End of WA

Jeremy and I on hike, overlooking Pozzuoli and Naples

Hiking

My time in WA finished out really quickly. I was counting down the days until I was done because then I was off to Italy, but I didn't get to do as much in WA as I was hoping. There is just so much to do around there. I felt like I kept getting unlucky with the weather. Seemed as if all the gorgeous days were when I was working. I am not a WA native, its hard for me to go hiking when its raining outside. I still prefer those nice, sunny, CO like days! The main thing I didn't get a chance to get out and do again is mountain biking. I did get to hit up a few more nice hikes.

The first hike I did in the last few weeks in WA was a fairly simple hike to a lake. It was a little rainy that day, but the hike was nice. The lake looked pretty, but unfortunately it was pretty overcast at the lake so couldn't see it too well.

The second hike I got to do was amazing! Mailbox Peak is supposedly the hardest hike on the I-90 corridor so I was really wanting to do it before I left. I met this girl that lives in WA that likes to hike and we tried to do this hike a while ago, but I had to work the night we were going to go so I decided it wasn't the best idea for me to try to hike when I was working that night. Luckily, the last Saturday I was in WA was gorgeous and I didn't have to work!! We got a late start, but ended up being a perfect hike and day. She wasn't feeling the best and had done it before so she let me go on ahead and I summited by myself. This is about a 6mile hike round trip, not long, but STEEP. You climb 4000ft in 2.2 miles. That's quite a bit! It was tough, but totally worth it. Couldn't see as many volcano peaks from the top but could see a lot of the Cascade Mountains. It was a tough go up, but even tougher going down with how steep it was. I was sore for about four days afterwards. It was tough to move around at work!

My last days at work went ok. Everyone I worked with was very nice and sad I was leaving. They were good to get to know. Didn't really get to hang out with anybody outside work unfortunately. It was an interesting contract. Seemed to go really fast in terms of not getting to hang with people or do as much as I wanted, but at the same time went really slow because I was just looking forward to heading to Italy so much. Everyone threw a huge potluck party for me my last night of working. It was really thoughtful! Then the morning after my last night a bunch of us went to breakfast. It was fun. I wish I could have gotten to know more of them better outside of work.

My last week was very busy and slightly stressful. I did the hike Saturday. Then worked Sun, Mon, and Tues night. Breakfast after work on Wednesday, then a short three hour nap, then up to pack up all my stuff, clean, and workout. It was busy and I was very tired. I didn't get a chance to start packing up anything early so had to get it all done in that afternoon, and run the errands I needed to. I thought since I only slept three hours that day I would sleep fine that night. The plan was to leave very early on Thursday so I could make it to Brea's house in Salt Lake City at a decent time. But no, I layed there wide awake the whole entire night. I should have just got up at 2am and started driving. I might have slept like 30min, but I dont think I fell asleep at all. So I was not looking forward to driving at all that day, but I needed to get home, couldn't really postpone the trip, plus everything was all packed up. So I had about a 13-14 hour drive ahead of me with no sleep. Luckily I have bluetooth in my car and a wonderful family and boyfriend that talked to me a lot of the way.

By the time I got to Brea's, I was exhausted, but I wanted to take advantage of the short time I had with her. I don't get to be with her near enough. I need to spend more than just a night or two with her so we can actually do something! She is such a great friend! So caring about me and interested in my life. I love her! I really can't wait to spend more time with her!

