Moab Trip, September 2015

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Our Moab adventure started early in the trip with my good friend Jim Darmiento and his wife Ione missing our 6:00 a.m. flight from Seattle to Salt Lake City, Utah. So it was my wife Linna, me and my longtime friend Mike Curry on the flight to Salt Lake City. We ended up picking up Jim and Ione at the Salt Lake City Airport four hours later in our BMW (Bigass Mormon Wagon)…also known as a Chevy Suburban. After everyone was loaded up we headed down to Moab with a lunch break at the beautiful Sundance Resort.

Our first day in Moab we hit the Jail House for breakfast on Main street and then we were off to Arch National Park which was totally awe-inspiring and just a five minute ride from Moab. Note to oneself…start very early, it’s much cooler and less people! I am pleased that Linna convinced us to go back to the park at sunset to watch the Delicate Arch change from a sandy brown color to a vibrate orange. We finished our day with a 9:30 p.m. dinner reservation at the Desert Bistro desertbistro.com which was the finest restaurant in Moab.

Linna was able to convince the group a second time to get up 5:30 a.m. and head off to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park to watch the sunrise and see the sun rays turn the Mesa Arch from a dull sandstone color to a fiery glowing orange. This was completely worth waking up damn early, I absolutely recommend this. We hit the highly rated Love Muffin café lovemuffincafe.com for breakfast after we got back to town, great food but long lines and ordering at the counter gave me negative vibes. We still had plenty of time for a nap before our river adventure in the afternoon.

If you only have time for one adventure in Moab during the summer…I highly recommend paddle boarding on the Colorado River with Paddle Moab paddlemoab.com. Josh (guide/owner) made the 2 ½ hour river trip exhilarating, entertaining and relaxing.

Czech Republic Trip, September 2015

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My preparation for a vacation consist of buying an airline ticket and booking a hotel for my wife Linna and I. We have showed up many a time in another country with no inkling what the hell we are going to do or see, but one thing we do well is stumble upon remarkable restaurants and discover the cool spots in town.

The flight from Seattle started in good fashion with me receiving a new seat assignment of 2C to Amsterdam. Well…it was marvelous for me, but my wife was still stuck back in comfort plus. I tried to convince (really) her to exchange with me but she insisted for me to keep it. We all know there is a major difference from sleeping flat versus upright!

Our destination was Prague, Czech Republic with a blank itinerary. This is our first trip to the Czech Republic and we spent most of it around Prague. Our hotel was centrally located and just a short walk to the Old Town Square and train station. We did a lot of walking which is the best way to see Prague of course. We visited all the local stuff…started off in Old Town Square, Charles Bridge and then onto the Prague Castle our first full day. We finished our day with a Thai oil massage and a late dinner.

We had heavy lunches and late dinners and usually found a semi-romantic dinner spot around 9:00 p.m.. We would focused on outdoor dining knowing the inside could be a little smoky…those Prague people love their cigarettes; plus we love to people watch too.

We pretty much completed Prague in three days so we decided on a day excursion to Dresden, Germany. Dresden is just over the border of Czech Republic and was completely destroyed during WWII by the controversial heavy bombing by the British and Americans. Dresden has been reconstructed and now Germans consider Dresden as their country’s most beautiful city.

Alaska Fishing Trip, August 2015

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Not too many people in this world get a chance to go on an epic fishing trip in Alaska for Salmon and Halibut, but I did and with the blessing of my beautiful wife Linna and I took it. My long-time friend John Dorsey asked me to come along on this grand fishing trip with both his sons. His son Michael Dorsey is a professional fishing guide during the summer and hunting guide during the winter at the famous Hatchery Cove Lodge on Evans Island near the tiny village of Chenega, Alaska. Michael is the Captain of Halibut Hooker, a new 43 foot fishing boat equipped with two 310hp Volvo engines owned by Bob Hodsons. Bob is also the owner of Barney’s Sports Chalet barneyssports.com a specialty outdoors shop in Anchorage, Alaska. A special thanks goes out to Bob Hodsons to let me live the dream for a few days!

John and his other son Matthew Dorsey from Fort Collins, Colorado flew into Seattle from Denver where we met up and the three of us took the same Delta flight to Anchorage, Alaska. Delta Airlines is starting to match routes with Alaska Airlines and Delta was offering this killer deal for $180 bucks round-trip from Seattle to Anchorage…oh hell yes.

Michael and his son Hunter were waiting for us in Anchorage, I haven’t seen Michael for a couple of years and I didn’t recognize him at first sporting a thick Jeremiah Johnson reddish beard. We picked up groceries in Anchorage and drove over to Whittier where the Halibut Hooker was mooraged. We quickly loaded up the boat with 5 days of supplies and took off on a three hour tour to the Hatchery Cove also owned by Bob Hodsons.

