-morning snack: greek yogurt
Morning: Drink tea (decaf)
Lunch: Vegetable and meat
Afternoon at work: sparkling water
At home: Snack, usually a small bowl of cereal
Dinner: Vegetable and meat
Dessert: Something small, sometimes not-so-small involving chocolate
All day, especially in the morning: Tons of water (usually 2.5-3 quarts between waking up and the time I leave work in the afternoon, not counting tea and sparkling water)

See this post for my smoothie formula.

For my morning yogurt, I usually eat ~1 cup with 1/2 cup of fresh fruit or applesauce (plain/unsweetened) or 1-2 tbsp of homemade jam.

I make all of the jam we eat using local fruits and low sugar recipes.

Lunch is usually a big salad with a little dressing and meat leftover from dinner the previous night. Sometimes I eat frozen (heated) vegetables (I prefer the chopped broccoli but will also eat mixed veggies or green beans). I usually eat 5-6 oz meat.

Snack: I love cereal. Especially with chocolate chips and nuts on it...

Dinner is usually very similar to lunch and I usually make lunches while I make dinner.

Food prep:
I shop on Mondays and that evening I usually make 2 dinner salads (for 2 nights) and salads for both of us for lunch. I try to do as much food prep early in the week as I can.

My downfalls:
-Morning smoothie--could probably have fewer calories. I really love peanut butter and a super creamy smoothie.
-I love cereal. And I always feel snacky in the evenings. I also always want dessert. I know that if I wanted to cut calories I could just stop eating as much in the evenings...but it's so GOOD.
-The occasional drink...I do like gin.
-Starbucks. Never thought I'd say that! I'm not a coffee drinker. But since I have been doing this long commute 5 days a week, I've been allowing myself to stop there once a week (last week I went twice.....). I always get a Frappuccino, usually a tall Mocha Light Frap. Sometimes I get whipped cream because that's the best part. For a while I was getting the Mocha Cookie Crumble one with fat free milk and chocolate whipped cream...but I think that was a really bad idea.
-Condiments: I could probably cut back here too to cut calories. I don't like a lot of salad dressing, but I do need at least some, and I also like BBQ sauce with grilled chicken.

Homemade yogurt ranch dressing.

My good parts:
-Work--there is generally zero temptation there. There are no restaurants, no other sources of food (unless it's someone's birthday but that only happens 5 times a year). So what I bring is what I get!
-I drink a ton of water and rarely have caffeine.
-Since making some changes earlier this year, I eat a lot more protein and fewer carbs, and I notice that my GI tract prefers this.
-I eat a lot of veggies and lean meat and just a little processed foods (processed foods are usually cereal..which is frequently Cherrios).

So there you have it! Some info on how and what I eat.

Meals+Workouts Week of Oct 1

2012-09-30T20:07:00.004-07:00

Hi All! Tomorrow is October--hard to believe. We are already considering our plans for next weekend, and looking forward to our Fall vacation later this season.

This weekend was spent relaxing, a little exercise, and household chores. It was awesome. I even took a nap today! YES.

Really old photo of baby Bruce and Spencer, back before Bruce was allowed outside off leash.

This week on the Menu:
Chicken with Garbanzos, Tomatoes, and Apricots
Seasoned grilled chicken with salad
Citrus tilapia with salad and zucchini tots
Black bean patties with eggs and salad

This weekend I made:
Slow cooker pork roast
Slow cooker french dip sandwiches (I made a version close to Jenny's on that page, with low sodium ingredients)
Zucchini whole wheat rolls (using all whole wheat flour, no lemon, and the "dough" cycle and then forming them into buns and baking in the oven)

And those will be had for lunches this week.

Another old kitten picture. Post-workout snuggles.

Workouts:
Everyday before work: 2+ mile run with dogs + this before/after

What I hope to accomplish in the evenings--(may not happen in this order)
Tuesday: Legs and Back P90X video+Abs
Wednesday: Road bike ride (~28 mile loop)--hoping to get in one or two more after work bike rides before it gets dark too early!
Thursday: Kenpo P90X video+Abs

Work should be busy this week! I look forward to going when everyday is a blur of business.

Pinteresting

2012-09-29T17:15:00.001-07:00

I am on Pinterest!

Check it out.

Week Roundup: Workouts and Menu

2012-09-29T17:07:00.001-07:00

This past week was really busy and just flew by. It's the busy season at my work, which is my favorite time of year. Never a dull moment!

I just really like this picture. Milkweed (Aslcepias) seed pod.

