Juan de Fuca

It's a little late, but here are the pictures from Jared's backpacking trip as promised!
So here's a map of the area:

Jared was hiking the Juan de Fuca trail, which is along the coast of Victoria island on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. From this map, you can see more details of the trail itself. 

Jared and the group of 70 high school students, teachers and helpers started in the area designated as "most difficult." You can see from the trail map how many little creeks and inlets they had to cross during the trail. Apparently it was pretty muddy too :) Here are the pictures from their first day:

 This is where they camped the first night, Chin Beach.

Jared's campsite

 The second day was more hiking. This portion included a pretty long and scary looking suspension bridge--this is the view looking down:

  The third day, they drove up to Botanical Beach, where they studied the awesome tide pools.

 It makes me green with envy. Fortunately, they didn't see any whales--if they had, I would've been real mad :)

 Oh, and they have awesome massive trees there too (probably still my favorite feature of the Pacific Northwest).

It looks awesome. I can't wait to explore the island myself :)

Procrastination

I'm supposed to be writing a Life Story right now, my reluctant part time occupation Thursday-Sunday, but instead I'm doing a pretty fine job of procrastinating. It's not that the subject's story is extremely dull or challenging, it's that my mind is spinning off in a flurry of distraction, forcing me to choose more gratifying past-times over what I'm supposed to be doing.

So far in my procrastination I've filled out half a Nexus application (cross your fingers--goodbye border waits and sometimes-cranky guards!), caught up on my Michigan current affairs and politics, eaten lunch, and taken a couple pictures. Now I can add "posted on my blog" to that list.

After this, I'll get to work :)

For me, the best part of waking up is not Folgers in my cup--it's this:

My window sill herb garden. The last time I posted about this, I was welcoming baby sprigs of basil into the world. Now, that basil is growing into an actual plant. See how big it's gotten?

And I also have some tiny strings of chives--

 Tall gangly things reminiscent of a boy in grade 9. And some baby parsley.

These guys were the most reluctant to show their faces, but they've grown so quickly in the past week they nearly rival the basil.

The only plant really taking it's time to grow is my oregano. It was quick to sprout, but hasn't really done much since. It calls to mind one of the parables---only my seed was planted in good soil and lovingly tended to.

Really, I'm not exaggerating when I say I am proud of these plants. It's all I can do to stop myself from watering them every time I step into the kitchen. It is hard to imagine that they will eventually be big and strong enough to be cut for cooking, but it's been fun to watch them slowly develop into the plants they'll be someday. My parsley has just sprouted some new leaves that actually look like the parsley I know. And I was thrilled to discover that those minuscule sprigs of basil give off just as much scent as they will full grown. Gardening is fun, especially when it's right in front of my face every time I do the dishes :)

Though I must admit, with all the maternal pride coming out in this garden, I have to wonder how over-the-top I'll be as a mom someday. If I'm this obsessed with some tiny plants that I'll later eat, how excited will I be about my own kids (someday in the very far off future)?

In other news, Jared and I got our BC drivers licenses in the mail yesterday. Due to some sort of face recognition technology, they don't allow you to smile for the picture.

It looks like a mugshot. I used to produce my ID with pride when asked at the grocery store or a restaurant, but now I'll probably be a bit more reluctant.

And in a slight bragging moment---isn't my table so springy and cheerful?

 I love it. Dressing it up in cute tablecloths and fabrics feels like having a grown up barbie.


Jared got back from backpacking yesterday--he came all the way from Vancouver Island and still had dinner waiting for me when I got home, bless his heart :) We'll post pictures from his trip later this week--and I promise you, his trip was a lot more interesting that my silly little herb garden :)

Thanks for helping me escape from responsibility for a while.

May and Mamma Mia

Well it's a Monday night after a day of work, Jared's out backpacking and I'm watching Mamma Mia, fighting tears as I watch this scene:

Meryl Streep - Dancing Queen from Mamma Mia by gokhanh

Is it weird that that scene chokes me up a little bit every time? I'm not sure why, it might be because I wish I could dance around and sing and jump in the water. Or maybe I'm just nastalgic, wishing I could be a 17 year old dancing queen--though I don't think I really learned to dance until I was 20.

I always forget, but this movie just does it for me every time. I'm a sucker for any movie that has bright colors, a good love story, synchronized dancing and singing, maybe a little girl power and a wedding or two. Mamma Mia has it all. And now I'm done with that little commercial :)

The last couple weeks have been wonderful here in Langley. Jared and I are finally adjusted to my working--just in time for me to go full time :)

We had a wonderful Easter weekend last week--Jared had Good Friday and Canada's very own Easter Monday off, so we had some nice free time to dilly dally. And as has become a usual little trend that I love, we spent our free time exploring and cooking up culinary masterpieces.

Here's a photo taste for you, with recipes too:

We made a delicious spaghetti and meatball dish, making sauce by hand. The recipe called for crushing tomatoes with your hands--

 --it resulted in one tomato massacre throughout the kitchen. A violent, tomato juice mess. But it tasted sooo good.

 The recipe for tomato sauce with leek and lemon juice meatballs is here.
I mentioned last time that Jared is a fan of pancakes of all shapes and sizes. This weekend, he perfected the crepe. Then, whipping up a lemon curd filling, he assembled this delicious crepe cake:

It was tangy and delicious. The recipe for the lemon curd is here. We shared it on Sunday nights with our Young Life friends Seth and Chad, twin brothers from BC. It was a bit of a non-traditional Sunday, we spent the evening cheering on the Canucks over pizza.

But I've discovered that no Easter is complete without sticky buns. So I made a batch for our Easter Breakfast.

They weren't ready until noon, but were still sticky and delicious. I used the recipe here.

And that's all in the food department, I promise. :)

I've finally uploaded photos from our last hikes and explorations. There's a couple different hikes in here.

 First hike with the Young Life leaders.

 Its been warm for a while now, but we hiked into some pretty slippery snow.

 Fortunately I didn't fall, but I can't say the same for Julie (one of the YL leaders)

 Saturday we went to White Rock with Jared and Elise for fish and chips. I'm not a fan of the fish and chips, but the beach was beautiful. And suprise of all surprises, there's a giant white rock at White Rock. They cheat though--it gets vandalized so often that they paint it white every year. We climbed to the top--it was a bit scary, but a little boy around 5 years old was mustering the courage, so I figured I probably could too.

 We made it!

Getting down was a bit more nerve-wracking, but fortunately I had some help :)

 The beaches are pretty and salty and oceany, but to be honest they're nothing compared to Michigan. Walking on the half salty mud half pebble and stone beaches makes me ache for Michigan sands and dunes.

We may be a long way from home, but I think I can safely say Jared and I are both still "smitten with the mitten" :)

Happy May!