We fished for 4 days nearly limiting every day on Coho Salmon, Halibut and a bunch of Rock fish. We were allowed 3 Coho (Silvers) Salmon and 2 Halibut each day, but 50 miles to the East in Resurrection Bay near Seward, Alaska you were allowed 6 Coho a day.

When it comes to fishing, the Dorsey clan have so much fishing experience that you will be assured there will be fish on the boat and a lot of it. Even though I held my own, the Dorsey’s out fished me each day; they are also gentlemen when it comes to splitting the vacuum packed fillets at the end of the trip.

Mailbox Peak Hike, August 2015

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Mailbox Peak
Date: August 7, 2015
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 7.5 Miles / 12 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet / 1,219 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Maxime Tissier and my wonder dog Macho.

This was the third time this year I conquered the famous mailbox peak, but this time I invited a newbie on this heart pounding steep hike. My new recruit was Maxime Tissier, a young French man visiting here on a college exchange student program.

Currently the road to Mailbox is undergoing major road work so the trail doesn’t open up until noon on Fridays. We started up the old steep trail around 12:30 and made good time passing all the people that started before us. We were the first ones to the top so we had the Mailbox to ourselves. After a few pictures and some lunch we headed down the long dreaded 5 mile “easy” route down.

Since traffic back to Seattle was horrendous, we made a pit stop at the North Bend Bar & Grille for a couple of Mac-n-Jacks. Once we made it through traffic and back home, a quick shower was in order. My wife Linna, Maxine and I drove to our favorite Korean restaurant Miraks in Federal Way, Washington for some delicious Korean BBQ.

Grand Lake Loop Hike, August 2015

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Grand Lake Loop
Date: August 1, 2015
Difficulty: 7 out of 10
Distance: 9.1 Miles / 14.6 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 2,600 feet / 792 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near Hurricane Ridge in Washington
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: National Forest Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Maxime Tissier, Tao Song, Craig, Eric & Emelie Espling

This is an epic hike that should be done yearly.

Ozette Triangle Hike, July 2015

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Ozette Triangle
Date: July 31, 2015
Difficulty: 3 out of 10
Distance: 9.4 Miles / 15 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 300 feet / 91 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near Lake Ozette, Washington
Users Group: Hikers Only
Permits: National Forest Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: Linna Freeman, Tao Song, Craig, Andrew & TC Patterson, Maxime Tissier, Emelie & Eric Espling

The Ozette Triangle www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/lake-ozette hike was my first Olympic coastal hike and it was awe-inspiring. I had the pleasure to share this hike with my wife Linna, Max Tessier, Tao Song, Craig, TC & Andrew Patterson and Emelie & Eric Espling.

This is actually a fairly easy hike, but when you combine all three legs to make it a loop/triangle you will definitely feel your legs spent some energy, especially hiking along the rocky sandy beach. The first 3.3 mile leg is trekking through thick forest on board walk over the tiny Ozette river, you can tell that there has been some trail work done recently…many of the cedar planked boards have been replaced with synthetic ones.

Once you hit the beautiful Cape Alava, you head south for 3.1 miles on a rough and rocky shoreline. You will notice tiny offshore islands and wildlife. We could hear the sea lions barking and one that probably quit barking a week or two ago…for it was laying on the beach bloated with no head. We purposely started in the afternoon to make sure we had low tide to enjoy our beach adventure.

At the end of the beach scramble you hit Sand Point at 6.3 miles, you then complete your triangle with another 3 mile boardwalk trek back to the car. This is a beautiful coastal hike at low tide, but it takes a good couple of hours of driving on twisting and winding roads to get to it.

Nebraska Trip, June 2015

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This was a perfect trip…lovely weather, worthy friends and a bit of nirvana.

I had an opportunity to visit my hometown of Cozad, Nebraska and I took it…or I should say my lovely wife Linna gave me her blessing to fly back home for 4 days to see friends and classmates. I also had a motive, my good friend and classmate Jerry Story was coming back from Finland with his family and we haven’t seen each other for a couple of years or so. Plus my other good friends and classmates Brad Wilcher and Nick Morse from Lincoln, Nebraska were coming back too. My ex-brother-in-law Brad Stallbaumer opened up his 6 bedroom house to Wilcher and I and we used it for home base the whole weekend.

First night back we all met up at the local Elks club for food and beverage, we had other 1979 classmates that showed up too; Andy Pflaster, Todd Morris, Deb Hunke and Kelly Worrell. Of course we closed down the Elks and a few of us walked over to Big E’s…the only bar left in my small town of 3,500 people. Even though I finally got to bed in the wee hours, I answered the bell for breakfast at the Green Apple restaurant in Cozad…of course my classmate Todd Morris had to call me out of bed though.

