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.

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!

We had the best, most relaxing time camping this weekend. It was the first camping trip in a LONG time where I wasn't the one planning it, which felt real, real nice. I met some nice, new people and learned that using Reese's peanut butter cups in a s'more instead of chocolate bar is AMAZING.

Some pics ahead...all photos here.

Frank 

This last weekend was the most amazing I've had in awhile! It was so awesome to get out of town for a few days and go hang out with one of my favorite people, Renai, and also getting to meet her friend Katie, who was so great! We were staying in a yurt at Cape Disappointment and were hanging out in Astoria during the day for the Fisher Poets Gathering. This is but a small part of the 150+ photos I took during the weekend, which you can see in their entirety here, if you are interested.

Our lovely little yurt 

I got to Cape D around 5:30pm and the other girls weren't due in until after 9pm sometime, so I headed to find a beach to walk on. I found Waikiki Beach, which has the most driftwood on it that I've ever seen at one time on a beach! I wanted to hang out while it got dark. It was so pretty!

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse 

Pointy Frank ears 

After it got dark I headed back to the yurt, snuggled inside my sleeping bag and read for four hours, which was awesome. I managed to finish two books that I had previously started! Finally, around 10:15pm I realized I still hadn't heard from the girls. The original plan was that they were going to go to the yurt first and then meet me at the Voodoo Room in Astoria. The weather was so stormy and crappy and I was so cozy that I just decided to stay put, thinking that I'd see them soon and we'd either hang out at the yurt or head as a group to Astoria.

So then comes 10:15pm. There was no cell service at the yurt, so I drove to what I called the "cellphone parking lot" and, yup, they had actually just headed straight to the Voodoo Room. A quick call to Renai and soon they were heading back. It was so awesome to see her, because it had been almost a year! Crazy!!

The next day we headed to Astoria to do some FPG stuff. We headed to Pier 39, where there was supposed to be a cannery tour and a boat tour. It turns out that the cannery tour is pretty much always there and, for reasons unknown at the time, there was no boat. (Although I just found out from Renai this afternoon that the boat had moved, due to the nasty weather. Darn!) These next pictures were all from the cannery tour. It was pretty awesome!

A picture of some of the Bumblebee worker ladies back in the 40's, I believe. 

I don't think they give out shad roe recipes anymore. 

After we finished walking around the cannery we headed to Fort George Brewery for some beer and food. February is stout month so they had a bunch of stouts on tap. Katie and Renai each got some stout, but I ended up getting a Vortex. I just wasn't ready for stout at 11:45am. ;o) 

We did the brewery tour! Good times, as always. 

I history nerded out at this point. Past of the actual Fort Astoria is behind the brewery. There is also a blue line painted on the street and sidewalk to designate where the actual fort was. I. Was. So. Excited. 

After the fort we headed over to the Heritage Museum.  I ended up talking to the front desk lady for a long time. She was so interesting! I finally started doing the tour, of which this little guy was the first thing I saw.

 This cannon was found in the sand around Astoria and dates to the late 1700s/early 1800s. NBD.

The most amazing float in the 1911 centennial parade, for sure. 

Two words: "painted cats" 

After the museum we went to check out the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. The view and the lighthouse were so pretty! 

After the lighthouse we headed back to the yurt, where we all took naps. We are a wild and crazy bunch! After we nibbled on trail mix, candy, and bread for dinner we headed back to Astoria to listen to Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers. I know Ray from Ketchikan, so I was hell-bent on being able to hear the band play in Oregon! It was an awesome time!

Sunday morning we headed to Waikiki Beach, so we could see it in the daytime. See, I told you there was a ton of driftwood! We all walked the beach for a bit and then Renai decided it was time for her and Katie to head home, which is good because it turns out she had the flu. Poor girl!