Meeting His Family...

I sit writing this in my home timezone: central! It's been almost a full 7 months since I have been in CST. I have spent the majority of 2015 in Pacific and a little in Mountain Time and the first week or so in Eastern Time. I got my timezone bases covered for awhile now! As many of you know, I hopped on a plane and jetted back to the Midwest for the Fourth of July. What some of you may not know is that I spent it in Byron, MN with Aaron and meeting the Wait side of the family. I remember everyone's names and who belongs to who. Read up.

Roxanne and Chuck are Aaron's mom and dad and his sister is Kelly. Chuck's sister is Ellen who is married to Mark and has two daughters, Margit and Betsy (who I did not meet), and a son Matt. Chuck's brother is Mike who is married to Beth and has a daughter, Emily, and a son, Eric. Chuck's parents are Dorris and David. And no, Aaron is not sitting next to me to ensure I get this right. 

So, I barely slept on the plane but have no fear, I took a few naps throughout the day on Friday. So we got picked up from the airport by Aaron's parents and made our way to Byron. I took a nap as soon as we got there before I met the family. After my nap, I wandered downstairs and ran into some of the family (before I had my coffee). I took a walk with Beth in the morning, played birdie/badminton before lunch, ate an enormous plateful of food, took a nap, went to the Oxbow zoo, went to a Honkers baseball game and saw fireworks at the end of the game!

Saturday, I took another walk with Roxanne and Beth in the morning. Chuck cooked another wonderful lunch of steak and salmon. The Wait family also decided I needed to get my Star Wars education finally. We started with Episode 4 and I fell asleep during it. Hey, Aaron is still dating me so it musn't have been too big of a deal that I wasn't into it :) In the evening, we went to a parade in a nearby city. I managed to get some popsicles which was pretty nifty. Aaron and I grabbed some Subway for dinner and then headed over to the church to watch the fireworks. We played frisbee with the cousins before we enjoyed the fireworks. All the fresh air left me tired and I crashed hard that night.

Sunday, most people had to leave for home. In the morning, Beth, Mike and Erica started the drive back to Ohio. The rest of us played hearts before lunch. Then we said goodbye to Ellen, Mark, Matt, and Margit as they started the drive back to Iowa or South Dakota?? for school. Then it was Aaron, Emily, Roxanne, Chuck, Dorris, David, and I left. To be totally honest, I don't entirely remembered what we did Sunday evening but I do know it involved more good food stretching my stomach to the max!

Then came Monday. David and Dorris left early in the morning. The rest of us had dinner with Roxanne's parents at a restaurant called Honkers. Emily had Thanksgiving for lunch. No seriously, Thanksgiving was literally on her plate. In the afternoon, we played more cards, snacked, and then had to start packing our belongings back into suitcases. We dropped Emily off at the Rochester airport before heading to the Twin Cities for our flight. We said our goodbyes, checked in, jetted off back to Eastern Time, retrieved my car, drove home all before midnight. And the cherry on top of the huge, wonderful, amazing cake was that I didn't even need to work the next day :) Instead I hiked Mailbox Peak (9 miles roundtrip, 4000 foot gain). 

All in all, I had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend with the Wait family. They are all so sweet and extremely kind. Oh, and have I mentioned how great of a cook Roxanne is?! She went out of her way to make sure I had vegetarian, dairy free food to eat :) And Chuck sure knows how to run a grill!! Poor Aaron has to eat my cooking again. Moral of the story, I had a great weekend!

South Early Winter Spire

Hey hey hey! So I have some really big news to share with you. The only people who know are Aaron and I. I haven't even shared this with my brother or Anna!! Now you know I'm 100% serious about this. I'm just not exactly sure how to break the news to you because I'm so gosh darn excited!! Well... I guess I'll come out and say it.

I'm...

I'm...

I'm in love with Washington Pass. I mean look at this photo! It totally stole my heart and took me into it's lovely mountain slopes. It was so hard to leave but i will be back!

View from pitch 5 of Southwest Rib

Anyways... this past weekend, Aaron and I made the drive to Washington Pass near Mazama, WA. We drove up Thursday after work because I had Friday and Saturday off. We packed the truck with climbing and camping gear along with our bikes. We hid our bikes and locked them up in the woods and slept in our second home: The Tacoma.

