Mt. Olympus Hike

We decided that we wanted to get out and hike this weekend. At first, Erica suggested the Bonneville Shoreline trail. It is an easy hike, but it is also long, so we could definitely get a workout and ease into the hiking here. Chris proposed we hike Mt. Olympus. It entails a 4,200 foot gain, topping out at an elevation of 9,026 ft over 3.4 miles. Erica agreed to Mt. Olympus.

We were reading about this hike on-line the night before. Reports we read said it took anywhere from 5 hours to 10 hours round trip. We also knew we would have to scramble the last 500 ft. The difficulty ranged from "great for novice hikers" to "10 out of 10 difficulty". Erica was starting to get scared.

The alarm went off at 6:15 the morning of the hike. It took us about 20 minutes to drive to the trail head.

Hiking Action

These pictures were taken early on in the hike when life was good and we were both happy to be hiking on such a beautiful morning.

The Saddle

After over 2 hours of the uphill grind, we reached the saddle. Here are some of the views. We were tired, but still smiling!

But we still had a little hiking to do to reach the top:

Scrambling

We scrambled up the last 500 ft. of the hike.

Then we arrived at what seemed to be an impossible section of rock. This is when I turned to Chris and said, "Are you f'ing kidding me!?" We knew there was a scramble, but we weren't expecting anything like this. Lucky for us, it was not as bad as it looked. It turns out this was our most favorite part of the hike. Mostly because we were forced to use our arms which gave our legs a little break.

The View was Worth it!

We met some nice people at the top. Some were celebrating with wine and beer.

We spent a fair amount of time up there. 9,026 foot elevation.

Filling out the log book.

What Goes Up...

Going down was the worst! Our legs were tired and it was 93 degrees with virtually no shade. It took us almost 2 hours to reach our car. We were miserable. Chris said he most likely would never hike Mt. Olympus again.

Peaches, peaches, and more peaches

The peaches are pretty ripe.

Erica filled an entire bag.


Erica cut the peaches - better than cutting the cheese :)


The final product. Very delicious!!!

Strawberried Peanut Butter M&Ms

Our new favorite. For a limited time.

Feed the Fishies

I added some fish to the side bar. You can feed them by clicking in the fish pond.

The Black Monday Society

SLC just gets quirkier and quirkier. So apparently there are a group of people who dress up as superheroes and patrol the streets of Salt Lake City. They call themselves the Black Monday Society. I found a video about them on YouTube. I heard about them from my co-workers.



Honestly, if any of these guys came to my rescue, I would be pretty scared. You can read an article about them from the Salt Lake City Weekly here.

Picture from Louisville Last Month

These are some of my colleagues. They are in the same role I am and are located in market offices all over the country. I am standing next to Antoine in the yellow. He will be on this seasons Biggest Loser set to air this fall.

Wisconsin Reception

Check out a few pictures here.

First Time at Carl's Jr.

This is our first time at Carl's Jr. Life is good.

Best Mac & Cheese Ever

1. Pan fry chopped turkey pastrami.
2. Cook mac & cheese as directed.
3. Combine.

Done.

Friday was a pretty good day

A grad school buddy of mine was in town for a conference. So I drove downtown and had lunch with him. It was so good to see a familiar face and hear all about his new position at the naval hospital in San Diego. We ate at a Japanese restaurant called the Naked Fish Bistro.

It is also my bosses birthday this weekend so toward the end of the work day, we all went to a movie - GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. I had very low expectations, so I couldn't be disappointed.

AND, Chris flew in...eventually. When it was all said and done, he arrived 2 hours and 10 minutes late. He was not happy. He ended up sitting next to an obese woman who couldn't buckle her seat belt. He also tells me that he could not sit in a way that his leg would not touch her leg and his leg was getting sweaty. To add insult to injury, he had to pay for his Heineken on the flight!! Southwest seems to have an unwritten policy that on delayed flights if you order an alcoholic beverage, it is free.

Free Iron and Wine

Tonight I ran to the Gallavin Center and watched Iron and Wine (its about a mile away). I did not take this picture, it is courtesy of: http://www.slcgov.com/Arts/twilight/info.htm but it was just as packed with people. I listened to about 8 of their songs before I ran back home. They opened with Such Great Heights and the last song before I left was The Trapeze Swinger which are two of our favorites. It made me sad that Chris couldn't be there with me.

Virgin HealthMiles

Work subsidizes our subscription to this and I got my pedometer this week! Watch another video from the Virgin HealthMiles website here.

The peaches are getting ripe!

I wonder how many it will take to make peach pie? Or peach cobbler?

EB

This is my little buddy EB. She keeps me company in my cube at work. She is a plush replica of Epstein Barr Virus (aka kissing disease/mono) magnified 100,000,000+ times. One of my old co-workers at the hospital gave her to me as a going away present.

Another exciting night in SLC

My power came back on at about 10:30 on Wednesday night and I was grateful for that. Thursday night proved to be another pain. At 11:49pm, there was a knock at my door. I go outside to find 2 men in white hard hats and orange vests. They want to trim some trees and I need to move my car. It has been very windy and the power outage the night before was because of some wind-tree action.

I heard chainsaws until 2am. I was very tired on Friday morning.

At the Library (again)

My internet is not getting installed now until Friday. Don't ask, it is a long story. I didn't plan on going to the library tonight, but I am out of power at the apartment. I called the power company and apparently 3,499 other people are out of power too because of wind. They don't anticipate it being restored until 2am. So I am going to stay out of the house for as long as I can. I am hoping the power will be back on when I get up in the morning.

We Hiked to Ensign Vista to Watch the Sun Set

The moon is a tiny speck in the sky.

The view.

Chris was pointing out our house.

Everyone Else Had the Same Idea...

Sunset

The Ski Lodge - Who wants to visit!?

The front door goes out onto a nice private, covered porch.

The doorway on the left goes into the kitchen. The bathroom is on the right.

My favorite part of the bathroom is the huge linen closet. The new fixtures help too.

The galley kitchen is small, but we picked up a dish rack, and a cutting board and rinsing tray that fit over the sink to make more work space at Ikea.

No pictures of the bedroom - it is still too messy, not completely unpacked yet. Chris guesses it is probably 200 sq. ft. which is a nice size.

We are now open for guests. It will be a tight fit, but we can put up an air mattress in the living room or in the bedroom with us.

Chris can't take the heat.

Chris has made many comments about how hot it is here. It was 95 yesterday, it could be worse. I think I am a little more used to it coming from Kansas City. It doesn't help that CO had been unseasonably cool.

Yesterday we went to the Farmers Market again. We picked up home made peanut butter, strawberry rhubarb jelly, muesli, and dragon noodles. We are making chicken and dragon noodles for dinner tonight. We also went to Ikea and the library.

We went out for a run after dark last night to beat the heat. We ran down to North Temple St. then up State St. to the Capital building where we ran stairs. It is very pretty at night.

Today we not only went to the car wash, but to Super Wal-Mart and Sam's club. Later this afternoon we are going to hike Ensign Peak Trial. It is a nice easy hike after all the stairs yesterday.

At the Car Wash

We went to the car wash today. I have off street parking (nice) but trees hang over the area and there is new bird poop on my car every morning (not so nice). There is an automatic car wash down the street for $3.99 with free vacuums. I think I am going to park out front of our place on the street. Maybe once winter comes it won't be so much of a problem?

Chris is happy we have a clean car.

DMV

Chris found and brought the title. I am going to try to swing by after work tomorrow to finish up the process.

Now Reading...

I checked this out from the library today. I think it will be helpful at work and with everyday people interactions here in SLC.