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Breaking from our tradition of Memorial Day vacations below the Mason-Dixon line, Adam, Crosbi, and I rented a cabin at the foot of Whiteface Mountain. It's not that we were averse to going south but rather we had certificates to be awarded, Adirondack 46'r Certificates of Accomplishment.

We took a leisurely hike along the Ausable River, ate delicious MexiQuinn food, and strolled around Lake Placid. I read an entire book. We drank beers on the third floor balcony of the Lake Placid Brewery lazily watching the not-so-lazy tri-athletes swimming Mirror Lake.

We headed up to the Crowne Plaza to meet up with hundreds of other Adirondack mountain climbers for the Annual 46r Dinner. There could be no more appropriate location for this ceremony as Crowne Plaza is high above the town of Lake Placid with a view of our finishing peak, Whiteface. There was a tear-inducing tribute to Grace Hudowalski then those that finished the 46 in 2013 were lined up in order of their final summit time and led to the podium to receive their acknowledgement. It's pretty amazing to be in such a large group of folks who "get it" and know that enduring the challenge of the climb is worth it in the end.

Beautiful time lapse video by Andrew Walker

Our planet is awe inspiring and humbling if you take a moment to silence yourself and truly observe it.

Gratuitous siamese kitten shots

Olive in deep thought

Olive and Louie are pretty much inseparable

Here you can see Olive's kinky tail end

Lest you think she usually sits still, this is what most of the photos looked like

(more photos here)

welcome home!

We are very excited to add Olive to our family! She's currently adjusting to her new surroundings and has a little sanctuary built in my studio. There's been a little bit of hissing from our other siamese, Louie but our rescue cat, Stan Lee is non-plussed. It's a lot to get used to for the little one, especially with a big, goofy dog in your face who makes a ruckus with her feet clicking around on the floors!

C'mon...sign up.

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There's a little signup box over here on the blog up at the right. Let's see if I can embed it too...YES! I guess I have learned something from blogging for a million years.

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esther and whiteface make 46!

in just under eight hours of hiking adam and i finished esther and whiteface bringing us to the finish of our quest to complete all of the 46 adirondack high peaks! i'll be writing the rest of my trip reports and submitting them to my correspondent ASAP in order to officially become an adirondack forty-sixer!
we started from the atmospheric sciences research center. while this trailhead shaves some distance off the total hike it leads you up a less than beautiful first mile of loose rock on a very steep trail up marble mountain. luckily, once you reach the summit of marble the trail becomes much more enjoyable albeit no less steep. the trail was also very wet and muddy. waterproof boots were well appreciated, especially after seeing so many folks on the trail in just running sneakers.

just one portion of the "trail"

there's not much i can say about esther that hasn't been said before. the herd path to the summit is relatively flat and painless, but is very muddy. while there is no view, there is a plaque which offers some gratification for the walk.
back on the wilmington trail we headed for the summit of whiteface, passing ski trails and a lift, soon coming to the intersection with the scenic highway to the top of the mountain.

encountering whiteface veterans memorial highway

undoubtedly this is a strange high peak experience to encounter so much "civilization" on a summit. the final part of the hike is quite steep and you emerge onto the summit (and into a gaggle of tourists) from behind the tower on the peak. it is an interesting mix of folks - lots and lots of them. you can tell who drove up the mountain mainly by their lack of muddy clothing and that they do not sit on the rocks (too dirty).

no lack of company on the summit

we certainly underestimated the mighty winds of whiteface and were woefully underdressed. it was cold enough to see your breath. adam had a difficult time "uncorking" our little bottle of champagne. despite the conditions we spent at least a half an hour on the summit. the clouds were below the summit making it feel like you were on top of the world.

the "view"

a little more than two knee breaking hours of descent and we were back at the car, in disbelief that we had ACTUALLY DONE IT!!!

more photos from this hike are here.

more photos documenting (most of) our 46r trips are here.

two years ago.

skylight - #44

we are only one dayhike away from becoming 46rs after this weekend's backpacking trip. we spent three days camped at flowed lands and climbed mt skylight. so many people say this is their favorite high peak and after seeing the summit on a clear day i can understand why.






many more pictures here.

vacation.

