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.

Sunset our first night

The quarry where all the moai came from

Goofing around at Rono Raraku

Ahu Tongariki

Birdman carved in the rock

The "Naval of the Earth" - a cool magnetic rock!

Rano Kau crater

We saw a turtle sunning on the beach one afternoon!

Super splashy waves here!

Home is only 7714mn from us!

Sunset on our last night from a GREAT restaurant

I recently got some film developed that I thought was from Easter Sunday, when Jonathan and I went to Cape Lookout to go check out whales. Imagine my surprise when the roll was of my dad and I's trip to the Cape Meares lighthouse and Mount Saint Helens last summer! (Which means I'm not sure where our Easter roll is... *sad face*)

Here's some of my favorites from that roll!

As I mentioned before, Jonathan and I had a pret-ty great weekend. Saturday we explored the Pittock Mansion here in Portland and then Sunday we decided to hit the road for Easter! We went to Cape Lookout to see if we could see any whales and, boy howdy, we sure did! Tons of whales!

Neither of us had been to Cape Lookout before, so it was a special trip for both of us. The hike in was 2.4 miles and was pretty easy. There were a few ups, downs, and overs, but it was mostly really MUDDY in some spots. Luckily, we had our trusty Columbia hiking shoes on and we were fine. The people we passed who were wearing flip flops......probably not so lucky!

It was a perfect temperature at the lookout. It was a wee bit windy, but it was warm, so neither of us were shivery. We stayed there looking for whales for a little over an hour and then decided to head back. There had been talk of fish tacos at Ecola Seafoods and with it being an hour back to the car and then over another hour drive to Cannon Beach, we needed to hit the road!

We got to Cannon Beach and there were tourists EVERYWHERE. For it being Easter, I was surprised at how many people were there. However, we found parking and upon opening our car doors, all we could smell was fresh waffle cone! Ohhhh, it smelled so good and toasty! We had talked about getting ice cream at Tillamook Cheese Factory when we passed through and then decided to go straight for the fish tacos instead, so to smell this magical smell... oh, man.

We made our way to Ecola Seafoods and when we got there I was pooped. I inhaled my fish taco, though! It was SO GOOD. (They are always fabulous and I highly recommend them!) We had wanted to do more exploring in the afternoon, going to Ecola Park and then having dinner at Fort George, but I was so tired and it was so late and such a successful day that we decided to turn around and head home. 

Good thing we did because I fell asleep in the car! I slept almost the whole ride back to Portland. I felt like a little kid who has a full day of adventure and then eats and is *out*. That was me.

It was a super fun weekend and I had such a great time with Jonathan! I can't wait until our next adventure!

P.S. Holy crap, I just found a great article about the plane crash on Cape Lookout. Sad!

P.P.S. If you are me, it is a good day if you get to pee in the woods not just once, but twice!

This is a shell midden that I TOTALLY nerded out on!!

Sea lion buddy, not a whale

SUCCESS!!