Here was my schedule (with workouts) for the week before/after work:

Monday: Before: Run 2 mi with the dogs, After: Grocery shop and food prep, clean house

Tuesday: Before: Run 2 mi and incorporated this workout into my morning routine (doing the non-running exercises before and after the run), After: Cooking and finish cleaning house

Wednesday: Before: Same as Tues, After: Chest and Back + Abs P90X workouts, cook

Thursday: Before: Same as Tues, After: Plyometrics P90X workout, cook

Friday: Before: Same is Tues, After: Yard work and then reeellaxxx

Saturday (today!): Ran 6 miles with Adam then 2 miles with the dogs, then did the Shoulders and Arms + Abs P90X dvd plus a ton of yard work

Here was the dinner menu:

Monday: Chicken soup with biscuits (similar to this but I made biscuits separately and used boneless/skinless chicken breasts in the soup with more veggies)

Tuesday: Sloppy Joes (similar to this but less sugar)

Wednesday: Grilled chicken with salad

Thursday: Eggs with salad

Friday: Snacked and made green monster muffins (not sure how I feel about them yet. They are like baked oatmeal. But green and peanut buttery.)

Saturday: slow cooker pork with veggies or salad

Lunches are always leftovers.

After my workouts this morning, I made myself a smoothie. I just recently started adding spinach to my smoothies. My go-to recipe is (all measurements are approximate):

1 frozen banana, chopped into pieces before freezing
1/2 cup nonfat plain greek yogurt
2/3 cup nonfat milk
1-2 tbsp natural peanut butter
1/4 cup water
Handful of fresh spinach

And sometimes (pending on my mood, exercise, etc)

Ice
Chocolate ovaltine
Plain whey protein powder
Frozen berries

Put into blender and blend until super smooth and creamy! So good. This morning I added ovaltine and protein powder because I'd been working out for over 2 hours beforehand.

Here's a bad picture of it before it was blended:

I've been lusting after a Vitamix blender, but honestly this cheap-o old blender I have does the trick well enough.

Update

2012-09-29T16:03:00.003-07:00

Update!

I am having a really nice Saturday. Spent the morning exercising and doing yard and house work, and now I'm working on the computer from the couch. My view is pretty nice. The ottoman is serving as desk, with a stack of papers to look through, a stack of snow peas from the garden, tea and the cat bed patiently awaiting the arrival of Bruce the cat.

I've been reading more blogs lately, and have realized how many good ones exist! I particularly like reading blogs written by people who are really active like I am--who like to exercise and eat well. I've decided I'm going to make an effort to post here once a week since I have been so inspired by what I've found online. That goal isn't too lofty, so I'm hoping I can exceed it.

The main things I'd like to post about relate to the title of my blog: "Simply Active"
I'm going to post my workouts, some of my meals, outdoor adventures, and things relating to our "simple" lifestyle--we like to be self-sufficient do-it-yourself-ers, so that includes things like food preservation and other household stuff. Let's see if I can keep it up!

Thanks for reading!

Instagramming

2012-09-29T15:44:00.003-07:00

I'm on Instagram! Check me out at CIESLAKL.

Lake Schmidell Desolation Wilderness Backpacking

2012-08-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Earlier in August we did a one night backpacking trip to Lake Schmidell via Rockbound pass. It was awesome! (We had originally attempted this same trip on Memorial Day weekend.) The hike in is moderate (hiking over the pass was hot), and the lakes available for swimming were awesome. On Saturday we hiked straight through (just over 8 miles) to Schmidell, and spent the afternoon swimming and floating around in the lake. On Sunday, we stopped at Lake Lois, Upper Doris, and Maude for a swim on our way out. Our favorite lake for swimming was Upper Doris--it had awesome jumping rocks. Looked like there was some good camping in that area too.

Carex and Spencer (the dogs) came with us. This was Carex's first hike since her surgery and she did *great*! And, amazingly, she even went swimming with us three times, which was three times more than ever before! Totally cool.

Food details...(since we like to eat well and DIY) For lunch, we brought packets of salmon with dill triscuits. We brought our homemade dehydrated tacos for dinner--dehydrated black beans, ground meat, and salsa, all rehydrated with boiling water. We added a taco seasonings, a little shredded cheddar, avocado, cherry tomatoes, and chopped cabbage. On the side--margaritas. (Though, amazingly the lake was so warm it didn't do a very good job of cooling our tequila!) For dessert, chocolate pudding with powdered milk, graham crackers, and chocolate chips. Breakfast was oatmeal with powdered milk, whey protein powder, cinnamon-brown sugar, and dried fruit. Snacks included two kinds of trail mix, dried fruit, beef jerky, and homemade fruit leathers.

