Pro-Soup Propaganda

Oh, 2013, what a funny, weird, great, horrible year you were.

I did some pretty awesome stuff this year.

*I did a fair amount of hiking! I did some nice walks at Mt. Tabor, other hikes around Portland, went to some parks, hiked up Multnomah Falls, and hiked (and camped!) in Central Oregon's high desert, to name a few.

*I met Lil Bub, Internet Cat Sensation!

*Jonathan and I finally kayaked and it was awesome!

*I got laid-off from my "main" job and all of my side-hustles soon became my job! Luckily I am making a bunch of money and am able to put a ton of it into savings.

*I saw Michael Pollan speak for the second time.

*Jonathan and I went whale-watching at the coast and it was awesome!

*I had a great, well-earned sandwich at the top of Mt Waynapicchu.

*I went to Ketchikan to work a lot and saw some bears, went to Easter Island and saw a lot of moai, saw the Nazca Lines, hiked the Sun Gate Trail, was forgotten by the train in middle-of-nowhere Peru and hiked back to Machu Picchu Pueblo in the dark (still one of my top favorite travel memories!), explored Machu-freaking-Picchu!, and explored Cusco.

*We adopted the weirdest member of our family, hands down. Welcome, FunCat, we are glad to have you, even though you may be a small evil orange wizard, but we are glad you live in the Fortress of Joy with us!

*I made a packing list of my carry-on bag for my three weeks in South America. Maybe it will inspire or help you?

*Amy and I had some amazing conversations.

*Jonathan and I only snowshoed once this year. We tried to go again last week, but Mt. Hood doesn't have enough snow on it. Boo!

*I thought I helped co-create #slothing but apparently it's been the rage on the internet already.

*I fulfilled some Gob Bluth wannabe-ness and rode a Segway!

*I cooked some of my favorite recipes that I still love to make: Chicken Vegetable Soup, Thai Coconut Soup, Basil Garbanzo Beans and Quinoa, Curry-Fried Quinoa, and the best Chicken and Veggie Noodle Soup ever!

*I visited a U-Pick farm with Amy and look forward to returning!

While there were more many happy memories this year than not, this was a really painful year in parts. I had some personal life issues that took several months to deal with. I'm still dealing with them, really. I'm doing my best to focus on the now and look forward to healing and feeling better, but sometimes it sucks. I feel kind of lost and floundery sometimes (like I'm floundering, not like this guy, cute as he is). I know things will get better and I'm doing the best I can, but I am really excited to go to Antarctica and focus on me for a bit. I have been working my butt off the past two months and am looking forward to reaping the benefits.

This was my list of 2013 Resolutions. While I actually did pretty good on that stuff (yay reading lots of books and saving money!), there is stuff that didn't really happen (going to the Japanese Garden and yoga).

This new year is going to be called "Year of the Radical." (2013 was "Year of the Waffle." It was a delicious year.) There are going to be some radical changes. Things are going to be shaken up. Amy is going to be moving in with us quite soon, which will help both her and us with our respective money situations. I will be going on my big adventures. Jonathan and I will both be getting mountain bikes. We want to go on more bigger adventures together. I no longer need to totally kill myself with trying to earn money to pay for my trips. I will still be hustling but I would like to think that now I don't have to drive myself crazy with Making All The Money, but, who am I kidding myself, it IS nice to have it. ;o)

Brendan Leonard's post "Do Things And Make Things Next Year" really resonated with me. His goals for next year? "Do Things" and "Make Things." After being SO busy this year and having it jam-packed with everything, I am looking forward to a little bit of downtime. I want time to do stuff and time to make stuff. What will those things be? I don't know, but I look forward to finding out.

That's pretty much how I feel about Portland's snow today. Woo wo, indeed!

I'm writing this post from the house I started house-sitting today. I'll pretty much be house-sitting from today through the next month at various places, so my schedule is pretty darn full. November was INSANE. I earned three times in that month working for myself and STILL having more free time than I ever did having my full-time desk job. Awesome. This month is looking like I'll maybe be making a little less, but not by much! Hopefully this trend keeps up because I really like being able to adventure more often!

Speaking of adventures... I leave for my Antarctica trip IN A MONTH!!!! I really can't believe that this adventure that I have been saving for for what feels like forever is finally happening. I started to follow the ship that I'll be on, the M/V Expedition on both Twitter and Instagram, and have been enthralled with what I've been seeing. I truly can't believe that I'll soon be on that very boat seeing those very things. I've been mentally preparing myself over the past month trying to think of any last items I may need. I'm kind of thinking of getting Patagonia's Triolet pants to go with my jacket, but that's really the last thing I'm thinking. Having windproof and waterproof outerwear is a good idea in those cold , variable climates so I'm leaning toward yes. That will also help me for my Patagonia trip with all the windiness there! (Finding that post makes me think that I should probably write a post expanding about the fact that I'm going to volunteer at Torres del Paine National Park in freaking Patagonia in March, 2014!!)

I celebrated my 31st birthday on Sunday, which is kinda crazy. I feel like I should either feel older or something, but I don't. I still love that I get carded and people are like, "You're a decade older than the carding age?!" Ha!

And that's about what I've been up to! Just trying to keep my nose to the grindstone and make some money to pay for my Patagonia trip!

What's new with you?

This picture was taken from the top of the first section, looking out over the bottom. We still had many switchbacks to go to get to the top!

The view from the top!

Here in Portland we're really lucky to have such great access to the outdoors. There are many trails right here in the city and I've been able to hike a few of them lately, so I thought I'd share some photos. I've been to Powell Butte, Forest Park, and Mt Tabor recently. They're some of the more popular hikes, as they're located directly in the city, not too far from anything.

Powell Butte

Powell Butte is an extinct volcano cinder cone, one of several in the surrounding area. It's fairly good-sized with over 600 acres to it. It's mostly meadow but has a good chunk of forested area, which is my favorite part! It's easy to get in the middle of "nowhere" and to not see people for awhile, which is pretty great, considering it's right in town. There is also a LOT of wildlife there and I've seen deer almost every time I've been there, including this day!

Andi and I went there with her dog, Chief, and Artoo last week and had a great time! The dogs got in lots of sniffing and stick-chasing and we had the park to ourselves. The weather was nice and cool in the morning, so we didn't overheat. It was a perfect day!

Ta da, we saw a deer!

Forest Park

Forest Park is GIANT! According to Portland Parks and Rec's website, "Forest Park now includes over 5,100 wooded acres making it the largest forested natural area within the city limits in the United States." Bam! That's so awesome that we have claim to that! Jonathan and I love to take Artoo there and beat around a little bit. We usually walk around on the Germantown Road access side. I'd love to go spend an entire day and really thoroughly explore it some day!

Prineville Reservoir

Sunset over the reservoir was gorgeous, as you can see!

Early afternoon at Smith Rock was gorgeous!!

Monkey Face rock - do you see it?

Success!