Always Onward Adventures

We are off to Hawaii! We had planned this trip to Kauai last year and we were excited to get some sun. My parents were arriving just before us and were there to be our welcome party. Just to make things interesting, we purchased a new home a few weeks prior and our closing date was in the middle of the vacation - perfect timing, huh? 04/13/2025 Our house was in boxes, but we managed to put together three bgs of Hawaii essentials (sans a swimsuit for Tom that would need to be purchased there) and we were off to the airport!

It’s been a while since my last post - but not due to lack of adventures! Sara and I have been skiing like there’s no tomorrow: 25 days in total this year, almost a month of skiing this season! Sara was a spectacular skier for her age before this season, but seeing her slide down a double black like a pro at the end of this season was a huge rush.

Summary We had a rainy weekend ahead of us, but having not been on many adventures as of late, we opted to go exploring. I read about an abandoned mining town (ghost town) in the north cascades called “Monte Cristo”. We ended up leaving home late and it was a 2 hour drive to get there, but we decided to push on and brought along some lights! It was raining a little when we started our hike at about 4p. It was a 2 hour drive to get here and we had to make a few stops on the way. The trail was quite nice, wide and flat, which meant we could hold hands which Sara loves.

Summary MS bike ride. Round 2. Ten years later. Ten years ago, we did the MS bike ride with some friends - the ride starts and ends at the Skagit county fairgrounds and it broken into two days. You have the option of doing up to 150 miles, but most people do a lot less than that. Despite not having done this ride in 10 years, Angela and I decided to give it a shot once again. We headed out on Friday evening and met up with the crew for dinner and stayed at an airBnB in someone’s basement (complete with very low ceilings). The next morning, the real fun began.

Sara and I decided to take a backpacking trip for the long weekend - probably our most ambitious to date. After some deliberation, we decided on Ross Lake - which is just north of Diablo lake in the North Cascades National Park. We arrived on the night of Aug 31st to pickup our permits - only to discover that they closed at 4p and weren’t going to open til the next day. No big deal - we slept in the van at a beautiful boat launch and then headed over at 7a to pickup our permits. We were planing on staying at Roland creek camp and then rainbow point the second night. This was going to be a 7 and 9 mile push with over 1k feet of elevation change in two separate days (with a shorter day in the middle) - and Sara was carrying some of her stuff now… We will see how this goes!

We continued our African adventure at Camp Moremi. The camp is located within the Moremi game reserve - which is a separate reserve from Savute in the Chobe National park, but still within the larger Okavango Delta. We spent 3 days here, exploring a very different ecosystem which was much more wet and lush than Savute. 8/6/2024 Our drive from the airport to Camp Moremi was relatively uneventful, we got stopped twice by elephants in the road and then by Bush Buck - which is a new type of antelope that spends most of it’s time in the water. They are also very fluffy and cute…

Africa - here we come! After about a year of planning, Angela and I along with Derek and Diane are off to Africa for 2 weeks on an epic Safari. We will be traveling to 3 locations across Botswana - including Savute, Moreimi Game reserve, and a walking Safari and a float trip in the Okavango Delta. This post will include the trip to Africa and the first camp - Savute Safari Lodge. We are very excited for this adventure!

Summary Having spent last summer on an epic journey and needing to juggle work commitments, we decided to spend this summer much more local. To that note, we left for the San Juans at the end of June planning to spend a little less than 3 weeks exploring the smaller islands we haven’t seen yet. 6/29/2024 We spent a few hours on Friday juggling cars so that we had a vehicle in Anacortes in case we needed it. After getting back to Seattle late, we decided to spend the night on the boat Friday night - partly so we could get an early start on Saturday and partly so we could feel like our vacation was starting a little earlier. We departed early in the morning on 6/29 - targeting either Port Ludlow or Port Townsend for the night.