Into the wild

 Geoff often reminisces about his middle school backpacking trip, so I agreed to give it a try, as long as we could sleep in a tent.  Sleeping under the stars sounds buggy and snakey and scary.  We have spent the past couple of months purchasing backpacks, a 4 pound tent, sleeping goodies and choosing the perfect location for my first backpacking adventure.  We settled on San Jacinto Mountain as it was far enough away to feel like we were out of the city, but close enough for quitting emergencies. 

Our guide book provided what we thought were good directions and accurate mileages, but after hiking over 20 miles in the course of 3 days, I decided the author was lazy and maybe hasn't even done this hike at all!  I'll start with day one: cold, dark, and uphill.

We started our hike around 4:30PM and after wandering through the woods for the last hour, we arrived at our campsite at 9:00PM.  After hiking up hill for 4 hours, we walked 1 mile downhill to find a water source and what looked to be the campsite.  We unloaded, made dinner in the rain, and then passed out.  We awoke to find that we had camped at the entrance.  The watering hole.  Right next to the sign that says "do not camp here".  Woopsie. 

Day 2 we hiked up to the summit reaching over 10,000 feet with wide views and a nice breeze.  We had made it to the top!  The hard part was over...right?  We began our decent down to our next campsite, which was estimated about 6 miles away.  Down is not easy.  It doesn't get your heart beating like up does, but your body sure takes a pounding.  Legs, hips, butt, shoulders, it was all becoming sore and tired.  I was becoming anxious and just wanted to get somewhere and take my pack off forever, so Geoff and I picked up the pace and arrived at our campsite a few minutes before the gang.  Arriving at our grounds for the night, we find there are only 3 campsites, in which one is already taken.  We looked around for sites, water, a pool.  Nothing.  All I found was myself scouring the land for the rattlesnake I nearly stepped on.   Once we settled on a place, we found there was no water source.  How would we survive!?  I'll tell you.  I took a nap in the tent, while Geoff and boys trekked up the mountain to find us some water.  Your my hero.   I would never survive stranded in the wild.   Night ends as usual: eat and sleep.

Day 3 we were motivated to get down down down.  With funky mileage and non-existent hidden climber trails, this could have been a 4 day trip.   Luckily we ran into humans who could tell us we were going the wrong way and politely lead us to an un-marked, un-groomed, un-trail trail.  We proceeded to climb down rocks and through trees to make our decent to civilization.  Finally!  We see road!  We have made it.  But wait, more road.  and more road.  Are we in a neighborhood?  Yes, yes we are.  This is where Carrie and I sat and waited for the big strong men to find their way to the cars and pick us up from the side of the road.  We made it!  All that was left was to gorge at In-and-Out and our weekend was complete.

It was a mind and body challenge like I haven't experienced, but I think I liked it.  I would definitely do it again because the views and the peacefulness that come from being in the middle of the wilderness is unlike any other.  I highly recommend giving it a try!  Let me know if you are interested and you can borrow our guide book. :-)

Alaska, Fishing, Bears... Oh my

This is our third year heading to Alaska.  What started out as a cool concept and a onetime adventure has turned in to a slight addiction.  This year it was Mr. Siegel (Lee), Justin, my bro Bryan, and myself.  It is an exhausting trip but a great time.

It starts off with a 6am flight out of San Diego off to Seattle, quick stop over there straight to Ketchikan, Alaska, with just as quick of a lay over there and on to a beautiful float plane ride to Waterfall Resort!  Then, believe it or not, we are on the boats and reeling in the fish by about 1:30pm.  This kind of insane schedule will now go on for 3 days, up at 5:45, breakfast at 6, on the boat by 6:30, bait in the water around 7:30, fish until 4, back to the dock, shower, get warm, change clothes, dinner at 6, bar at 7:15, beer finished by 8, bed, and repeat!