Friday, we woke up early to beat the heat. It was a splendid and comfortable 103 - absolutely perfect for climbing. We got the climbing rack in order, stuffed our packs, put on our shoes and started the hike to South Early Winters Spire to climb SW Rib (5.8). We kind of lost the trail on the hill to find the base of the climb but nothing a little bushwhacking couldn't fix! Eventually we made it to the start of the climb and got situated when Mama Goat and Baby Goat strolled on by and stared us down. We cruised through some pitches, had a clif bar, turned around to soak in the view, and made our way to the summit. We were in the sun after about pitch 6 and it was HOT. Like North Carolina hot without the humidity. My forearms were the color of cooked lobster later that night even after sunscreen application! We found some meager shade on the summit and had lunch before packing up and downclimbing via the South Arete. By the way, Aaron and I climbed that route with Alex and Katie last summer to break me into alpine climbing and consequentially get me addicted. If you'd like to read about that, here is the link (http://lifeofmegan6.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-weekend-was-better-than-yours.html) and even back then I knew I was in paradise. We made the drive to Mazama for some cold drinks, ice cream, and sunscreen and then went back to the truck for dinner and sleeping.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and about the clouds. -Edward Abbey

Saturday, we woke up early because we had a tougher climb ahead of us. We were gunning for Direct East Buttress (5.9+ A0) where I had many firsts on that climb. We tossed our bags on our backs and started hiking up the gully which was a little further away than it appeared. We had a leg burner of a hike, then a traverse along the mountainside on loose terrain, up another leg burner, and through a tree to finally reach the base. We roped up and got at it. We were in the middle of pitch 2 and this guy just comes flying by. I'm like yeah go ahead, there's another belay up there. Well just as I was about to start climbing, I see his partner simul-climbing so that guy clearly didn't belay above me. (I later found out that the first guy placed 2 pieces and essentially cruised through the third pitch a 5.9+ layback with a roof without being belayed. Good for you man). Anyways, Aaron and I keep making our way through the pitches and the party below us is patient when I thought flailing through the 5.9+ layback was a good choice. Then came the aid pitches. Aaron taught me how to ascend the rope the night before so I think it went fairly well and I wasn't painstakingly slow. Once nearing the end of the pitch, there is a mandatory 5.10c traverse section. It took Aaron a little confidence building talk and convincing me that I could do it before I gathered all of my courage and pulled off the move. That was one of the scariest (and happiest) moments of my climbing life. Then we had one more aid pitch and then cruised then next few pitches to gain the summit!

South Early Winters Spire is the second spire from the right. The gully in the left middle is what we hiked up to get to the base of the climb on Saturday

Aaron was meeting a friend, Jim, for more climbing on Sunday but I had to race back to the city because I worked on Sunday. We quick ate dinner, tossed the stuff Aaron needed for the next time, and I took off for home and slept in the most amazingly comfortable bed I could ever dream of. I barely remembered to take a shower. That my friends is how you know you had a great weekend climbing in the northern Cascades.

Kiddo is in Town

Good day beautifuls! It is a roasty one again here in Seattle! Why don't we turn on the air conditioning you ask? We don't have AC! Yippee yahoo. So excited. At least it's not awful humid like NC :) Thank goodness for icecubes!

Anyways, two weeks ago my brother flew to Seattle for a week long visit! He landed at SeaTac in the late afternoon and one of my coworkers was sweet enough to cover my last half hour or so so I could go with Aaron to the light rail station and pick up my bro. We got Jayman from the station and headed back to our apartment to get him settled in. Aaron had to do a little more work from home so Jay and I hung outside by the lake for a little while before dinner. Around sunset, we went over to Gas Works Park to throw a Frisbee and snap some photos.

View from Gas Works Park. Sunsets are a beautiful way to end a great day.

 Thursday, Aaron went to work and Kiddo and I took a bike ride around downtown. Our first stop was the Public Market by the sound. There was a huge display of freshly caught fish (very appetizing to the vegetarian), tons of local artists, cherries, cherries, cherries, apples, and musicians. It was beautiful to see when all the action was going. I should also mention that the very first Starbuck's is right down there too so naturally we stopped by to see it but the line was insanely long so we didn't go get coffee!! We picked up a Father's Day gift for Papa from a local photographer of the Space Needle at night. Then we biked on over to the Space Needle/Seattle Center and had lunch in a museum.