On the trail. In love with granite.

Hiking up Rockbound Pass.

After our first swim in Schmidell, we explored the lake a bit and then carried our gear to our home for the night. Note that we brought our sun hats! So comfy to wear around camp.

We used our Thermarests as lake floats. Adam went out on his first, then we decided to both use them to get to the rock island close to our camping spot.

Just a little relaxin',

Sunrise.

Our campsite in the morning before packing up and hiking out.

On the hike out at Lake Lois.

Canyon Creek Lakes Day Hike

2012-08-15T20:30:00.001-07:00

After our backpacking trip up Stuart Fork and out Stoney Ridge, we decided to take the last day of our vacation and hike up to the Canyon Creek Lakes as a day hike. Mind you, we are a little crazy--this hike is about 17 miles round trip. We were really tired at the end of the day!!

We loved this hike. The Canyon Creek Lakes area is beautiful, and the river (when the trail is close or overlooks it) is gorgeous. We decided we'd definitely put this on our "we'd backpack this area to explore more" list. It's popular, but we did this hike on the 4th of July and only saw 2 tents set up! We did see a good bunch of people hiking, but it seems like there was plenty of room to spread out. We thought some of the sites along the river would be great if you just wanted to hang out by the river (possibly with your kids). It's not a difficult hike, and the way in is definitely a little more difficult than the hike out (downhill on the way out).

Here are a few photos:

At a waterfall below the first Canyon Creek Lake.

We took too many photos from the same location!

But you can see the beauty of the steep granite surrounding the lakes:

Trinity Wilderness Backpacking Part 3 of 3

2012-07-08T20:21:00.002-07:00

Trinity Backpacking Trip Part 3 of 3!

These photos start with the morning of day 3 and end with the end of our trip, day 4.

Breakfast: Sweet potato cinnamon oatmeal with dried apples, raisins and granola topping.

The day started with a short hike from our campsite (without our packs). Adam went all the way to the top of Siligo Peak. He took this picture looking down on Deer Lake and the trail we took to get to Summit Lake (in the foreground). To continue on our trip, we'll go back down that trail across the snow, and up the switchbacks in the granite on the far side of the bowl and over the other pass.

Siligo Meadows after hiking over pass at Deer Lake. We are about to hike over Little Stonewall Pass.

Echo lake is back in there! We didn't see any good campsites.

Continued hiking down below Echo Lake and found a few great campsites. This was the best one. Great views for 360 degrees!

Camping in a wet meadowy area, our actual campsite was very dry. We expected mosquitos but had almost none.

Dinner night three: Potatoes with ground turkey and veggies. Delish!

The camp.

Great views from camp! That is Van Matre Meadows.

Spencer was very photogenic that evening.

Morning of the last day!! Up and over (big) Stonewall Pass!

At the top of the pass! Looking down. This day we dropped down ~5100 feet!

Looking back over the pass from where we came.

On the way down we saw lots of flowers, especially when we got lower.

Blooming azaleas!

Aaaand...back to the van. Check out the next post about the last day of our vacation,

when we hiked out to Canyon Creek area!

Trinity Wilderness Backpacking Part 2 of 3

2012-07-08T20:21:00.001-07:00

Post Part 2 of 3! Photos!

These photos are from days 1 and 2 of our backpacking trip. The last photo was taken on the evening of the second day. Post Part 3 of 3 contains the photos from days 3 and 4.

Lunch stop near Morris Meadows.

Apple jerky makes a great snack.

Emerald Lake. It was rainy off and on, but very warm.

The view looking back towards our camp down the canyon.

We camped about 3/4 of a mile away from Emerald Lake.

Dinner night one! Burritos. This contains the dried beans and ground beef and salsa leather.

Just add hot water...

...And you get a FANTASTIC burrito!

We packed in a little cabbage for crunch, pepper jack cheese, avocado, and goldfish.

Dude on watch for squirrels.

Camp on the first night. Right next to Stuart Fork, just downstream from Emerald Lake.

Dessert on night one: Mixed dried fruit, add hot water and chocolate, serve over dried angel food cake.

Just watch out if your stomach cannot handle a lot of fiber very well...

Day 2: Back through Morris Meadows on our way to Deer Creek Trail.

On Deer Creek Trail up and over Bear Pass.

Arriving at Deer Lake! Lunch stop.

Deer Creek below us, and hiking up and around Deer Lake to Summit Lake.

The worst part of the whole trip: Passing over snow fields on the switchbacks going up and around Deer Lake to Summit Lake!

We started wayyy down there near the lake!

Just over the pass and about to head down to Summit Lake!

