Leavenworth Rock Climbing Weekend Adventure

Back from Portland on Thursday, back to work Friday and off to Leavenworth Friday night. I was packing a huge amount of stuff down to my car Friday morning... my day pack, rock climbing gear, bag of clothes for the weekend, coffee (for the morning of course), and clothes to my mom's. WOW I must've looked cool heading to my car early in the morning in downtown Seattle. :)

After work I headed up to Everett, dropped the clothes off at my mom's. I picked up a pillow and an air mattress (I thought it would be a nice treat for a two night camping adventure). I then headed out to Leavenworth a little late... not really the smartest thing to leave at 8pm, but I learned. I got to Leavenworth about 1030pm, it was raining and really really dark outside. I started to worry when I passed four camp grounds down Icicle Creek road... and 14 miles in still couldn't find an open camp site. By 11pm I was pooped and just wanted to find somewhere to sleep. I finally ended up at Upper Johnny Creek campground, and found myself setting up my tent in the middle of a place I didn't know... with only my head lamp. I set everything up, and laid out my air mattress, only to unravel it perfectly and find the CORD that I was supposed to plug into some kind of electrical outlet.. that I did not have. I had a sad face.

So I got into my sleeping bag, on the non inflated air mattress and a couple of blankets, wrote in my journal, and finally turned out my headlamp and went to bed. My eyes FLEW open about 15 minutes later to hear something outside my tent sniffing. I WAS SCARED!! I laid there, quiet as a mouse, a thousand thoughts going thru my head about what I was supposed to do. Whatever it was finally went away and I fell back asleep... waking up 2 hours later to something sniffing and nudging my leg thru the tent. Again, SO SCARED!

It went away... I fell back asleep... and woke up in the morning to the beautiful Enchantments of the Cascades.

I found my Mountaineer group and we headed off to the Mountaineer's Dome area to start our climbing adventure. This was the last field trip of my Intro to Rock Climbing Class, and we had to "pass/complete" a few specific tasks.


I had to show that I was competent to follow a Tradition Climbing leader (they place "protection" into the rock as they climb, I follow and pull out the "pro" and we get to the top of the rock. I had only done single "pitch" or rope length routes before, and today I got to do multi-pitch routes, where the leader climbed up, placing pro, I followed, collecting it.

We got to the top of the route, pulled up the rope, and started up another route. Then it was time to rapell down the side of the rock.

It was fantastic fun. Amazing views!

We climbed from 9a - 5p and then all headed back to Upper Johnny Creek Campground. At this point I had four other campers that were staying with me at my camp site, and I was thrilled that whatever it was that was sniffing around my camp now had a selection of people to eat and not just me.

We headed into Leavenworth proper and ate... and on the way back to the car the acordion player in the town center was playing the Bird Dance! It was fun to play along... unfortunately none of my group members knew the bird dance. They were lucky to have me there to show them :)

Back to the campground for smores around a campfire and then to bed early.

Up early... looked for a place for breakfast in the morning in town, but all I found were these goats on the side of the road - in the middle of town!

Day Two... 7am and we were off to Playground Point. We parked on the side of the road and proceeded to scramble up 500 feet of dusty dirt and rock.
With rope and a backpack... I was suprised when we got there to find that you couldn't see the road and could no longer hear the river. That high up and then climbing up 100 - 2o0 feet was a really cool experience.

I was pooped by 2pm and then headed off to the Reiman Family Father's Day gathering in Duvall.


What a great weekend!!

Trip to Portland

I got to rent a car and work in Portland this week Wednesday, Thursday!! It was a blast! I rented a convertable... of which meant that I got to go to the airport! Marissa was great to give Cartman a home for a few days and drive me there...

So I picked up the fastest, newest, coolest car they had... and was on my way...

Once on the road... I had to stop at... where else??

After my banana shake and cheeseburger were purchased, I was on my way to Portland... to try and find the Mark Spencer Hotel. Once there, I checked in and found my room.