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(more photos here)

cerulean.

'hick's orchard' • 7X10" • watercolor on paper

what an amazing bright, spring weekend, eh? (except, perhaps, if you live in minnesota or wisconsin.)

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i got my hands in the dirt and wrangled some early weeds. adam mowed the lawn for the first time this year. we grilled our saturday night dinner and i finally think i (may have) mastered a vegetarian "meat" sauce for loaded veggie dogs. we finally watched '7 psychopaths' which i think is my current favorite movie. it reminded me of 'reservoir dogs' although not quite as violent.

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we have a very exciting vacation planned for the end of this month. i plan to take full advantage of the time to relax as i have a couple big projects planned for june. 

more on june to come!

fingers crossed for strawberries.

i got a new camera this week. it's completely tiny; smaller than my phone. it takes bigger pictures than my dslr-over 16 mega pixels. the best part is that it takes photos underwater! yup, it's completely waterproof!

happy april!

lake george from shelving rock

sometimes you need to just get outside and get some fresh air to remember how simple and vital life really is.
i hope you all recharged over the weekend!

high on the list of women who are awesome...

love her.

a beautiful, if not slightly creepy video for another masterful kaki king song.

finally, right?!?

i know!
you have been WANTING a shirt/hoodie/pullover with my giant bee on it!!?!!
now you can finally go to my society6 shop to buy it!

spiced whole wheat oatmeal cookies.

perhaps it's time to revisit and share one of my most popular recipes. i still follow the the ingredient list closely but tend to add a bit more of one thing, and change up the fruit or chips each time i make it. sometimes i add some extra spices like ginger or cayenne.

1¾ cups whole wheat flour
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
½ lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
2 large eggs
2½ tsp vanilla extract (definitely NOT the imitation kind)
1 cup dried cranberries, blueberries or other fruit
1 cup white chocolate, cinnamon or butterscotch chips
3½ cups old fashioned rolled oats (not quick cooking)

preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. lightly grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

whisk together all dry ingredients except the oats.

beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until well blended.

stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until well blended and smooth.

stir in dried fruit and oats (and get a great shoulder workout).

keep dough chilled until ready to bake.

drop the dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. bake about 14 minutes, one sheet at a time, until cookies are lightly browned and just barely firm when lightly pressed in the center. rotate sheet halfway through cooking time for even browning. 

remove sheet from oven and let stand until firmed slightly, about 2 minutes. transfer cookies to racks to cool.

(the recipe makes about two dozen cookies.)

hark!

can you hear the trumpets?
no?
well, i can! i just paid off my student loans!!!

a favorite adirondack walk.

the short trip up to the summit of shelving rock mountain is one of our favorite, no-brainer local hikes. a brisk 1.7 mile walk will reward you in under an hour with amazing views of lake george and the surrounding mountains. we even found a new vista on our trip up yesterday, perfect for watching the turkey vultures soar on thermal air currents.

(more photos here)

a perfect autumn day.

a hearty brunch to start the day, home made by my awesome husband. that rockhill bakehouse marble rye is so delicious.

checking out the foliage while making our annual trip to hick's orchard in granville, ny.

we picked a half bushel of perfect jonagold and northern spy apples, then went to the cider house for cinnamon sugar donuts and a bottle of apple wine.

a hearty, spicy vegetarian chili in the slow cooker to be enjoyed with a sparkling apple wine and a scary movie!

a lot of laughing.

you know, the following pictures might not accurately capture all of this past weekend's camping trip to lake harris. scratch that-they definitely don't.
how could you encapsulate a gigantic amount of awesome laughter, abundant food, positive energy, and fireside banter into a handful of photos?
we were surrounded by amazing people all with the same brash sense of humor and an excellent recall for eighties movies. it made for conversations that always ended in brays of laughter that were so intense your cheeks hurt from the effort.
we considered who our doppelgangers would be and tried to determine their names.
we debated whether that streak across the crystal clear night sky was actually the milky way or just a "bunch of clouds". (it's definitely the milky way.)
there were bald eagles and a roving bunch of very large raccoons who pillaged our food on the second night.
did i mention there was a lot of laughing?