Then came the weekend. That means mountain time.

I'll take this view to fall asleep to and wake up to. Beats a cement garden.

Friday, Aaron left in the morning to go hike in and set up camp at Melakwa Lake. After work, Jason and I headed out to the trailhead and hiked the 5 miles, 2300 foot gain to where Aaron set up camp. We relaxed and enjoyed a fire for the night. Then Saturday was the exciting day! We woke up, had breakfast, and then started the hike to the summit of Kaleetan Peak (2 miles, 1760 foot gain). We followed a steep trail, up to Point 5700, down and around another peak, and then a third class scramble to the summit. Kiddo was incredibly fond of that!! Just ask him! We got some summit selfies, ate some food, and then hiked back to camp. We tore down camp, packed our bags, and hiked back to the car. Enjoy these beautiful photos!

Point 5700 gives you this beautiful view of a cairn and Mount Rainier. Don't mountains make you feel like Earth is the most beautiful living canvas? 

Some other peaks piercing the sky.

The rest of the time he was here, I was working a lot so we went out to dinner a few times, and just chilled in the evenings. Sunday we took him to Kerry Park to get the beautiful view of Rainier and Space Needle at sunset while enjoying Molly Moon Ice Cream! We had a great time and I cannot wait to see my little brother again :)

Y'all know how tough of a decision I made when I decided to stop my graduate program and move to Seattle. I can say with 100% certainty that that was the absolute best decision I have ever made in my life. Yes, I am looking into Master's programs in Washington and am hoping to be back in a program in a year or so. But every weekend that Aaron and I disappear into the mountains, I am reminded that I live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Pacific Northwest. My stresses fade, I don't have worries (besides that I don't have enough time to climb all the peaks and routes I want), and I am happy. I will never, forever, regret my decision to move to Seattle when I did. I love this place.

My guys right before they jumped in the ever so chilly lake!

What to Do When Parents Visit...

How's it going y'all? Sorry I haven't posted lately! Aaron's parents visited us and we kept busy! I also had a bunch of training shifts at Starbucks to keep me busy during the week. But besides that, not too much is new.

Aaron's parents flew in Friday, May 29th and I picked Chuck and Roxanne up from the airport. I drove them to the car rental facility and then went home to apply for plant pathology jobs for a few hours as they got settled in. Late afternoon, they came over and I showed them the apartment, the stunning views, and sat down and chatted. We also went for a nice little walk around Eastlake and the lake-front near our apartment. Alright, so why wasn't Aaron there? He and his team from Amazon were hiking Mount Si! Everybody made it to the top and back down although it took them awhile. Anyways, once Aaron got home we went out for dinner at China Harbor in Westlake. After dinner, we went to Gas Works Park to watch the sunset and the city light up. It was an insanely gorgeous view as always.

I promise you that this picture doesn't do it justice. It's so freaking pretty.

 On Saturday, we hiked Rattlesnake Ledge (4 miles roundtrip, 1160 ft gain). It was super duper crowded but the view was totally worth it. Roxanne found a bunch of "natural springs." We had a nice hike up, ate Pringles at the top - Chuck is brilliant, - and then hiked on down. But you would not believe what happened to me on the way down!! I walked off the trail to go to the bathroom and I had to get past a bush. Well, a little wild cat jumped out of the bush and clawed my knee!! I even have the picture to prove it!! Thankfully Aaron's mom is a nurse so she cleaned and bandaged my knee up to prevent infection. We stopped by Rattlesnake Lake and the Waits taught me how to skip rocks. Let's just say I really need to practice. We had a late lunch at the Mexican place in North Bend and then headed downtown to see Mad Max in the AMC theater. It was a good movie, but personally I thought there were 3 places the movie could have ended (but didn't) and it would have been just fine. Still a great way to unwind after a lovely day.

I don't care what kind of hike I need to take to get beautiful views like this from Rattlesnake Ledge. "I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more..."

