July Hike

The day after the 4th of July (the third anniversary of this) we hiked the Appalachian Trail up to the summit of Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts at 3491 feet.  We started from Route 2 on the north side of the mountain, and hiked 6 very steep miles up to the top and 6 very steep miles back down.  Unfortunately, it was even more hot, humid, and buggy than when we hiked another section of the AT in June.  And hiking on an almost empty stomach after certainly didn't help matters.  It took embarrassingly long, but we made it through the 12 miles.  The 6 miles of trail added to the 15 miles we've done in Pennsylvania bring us to 0.96% of the 2180 miles of the Appalachian Trail.  Woohoo! The next hike is sure to put us over 1%!

After living in Tucson, 3500 feet seems like a really small mountain, but hikes around Tucson also didn't start well under 1000 feet.  Even if it was "only" 3500 ft, the views from the top of Mt. Greylock were beautiful.

Don't read this while eating lunch.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we were going camping over the 4th of July holiday...and well...it could have gone better.  We camped at Clarksburg State Park in northwestern Massachusetts, and planned to hike the section of the Appalachian Trail between the summit of Mt Greylock and the Massachusetts-Vermont state line - about 20 miles total hiking.

We drove up the morning of the 4th, uneventful, easy enough drive.  We had planned to set up camp, have some lunch, then go hike from Route 2 in North Adams to the state line, which would be 8 miles round trip with a fair amount of elevation gain, but not a ton.  When we sat down for lunch, I felt kind of off, not bad, just not quite right.  We ate lunch and decided that we were too tired to hike, and really wanted to be able to hike to the summit of Mt. Greylock the next day.  So we went to Mass MOCA, a contemporary art museum in the area instead.  

That's where things deteriorated.  I actually really liked the museum - and I usually just think contemporary art is either weird or not art.  But my stomach was not happy.  I kept feeling more and more bloated, like my stomach was painfully distended.  Eventually it was just too much and I got sick.  Yeah, that kind of sick.  Thankfully I made it to a restroom - fortunately an unoccupied, single toilet restroom.  The short-lived upside was that I instantly felt better, so we continued to go through the museum.  But it only took about 20 minutes to feel miserable and distended again.

We headed back to the campsite and hung out - I managed to nap for a bit.  I could barely choke down a graham cracker or sit next to Boyfriend while he ate dinner.  The smell of his dinner was just awful.  After dinner he suggested that perhaps going for a walk around the campgrounds would make me feel better.  Well we got about three-quarters of the way around the loop before I was spectacularly sick on the side of the road.  Fortunately not in anybody's campsite, and hopefully it was dark enough that people couldn't really see (even though there was no doubt that more than one campsite of people could hear).

I felt tolerable overnight, but was ready to kill the large group of middle school age kids a few campsites over.  They occupied about 4 campsites, and at midnight they were still yelling back and forth between campsites and shrieking over who knows what.  Quiet hours started at 10.  I was pissed.  I got up around midnight to go to the restroom, and Boyfriend thought I was getting up to yell at the hoodlums.  I really, really seriously considered it.  But I didn't really want to go wandering in the dark feeling like crap.  Man it would have been so satisfying to tell those brats off though!

The next morning I actually felt decent, before and after breakfast, so we went hiking.  I'll blog about the hike in another post, but I made it through (very slowly) despite the lack of food the day before.  Anyway, everything was good on the stomach-issues front all day, and the hoodlums were gone the next night, so yay, at least one good day of camping.

Saturday morning we headed east to Amy's wedding, but that's a story for another day.  Unfortunately the stomach woes weren't over...

June Hike

We just managed to squeeze in a June hike on the last day of the month.  We did the 9 miles of the Appalachian Trail north of the section we did in April.  It's a nice, easy section, that's entirely flat and then downhill when you hike north.  The downside is that the day we hiked, it was hot with about 1000000% humidity.  I just dripped sweat the entire time.  But the worst part was the bugs.  I spent the entire 9 miles constantly swatting bugs away from my face.  The creek at the end of the hike was absolutely beautiful though, and the water was wonderfully COLD!

Last college cookie package!

Little brother graduated from college!  More on that and my trip to St. Louis for his graduation in another post, but for now, cookies!  I usually sent him cookies once per semester or so, so this was his last college package of cookies.  (Though hopefully I'll get around to sending him a belated batch for his birthday, because I know he enjoys them, and he's skinny enough to eat them in unlimited quantities.)  He requested "letter" cookies...I think he was grading general physics labs at the time... :)  I don't have letter cookie cutters, but this is what I came up with.  I thought they were pretty awesome.

P.S. Happy 4th of July!  Boyfriend and I are off camping in western Massachusetts before heading to Amy's wedding.  Hopefully I'll still be on a blogging kick when we get back and you'll get to hear about it!

Pennsylvania for the Win

Pennsylvania has the best town names.  On the way back from camping over Memorial Day weekend we drove through Virginville, PA.

For the record, Virginville is 45 miles from Intercourse.

Alternatively you can swing through Blue Ball, PA - just a few miles out of your way. :)

Wedding Cookies

At the beginning of May I went home for a weekend to go to Amy's bridal shower.  It was a surprise, and the bride was actually surprised!  Woohoo!  I made these super fun cookies - some more lingerie cookies and some adorable bride and groom cookies.

So excited for Amy's wedding in July!  They're having a mini world tour of food, and you know I like food. :)

It's a Russian nesting screwdriver!

How neat is that!?