Pine and Cedar Lakes Hike

One of the last hikes my boyfriend and I did over the summer up in Bellingham, WA.

To wrap up our summer adventures, my boyfriend and I did one last hike up in the Chuckanuts near Bellingham. I didn’t take many photos while on this hike because of the difficulty and steepness we encountered for the first couple miles. This hike round trip was about 5 miles and was a pain to climb. The elevation gain was insane for the first mile or two into the hike. About half a mile in, my legs were burning and I was ready for a water break. There weren’t too many people on the trails which was nice and there were many different viewpoints to this trail you could take.

So, instead of going to the lakes, we took a little off shoot and got a pretty cool view of Mt. Baker and a great place for lunch. This spot was in the sun and all you could see were trees for miles! Another example of why I love hiking in the PNW.

Here was our lunch spot: trees for miles and a view of Mt. Baker

Overall, this hike was a lot of fun. It was pretty steep and a lot of work, but the view was totally worth it. I definitely got my leg workout in for that day. If you’re ever in the Bellingham area, I would recommend taking a drive through the Chuckanuts or stopping for a hike if you have time! Oyster Dome is another popular hike up here and I hope to do that one in the spring when the weather gets a little nicer and it’s a bit warmer out!

Hawaii for the First Time

Join me on my adventure (and many photos) as I embark on Honolulu for the first time!

Over this summer at the end of August and into early September, my family and boyfriend all flew to Honolulu for the first time EVER! We spent 10 days at a house we rented on the North Shore. When we first stepped foot outside of the airport in Honolulu, I couldn’t believe how humid it was. It took me a couple days to adjust, but after that I barely noticed it. Driving from the airport to North Shore took about 45 minutes. The house we stayed at was beautiful! There was so much greenery and the view of the ocean from the lanai was amazing.

The view of the ocean from the lanai at the house we stayed at.

We spent most of our time exploring the island and shopping (of course). One of our favorite spots was a city called Haleiwa, just about 10-15 minutes from where we were staying. Here we went to Laniakea Beach to watch the sea turtles, we went shopping, and tried many of the food trucks around the island. Most of our days were spent driving to different beaches and swimming in the ocean. I had never been in water so warm or so blue, it was amazing to me how clear the water was!

The beaches here were so beautiful. The sand was soft and the water warm.. what else could you ask for?

Another thing that really surprised me about Hawaii was all the little geckos everywhere, both inside the house and out. There were also a lot of chickens running around. Here are a few photos I captured of the geckos. These were really hard to take, they move really fast and taking photos of them on an Iphone was a challenge! But being on “vacation time” I had all the time in the world to try and capture how cute these guys looked:

As you know, I love taking photos of flowers. The North Shore didn’t disappoint with all the beautiful flora and fauna. It was really cool to see the difference in plants and animals when comparing my home in the Pacific Northwest to a tropical island like Oahu. Check out some of the flowers below:

These other photos are of different places we went including the Waimea Valley (where some of the photos of flowers above were taken). The Waimea Valley is known to be sacred to the Hawaiians. Here you will beautiful botanical gardens, a waterfall, and a place that holds a luau in the evenings. We also went to La’ie Point. This was probably one of my favorite places we visited while on the island. You can walk around these cliffs that over look the water and see the huge waves crashing below you. As you look out in the distance you can see a rock with a huge hole in it that was cause from a tsunami hitting it.

Going to Oahu this summer was something I will remember forever. It was so beautiful, the beaches were so warm and inviting, the people there were very helpful, and the food was amazing. I hope to explore the other islands in the future and make my way back to Oahu someday. But for now, I have all the photos to reminisce about all the places we went and long for the warm sun on my skin, sand in my hair, and spending time with the people I love the most.

New Winter Gym Routine

As it starts getting colder out, I’ve had to move my running routes from outside around town to the treadmill indoors.

Now as we move more and more into winter I dread going to the gym. I love running, but I’m not a big fan of running on the treadmill. I always feel like I’m not going anywhere, I miss the fresh air in my lungs, and worst of all my motivation to run long distances goes right out the window. Anything long than 2.5 miles seems to take way too long!

So, what have I done to fix this negative mindset about running indoors? I started using the different legs and arms machines that the gym offers. They were a little intimidating at first, especially not really knowing how and what they worked, but after awhile I got the hang of them. And man was I sore the next day! After doing this full body circuit-type of workout a few times I realized I want to switch up my gym routine and focus on getting a fully body workout as well as increasing my millage on the treadmill. So, with that being said, I am going to also switch my new years resolution (and start on it early). I still want to increase my running millage, but I am going to incorporate “rest days” where I focus on upper body and core exercises. I have been working on a monthly work out calendar as a way to track my progress. This is still in the makings, but I can’t wait to share it with those who are interested. I hope to finish it within the next two weeks and keep you updated on what I’m doing at the gym and record on here how I’m feeling about the workouts I’ve laid out for myself as a way to track exactly what I am doing.

