For our spring trip/annual vitamin D booster this year, we decided to go to Hawai’i instead of Utah. I really, really love the red rock desert, but from now on I think all of our spring breaks will be spent in the South Pacific. Man alive, it’s awesome down there.

Anyhoo, we decided on the island of Kaua’i since it’s known as the adventurous isle, and definitely the best island for hiking…but we didn’t end up doing much hiking at all. We quickly decided that it would be foolish to not spend as much of our time as possible fully submerged under water, snorkeling with all sorts of non-shark ocean dwellers.

We did manage to sneak in one backpacking trip between all the strenuous beach trips; the (in)famous Kalalau Trail.

The first time I read about this hike was in an article in Backpacker Magazine entitled America’s 10 Most Dangerous Hikes. You would think that would give me, an incorrigible exposure wuss, pause, but I am used to reading guidebooks from Washington, where any minor trail inconvenience is described with a sense of impending doom. The Kalalau Trail goes up and down and up and down, hugging the cliffs along the majestic Na Pali coast. Pssht, I thought. How bad could it be?

Luckily I came to my senses when I found photos like this on the intertubes a couple of weeks before our vacation. I realized this would be no place for me to freak out/freeze up/stagger around like a nervous drunk, so we (I) decided that we would only hike to Hanakoa, a mile before the sketchy stuff starts, and camp there.

In the end, I was relieved when we made it to Hanakoa and could relax. The trail itself is not that challenging, but the heat and humidity were really getting to me. Since my body pretty much consists of a series of tubes filled with Norwegian blood and enveloped in copious amounts of insulating blubber, it’s clear that all my time on a tropical island should be spent in the water or in the shade of a coconut tree. Anyway, it was heavenly to take a bath in creek and hike up to beautiful Hanakoa Falls.

The next day, we packed up our things and headed back towards civilization - but we weren’t ready to leave quite yet. We still had a night left on our permit, so we decided to camp on Hanakapi’ai Beach, a mere two miles from the trailhead. The weather didn’t feel as oppressive on the hike out, so we spent more time admiring the gorgeous views of blue, blue water, green, green plants and red, red flowers.

We set up our tent in the purdiest campsite we’ve ever seen, then set about sunbathing, cooling off in the creek, playing with the beach cats and generally just loving life.

Sunset and sunrise? Magnificent.

On the third morning, we packed up and made quick work of the remaining two miles. Our immediate reward was a cleansing swim on Ke’e Beach and a strawberry smoothie from the roadside stand. All trailheads should have access to tropical beaches and fruit snacks.

All in all a great trip - in an ideal world I would be less of a nervous idiot and actually make it all the way to Kalalau Beach, but alas, even the slightly eroded section on the way to Hanakoa made me all shaky and stumbly.

Along the trail, we ran into several of the year-round beach dwellers (real live hippies!) heading out on resupply trips. Barefoot and carrying nothing but tiny rucksacks with some water, they all looked so peaceful on their journey. I’m sure the fact that they were all stoned out of their minds had nothing at all to do with their blissful existence, but still, it felt kind of poetic when I was lumbering along with my huge pack, struggling with my emotional baggage and my actual baggage. We could all be more island-like.

In an effort to a) get in better shape (so I can go on our summer backpacking trips without throwing up my lungs) and b) keep the blues away, we’ve decided to start hiking with TNAB again. Yes, the Thursday Night Afterburners, a motley crew of mountain renegades who run up trails at ridonculous speeds while normal people are sitting on their couches eating ice cream and watching The Office.

Our first post-Hawaiʻi (yes, Hawaiʻi! More about that later when I get my photos up…) TNAB destination was Rattlesnake Mountain East Peak. We’ve been to Rattlesnake Ledge a dozen times or so, but this was the first time we ventured beyond the ledges. Since we got a late start, we summited after the main group had already started descending, but we all reconvened at the Pour House in North Bend for Blue Moons afterwards.

Next up was Bandera Mountain. This was my third time up this trail since September, and I am growing rather fond of it. I’ll have to go back some time in July when the beargrass is out.

Anyhoo, the sun was shining and I was wearing shorts for the entire hike, which made me happy enough to almost forget about my racing heart and seizing muscles. Once we hit the snow line, JK raced ahead while I followed at a more leisurely pace. It was still 30 minutes faster than when we went in February, so I’ll count it as progress!

The sunsets are what really make TNAB hikes stand out, and we were treated to quite a doozy as we started hiking back to our cars. The combination of great views, strenuous exercise, sunshine, beer, fresh air and great people = natural Prozac. Mission accomplished, at least for a couple of days. :o)

I heard rumors (aka whining on facebook) of a massive snow dump in the Cascades while I was in Norway, so JK and I decided to cross-country ski up Amabilis Mountain on Sunday. Apparently we should have done more research, since there was barely any snow for the first 1.5 miles and the white stuff we encountered the rest of the way was hardly fit for skiing (although I could just be saying this to cover up my lack of skiing skills).

I was also totally unprepared for how deliciously warm it would be. It was amazing! I rolled my pants up (and cursed myself for wearing my black ninja clothes instead of a t-shirt) and went on to stockpile enough vitamin D to last me all week.