Spencer cornered a chipmunk under a rock and was looking intently under the rock for a very long time. Adam went to check it out too.

Dinner on Day 2! Mac and cheese with chopped deli meat and mixed veggies. This was our least favorite dinner but still edible. We think it was a weird taste mixture between the deli meat and the cheese. We'll experiment more to figure that one out...

Summit Lake in the evening. Stunning.

Continue on to Part 3: Pictures from Days 3 and 4!

Trinity Wilderness Backpacking Part 1 of 3

2012-07-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Around the 4th of July this year we went on a 4 day backpacking trip in the Trinity Wilderness. There are three posts about this trip on our blog:

Part 1 (this part): The description of our route and the food

Part 2: Photos from the first 2 days

Part 3: Photos from the last 2 days

The last post in the series: Our day trip to Canyon Creek Lakes

Let's get to it!

The Route:

We parked at the Stuart Fork trailhead. There is a simple campground there, but we just slept in the van in the trail parking area. On the first day, we hiked up past Morris Meadows. The trail stayed mostly in the forest, following Stuart Fork. The meadows were very pretty with several deer grazing. Our plan wasn't set in stone until we reached the trail junction with the option to hike up and over to Caribou Lake. This trail has 98 switchbacks! We decided to continue on Stuart Fork, and camped just a short distance beyond that junction.

After setting up camp, we hiked (sans packs!) up to Emerald Lake and found a nice campsite up there too. The lake was gorgeous, and we took some pictures (in on-and-off rain, but quite warm temperatures). This day we saw many people but no one was camping near us. We hiked probably 14 miles including the trip to Emerald Lake.

The next morning, we hiked back down through Morris Meadows to the Deer Creek Trail. We hiked up and over Bear Gap in the trees, and down the other side to meet up with Deer Creek. After crossing the creek twice within a quarter mile, we continued on through more meadows and up up up to Deer Lake. We stopped for lunch and I wearily eyed the trail, which scaled the seemingly steep bowl surrounding Deer Lake. Once we hiked up that trail (and across many snow fields) I was doing OK (the trail was fairly steep and the snow was...snowy). It actually wasn't that bad (I say this now!), but I was VERY relieved when we reached the pass and hiked down to Summit Lake. Gorgeous! And silent. No more running water now. This day we saw 4 people and we were the only ones camping at Summit Lake. We hiked approximately 12 miles.

Upon closer inspection of the map that evening, we realized we had to go back over that same pass and back across the snowfields and up the other side of the same bowl around Deer Lake! Aaah! Actually it was fine. Before we left our site, Adam checked out the top of Siligo Peak. Then we retraced our steps above Deer Lake, and continued up the other side and over the other pass and down into Siligo Meadows. Through the Meadows, and up and over Little Stonewall Pass to Echo Lake. We couldn't find any good campsites around Echo Lake, so continued on the trail down below the lake to several great sites. We picked the best one and set up. Around this camp there were small wet meadows and lots of running water, but almost no mosquitos! The view of Van Matre Meadows with the sun setting was amazing. We agreed this was our favorite campsite of the trip. This day we saw 6 people but we were the only ones camping in this region. This day we probably went 5+ miles.

On the last day, we packed up and hiked up and over Stonewall Pass. After taking pictures at the top, we started our LOOOOOOONG descent! (~5100' to descend) Along Stoney Ridge Trail we descended for 5 miles, which probably took two hours. From that trailhead, we still had a LONG way to go to get back to Stuart Fork and our van. From the maps, we had hoped to take a trail from Stoney Ridge to Stuart, but as it turns out--that trail hasn't been maintained for years and doesn't exist anymore (even though it's on the maps!). So we used our GPS to help us navigate the fire roads (which aren't on maps) until the road ended and we took a short part of the original "trail" to cut down to the road to the Stuart Trailhead. This part was flagged with pink flagging in the trees but was NOT a trail! It was "guided bushwacking" and was really steep and hard to navigate. But--we made it. And still had 2 miles left to go on the road to get back to the van! This last day was probably 12 miles.

The Food:

We dehydrated all of our food and created all of our meals for this trip. Our biggest resource was Chef Glenn on his website. Highly recommended!

Day 1:

Lunch: Summer sausage, triscuits, nectarines, apple jerky, trail mix, nuts, dried fruit, goldfish crackers
Dinner: Burritos! These were amazing. Filling: 1/2 a can of black beans, dried; 3/4 lb ground beef, dried; 1/2 a jar of salsa, dried---add boiling water. We added pepper jack cheese, cabbage, and goldfish crackers in a whole wheat tortilla. Great!
Dessert: Dried fruit (peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, plums, strawberries) mixed with boiling water, cocoa powder, ovaltine, and cinnamon sugar (to make a sweet soft fruit topping) and served over dried angelfood cake.

