Mount Rainier is rain-ier...

Clay and I just celebrated our first Camping Trip! Goood times. Good food, good scenery, good company.

These first few months of marriage have made it ever-clearer that I am anal-retentive in areas where one is supposed to be relaxed...i.e. camping trip. Isn't that supposed to be chill and low-maintenance? Not with me, man! Three evenings of packing and planning and shopping and preparing...lists of supplies, lists of food, and a very thorough menu were all part of the pre-camping fun. (Clay would not call this fun.)

But the preparations and pre-event stress paid off, because we had so much fun! The campground was great, the food was great, and we used all the gear we bought at the last minute...(an axe, a collapsible 5-gallon water container, tarps, rope, extra tent stakes). It was also exciting to break in our brand new gear! Our new tent and new Whisperlite stove. And, we re-learned how to play cribbage and explored several pieces of Mount Rainier's Northeast corner.

On Saturday, Hannah & Jon drove all the way out from Seattle (a 2-hourish drive) only to go on the most miserable of miserable rainy hikes with us! The trail itself was pretty cool--having been rerouted back and forth across and through a riverbed...but the payoff at the top was less than spectacular, since Rainier was fogged in when we got up there. By that time, it was very cold and very rainy, and we still had a 90-minute hike back down to the bottom. By the time we got there, we were all cold and wet through...

Hannah reassured me that they wouldn't drive all that way to have a miserable day in the cold rain for just anyone. So, it's nice to have friends that go out of their way to endure ridiculous experiences with you. When we were on our way home and dry again, Clay said, "That was fun...I liked camping, but I don't ever, ever, ever want to go hiking or camping in the rain again. That was not fun." So, considering that fall is settling into Washington, it may be May before we're camping again...

Goooo Camp-in' on the Moooooun-tain!

After many weeks of deliberation, it has been determined that tomorrow, we will go camping here:







And attempt a glacial day hike with these fine people here:







One of my bridesmaids Hannah (whom I originally met in Kenya) and her husband Jon just moved to Seattle, and we've wanted to get a camping/hiking excursion in before Hannah and I start school.

I've been planning menus and making packing lists, and I absolutely cannot wait to put to use some of the new and fantastic gear we've received off of our REI Registry. (i.e. a brand new Marmot tent, an MSR Whisperlite, and my trusty Lexan French Press.) Yesterday, I was stressing about about the meal planning a little bit--thinking about how much we'd need...what variety I wanted, etc. And I was scolding Clay a bit for not caring more.

He responded, ever so eloquently, "Listen, if I were planning the menu, it'd be simple. Hot dogs, buns, s'mores, cereal, milk, chips, salsa. Every meal. That's it."

To which I of course respond, "But on your long day hike, what about a pack lunch..."

To which he responds, "No, no, no...on a low-maintenance camping trip, there's no all-day hiking...you return to camp to make your lunch at every meal."

I'm, of course, trying to figure out how to saute vegetables over an open fire and trying to secure the best recipe for grilling salmon. And I'm hoping for a 7-mile hike to a glacier on Saturday!

So...apparently Clay's up for quite the adventure!