Local Love

Whew... almost done with week one of Summer Block and I am exhausted! It will sure be keeping me busy this summer! 

Week 1 of my Masters in Environmental Education summer school schedule: 

Meet and Greet and a Local Field Trip of the Lower Skagit and a weekend on a boat: the Indigo learning about meaningful watershed education. 

One stop included the one pictured above - Mt. Erie - is a great climbing spot, however, for today it was a place to view and a place to reflect. 

We enjoyed a nice morning drive down Chuckanut Drive and a stop by the Farm to Market Bakery for coffee and sweets! LOVE that there are food breaks included in the schedule! 

I actually ended up getting a sandwich instead since I haven't gone to the grocery store/recieved a CSA box in a while... it was amazing! Artichoke, caramelized onions, roasted red peppers, romaine lettuce, and fresh goat cheese. It was so good that I didn't take a picture before I ate it all. 

We also stopped by Snow Goose Produce (Our Prof - John - certainly knows the way to my heart!) which is famous for its ice cream. I didn't know why until today... 

Homemade waffle cones and the most ridiculously huge portion sizes ever!!!! A classmate got sick from eating the "single" scoop of ice cream... but my "1/2" scoop (hardly) of coffee ice cream was delicious and the homemade waffle cones are to die for! 

I also picked up some local and organic strawberries! Don't they look beautiful?!?!?! They were wonderful. 

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In other news, our CSA with Cedarville Farm butchered their first batch of chickens this past week. Ross and I decided to buy two. "these birds are raised outdoors on pasture with spacious, open air huts to protect them.  They have ample access to the outdoors, lots of space to scratch and peck, abundant fresh air and water, and are fed a 100% organic grain ration.  They will be processed locally by a WSDA certified processor in Lynden.  Birds can be picked up the day of processing at the farm."

When we picked them up at the farm we not only received our fresh poultry but we also saw with our own eyes how these chickens lived. Thank you for transparency Cedarville! Now we know our food is good, clean, and fair. 

Going to be putting it in the crock pot to roast all day tomorrow while I'm on the boat! (Hopefully I'll be able to figure out my sister's old camera before so that I can take pictures on something other than my phone!) 

Try to support at least one local farmer this week! =)

Rock & Ice

As I was sitting down around 9:15 yesterday morning to work on a blog post I received a text from my friend Lauren saying that they were going rock climbing at 9:30. Ack! I was definitely in my pajamas - but the yogurt was... becoming yogurt, the beans were cooking, and the sun was shining, so I figured why not?

I managed to get all my gear (and myself) together and over to my friend's in about 20 minutes flat. Love living in a small town. We headed over to Larrabee State Park (only about 15 minutes south of Bellingham) to find a wall located right along the railroad tracks. 

You could tell lots of people use this spot for climbing - there are a number of what I would think are "unofficial" trails leading down to the tracks, and you can see scars of the trees and rock from ropes rubbing against them so much. I also found a number of bottles of pop, beer, and water as well as other litter around. 

Cool madrone trees and the beautifully blue sky =)

We were joined by MaryAnn and her boyfriend Tim. 

This was his first time ever climbing! 

Look at Lauren go!

Me at belay. 

My turn to climb! The spot I'm at in this photo was the trickiest! 

I came back with Ross when he got off work, and the clouds were coming in for the evening. 

Ross' rock shoes make us think of aliens. 

Ross ascending the route. 

Don't I have the cutest husband ever? 

At the top! Success! 

Then I had fun playing with the 10-second timer on our camera! We took our engagement photos here at Larrabee - and decided to celebrate our 9-month anniversary last night watching the sunset over the bay.

And with a treat! On our way home we stopped by Mallard Ice Cream.

Their ice cream is all house-made and uses local and seasonal ingredients, and they usually have some unusual flavors such as Rose, Cinnamon Rhubarb, or Sour Cream!?!?! You can sample any flavor before committing to it - and I definitely sampled 4 flavors before I decided! 

I went with the Super Chocolate (aka dark) and an Espresso Cardamom - which was an intriguing flavor! Coffee and spicy at the same time - I loved this combination! It was a party for my tongue. 

Ross had a bowl of Cookies & Chocolate - also fantastic! 

As we arrived home and we walking down the steps to our home Ross spotted the BIGGEST slug he thinks he has ever seen! 

He ran inside to set stuff down and grabbed his headlamp and camera and went out to take pictures. In the meantime I put away our rock gear, switched over a load of laundry, did some dishes, and then realized he still hadn't come back inside! 

He was still hanging out with this slug family and taking pictures!!! So cute. I had never seen slugs growing up until I worked at camps on the west coast - but we have them on our back porch nearly every day now living in Bellingham. I tend to just do my best to not step on them or run them over on my bike - but it really was neat to stop and really look at this little guys. For instance - I never really noticed the holes on the sides of their heads! Sometimes it's the little things in life isn't it? 

What's a small thing that made you smile today?