Sunday morning we took a bike ride around Lake Union. As we were on the north side of the lake, we had a great view of Rainier. We also saw the draw bridge/bascule bridge open to let a boat through. We ended up in a farmer's market in Fremont and were then on our way to Amazon. Aaron showed us his desk, the beautiful view he has, and then we finished our ride around the lake. We decided to do the Boeing tour so we had a quick lunch at Eastlake Grille. At the Boeing tour, we saw planes being assembled, being moved from the assembly building to the paint hangar, and learned cool facts about their planes. The most outstanding one I remember is that each wing of a Boeing 747 (their biggest one) holds 1900 gallons of fuel. I have no idea how much jet fuel costs but I have a feeling it's a lot. Oh, and the list price of a Boeing 747 (if you want your own private jumbo jet to fly around everybody you know) is something like 350 million dollars. PSST! That's without the engines. Those are an additional cost.

On Monday, Aaron's parents left for Olympic National Park and we went to work. I had training where I crammed information in my brain like I had a final exam. It was a lot of fun. Then on Friday, Aaron and I went to Pitch Perfect 2 with some of the girls I work with (Sydney and her bf Derek, Sam, and KC). I liked the movie and it was nice of them to invite us!

Saturday, Roxanne, Chuck, Aaron, and I hiked the 10 miles roundtrip, 2500ft gain trail to Melakwa Lake. It was a nice hike and Aaron and I scoped out a peak we want to do when my bro visits in a few days!! It was really hot during the hike so that made it a little miserable but we took it at a casual pace. Melakwa Lake is beautiful. Like seriously beautiful. Around sunset, we went to Kerry Park and had quite the view since it wasn't cloudy! We went to Molly Moon Ice Cream and then watched the sunset make the city glow pink and make Mount Rainier look even more stunning. I mean, check out the pictures.

On our way in to Melakwa Lake! Straight ahead is the Tooth!

Melakwa Lake

 Sunday, I had a practice opening shift at Starbucks where I got up bright and early. After work, we took Aaron's parents to the airport and said our goodbyes. We had a great time with them and it was wonderful getting to know them better (and them getting to know me as well). Then Aaron and I grabbed some Jimmy John's and drove out to Exit 32 to climb at Mount Si. Unfortunately, I didn't have the best time climbing due to me waking up early and being rather cranky but Aaron flew up Aborigine (11c) and then worked the extension Technorigine (12c).

View from Kerry Park.

Doesn't that peak just beg you to climb it?!

This week I've been working on my drink making skills and writing codes on cups. I am basically a pro (feel free to laugh all you want). Aaron is on call this week but thankfully nothing broke the website when he was home so he didn't have to hop on his laptop and fix anything. But yeah, we've just been hanging out, doing our thing, and enjoying the absolutely beautiful weather!! Now I'm just hanging out on my day off (naturally the weather is crap), writing my blog, cleaning the apartment, running errands, the usual. So on that note, I'm out. Enjoy the pictures!!

Cloud 9

Hi beautifuls. I hope y'all are having as wonderful of a day as I am. The sun is shining. The mountains are kissing the sky. I had my morning coffee. So this morning Aaron's parents (Roxanne and Chuck) flew into Seattle and I picked them up from the airport. They had a wonderful flight and were transported safely to the rental car agency and are currently getting settled in. Funny that I saw Aaron's parents before he did. Speaking of, he is taking his team from Amazon to hike Mount Si today. I wonder how that is going...

I was hanging out at South Lake Union Park and just taking photos of the plants. I took this photo and looked at it more closely and noticed the Space Needle chilling in the background. Turned out pretty well, eh?

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep their light. -Theodore Roethke

Before I delve into climbing and nature adventures, I think I should slow it down and tell y'all some other cool news. I had my first day of work at Starbucks and I can make a latte like a professional. I've never had a job in the food/beverage industry in high school, so it's all new and I'm learning a ton. Also, learning about making coffee beverages and different brews flavors and what food goes rather tastily with them meshes really, really well with my plant pathology knowledge of growing coffee and it's diseases. I'm beginning to know the entire process from planting coffee, disease management, harvest, drying, roasting, grinding, brewing, tastes, aromas, and techniques. I know that is exactly what y'all think when you go into Starbucks and order a grande vanilla latte. I just really like it when what seems like two totally opposite things fit together like puzzle pieces and suddenly you get a big picture but have all the tiny details as well. And the partners/coworkers there are hilarious! We are a bunch of sci-fi and fantasy movie/book nerds. Game of Thrones and Star Wars all the way. Oh, and to top if off, work is a mere 3 blocks from my apartments and I get a lot of free caffeine all day every day. Megan is happy.