So the next day,Friday, I was driving back to CO. My lack of sleep hit me more on this drive. I was exhausted! I was so happy when I pulled into my parents driveway. So I had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at home with my parents to unpack, visit, and repack for Italy. I had to catch my flight early Tuesday morning. I don't know if it was stress, excitement, lack of sleep,or just plain being too busy but Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night with this severe heartburn like feeling. I couldn't relieve it with any types of antacids. It was awful. So it still kept me from sleeping. For someone that has never really had any problems with heartburn before this was very strange for me. It was like an all of a sudden severe outbreak of acid reflux. I am still suffering from it. It has been more than a week and ever since it has started I have been weak, feeling as if there is a lump in my throat and pressure in my chest, unable to eat anything, can't swallow. I haven't been able to sleep. It's a good weight loss plan! Haha, it hasn't been fun. I haven't been able to work out the past almost two weeks. I tried going to the Dr. the other day on the Navy base in Naples but since I am not active duty or a dependent they couldn't see me. They told me to try just going to a local pharmacy and telling them my symptoms. I told them I needed something strong. So I have been taking what they gave me for about three days now and I think it is actually helping. I have been having to take pain medicine everyday and stuff to help me sleep with little relief. Very unlike me. It has been so awful. The last day or two I have finally been able to sleep more and eat more. I am finally being better company to Jeremy! I felt bad because I haven't been feeling like doing anything! So I finally see some light at the end of the tunnel!

Anyway, I got into Naples Wedneday morning to be greeted by Jeremy! It was so good to see him! He didn't have to work the next of the day so we got to spend that day together, fun, even though I was exhausted and feeling horrible! I felt bad because he wasn't eating much since I wasn't able to eat much. He's so sweet. He signed me up to play with them in their league volleyball they have going on so we had a game that early evening. I didn't feel good, but it was nice to go and do something. I had fun. Then we went out for a nice, romantic dinner at his landlord's restraurant. It was beautiful, he hired some local musicians to come play for us! Got to have a little bit of the famous Naples mozzarella! So yummy. It was a wonderful night, to never forget! More to come on this evening later...

Thursday and Friday last week after arriving in Naples we didn't do a whole lot. I was hurting so bad. He had something planned for us Saturday night so Thursday we went dress shopping for me. I found this really cute Italian, black dress! Turns out, it was the Navy Ball we were going to Saturday night. I had my hair and makeup professionally done on Saturday and got all dressed up for the night! It was fun! The makeup turned out a little too much, didn't really recognize myself! And even though I was still hurting, the dinner was SOOO good. The area that we were in for the ball is supposed to be where the best Mozzarella ever is made, and I think that's true. It is SOOO good. And I also had some amazing tasting parmasan eggplant. Real Italian parmesan eggplant isn't like anything we are normally used to. Not all bready and fried. It was so good! And then we got to do some fun dancing afterwards.

Yesterday, I was finally starting to feel better, and it was a gorgeous day so we decided to go on a little hike. Thought we were going to do an easy hike, ended up being pretty steep. But if felt so nice to get out and enjoy the weather! It was an awesome view of the Napoli valley at the top of the hike. A good sunset viewpoint we discovered that we will have to do some other time closer to the sunset. This area we hiked is this little Navy recreational oasis they set up, not open to public. Its pretty cool. Have lots of stuff you can rent, yurts you can rent, lots of baseball fields, tennis courts, volleyball, pool, etc. It's pretty cool.

It has been so good to be with Jeremy again! He is so wonderful and we have lots of fun together! I look forward to all that we get to do together while I'm here! I will be checking email and facebook so if anyone needs to get a hold of me thats the best way.

Family Visit!

This month I got to have a visit by Luke and Jackie and my mom and dad! Not at the same time either. So that means some fun times and some fun activities to be had!

Luke and Jackie visited first. They spent a few days in Seattle with Jackie's aunt while I was working and then drove up to Everett. Of course, with Luke, I finally discovered a good frisbee golf disc course in Everett. And we did a little geocaching at the same time! It was fun! The first full day they were here we went to hike Wallace Falls. Not too long of a hike, but not too easy either. It was a gorgeous hike, and the falls are beautiful! We found a few geocaches on the way.

Middle Falls

Lower Falls

Geocaching!