After optimistically putting our skis on and dejectedly having to take them off again about seven times due to the random whims of the pathetic snow cover, we got annoyed and decided to forge ahead, snow or no snow:

Once we hit continuous snow, the rest of the trip was a breeze. This little mountain has a lot of views for minimal effort. We soaked up some more sun at the top while eating cowboy cookies and taking in the scenery.

Skiing back down was like trying to push myself forward through some sort thick, gloopy paste, but (miraculously!) we made it back to the car without a single fall.

This was a great little cross-country ski tour even for a novice (I fear I am forever entrenched in this category); it’s a gentle uphill all the way, which fortunately also means it’s a gentle downhill on the way back. According to my GPS, our loop was 11 miles with 2,500 feet of elevation gain.

Park at the Cabin Creek Sno Park (you need a groomed trails pass in the winter when there is actually snow that can be groomed). North of the freeway, ski (in our case, walk) Forest Service Road 4826 until you get to the sign for Amabilis Mountain/FS 4822. After two miles or so, you get to a junction; both roads lead to the top.

As if the day wasn’t good enough already, we stopped and had phở on the way home. Aah, Washington, how I have missed you.

Fortune smiled on me as I managed to get my new American visa just in time (as in on the way to the airport) to fly out of Norway before the enormous ash cloud of doooom brought Europe to a stand-still. Since I just so happened to be flying Icelandair, I did get to take this photo of Eyjafjallajökull brewing on something as we were flying over her on my way to Norway:

It is rather sobering (especially for someone living in an area studded with volcanoes like, say, Washington) to consider all the earthquakes and volcanic activity we’ve seen around the world lately. The gods are angry.

In less eruptive news, I spent a very nice and relaxing Easter back in Norway. I think I really needed some rest (mentally); I spent most of my time reading, going for walks - my parents live in a beautiful place - and just enjoying the company of my family. Oh, and EATING WAY TOO MUCH, but that’s what you’re supposed to do when you visit your parents, right? Right??

Since volcanoes are all the rage right now, here’s a scrapbook page I made a while ago of our “climb” (ok, snow slog) of Mt. St. Helens last year. It’s been sitting on my desk for months, but apparently I am never going to get around to finding any embellishments for it…so here it is in all its naked glory. (I used a sketch by Becky Higgins.)

Thank you so much for all your comments and well wishes, it helps us to know that Bobby touched a lot of hearts.

It’s been a very tough week for us; the house feels so empty and we haven’t had much energy to do anything at all. It gets better with time, I guess. I’m heading home to Norway on a somewhat last-minute trip to visit my parents tomorrow, so that will definitely help.

I haven’t been scrapbooking much lately either, but I put together this one (using Karla’s products) last week - I’m thinking I should start making something like this for every season (or month?) so I can at least capture all the major goings-on in our life even when my scrapbooking mojo is nowhere to be found.

Just about 11 years ago, this little heartthrob was born:

That tiny, fuzzy rat grew into a very handsome boy named Bobby, and I fell in love with him and JK at the same time (some might say that JK lured me into his arms using Bobby as bait).

After we stole him from JK’s parents, Bobby became our furry (well, not that furry) son. He even came to our wedding:

Bobby was a perfectly healthy, happy dog until last year when he got very sick with meningitis. He somehow managed to pull through, and for these last two months he was like a young dog again. JK and I were amazed by how energetic he was, so it came as a complete shock to us when he suddenly collapsed and had a seizure in the dog park last Friday. We drove as fast as we could to the vet, but it wasn’t fast enough. Our beautiful little boy passed away in my arms.

I am so glad that both JK and I were there, that Bobs was so happy, and that he was in a place he loved so much, the dog park. Even so, I am absolutely devastated. Bobby was my constant companion through so many years, and I miss him so much.

Thank you for keeping us warm at night, and for keeping me company through some very tough and lonely times. Thank you for going on walks with us, even though some of them were very long. Thank you for being so patient when there was suddenly a little brother in the house. Thank you for being the best little dog in the whole wide world.

I’ll miss your weird little growl and how good your ears smelled, and that cute sound you made when you yawned. You were the most loyal friend anyone could ever have. I love you.

To celebrate my newfound ability to walk, Wellie and I took JK up Bandera Mountain this weekend (Wellie and I visited Bandera with Jasper and Dani in September, but JK had never been). The (lack of) snow was just as perverse as in the rest of the Cascades this “winter”, making a summit that would normally be beyond my capabilities in February a mere walk-up. In all honesty it felt like it was May or June (we both said it reminded us of Mount Persis last year), and I was kicking myself for not having the foresight to wear shorts.

The steep boulder/bear grass hillside was covered with a slushy, slippery layer of snow, so I was happy to have my hiking poles and Yaktrax - we met several traction-less hikers who had turned around due to slippage. Wellie made good use of his K9 crampons.

‘Twas a Moste Excellente Sundaye Outinge, especially since the sun decided to grace us with her presence. And because JK brought summit chocolate. And because it felt fantastic to go out and make my hindquarters sore after three weeks of injury-induced sofa sloth. Huzzah!