Collect moments, not things.

Leave nothing but footprints. Take nothing but pictures. Kill nothing but time.

This is the creek that was right next to our campsite. So soothing to fall asleep to.

One more quick note. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes via whatever method you used! i felt very loved. And a huge shout-out to Anna for the English chocolate - I ate half of it already :)  Although she is 8 too many time zones away, we make a long distance friendship work very well. I promise you I am doing everything I can to save up money for a flight to London because it has been way way way too long since we've seen each other.

Sawtooth Ridge looking mighty fine in the clouds.

Needle Pass! 

Okay, so now the climbing/mountain/nature spiel. On Memorial Day Weekend, Aaron and I went to Olympic National Park to go do Mount Cruiser. After battling traffic, talking to a few rangers, and obtaining the correct permit, we were on our way. With heavy packs strapped to our backs, we set off on a 7.5 mile hike to where we were going to camp. We cruised the first four miles in an hour 15. Then we hiked the next 3.5 and gained roughly 2,500 feet. We set up camp, refilled our water from the creek, ate some oh so delicious freeze dried food, hung out, and fell asleep pretty early. Sunday is the funday.

Photo credit: Aaron Wait

I'm improving on my snow skills. Slowly. Surely.

So Sunday morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and took off towards Glady's Divide. After another 2 miles and gaining 2,000 feet, we made it to Needle Pass. Thankfully we stopped to take a little break and looked around. The clouds had cleared just enough so we could make out where we were trying to go otherwise we may have walked right on by. We made our way across some talus and scree to get to the snow field. We put our crampons on and grabbed our ice axes and started up the kind of steep snow on the Pass. Miraculously, I didn't slip, fall, or stumble too much and made our way up the snow quickly. BUT, we did see bear paw-prints. Then we scrambled up some third/possiblyfourth class to gain the ridge. We made our way across towards Mount Cruiser by squeezing through some rocks (awkward photo to prove it), down a gulley, across a catwalk, and more third class. And BOOM we saw it through the clouds. Anyways, we got to the base of the climb, roped up and started our way to the summit. It was super easy climbing but it was exposed when you got up there. We were literally in a cloud. Cloud 9. You know, I thought that would have been the coolest thing ever when I was 5. At a wise age of 23, it's not what I imagined it would be. Anyways, the view from the summit was awesome! There were another 2 guys up there that we chatted with and rappelled with.

Then came the get down the snow time. Megan is not nearly as gracefully descending as she is ascending. I learned to self-arrest on the fly/slide thanks to Aaron calling up to me as I'm sliding down the slope getting snow in my pants. I was a very happy camper until that happened. Once we got back to the talus/scree my joy returned. We returned to camp, managed to get it all back in our packs and made the mad dash back to the truck. We were going to stay one more night and maybe do a short hike the next day but we decided Mexican and a bed sounded a little better. My quads would definitely agree with that decision. Anyways, Monday we lounged, ran some errands, and that's about it.

Mount Cruiser. 

The clouds were so cool. Totally disguising the peaks on one side and exposing the peaks on the other side.

Then Tuesday I turned the age nobody likes you. 23. Thanks Blink-182. Anyways, I had a nice relaxing day, enjoyed the beautiful weather, wandered around Eastlake/Capitol Hill by accident, and applied for plant pathology jobs. Then Aaron made me dinner of salmon, rice, and veggies and we watched The Hunger Games together. It was a lovely day.

As I said before, Roxanne and Chuck are here in Seattle! Yay visitors! So I best be going to finish up my odds and ends duties before we meet up this afternoon. Bye y'all. Enjoy the sun.

This view made it so worth it. We camped under the thick cloud cover in the top right corner. I love the Olympics.

As promised, the awkward photo squeezing through the rocks. More like a beached whale roll over the top.

Oh Here We Go Again

Good morning, afternoon, evening, or night. Choose the appropriate one for wherever you are at this morning. For Anna, it's night. For me, afternoon. But for someone I never met and stumbled upon this blog, it may be morning. Whatever. You get the point.