The trip was pretty amazing.  The scenery is absolutely unreal.  I don't know about you, but I was raised with the understanding the Bald Eagles were endangered, well these things are like freaking pigeons up there.  I counted 24 circling in the wind above us at one point.  One of the coolest things about this trip, is when you drag a boney un-tasty fish up from too deep, which doesn't really do well for their insides so there isn't a lot to do with them, but you take that fish and go spot an eagle in a tree and chick the fish in to the water.  By "chuck" i mean maybe 5 feet from the boat, and you wait, but no wait like you are a National Geographic photographer, you wait maybe 10 seconds until this beautiful giant bird spreads its wings and starts diving right at the boat, wings fully extended, talons out, and snatches this fish right in front of you!  Just amazing!

            For the entirety of the trip you are constantly be watched by nature.  We encounter countless whales, sea otters, sea lions, seals, we missed the orca this year but they were spotted, bears all over the camp ground, deer, and beautiful landscape with the green moss and giant trees and towering cliffs.

            Two very cool things happened on this trip, one... could have been amazing, but somebody blew it.  The first cool thing was I caught my biggest fish and the 4^th largest at the resort for the season, a 42 pound King salmon, pretty fun and great eating!

            Secondly, we caught a monster!  Now, first you have to realize, the captain/fishing guide of these boats really know their stuff.  They almost always somehow know you have a fish on before the line does anything, they can tell what kind of fish you even caught when it is still 200 feet deep, they can un-tangle rats nest like a champ, re-bait you hook in seconds while knocking out the fish someone else caught and bringing it in the boat, pretty impressive skill set if you ask me!  So we were out in some pretty deep water going for Halibut and Snapper when Bryan’s line goes nuts, he is 200 feet down and within seconds the line is pulled out to around 400 feet.  The weight of the fish is going anywhere and Bryan can’t get anything back from it.  The captain says Bryan caught a big Halibut on the bottom, could get some good eating.  But then the fish starts fighting, which Halibut don’t do, so then the captain say it’s a Salmon Shark!!!!  Two words for you, “Awe” and “Some”!  The boat is excited now, however, then this thing start taking more line, fighting more, and the captain gets pissed, he says a Sea Lion has taken the catch and is running with it(pretty common, and very funny to see, they come to the surface afterwards and play with your fish like a dog with a tennis ball).  But then the fish continues to be on the hook and gain weight, Bryan start to get some line back, we might actually find out what this thing is!!!  But it starts to head for the rocks and pulls Bryan’s line in and eventually cuts itself free.  We will never know what laid in the depths of the Ocean that day.  Some say is was too big for us to comprehend, that in time we will begin to learn and understand the depths of the blue abyss.  

           So that was my amazing trip to Alaska.  We each brought home 48 pounds of filets and fish meat.  We caught King Salmon, Halibut, Coho Silver Salmon, Red Snapper, Black Sea Bass, Lin Cod, and some Giant Blue dinosaur looking fish with blue meat that I can’t remember the name of. 

Wine-tastic

The only way to taste wine is to taste them all.  Our guide said so.  We obliged.  Happily.  Mom, Jamie, Lisa and I made the beautiful hour drive from Oakland to Sonoma, California.  This past weekend was full of wine, spa, and oh-so-yummy foods.  We started our adventure at Sojourn, which was sitting at someone's dining room table sipping wines from places like Howell Mountain. We moved through the valley stopping at small and large, known and unknown wineries.  St. Francis offered lovely reserves and an unreal view.  Loxton revealed scientist turned winemaker isn't such a bad thing.  While, our friend Gloria Ferrar toasted us with a crispy cool champagne.   We learned about food pairings, winemakers versus grape growers, and even how to swirl, sip, swoosh, and spit.   It was an amazingly relaxing and peaceful weekend. 

xoxo,

ricki

P.S. Geoff will be posting about his fishing trip in Alaska.  Float planes, bears, big blue dinosaur, oh my!

