How/Why – Roatan, Honduras

I’m so excited to share some of my favorite photos from Roatan, Honduras with you! I also want to share a bit more of my thought process around why I choose the locations I do, and how I plan my trips there. Obviously as I mentioned in my trip announcement post, I chose Roatan because…

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Elephants in Thailand

It’s taken me a long time to write this post as I have a lot of mixed feelings about this part of our trip to Thailand. Elephants are my favorite animal and have been for as long as I can remember (since I was 2, according to my mom). But despite that love, my direct…

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Stairway to Helens

Since we’re on the topic of climbing mountains, now seems like a good time to share my hike up Mt St Helens with you! Back in 2011, Amy (who I climbed Kilimanjaro with) and I did our first big climb together. Little did we know what we would later go on to accomplish. I’m pretty sure…

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Rainier Day 4: My Personal Summit

I’m just starting to doze off when suddenly the lights come on and Dave cheerful tells us it’s time to get up and get ready for the summit! He even gave us an extra 15 minutes to sleep, it’s 11:15pm! We have one hour to get ready, hot water is being brought in for coffee…

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Rainier Day 3: Paradise to Camp Muir

Much to my relief, our third day of the climb dawns cloudier and cooler than yesterday. After my ordeal last night, I couldn’t be any more grateful. I wake up still feeling weak, and I’m wondering if I’ll even be able to make it to Camp Muir, let alone anywhere on the upper mountain. But…

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Rainier Day 2: Mountaineer School

Before I get into mountaineer school today, I should probably tell you a bit more about this climb. The program Lori and I signed up for is the four day summit climb through Rainier Mountaineering Inc. RMI is the original guiding service on Mt Rainier, and they have an excellent reputation. There are two other…

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Rainier Day 1: Meeting Dave Hahn

Before I get in to the details of my climb of Mt Rainier, I won’t keep you in suspense of how I did. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the summit. Words can’t even describe my disappointment at not succeeding a second time, however I did get to 12,300ft, the top of the Disappointment Cleaver…

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Rainier Training Hike: Mailbox Peak

Holy smokes it’s time. We’ve reached the climax of our training. The crux of our hikes. The hardest one of them all. At least until we get to Rainier. Mailbox Peak is practically legend in these parts. Hikers mention it with awe and fear. People speak of it in hushed tones. Ok, maybe not that extreme. But…

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Rainier Training Hike: Granite Mountain

As I mentioned last week, I climbed Mt Rainier this past weekend. And I’ll have photos to share with you soon, but I have a two more training hikes to tell you about first. Our second to last hike is Granite Mountain. I did this hike for the first time I tried to climb Rainier…

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Rainier Training Hike: McClellan Butte

Last year during my training for Kilimanjaro, I climbed McClellan Butte a couple times. If you read that post, you’ll know I didn’t make it all the way to the top due to the heat and a rather bothersome pain in my hip. The time before that, the view was blocked at the top and…

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5 Tips for Climbing Mt Rainier

Those of you who know me, probably know I did a summit attempt of Mt Rainier back in 2009. For many reasons, including not knowing that I had (and still have) exercise induced asthma, I made it to 11,200 ft, the Ingraham Flats, before I had to turn around. I have since gone on to…

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Cooking Up Thai Deliciousness

Remember how I told you I love food? And remember how I also told you that one of the first reasons I ever wanted to go to Thailand was because of the food? So when the opportunity to learn to cook these amazing dishes myself came up, do you think I said no? Heck no!…

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