Luke brought all his stuff for kite boarding hoping we would be able to catch some good wind. He just got a new foil kite he hasn't been able to use on the water yet, but of course, the week they were here it was cloudy and rainy with very little wind. The week before was gorgeous and would have been perfect, it was just our luck. So the day we planned to go kiteboarding we went to Deception Pass instead. This pass has a cool bridge the you have to cross to get from the coastline onto Whidbey Island. It's a pretty cool bridge, named such because some guy was deceived at some time thinking he could make it through between the cliffs in his boat and turned out to be rougher waters than he expected. Or something like that! We explored some of Deception Park, found some geocaches, then played frisbee golf on Whidbey Island. It was an interesting frisbee golf course. Right next to football fields and soccer fields where little peewee practices were going on. Luke threw his disc out over their heads on the basket and turned out to be an awesome shot for him! The signage for the course was probably the best we have seen at a frisbee golf course. I have decided I am definately going to go play frisbee golf this next trip in Europe!! Germany has a lot of courses, would be fun.

Driving over Deception Bridge

Beach, see Deception Bridge in the background?

Checkin out the view

This trip on Whidbey Island consisted of driving north onto the island over Deception Pass and driving the whole length south on the island ending with the ferry ride back over to Mukilteo and Everett. Turned out to be a much longer day than we expected! We got to the ferry and bought our ticket and thought the guy told us we had 45 min until the next ferry left, so we went to get something to eat. Turned out it left 15 min earlier than expected and we missed it by 10 min! The next one wasn't leaving for another 45 min. So this time we didnt leave and just sat in the car and entertained ourselves. Both Luke's and my phones were dead so we had to revert back to the old days of how we used to entertain ourselves. My stomach ended up hurting from laughing so much! It was a good time!

The next day we had to go pick up Tiffany at the airport in Seattle so we took advantage of going down that direction and went to do this hike to a viewpoint of Snoqualamie Falls. Turned out to be a very easy "hike" with a not so good view of the falls. It was a good time, because like most times with Luke, we still have fun. But we wanted to see the falls better. So we drove to get something to eat (Italian, made me miss Jeremy and Italy and look forward to going back) and then stopped by a better viewpoint of the falls! This time, the view was awesome. The inner photographer came out in me too and I went to some lengths to get some good shots of Luke and Jackie with the falls in the background.

Awesome view!

Luke, Jackie, and Benjamin (can't see him as well yet!)

That weekend we went back down to Seattle to spend the last night with Jackie's aunt. We walked around Pike's Place Market, did a cruise in the bay, and attempted to get Luke's kite in the air with little success :( The geocaching.com headquarters are in Seattle and they have the jackpot geocache in their headquarters. It contains a lot of trackables so we were really excited to go visit this place! The cache is a big treasure chest. I got a trackable that wants to return to Hannover, Germany! So I am going to at last bring it to Italy!

Luke and Jackie digging through the jackpot cache!

It was an awesome time and I always look forward to the next time I get to be with them. Jackie is due in March, maybe I will have to take my next contract close to them so I can be close when the baby arrives!!

Seattle skyline

After a chunk of working it was time for the parents to visit! I was really looking forward to this. It has been hard lately because my parents have been under a lot of stress with problems going on with my brother Nick. Come to mention it, any prayers sent in the way of Nick and my parents would be greatly appreciated. He is not doing very good, and it has been really hard not being able to be there for my mom to show her how much I love her and to comfort her. She is such an amazing mother and unfortunately she has been doubting how great of a mother she is lately. And it was just her birthday and she didn't have the greatest birthday. So it felt wonderful to be able to hug her and tell her how much I love her!

The day the arrived, I had worked the night before and planned to get up at noon to get ready and pick them up. Their flight was to get in at 3:30. Something happened with my phone alarm and I ended up not waking up until 3!! I saw the time, shot straight up in bed, got ready in five minutes and left to pick them up. My luck, there was a huge accident and I ended up being about an hour and a half late picking them up. I felt so bad! Luckily we were able to make it to Pike's Place Market before everything was closed and managed to still buy plenty of fruits and veggies! Then we went to eat at a nice seafood place in Seattle.