In doing this, I feel it will keep me motivated to not only go to the gym, but also report on it and keep those of you who are interested in following my gym journey up to date. I can’t wait to finish my plans and eventually see the goals I made for myself become a reality. To end this post, I want to leave you with a quote that helps keep me motivated and helps me attain the goals I have made for myself. The words are simple, but I think the message behind them is very powerful. It reminds me why it is important to keep going and push through the pain and the negative mindsets. I hope you will find wisdom in this as well…

“We are what we repeatedly do” – Aristotle

Annual Camping Trip

My family’s one week camping trip to Winthrop, WA on Lake Pearrygin

Every year during the second week of August, my family and two cousins (6 of us total) all pile in to our 1990 Volkswagen Van and make the four and a half hour trek through the North Cascades Highway to Winthrop Washington. I have been going on this trip ever since I can remember. This was the place where I learned how to fish, pitch a tent, roast marshmallows of the fire, tell ghost stories, and cherish the time spent with family away from technology.

Here is the famous van we take when camping. Yes, it is a camping van where the top pops up creating a bed and the bench seat in the back folds out into another bed.

This year at the lake it was really smokey from all the forest fires near by. The sun was this blood orange color at all times of the day and the temperature was way cooler than normal because of the smoke filtering the sun. Needless to say, I got some pretty cool photos because of the smoke, check them out below:

This was taken around 6 am when the sun was rising. I woke up to birds chirping early that morning so decided to go down to the dock with one of my cousins to go fishing.

Here you can see how smokey it was camping, it was definitely pretty eerie over the lake. The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see the other end of the lake!

This trip is the one thing I look forward to every year. It is a place where I get to spend time with my family enjoying the outdoors, exploring the town of Winthrop, and unplugging from social media for a week. At first this time away from my phone was hard, but as I grow up every year I look forward more and more to this separation from technology and really cherish all the time spent talking and laughing among family.

Mt. Pilchuck Hike

Over the summer, my boyfriend and I got into hiking and went to a few cool spots. One of these spots was Mt. Pilchuck. The hike is about 5.4 miles long and right off the North Cascades Mountain Loop Highway (which is a beautiful drive and I would totally recommend it!) At the top of the mountain, there is a fire lookout where you can see for miles. It was a little cloudy when we went, but the view was amazing! Check out some of the photos below that were taken on the way and at the top of the lookout:

This was taken about a mile and half away from the lookout point, I couldn’t believe how open and beautiful this part of the hike was

Getting up to the lookout was hard, there were a lot of people on the trails, so many bugs, and it was really warm out by 10 am when we had finally climbed all the way up to the lookout. The view was so worth it though! There were many parts of the trail that were really well marked, but there were also a few parts where you had to make your own trail through the boulders and wind your way back to the marked trail. The pictures below show some of what the trail was like at different parts of the hike:

Taken at the beginning of the hike, this is what the forest around us looked like

Overall, this hike was a lot of fun and well worth the trek up. I would highly recommend this spot and hope to do it again sometime! Having to climb up and over the boulders was a lot of fun and was a great workout for the day. I remember after finishing this hike being so excited to take a shower to wash away all the bug spray and sweat. One of my favorite parts of hiking in the Pacific Northwest is being surrounded by all the trees and this hike definitely delivered that.

My College Running Life

One of my favorite running spots in Bellingham: Lake Padden (a little of over 2.5 miles around the lake)

College is stressful. I’m sure most people can relate to this and some would even offer advice to make it seem less stressful. Well, here’s my advice: RUN! (or find some other type of physical activity to relieve stress). This is easier said than done, but my goal for this blog post is to share some insight into how I found myself as a runner in college.

Freshman year of college is crazy. You’re living on your own, there is no set curfew, you’re meeting tons of people, and its seems like you always either have way too much time on your hands, or no time at all. With all this new stuff going on in my life, I fell away from running. I honestly probably only ran a handful of times my freshman year of college and looking back, I regret it. I gained weight, my acne got pretty bad, and I felt stressed out all the time. There was so much “new” happening that I forgot about the “old” healthy habits I had left behind from high school.

Going into my Sophomore year, I had a plan: don’t let classes bog you down, and make sure to take time out of your day to hit the gym. This is the motto I stuck to for most of my second year of college. I found this awesome ab workout app that I used every night for ten minutes. The results were incredible! I was starting to feel confident about my body again and working out was something I looked forward too, much like I did back in high school. I was running 2-3 times a week, this becoming my main stress reliever. Whenever I was having a bad day I would try and run, becoming a habit: bad day = time for a run. This was an okay running mindset, but going into my Junior year I wanted to get away from running only when I wasn’t having a good day to running because I know how much better it would make an already great day.