Slowing Down

Preparing for a wedding can be an exhaustive project.  Although we enjoyed (almost) every minute of it, we were ready to slow down for our first year of marriage.  We really wanted this next year to be one with free weekends and no plans.  Let me show you what that looks like.

January 31, 2012 our beautiful niece was born and we were both instantly consumed with watching her grow and loving her.  Luckily her parents don't mind that we are often hanging around or begging to babysit!  In fact, we just had our first full day with her and we can't wait to do it again.  Any excuse to watch Lion King and lay in bed in the middle of the day works for us.

Meet Quinn!

February brought us to New Orleans, LA via a surprise trip planned by the husband.  I am a total planner, so telling me to pack a bag a few hours before a flight was a risky call.  I was so overcome with excitement that I didn't care that I had to pack for a long weekend in just 1 hour.  We spent our days roaming the eclectic city and visiting with my childhood friend, Kristy.  We watched parades, caught beads, threw beads, and watched the hometown NOLA Hornets play ball.

I don't remember March or April at all, so we are going to skip those months.  I know we did a bunch of snowboarding up until this point, but it is all a blur.

May included a girls' weekend in Palm Springs amongst birthdays and pool parties.  Lounging by the pool with great company is the best way to spend a weekend.  We played Girl Talk and made friendship bracelets.  Ok, so we didn't play GT, but totally made friendship bracelets.  BFF!

The month of June included many festivities that leave me very tired for July.  (Geoff never gets tired, just me)  Starting off the month at a Grey Goose Vodka hosted dinner at the San Diego Zoo, we tasted and sampled and learned that Kirkland Vodka is NOT made anywhere near Grey Goose, okay? okay.

Yes, that is a jalapeno in that drink- YUM.

Then, Geoff and I drove to Vegas for a short weekend of relaxing by the pool.  I even stayed out until midnight!

We celebrated Father's Day by bringing all the dad's to K1 Speedway to race go-carts.  I was a driver (Yippee), so my pictures are limited.  I only snapped one of the winners, but my dad ran a good race too!  It's only fair that new dad Bryan won first place.  Also, I should note that Justin is NOT a dad, just 3rd place winner.

I met my East Coast gals in Miami, Florida for a quick calming/lay on the beach weekend.  And by calming I mean staying out until 3am and eating breakfast at noon.  I am getting old because that weekend hurt.

We celebrated my dad's birthday and a kickoff to summer with a lot of wine and good friends.  We are ready to embrace what July has in store for us because our next free weekend is in August! 

So, we have quickly filled up our "slow down" year, but we wouldn't have it any other way. Life is too fun!

xoxo,

ricki

Oh, and we are building a house! Look!



Welcome Friends

Welcome!  My husband, Geoff and I decided to start this space as a place to store our life happenings as well as share them with our friends and family.  Beginning with our wedding, we will update our travels, share life events, and maybe even document our attempt at some DIY projects for our new home.  (stand-by for a kitchen table)  Our posts will mostly be stories told through pictures, so please enjoy!

November 12, 2011 was a rare rainy day in San Diego, but we embraced the wet and got hitched!  After 5 years of dating and a year and a half engagement, we celebrated our special day surrounded by our friends and family.  Since we had so many out of town guests, we decided to make it a weekend event.   Also, we like to celebrate. A lot.

Our amazing wedding planner created a spectacular fiesta inspired rehearsal dinner, in which a tequila tasting and hand-rolled cigar bar set the mood for the weekend. 

Ending the night with open mic speeches and a flamenco dance performance, we were high on excitement for the next day. 

 Hi, I'm Ricki.  This is me getting ready to marry my best friend.

 and this is my husband, Geoff.  Isn't he a catch!? I know, I am a lucky gal.

and we lived happily ever after.

xoxo,

ricki

P.S.  I'd love to share our amazing Thailand and Bali honeymoon with you, but since ALL of our pictures disappeared from our memory card, I don't want to talk about it.  If we are ever able to recover at least one photo, I'll shall post at that time.