The next day we headed out to Lake Chelan! I think my mom and I decided that a trip to there should be an annual thing, at least semiannual. We love it out there. Probably just because it means something significant to us, like the fact we were named after that lake! Plus, there are some great things to do around there! Hiking, biking, water activities, wine tasting! This time my dad got to come too. Been a while since he has been there. Tiffany joined us for the weekend as well. The first day my dad and I played a little tennis, then we went to do some blueberry picking. We ended up getting blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries! Hard to find the blueberries at first, but then we found the jackpot and my dad actually ended up picking the most! Then we ate there and it was the best lunch! I got chicken fajitas with a side salad that was the best salad I have ever had! The rest of the day we soaked up the sun next to beautiful lake Chelan! Oh, and my mom decided to go down a slide and nearly killed herself! She went faster than expected and did a somersault at the bottom, it was hilarious! Reminded me of the time all five of us were in a park close to our cabin in CO and we all just went and goofed off in the park, having a great time!

Lake Chelan. The other name for Chelan is "Tsillan" meaning deep water. Lake Chelan is the third deepest lake in the nation. 9th deepest in the world or close to that.

Enjoying the Farmer's Market

Picking blueberries!

Mom's about to meet her doom on the slide!

The next day dad and I went mountain biking near the ski resort, very small ski resort. Pretty sure they didn't even have a chairlift! It was some pretty cool trails. Very good for the beginner mountain biker but not too easy. They were fun, not too challenging, but we still had a good time. A few good views of Lake Chelan.

Yurt on the trail. These are cross country trails in the winter so you can stop in here and warm up!

The rest of the day we did some wine tasting, found some geocaching, and walked around Chelan! Good day! Unfortunately, we had to head back to Everett the next day. Mom booked our place at Lake Chelan pretty late notice so we didn't get to stay too many nights there. But that's ok, it was a great trip and a great time with the family! I also got the opportunity to beat my dad in racquetball! Unfortunately only one game, he beat me in two games :( It's a good challenge to play him though, mainly because he is an obstacle that I have to maneuver around!! I love you mom and dad! You are amazing parents and I love you so much!

Found a geocache!

Sunset over the lake!

Enjoying the view!

Rock climbing!!

Love the Cascades!!

I have discovered the joy of rock climbing in WA and am lovin it!! There is so much to offer here in terms all the rock climbing opportunities. There is so much to do here in general, and lucky for me I have been able to take advantage of some of it.

I will start off with telling about a hike Tiffany and I went on a few weeks ago. We went to these Ice Caves a little ways Northwest of us. They weren't quite as cool as I was expecting, but alright. It was a gorgeous day, but when you walked right in front of the caves it got really cold. It isn't really ice, but carved out snow. It amazes me they stay formed the way they do. Apparently some people have been killed though walking into the caves and the snow collapsing on them. I walked close, but not inside them. It was tempting though.

The smaller of the three caves we saw

My next big adventure was heading out to Leavenworth to go rock climb. I never knew Leavenworth was such a popular area, for many things. Rock climbing in Leavenworth is supposed to be one of the best areas in WA I guess. It definitely was challenging. Had to search to find routes that didn't need gear to do. Did some tough climbs, but I loved the challenge. It was so much fun!!

Smiling before my climb!

The town of Leavenworth is a really cool town too. Its a small German town. They have lots of chain stores and restaurants but put a German look to their sign, its kind of cute. I know my mom would love exploring the stores and seeing the buildings in this town! Made me feel like I was in Germany again, almost!

Eating ice cream in town!

Last year my mom and I took a trip up to Seattle and we took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, a cute little island via 35 min ferry ride from Seattle. There were lots of bikers going over to the island and I thought it would be cool to bring my bike over to explore the island a little more! So the other day Tiffany and I decided we wanted to go to Bainbridge and I was able to take my bike. It was so fun. I like road biking but I hate biking on narrow, busy streets. I try to find quiet, pretty streets or paved paths to bike on. This was perfect. Got to ride through tree lined streets, see good ocean views, and see cute houses.