Here is the room tour:

This place must've been a really old apartment building, because I had the LARGEST PANTRY that you'd ever need over night (?). I also had lots of closet space for all of my clothes... (good thing..)

So in addition to the sweet kitchen, living room and bedroom... I also had a kick ass view! I had one window facing west, and the other facing north.

At that point (funny story) I went to move my car into the parking garage. The man at the front desk told me where it was and I was off! With the confidence of the all-knowing Sarah.. I again drive around for 15 minutes looking for the parking garage. It's under the building. It can't be far. I found a "garage" sign, but my key card wouldn't open it up. I go back to the front of the hotel, walk back in, and the front desk man says, yep - your at the right garage... just use your room key. Oh.

Absolutely Beautiful.

Alright - first day of work... I get lost downtown... but Josh calls me while I'm lost and makes it fun :) AND I see some unique Portland parks and odd pieces of art.

Just as I get directions from Starbucks... I get lost again, stop at another coffee shop (who oh so nicely print out mapquest for me) and what happens? Train... Well, it wasn't moving. Just sitting there... and I (obviously) don't know where I'm going... so I just pull out my laptop and start typing. After 30 minutes and no movement... Marissa was kind enough to "OnStar" me to the office...

I worked with Darlene the Recruiter for 2 days and she was wonderful.

After Wednesday's day of fun at the office... I decided to go out to dinner. I had spotted a cool spot on my drive around the building 50 times when trying to find the garage. I could also see it from my room. It reminded me of the places we used to go eat with my dad when he was on the baseball trip.

So Jake's - here I come. Turns out that Jake's is 114 years old... and AMAZING. The coolest music, not too loud, but you don't have to strain to listen to it. The best "older" bartenders ever... with an incredible sense of humor to add on top.

At the end of the greatest two and a half hours I've had in a long time, I was convinced that this would become a place that I would visit every time I came to Portland. Hopefully you'll get to come too.

Next day (Thursday) I got started early with my banana and muffins... and I was pretty sad it was such a short visit.

I worked until 5pm... and yes... I did get lost again on the way to work. I think I continued to type the wrong directional point on the address (i.e. NW instead of NE). Anyway... I got to drive in the sunshine with my top down from Portland all the way to Vader. I love Mrs. Beasley's!

Thanks again to Marissa for picking me up at the airport!!

I headed home to Seattle... and the Space Needle at night...

Sarah's Apartment

For those of you who can't be here... I thought I'd give you a tour of my place...

I'm sure you can figure it out... but I can now sleep six... so if Alex, Tina and Tim wanted to come over and hang out for an evening, you could even spend the night! :)

Happy Friday - from InteliStaf Healthcare!

Rock Climbing near Vantage

Last weekend was a trip to George, Washington... not to the Gorge for a concert, but for rock climbing! 5am on a Sunday does a body good :)



The weather in Seattle was attrocious, but they kept saying it was supposed to be nice in Eastern Washington...

Then I headed into the mountains... looking good.

16 miles to Ellensburg!

I finally made it to Vantage about 830am and it was still pretty cloudy. I took the same exit as you would to go to the Gorge concert area, but took an unexpected turn onto Vantage Rd. at a very ill marked intersection.

Down the paved road and into the valley... a "parking lot" on the left was where I ended up!

Once the six climbers and two leaders were geared up, we climbed around the back of the rocks and began to practice repelling down the front of the rocks. Fun!

It was so beautiful there!

It was cloudy and we actually had a really hard rain at about 12pm... but by 2pm everything was sunny and the vistas were amazing.

I realize now that I need to wear clothes that stand out from the rock... but to the left is me climbing.

Below is the view...
At about 4pm I headed back to Western Washington... with beautiful weather, a lot of mosquito bites and a big smile.



It was beautiful through Ellensburg and then it rained SO HARD thru the mountains! It was the kind of rain where you just follow the car in front of you and hope they are staying on the road.









Just wait for another installment of... Sarah's Adventures :) I'll be in Portland working 6/13, 14, 15 and rock climbing/camping on Mt. Erie 6/17, 18!