Day 2:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with protein powder, dried apples, cinnamon sugar and granola topping (homemade granola)
Lunch and snacks: Hummus, triscuits, tortillas, 1 packet of Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut butter (which is great), trail mix, apple jerky, goldfish crackers, a cookie.
Dinner: Annie's mac and cheese with added extra cheese and protein powder, dried mixed veggies, dried deli meat (cook noodles with veg and meat to rehydrate then add cheese sauce). This one was a little weird, we think it was a taste problem between the deli meat, cheese sauce and veggies. We thought it actually might be better with rice, cheese sauce (no protein), and ground meat.
Dessert: 1 package of shortbread cookies shared and we ate the rest for breakfast on Day 3

Day 3:
Breakfast: Pistachio pudding with dry milk, sweet potato oats with dry apples, raisins, cinnamon sugar, protein powder and granola topping
Lunch: Cheese (shelf stable weird american stuff we might not buy again), triscuits, trail mix, apple jerky, cookie, Justin's nut butter 1 packet, goldfish crackers
Dinner: Dried potatoes, ground turkey, mixed veggies with cheese sauce [no protein powder] and creole seasoning--this was great. The potatoes were really good.
Dessert: Chocolate pudding with 1 packet of shortbread cookies shared.

Day 4:
Breakfast: Oatmeal with protein powder, dried strawberries, mini chocolate chips and granola topping
Lunch and snacks: everything we have left

What was leftover:
Some goldfish crackers
Hummus mix
1 triangle weird cheese

Please view our photos in the next two posts! See links at the top.

Pioneer Trail, Wrights Lake Attempts

2012-05-28T09:32:00.001-07:00

We had an epic trip planned for this holiday weekend.

The plan was:
Drive to Lake Spaulding area on Thursday night, camp.
Friday - Adam mountain bikes with Brian while I run the dogs on Pioneer Trail.
Friday night - camp either at Spaulding or drive over to Wrights Lake that evening and camp there.
Saturday thru Monday - Backpack Desolation Wilderness--prepared to walk in/on snow (a little or a lot) but enjoy otherwise mostly nice weather. Supposedly rain/snow was a slight chance Saturday morning but we figured we could deal with that.

What actually happened:
Camp and Spaulding Lake Thursday night. Chilly but nice. Awoke to snow flurries! Decide to see how the day goes and attempt our running/biking anyway.

I ran the dogs on Pioneer..not sure how far but at least 14 miles. Was great. Pioneer is a gentle trail and was good to my knee.

The views during the boys' mountain bike ride.

Adam and Brian went off expecting to put in about 50 miles. But, within the first couple of hours, Adam had gotten 3 flat tires and had very few supplies left to fix any other flats. They told me this, and said they'd text me if they had problems.

Brian and the ceanothus!

They had flowers from the ceanothus everywhere!

I went back to to the van after my run and hung out for a couple of hours waiting for info from them, but had no service so ended up driving down the road several miles (after waiting for three hours--seems like a lot but when I caught them mid-ride earlier on the trail they had a lot of miles still to go so I wasn't surprised they hadn't come back). Upon getting cell service, I got a bunch of texts with the common theme of: "More flat tires, need rescue, wet, freezing, it's snowing, can't ride, come get us." So, I drove to the meeting place through a mix of rain and snow (I HATE being in the car when it's snowing, and I had to drive the VAN THROUGH SNOW! Ugh) to pick up two soaked, shivering boys! Blasted heat in the van, made tea, everyone was OK!

Monkey flower the boys saw on their ride.

So--day one was a little colder/wetter than we hoped for....after that, we decided to head to the cabin at Donner Lake for hot showers and a warm place to sleep. (Cabin was awesome: we made chili and cornbread and watched our "we're on vacation and have cable" tv show of choice: House Hunters which can entertain us for hours.)

Saturday: we debated a lot on what to do. Backpacking seemed a little crazy. Reports were that there actually wasn't that much snow in the backcountry..but we woke up to snow falling. Again, reports were that there would only be about an inch of accumulation. We decided to go for it.

At the start of the hike: had been graupeling for maybe 30 minutes at this point. Trees where totally snow-free when we arrived, and the ground is just dusted.