View of Seattle and Mt. Rainier from Bainbridge

I think these are bus stops, they were cute! I saw a couple of them!

After I got done biking Tiffany and I did a little wine tasting, then went to dinner. I got Halibut Tacos, they were muy delicioso!! I think that is the third time I have ordered Halibut without outside influence. I think I like it!!

Yesterday I got to experience Exit 38. It's so funny because Exit 38 is a very popular climbing area in this spot. It is named that cause it is just right off of exit 38 off of I-90, east of Seattle. It was so funny to me when I first heard this that they named a climbing spot just after the exit you take, but hey, it works!! Did a lot of climbs out there, there are a ton to do and tons of fun! I tried practicing lead climbing a little. This is where one person is hooked to the rope and as they climb hooks onto bolts along the rock so that they can get to the top and hook the rope in to the anchor at the top so then the route can be climbed with a top rope in place. It is pretty scary cause if you fall you fall until the bolt below you catches you. I am excited to get to try it more though so I can take people climbing with me. After I get more gear as well! When you lead climb, it changes your perspective on the climb, it makes it interesting!

This was my favorite climb of the day!

Canada and more...

Praise God!!!

Do you like your life? Life is meant to be enjoyed, so go out and enjoy it!! God has given us life and a wonderful world to live in. It is meant to be experienced. I was walking through the Cascade mountains today thinking about all that God has given me and thanking him for his blessings. God does amazing things, we just have to learn to trust in him. We may not understand what he is doing in our lives or be patient enough to wait, but he is always loving us and guiding us. We just have to learn to listen...

Last week Tiffany and took a trip to Vancouver and Whistler, Canada. Kind of a last minute, not very planned trip. But it went very well and we had a great time!! We almost forgot our passports! Luckily Tiff's grandma reminded us right before we left the apartment. For some reason is wasn't really sinking in to me that we were going out of country. We even got through the border and stopped at a gas station and I forgot about having a new currency! The border crossing went very quick but then we got stuck in traffic outside of traffic for almost two hours because there is a tunnel that went from at least three lanes of traffic to just one. It was horrible. But we made it to our hotel, then set out for dinner. That was an experience! Tiffany was driving, and the one way streets and bridges in Vancouver can make it very confusing to drive around the city. We spent a long time looking for the place we wanted to eat. Crossed a couple bridges quite a few times, drove in circles a few times. At one point Tiffany thought we had turned into wrong way traffic, flipped a quick U, which then made us turn into wrong way traffic so she flipped a U again. Happened so fast I didn't really know what to think. So then we are sitting there at a stoplight and next to us drives up three cops on Four-wheelers. The funniest think I have ever seen. Luckily they didn't see what we did. It was very strange to see four-wheelers in the middle of the city!

Looks like a little plastic city huh? It's real!!

Didn't snap a very good pic, but these are the cops on four-wheelers!

The next day we walked around town a little, over some bridges, under some bridges, and over to this cute little island with some good stores and food. Then we went to Stanley Park. I thought this was where I had been before in Vancouver where there a lot of statues throughout the park, yeah, wrong park. But is is a gorgeous and big park! It was nice. Then we headed up to Whistler.

On the bridge looking towards downtown

The runner statue

The port. Ported here before on a cruise with my family to Alaska after my brother graduated high school.

Lighthouse in Stanley Park, was kind of disappointing

The drive to Whistler is absolutely amazing and breathtaking! You follow the water along the mountains quite a while. Awesome views!! Tiffany tried to get some pictures as I was driving! We made it to Whistler, got some information on things we wanted to do, then found the best camping spot right along the river, great for falling asleep to! Tiffany wasn't sure about the whole primitive camping experience, but she ended up enjoying it, I think. There was a porter potty there, so not that primitive. Much better than the huge campsite option closer to Whistler.