I first started this blog for my family to read because I didn't live nearby. They followed my adventures starting in my last year at Wisconsin where I made Dean's List both semesters, traveled to Guatemala with a plant pathology class, flew over to England to see my dearest friend, Anna, and graduate with a B.S. in Plant Pathology in a short 3 years. Then they witnessed my 1000 mile journey to Raleigh, North Carolina where I started graduate school at NC State, my love for climbing begin, develop, and become my rock (haha, oh puns), and woke up with me at 3 am and go to bed at 11pm after a full day of research. They journeyed through my happiest moments in life even though we lived in different time zones. They understood why I put graduate school on pause as I went to pursue other dreams. My family was a part of my life as I drove from Raleigh back to Elkhart Lake with Kati car packed as many of belongings as I could fit. 

Reason One to come visit me in Seattle: We have a view of the Olympics from our living room and bedroom. The sunset behind them is one of the most beautiful sights imaginable. This is a view of the Olympics over the Puget Sound.

 They smiled as they knew I was going on a trip of a lifetime and doing what made me happy instead of being shoved by what society deems as "necessary to be successful." They traveled to Red Rocks, Nevada as I lead my first trad climb ever! They followed me to Bishop, California where I climbed my hardest boulder problem ever! They journeyed with me to Yosemite, California where I climbed 2 of the 50 Classics of North America and learned how to crack climb. They followed me to Seattle, WA where I dealt with the novelties of moving across the country for the second time. They felt my stress as I applied for jobs, received smashed belongings in the mail, scrambled to pay bills since I was jobless, and figure out life. They felt my anxiety on my first day of work where I tried desperately to make friends or at the least have my coworkers like me (I'm very clearly not from here...). They felt my anguish as I morphed into a weekend warrior. They could sense my joy as I climbed my hardest trad climb with little difficulty. They try to understand my frustration of traffic on I-5 (it's downtown Chicago but 37x worse - yes, that's a rough estimate). 

Then new people started reading my blog and they couldn't decipher my tone. Was I serious or joking but using a serious tone? Is she really that dramatic? They don't understand my ramblings or my sarcasm. Nothing better than moving across the country and knowing one person. Nothing better than having to test the waters to see if you can truly be your silly self around new people. Thankfully, people in the south are as endearing as you think they will be. I discovered that my quirks and slight social awkwardness would bring me friends immediately. Hence how Dane and Patrick became my immediate friends/climbing buddies. Hence how I wiggled my way into the hearts of my future coworkers. Hence how 80% of TRC members are my friends (the other 20% I just haven't met). TRC is the kind of gym where you can bust out your best dance moves and all they see is a person who is thoroughly enjoying themselves. TRC is the kind of gym where you can ride the struggle bus on a climb and the person next to you on the wall cheers you on (or rides the same bus and laughs with you). I guess what I'm really trying to say is that I miss TRC and all of the members and employees so gosh darn much. I really truly love y'all with every bit of my heart. You took the northerner in as one of you.

Reason Two: Seattle is a beautiful city. It's clean and smells pretty good for being as big as it is. I mean, Starbucks originated here, there's Pike Place, Space Needle, The Sound, ferries, expensive but delicious places to eat, and lots of lakes.

Anyways, sorry for the dialogue. Sometimes people can be frustrating and I just have to shake it off like T. Swift. And yes, I like that song. It's fun to dance to. I will happily turn up the volume and sing out of tune as I inch along I-5 towards work. Man am I easily sidetracked today! Unfortunately I wasn't able to get out and climb last weekend because I was scheduled full shifts both days. But I was working for the SBP 4th anniversary party which made the time go by super fast. So nothing cool to talk about really. It's work. Although it's at a climbing gym so that's always at least a little fun.

Last night, Aaron and I went to Exit 32 and climbed at the World Wall. We warmed up on what felt like a very brutal 5.10c (Girls in the Gym). I say brutal because I usually don't warm up on hard 10s especially when it's my second time at this specific crag where I'm learning how to climb on the type of rock. Then Aaron red-pointed (still not entirely sure what that really means...) Hang Them Out to Dry a 5.12a (maybe 12b?). He kept saying that his hangboarding routine is paying off. He has fingers and tendons of steel. Anyways, then I gave it a go and fared fairly well. We were both impressed at my performance! By the way, this was my second 5.12 I've ever touched outside so making it up about halfway was a huge accomplishment! I will admit, I had to jug through one section because I couldn't quite figure out how to make a move (after struggling for 15 minutes and denying I wanted a boost). Anyways, it was a cool climb and I'd be totally psyched to try it again once I get some training on.