No snow on the ground when we started at Wright's Lake, but it was graupeling. (Which was ok because it all bounced off and we stayed very dry! At first.). Then the snow started...and got heavier...and heavier....it was crazy! When we started around noon the trail was essentially clear (but for the dusting of graupel). About three miles in we were slogging through the accumulating snow, which was up to 8" in some places! Nuts. If we had been there a week before...there would have been no snow in that area! We met up with some hikers coming out who said that it was piling up very quickly farther in. That, combined with the problem that I had developed a stomach ache that was getting progressively worse...we decided that we weren't having fun at all, so decided to ditch our trip and turn around. A hard decision to make for us, since we are usually pretty hardy folks! Particularly hard because all of the weather forecasts showed great sunny weather for Sunday and Monday..but we couldn't get past the snow falling fast on us Saturday....

Then in started to snow.

At Wright's Lake campground. Much less snow here than farther in!

When we got back from our failed attempt: I wish we had "before we started hiking" and "upon our return" pictures to show how great the area looked hours before this picture was taken!

Back at the van, everyone was wet and the van was covered with about 4-5" of snow (mind you, when we arrived earlier there was no snow!!). Adam started to drive and we slid all over the parking lot (I don't tolerate this well) and Adam luckily had purchased chains for times like this. We chained up, and drove out with no problems. Without the chains, we would have camped there and waited until the snow melted to drive out!

We got a steak dinner on the way home to console ourselves. :)

P90X Protein Bar Recipe

2012-05-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Update: I added a second recipe. There are now Chocolate Chip Bars and Oatmeal Raisin Bars. My husband and I both agree, better to underbake these than overbake. We much prefer gooey to dried out. Dried out/overbaked bars are pretty much inedible, and the line between "gooey" and "brick" is a fine one.

Update 2: We got a dehydrator and now usually dehydrate these on the "fruit leather" sheets in the dehydrator. We like the texture better (since we don't like the cooked edges in the baked version). Either way--oven or dehydrator--works!

Frequently it's really easy to make homemade version of pre-packaged foods. This goes for P90X protein bars. We looked up the nutrition facts of their bars, and then made our own version. Here's how:

First, we pulled up the label on a P90X bar. The stats are like this:

Calories: 260-270

Fat: ~7 g

Carbohydrates: ~32 g

Protein: ~20 g

Then I made a chart showing the stats for each of the ingredients I planned to use. Amounts of protein, fat, carb, and protein are per cup of ingredient.

		Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	PER CUP	1600	120	56	72
Honey	PER CUP	1024		272
Oats	PER CUP	307	5	56	11
Cereal	PER CUP	172.9	3.325	34.58	2.66
Protein	PER CUP (80g)	322.4	5.2	7.8	65
Chocolate Chips	PER CUP	1280	64	160	16

Then I made another chart to alter the amount of each ingredient to change the ratios to match the P90X nutrition stats.

Here's what we got: (This does not include addition of water!)

	RECIPE!	Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	0.8 cup	1280	96	44.8	57.6
Honey	0.75 cup	768	0	204	0
Oats	1.75 cup	537.25	8.75	98	19.25
Cereal	1.75 cup	302.575	5.81875	60.515	4.655
Protein	4 cups	1289.6	20.8	31.2	260
Chocolate Chips	0.5 cup	640	32	80	8
	TOTAL	4817.425	163.36875	518.515	349.505
	TOTAL PER BAR (20 BARS)	268	9	29	19

So, the ending recipe is....

P90X Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars!

0.8 cup peanut butter (all natural, ours was creamy Costco brand)

0.75 cup honey

1.75 cup rolled oats

1.75 cup honey bunches of oats cereal

4 cups protein powder (ours is whey unflavored--Nutra Bio brand)

0.5 cup chocolate chips (ours were trader joe's)

~1.5 cups water (maybe more maybe less)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Put honey and peanut butter in a bowl and microwave ~30 seconds to soften/liquify. Add the peanut butter/honey and dry ingredients together, and add water until the mixture is very thick and pour-able. Scrape into a lightly greased 9x13" pan and bake for ~15-20 minutes at 350 (the edges should be slightly brown but the center will still be gooey). Cool on counter until near room temp, then put into fridge until hardened up. Cut into 20 bars.

Update: I find that if you like really gooey bars, then it is great to use the 9x13" pan. If you prefer less gooey bars, use two 8 or 9" square pans. (You'll get a more even bake in the smaller pans, unlike the large pan, where the edges will overbake and the center will stay gooey.)

----------------------

By the way, P90X is going really well. It's tiring, but we can definitely see the difference. For one, I am VERY glad to have changed to a higher protein lower carb diet. I have the most sensitive stomach EVER (generally plagued by problems) and have found that many fewer carbs have helped a lot!). We have finished three weeks, so are just starting our recovery week (well, that is, after our 109 mi bike ride tomorrow..then we will "recover").