Tiff and I along the drive to Whistler

Chilling by the river by our campsite

The next day we drove into town and I dropped Tiffany off to go zip-lining while I set off for some awesome mountain biking single track. It was a little tougher than I expected, of course, it was Whistler after all. Whistler is highly known for its winter activities, but most avid mountain bikers know it is an awesome destination for biking as well. I didn't do the take the lift up and downhill ride down because that is not only intense riding, but would also be more enjoyable with someone else. So I experienced a lot of the trails in the valley area. It was tons of fun. I had to walk a lot of just blue rated trails and did small sections of some black. It was tough at times but a lot of fun! Can't wait to go back.

This was supposed to be a blue trail. They really expect me to bike over this rock? I think not!!!

After meeting back up with Tiffany we hiked to and around Lost Lake with some nice views of the lake and Whistler and Blackcomb mountains in the background. That afternoon Tiffany talked me into going to a Scandinavian Spa. The idea here was to go from hot, to cold, to relaxation. You spend about 15 min. in the hot, then a short time, maybe 5 min. in the cold, then you relax for at least 15 min. The first was a eucalyptus steam room. It smelled amazing, hard to breathe at first, but got used to it. Then into a cold bath, then lounging and reading. The second was a hot bath, then the cold, then laying in a hammock. I kind of drifted, but don't think I totally fell asleep. Then a warm bath again, cold bath/shower, and layed and took a nap. This was a long relaxing time for me because I really think I fell asleep. I kept drifting in and out of sleep in the hot bath times and relaxation times. I guess the idea to relax you really worked on me!! I finished it up with a short time in the steam room again cause that was my favorite part. Not sure if it totally worth the money, but it was definitely relaxing and a good memory, plus it was gorgeous!!

Whistler Mountain

Scandinavian Spa

That night we went into Whistler Village to hang out and experience a little nightlife. It felt so good in town. Definitely a great summer destination! As well as winter destination. I could and definitely want to spend at least two weeks here in the summer and in the winter!

Canadians have some kind of fascination with this rock formation or something. Not sure what it means

The 2010 Olympic rings!

Driving back from Whistler we had to wait a little longer crossing back in to US, but not too long, maybe around 45 min. Then I got back and worked four nights straight. These nights did not suit me well. When I worked five in a row, I slept decently between my shifts. This time I was lucky to get 4-5 hours of sleep. It's so hard, and I feel like such an ineffective nurse because I am just trying to do my best to stay awake. I don't feel like I am living up to my potential as a nurse. Whenever I finally stop travel nursing I really hope to get a day position, I just can't do this night stuff. But I will survive!!

This week I only had two days off. Today was an awesome day!! I went to Index Peak, it is east of Everett. I was going to do this great hike I read about called Blanca Lake, but the road to the trail was washed out, and I would have had to go 45 min around to do an alternate route. So I decided to do Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls instead. It was awesome!! The weather was so great today. Actually, as I was headed down it started sprinkling a bit and I couldn't figure out how it was sprinkling, the sky was clear! Just a few clouds, not rain clouds. It was weird. But wasn't anything much.

There was a road closed sign way before this, but kept driving. Then I ran into this, guess the road is really closed, had to turn around :(

Lake Serene

Some girls I met jumping in, I went afterwards! I was cold, but I have been in colder...

Bridal Veil Falls

Looking down from Bridal Veil

Today, I remembered and reflected on how much I love the Pacific Northwest. Many times I hate it because it rains so much, but when you catch those gorgeous days and get to take advantage of it, it is the best day! The temperatures are so perfect, maybe some humidity, but nothing ever much. And there is so much to do out here, it is never ending!! Now, I have never spent a winter up here, and dont really care to. I would love to live up here if it wasn't for the winters and so far away from the rest of the country.

Thank you God for the experiences you give me!!