So, as I sit here and write this post I reflect on the first quarter of my third year in college. I just took my last final (literally an hour ago) of fall quarter and I can’t believe how happy and healthy I feel. I consistently ran 3-6 times a week, EVERY WEEK!! That’s twelve weeks of straight running. Not only do I look and feel good, but I also was way less stressed out this quarter than I have been in the previous two years of college. I also found a lot of cool running spots around Bellingham which is a huge plus for next Spring and Fall when it starts getting warm out again.

It is crazy to sit here and think about how my dedication to running has changed in the past three years, and how it will continue to change in the future. As the new year rolls around I have started to think of a running new years resolution: run longer distances. Right now I stick to 3.1 miles for my runs, but I really want to push myself to do a half marathon (or at least start running that distance at least once a week), so 13.1 miles. I will obviously have to train for this and push myself, but in the end I think it is an attainable goal. I plan to make a running calendar over Christmas break, outlining the next couple of months which I’m sure will make its way onto this blog. In the meantime, I will stick to the 3.1 mile runs while I construct my new goals for the 2019 year.

Why Photography?

I fell in love with photography. After taking a class in high school and learning how to use a camera properly (not on automatic), learning about different shooting and framing techniques, and wondering around outside to find things to take pictures of I couldn’t put the camera down!

I believe photography is a way to see the world through a different lens (no pun intended) and capture all the beauty that is overlooked in nature. I found my niche of capturing close ups of flowers, plants, and insects. I started an Instagram page as a place to store some of the photos I’ve taken, but it didn’t feel like enough. I thought sharing them and posting them on this blog would give them justice. Every single photo featured on this blog are photos I have taken. They all have a story and I hope to share many of those stories with those who will listen.

Photography is a way to emphasize the things that are often overlooked in nature and I intend to bring these imperfect things to light.

Below are some of the photos I took during my photography class:

Why Run? ~ Why I Started Running

There are so many ways to answer a such a simple question. As with everything else, everyone has their own way to answer this question, but for me its been a long journey. One filled with many mental mind blocks, personal records (PR’s), and sore muscles.

For me, it started as a task in a high school gym class and having to run the mile once a month. Most of my peers dreaded that day, but I looked forward to it. Not the competing part, but noticing how my mind would wonder and the mile would be over before I was ready to head back to reality. At this time in my high school sports career I was strictly a volleyball guru. I had played since 5th grade on school teams, rec leagues, and select club volleyball teams. I lived for volleyball.

The life I knew before my running career

As junior year of high school rolled around, I went to volleyball tryouts as I had done my previous two years. This time was different. I no longer found joy and excitement playing, I was good and an asset to the team but I was tired of always being yelled at by a coach or other teammates. It was becoming too competitive for its own good. So, once tryouts were over I decided to deny my spot on the team and totally switch sports. Thus ending up on the Women’s Cross Country team. Little did I know what I signed myself up for. Cross Country was HARD! I went from running zero miles a day to the end of the season running five to seven miles a day. I loved running in the 5k races and pushing myself to PR. At first, it was hard to push past the mental game of keeping a good pace throughout the race or to stick with the girl in front of me. But eventually it became motivation to PR and look forward to the sore muscles the next day.

As my love for running increased, I continued to run XC in the Fall, train in the off season, and run track in the Spring for the remainder of my high school career. I looked forward (almost)everyday after school to go for a run. It helped me relieve stress, it kept me in shape, and it was my escape from doing homework.

Running is my escape. It’s my way to cope with the things that life throws at me and it was something I forgot about when I went off to college.

Your Level of Professionalism

Throughout my last two years in college I have had many professors, but only a few have made big impressions on my life as a college student. It seems like the best professors are the ones who actually take time to acknowledge their students and share with them their past experiences and the life lessons they have learned.

One of the most impressionable lectures I attended was the last Business Law class of the quarter. We had just finished covering the last chapter on Ethics and everyone was stressing about finals the following week. My professor took a long pause and after reassuring us we were going to make it through finals week, he said: “do you want to hear something that will be more beneficial than any test you ever take?”the auditorium went silent and he continued “here are some important lessons I have learned throughout my time as a manager and a judge, do what you want with them but I promise you if you put these words into action you will go far in any job you ever do.” So what did I do? I sat there and wrote down every single word he said, many of which I had been told by my own parents, but forgot because parents don’t know anything… right?

Finally we get to the advice part,and as I was told before: “do what you want with them”

Where do you want to be and what reputation do you want to fulfill?
Be at your full potential all the time
Decrease the level of conflict- start off as friendly as you can be
Learn everything you can about the lowest level of your job-you’re never too good
Be careful who you confide in
Authority has to match responsibility- know your authority before responsibility (what you can and can’t do)
Mistake is judgement- given what you get, you made a mistake but tried your best… move on

All of these bullet points may seem obvious, but I thought they were a good reminder and could benefit you as well!