The Super Duper Birthday Wrap-up

Now that the festivities are officially over, let me give you a peek into last weekend's birthday events.

As noted earlier, we decided to head up the Mountain Loop Highway towards Mt. Pilchuck and the Heather Lake trailhead for a day of snowshoeing. The car was packed with boots, snowshoes, trekking poles, and daypacks filled with synthetic jackets, gloves and a wide array of snacks. To the northeast (the direction we were headed) the weather was grey and cloudy; normally, this is not a good sign but we seeking wintry weather to add to the adventure of our trip.

However, as the rain started to drizzle across our windshield, we became a bit anxious that we would be re-living one of the many hiking trips where we trudged along in a heavy downpour for hours. I can tell you from personal experience that there is little fun involved as you will your drenched self against sheets of cold, unforgiving rain, hoping the car will suddenly appear in the distance.  Much to our delight, as we began our climb up the road to Mt. Pilchuck the precipitation magically changed to light, puffy snowflakes.

The snowshoeing adventure went off without a hitch - and, unfortunately, without snowshoes. Lately, the weather has been so warm that the trail, although covered with several feet of compacted, icy stuff, did not require the loft provided by the shoes. In hindsight, strapping on our sturdy snowshoes would have helped with traction as the crampon components would have given us much better footing on the slippery and icy terrain.

Due to the trail conditions, it took us about 1 1/2 hours to hike the 1.9 miles (& 1,500 ft elevation gain) to the lake. Despite the need to dodge low-slung branches and melting, 2'-deep post holes, the alpine lake suddenly appeared before my eyes and all of the "hard stuff" on the way up was suddenly forgotten. The lake was half-frozen in places and the rest was covered in a soft blanket of snow. A wisp of clouds skimmed the ridges surrounding us, while the evergreen trees were dressed in a wintery white. It was simply stunning.

In honor of my birthday, Dave built me a "snow seat" and placed an inflated camp chair/mat so that the cold wouldn't bother me.  How fabulous is he?!

As I sat there on my seat of honor, sipping chicken noodle soup and chewing on lush, dried mangoes while gazing at the lake, the whole thing felt like heaven. As I continued with lunch, Dave finished his and then trekked around the shore, trying to capture loads of images of the serene surroundings.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. In order to make it back for my birthday dinner, we started to pack up our things as a loud & rowdy group of kids made their way up to the lake and began disturbing our peaceful retreat. Luckily, we had the quiet, beautiful place to ourselves for a time - and that was sufficient for us.

The trip down felt like someone had pushed the "fast forward" button on a movie. We had suddenly realized that we were just a bit behind schedule and we could not be late for our very important dinner date with Dave's family! Thanks to sturdy trekking poles and a bit of luck, we made it down to the trailhead without any twisted ankles. The walk down to the gate, where the car was parked proved to be quite the challenge; in the hours that we had been gone, the temperature had risen, turning a decent, snowy road into a mushy mess. It felt like walking on quicksand, which was also slippery. At that point, I felt like we were running just to get out of the nasty slush.

Finally - the car was in sight, boots were removed and we were sailing (at the speed limit, more or less!) down the Mountain Loop Highway. In some miraculous turn of events, we made it home with plenty of time. I had feared we would literally have 15 minutes to unpack, shower, get ready and get to the restaurant for our reservation. Of course, with that knowledge, I took my time getting ready until I realized that we were going to be late! Nice try. Oh well.

At Claim Jumper, we made our late, grand entrance with a herd of high school kids and saw Dave's whole family seated beneath a multi-antler chandelier. Dave & I ordered the exact same thing: rotisserie chicken, mashed new potatoes, grilled vegetables and a humongous corn muffin (with divine honey butter). The highlight of the evening was watching Lucy (Rachel & Bracan's daughter) dine on her appetizer of choice: a bowl of ketchup. She plunged her index finger in, licked it off, then repeated until all ten were covered in a glorious glove of red goo.

Although the wait for dinner was pretty excessive, the warm food tasted heavenly and the company was wonderful. But after the day we had had, I think peanut butter & jelly would have tasted like gold and hit the spot equally well. Seriously.

We ended the night back at our place, where Dave's brother, Jon, & his girlfriend, Aubrey, played CatchPhrase and Battle of the Sexes with us. I don't think that I have laughed that hard in quite some time - and there is something so satisfying about laughing so hard your sides ache and your eyes well up with tears.  Yeah, it was that kind of birthday happy. 

It was an awesome way to cap off our big day; laughing hysterically and chatting while munching on warm & gooey homemade chocolate-chip cookies with ice cold milk. 

A day just doesn't get any better than that.