UPDATE!!

I created another recipe! This one is oatmeal-raisin.

Here's the chart:

RAISIN RECIPE!
	RECIPE!	Calories	Fat	Carb	Protein
Peanut butter	1 cup	1600	128	48	56
Honey	0.75 cup	768	0	204	0
Oats	2 cup	614	10	112	22
Cereal - Grape Nuts	1 cup	400	2	96	12
Protein	4.5 cups	1451	23	35	293
Raisins	0.75 cup	390	0	93	3
	TOTAL	5223	163	588	386
	TOTAL PER BAR (20 BARS)	261	8	29	19

And here's the user-friendly recipe!

P90X Oatmeal Raisin Protein Bars!
1 cup peanut butter
0.75 cup honey
2 cups oats
1 cup grape nuts
4.5 cups protein powder (ours is whey unflavored)
0.75 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon (or your preferred spices. I might use more than a tsp)
~0.5-1 cup water

See instructions for the chocolate chip recipe above.

WHEY PROTEIN POWDER INFO!
This is the one we buy. Yes, we are serious about protein powder--that's a 5 gallon bucket in the pictures below. A little ridiculous. **If you order from Nutra Bio, be sure to check their "$6.95 Shipping" link at the top of the page--otherwise the shipping will be super expensive. When I looked the coupon code was SAVE4.

P90X!

2012-04-14T20:12:00.002-07:00

Just a little update to say that we have decided to try out P90X. We bought it on Amazon "used" (though it appeared to have never been opened, with all materials intact) for $90.

For those of you that don't know, P90X is a 90 day at-home workout plan. Six days a week you do one of their workout videos (in a certain order, which changes over the course of the ninety days). There is also a diet plan (high protein, low carb) that goes along with the workouts.

We started it on Thursday, and even though it's only been a couple of days, we really like it! Before P90X, we'd been having a hard time fitting in workouts during the week. When we lived in the Valley, we both commuted by bike a couple days a week which was a great way to get in some extra workouts, but we have never been good at doing strength training (despite the fact that we own a full set of professional type dumbells...). So--we think this is really going to work for us. It also helps that we both are motivated to do it (most of the time) so when one person isn't feeling it, the other person can make it happen!

I love exercising, so it's easy for me to do the workouts, especially since they are something new. Eating fewer carbs--that is hard! So far, so good. Proteins we have utilized so far: 0% plain Greek yogurt, fat free cottage cheese, tuna, chicken, beef tri-tip, eggs, milk, whey protein powder. P90X definitely has lots of marketing to go with it, so they include their own protein bars and drinks in their nutrition plan. I did some research and made our own protein bars and found that chocolate milk has the same protein/carb ratio as their drink, so we don't have to spend extra money on those items. Makes me realize how I really ate probably 60-70% carbohydrates in my old diet, and now we're aiming for just 20%. Yum, more chicken!

And yes, we did take "before" pictures and measurements--but I'm not going to post those until I have great "after" pictures to go with them! And, on top of P90X I am still doing running (current goal of my next half marathon in June, with another in Sept, and maybe a full marathon after that) and road biking (we're doing a century ride in May). Adam also just recently built me a mountain bike so I'll be doing that on the side as well! So I'm hoping for some good results (namely, less flab around the midsection and overall increased muscle tone). We'll keep you updated....

Non-related bonus photos:
Tonight Adam got some exercise weed wacking our huge yard (and, for the record, I mowed and edged the lawn areas of our yard which is also no quick task...):
(He is wayyyy back behind that orange tree in the middle of the photo, you can't see him)

(And here's a close up of his face--lots of greenery flying everywhere!)

Christmas in Hawaii

2012-03-24T09:11:00.001-07:00

We went to Maui, Hawaii for Christmas last year! And we just haven't had a chance to look at our photos, until now. We did get some good ones.

My lovely parents sponsored our trip and we met them over there. We all stayed at a privately owned condo for about a week in Kihei on the southern part of the island.

We had a pretty nice view!

Adam and I quickly realized that we should have done more planning before we went...we were so busy in the months leading up to the vacation that it was easy to just figure we'd deal with it when we got there! (Excuses, excuses...) So we had counted on being able to rent bikes...of course, it being Christmas, all bikes had been previously reserved so we couldn't have bikes! So, we ended up with these:

Scooters! Adam was pretty sure I would hate them, but I actually did OK (mostly that I hate going fast on a bicycle so I probably wouldn't like flying down the street on a scooter). I was a little timid but I did get used to it. Our main excursion on the scooters was going south from Kihei to this giant lava field with a trail in it (the road that goes through Wailea ends here):

It was pretty treacherous. Definitely need at least tennis shoes to hike in this! We saw one couple doing it in flip flops--no idea how they managed. We had read about a little hidden beach in this area so we set out to find it.