Reason Three: Do I even need to say it? Mount freaking Rainier! I'm not even going to explain this one.

Oh oh oh! I don't really remember what weekend this was but Aaron and I hiked Mount Si and climbed the haystack via the southface direct (or something like that) to the summit! I had my new fancy pack (well, it was new and fancy in Yosemite) filled with the trad rack, my shoes and chalk, food, and water. It wasn't the lightest pack I've ever carried but I have had heavier. Anyways, we had a 4 mile, 3500ft gain hike until the climb. My quads are the strongest they've ever been, I promise you. Wall sits are nothing nowadays. Anyways, we cruised up the trail, climbed the chossy route, had a quick snack and headed back down. For the brief amount of time we were in the sun, I managed to get a wicked sunburn. I'm still peeling like an orange.

So, yup. That's all for now. I have some very exciting news about my birthday weekend. Well, actually it's Memorial Day Weekend but my birthday is next Tuesday so I'm going to say it's my birthday weekend. I'm not going to tell you the news now goofballs! But it does involve mountains... 

Not Entirely Broke

Hello you beautiful sentient beings! I hope you are having a wonderful day. It is currently sunny and in the 60s. Can't really wish for more than that eh? So anyways, we've begun to fall into a routine. It is nice and only slightly boring. Come on. Who honestly wants to do the same things every day? Well, maybe you do but I don't. I like a little diversity thrown in with the routine. Anyways, I have absolutely no idea where I was going with this. I'm not even going to apologize because I've been up since 4:51 am (my time) to get to work. 

Missing Madison....

So, this blog will be rather short and sweet! I got my first paycheck so yay! I hate to say it, but my first paycheck wasn't as big as Aaron's first paycheck so yay him! So, when he got paid, we went out shopping so he could finally get his relaxin' chair. We bought his chair at Consign Design and looked for a TV stand/table there but didn't find one we loved. So we had dinner at a local Chinese place and then headed south to Renton to hit up Target, Ikea, Kohl's, Home Depot, and some other place. We ended getting a TV stand/table at Ikea (heavy sucker) and bought a tree painting at Kohl's. WHAT?! Megan getting a tree painting? Who would have thought? Now all I need is a frame for the elephant art Aaron got me when he was bouldering in South Africa!! Oh, and he so nicely bought me a bike (which I will eventually be able to pay him back for)! Now, I can go for bike rides when he wants to relax after work and I am revving to go.

Watch out for the bus!

The only other cool things that happened were a birthday party on Saturday and climbing at Index on Sunday. Patrick and Eugene (other Amazonians) had a get together for their birthdays! I only knew Aaron and the birthday men so I met tons of people which is always nice when you first move to a city! We had drinks and food (even had veggie burgers for me) and more drinks. Then the birthday men played a game to see who could set up a game of ladder golf the fastest (although they've each had a few drinks in them). That was highly entertaining!

Sunday, Aaron and I went out to Index for some trad climbing. Unfortunately it was really busy there and we couldn't get on a route that we really wanted to. But we did get on Japanese Gardens (to the first set of anchors) which Aaron was psyched on. The first pitch goes at 5.10a so it was a good lead for Aaron. Then I had a go at it and it was sweet. Yes, I struggled to get out some of Aaron's pro especially a nut that was placed just barely ever so slightly out of my reach. I was kind of leg-barring / body jamming myself into the rock and twisting around and reaching as high as I'm physically capable of and still took almost 10 minutes to get it out. Either way, it was an awesome climb and I want to do it again.

Index, WA in winter. Can't wait!

Then Aaron and I got on Tatoosh which I believe they call a 5.10b. Aaron lead this climb and I followed on up. We had an experience with the rope not being long enough but we managed. There was a group of older men with tons of experience spitting off beta for the route and climbing in general and Seattle stuff. They were highly entertaining (most of the time). Tatoosh was another good climb which I thankfully didn't have to take out the gear. Oh, and just saying, I totally have the strongest shoulders/back/arms I've ever had my whole entire life and climbing Tatoosh proved I really needed them. I am the Layback Queen. And Aaron is the Fingerjam King.