Breakfast was followed by a fishing trip with a long time buddy John Dorsey out to Johnson Lake about 15 miles from Cozad. We usually limit out on decent size Walleye, but our fishing rods were only bringing in small rubbish fish. Not to waste any precious time during this well-deserved hometown visit our group took off to Eustis, Nebraska for Wurst Tag for the evening; this is more or less one big ass party that is similar to Oktoberfest. This was actually a fabulous time to meet up with many old friends to share stories. One major gripe I have is the light beer they were serving during a major German type festival…your only choices were Coors Light, Bud Light and Busch Light! Who in their right mind would serve such crap beer for a major German festival?

My last day was another Green Apple breakfast followed by some target shooting with the Story family. I brought back my 9mm and .45 Kimber 1911 style guns from Seattle and we shot 200 rounds of ammo. This was the first time shooting for Erika and Patrick Story and I know they appreciated it.

Rachel Lake Hike, May 2015

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Rachel Lake
Date: May 21, 2015
Difficulty: 5 out of 10
Distance: 8.0 Miles / 12.8 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1,600 feet / 487 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Exit 62 of I-90 in Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry to the lake
Hiking With: Jim Darmiento, Rick Massie & my fearless dog Macho

My wife Linna is always complaining that I do the same Washington hikes through-out the year, well today I would have made her proud. It was my good friend Jim Darmiento that suggested we try Rachel Lake wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/rachel-lake hike for something new; exit 62 off of I-90 in the state of Washington. It turned out to be a worthy hike with abundance of waterfalls through-out day.

The elevation gain seemed much more than what is posted on the Washington Trails Association website…which was 1,600 feet, but for some reason it felt more like 2,500 feet or more. Once we hit the summit, Jim got out his Jetboil and heated some water up for our lunch at the lake. I came damn close to jumping in, but my body said no….pretty much ice water temperature right now.

We didn’t see too many people all day….just like it should be.

Italy Trip, May 2015

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The last time I was in Italy was 1995 and I have forgotten most of what I have seen or done, so this trip was a nice recap. My wife Linna put this trip together and invited her friend Xiuyun Jiang and her husband John Biltucci and a long-time friend of mine Mike Curry. Xiuyun did an excellent job of planning an itinerary for us in Rome and Florence, our two cities we rented apartments in.

We flew to Rome via a connection in JFK in New York on Delta Airlines and Italia Airlines to Rome. Note to oneself…skip the connection and fly direct to Paris and then bullet train down. Not only is JFK an old grimy airport, you end up flying two long legs. I will never fly Italia Airlines again, my Delta diamond status had no prominence with this Skyteam Alliance airline. It all started when I checked in and my seat all sudden went from a comfort plus up front to a cramped window seat in back with audio equipment utilizing all of my leg room. My wife Linna with no flying prestige was well situated with a four row seat all to herself, she was nice enough to ask me to join her. We were able to get some decent sleep on our way down to Rome.

Our group rented an apartment in the heart of Rome www.vrbo.com/1131096ha with all the beautiful amazing attractions surrounding us. Even though we were all pretty hammered by our flight we mustered enough energy to walk to the Spanish steps and found a perfect outdoor café for lunch and then shopped before we walked back our apartment. After a well-deserved shower we had dinner at a local café right below our apartment.

Mailbox Peak Hike, April 2015

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Mailbox Peak
Date: April 24, 2015
Difficulty: 9 out of 10
Distance: 7.5 Miles / 12 Kilometers Roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 4,000 feet / 1,219 Meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near North Bend, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Wet to Snow-packed
Hiking With: Sam Elder, Rick Massie & my dog Macho

The last time I hiked up Mailbox Peak goo.gl/y3ANNn was pretty much the same conditions, wet with blowing sleet on top. Today’s hike actually turned out better than the forecast which was calling for rain all day. We started around 8:00 a.m. on the old steep trail with cloudy skies, but no rain until we hit the top and it started sleeting some.

I invited my friend Sam Elder to join Rick Massie and myself on this brutalizing journey to the famous Mailbox Peak 34 miles East of Seattle. Sam hasn’t hiked in a couple of years and he had no idea what he was getting himself into, but he made it to the summit with only a few hesitations along the way.

Right before we started up the last steep part out in the open we changed out into dry shirts and left our backpacks behind for a quicker scramble to the mailbox. After a few pictures we descended down the new long 5 mile route. I have now descended twice on the new trail and again it just feels forever, but it still trumps the knee pounding old steep trail.