Here it is! The beach was great. No one else was there, and the area was sheltered so the waves were tiny and it was a good place to swim. We had brought our rented snorkel gear, so we snorkeled around. It was pretty awesome!

On the way out, we randomly saw this:

Choke Donkeys?

On another day, we borrowed my parents' rental car (THANK YOU FOR LETTING US USE YOUR CAR, MOM AND DAD!), and drove around the west side of the island.

We stopped to hike down to the coast edge to see a blow hole, where the ocean waves shoot up in a hole in the lava:

Yes, I'm wearing the same outfit...it's vacation, OK? I can wear the same outfit for multiple days if I want to!

Further along on the drive we stop at the Olivine Pools. They were really gorgeous, and we even got into a tiny pool and had our picture taken. The lady who took our picture was SUPER into the pools, she had been in all of them while her husband sat on a rock and watched. She was so excited to see someone else get in:

The pools get filled by ocean waves, and occasionally a big wave would come and splash over the rocks and into the pools. Just after this picture was taken, a HUGE wave came over and turned our little pool into a frothy jacuzzi. :)

Our last stop around the island was a little hike Adam had read about on the internet, which went to a waterfall. It was just an unmarked trail in a pull out on the side of the road. The hike was great, and so was the waterfall:

Bamboo forest!

Next up, we did something I probably wouldn't have done without Adam: we took a surfing lesson! It was actually SUPER FUN. And we even kicked out some cash to buy the photos they take during the lesson...be prepared for white skin and ultra dorkiness (that's me) and less dorky, still whiteness (Adam)....(I'm blind without glasses on, so I'm wearing my prescription goggles! LOL..)

They put surf students on surfboards that are practically the size of garage doors, so it's almost impossible not to "surf" on them! The waves were like 1' tall but that was big enough for me! It was really fun. We used Maui Wave Riders for our class and they were great.

Hang loose!

On another day, we decided to tackle an adventure that we had read about and heard about from a local (the guy we rented our snorkel gear from--thanks dude!). This hike took us past three waterfalls. One waterfall required that we scramble up a small wall with the help of a rope, then climb up a rickety ladder through vegetation. Lastly, after rock hopping for a long time, the trail ends at a pool. Here, Adam went ahead first and swam out of sight (around a corner up and the long and narrow pool)--and he came back to get me, assuring me that it was worth it. We swam up to another small waterfall, climbed out of the water and up the falls, and ended at this huge cavernous area with a very tall waterfall. It was amazingly beautiful, and worth the adventure!

At the start of the hike.

Bamboo forest here, too.

This is me coming out of the rock wall scramble/ladder climb. There's a waterfall right there!

We came from around that little bend, swimming across the pool and to the base of a small waterfall (right at my feet).

And we ended up here, which was impossible for us to capture on camera. It's a huge area with a waterfall going into the big pool. The falls weren't gushing (at all) but it was gorgeous! The walls around us were really tall and green!

We concluded our drive by stopping at a little roadside stop in/near Kahakuloa to buy banana bread. Delicious! And I should mention that we really aren't much of the "go for a drive" type of people, but the drive around the west side was fantastic--the road gets super narrow (1 lane) and twisty with lots of great views. Just don't be in a hurry!

The morning of our flight home, we got up super early and did the drive up to the top of the mountain to see the sunrise over the crater. It was really windy and cold at the stop, and the views were totally worth the drive! It was like looking at the sun rise on another planet!

The wind was rushing up the sides of the crater so if you walked to the edge you could be blown backwards..of course I'm yelling, "GET BACK FROM THE EDGE!"

Yoga pose for artistic purposes only.

So, we had a great time in Maui! We did learn some things, though: We aren't really island people...the tropical locale was fun for a week but we'll stick to the mainland (plus it's sort of claustrophobic feeling, being in the middle of the ocean!). If you think you want to rent something while over there (bike, car, scooter), do yourself a favor and reserve it before you go. And, our own personal preferences say that we would stay in a more resort-y area (like Wailea) next time, so more stuff is in walking distance. Kihei is cute but we really needed bikes/scooters to get around. We'd consider going back to Hawaii if we had small kids, since it's more of a kick-back-and-hang-out kind of place, not a hike around sort of place. (There really aren't that many trails on Maui that we could find, unless you want to be in the crater!)