Snowboarding, Travel and Stumbling Insights
Most people who know my mom know she’s an expert cook and entertainer! Now she has a blog called Patty’s Party Blog to share her best recipes and party secrets. Right now it’s all about Thanksgiving, so if anyone needs a recipe or some help planning, this is the place to look! She’ll also answer any questions you have if you email her- that info’s on the blog too.
Force of Nature: Mind, Body, Soul, and of course Surfing by Laird Hamilton
Last winter I received this book as a gift from my mother. It’s written by surfing legend Laird Hamilton and offers wisdom and a fresh perspective that I believe everyone could incorporate into his or her life. It’s one of those books that I keep going back to for inspiration and I find myself continuously learning from it. I’ve recommended it to three people in the past week, so I thought I’d recommend it to all of you as well!
Disclaimer: at times the book does get a little too “hippie” for me, but even those parts are at least fun to think about!
p: Ian Fohrman
p: Ian Fohrman
This is the meal I cooked last night. Mmmm! Delicious and healthy!
I’ve always known that eating well is key to living a healthy and energetic lifestyle, and my chosen profession has done nothing but reinforce that knowledge. Because I make the effort to fuel my body with nutritious food, I’m rewarded with energy and the physical well being that comes from it. Alternately, that same mind-body awareness allows me to realize exactly where that sluggish nasty feeling that directly follows eating overly processed and fatty foods originates from.
One way I ensure I’m eating well is by planning and cooking my own meals regularly. Luckily I’ve inherited my mother’s love for cooking, which works out well for both me and my friends who happen to be around for dinner. When planning meals, I try to incorporate three different foods in order of importance: vegetables, protein and starch.
For this meal, I first chose sockeye salmon because it looked so good and fresh. The omega-3 fatty acids in salmon are great for you, especially your heart. For vegetables, I chose asparagus because it goes so well with salmon, and broccoli because it’s one of the most nutrient dense vegetables out there. Cous cous represented the starch portion of the meal. Cous cous is great because it’s a complex whole-grain carbohydrate with zero trans-fat, and it’s SOOO good. Finally, some home-made pesto to dip everything in topped off the tasty meal.
Yum num num yummmmmm!
“Inspiration is for amateurs.”
-Chuck Close
I’ve been trying to make this quote something to live by, as I’m notorious for procrastinating until I get a sudden stroke of genius. For the last five months or so, I’ve somehow allowed myself to become idle waiting for inspiration to strike the fingertips that type this blog. Very amateur.
I find that too much time and too many adventures have gone by and I haven’t shared those experiences like I set out to do when I began this project. To catch you up, I could go into lengthy reviews on my trips to Costa Rica, Mt. Hood, New Zealand and Reykjavik. But to save my poor little inspiration-starved fingers and your eyes and brains, I’ll summarize with the best lessons I learned in each place.
Surfing is a truly amazing sport that every person should try to feel the humbling power of the oceans, as well as the elation and satisfaction of seizing that power for a few brief seconds. Ice cream and plunges into glacial water are necessary daily staples for life when hiking and snowboarding in 90° weather (so make sure cash for Volcano Cone and a bathing suit are on hand). Two months is too long to spend isolated Wanaka, NZ, but mid-September (Kiwi spring) is epic for both scenery and riding pipe. Iceland is one of the sweetest places on the planet to experience a combination of nature and culture, and Nikita is definitely the sweetest clothing company.
I’m now home for another week. I plan to spend this time getting back my yoga legs, breaking my serious life-long addiction to sugar (no more candy or desserts until Halloween!), and thoroughly enjoying my family, friends and the beautiful place I live; all of which I missed greatly during my 12+ weeks of absence this summer.
I promise you will not only hear from me very soon, but even more often than before this lengthy hiatus.
Gorgeous sunset at Dominicalito
Heading up to ride one beautiful morning at Cardrona
A lesson that was reinforced during my recent trip to Moab: don’t let anyone talk you out of something you want to do or make you think you’re not good enough to do it!
A handful of Moab locals and mountain bike connoisseurs informed me that if I enjoyed Klondike Bluffs (an “intermediate” bike ride that I had done a couple days earlier), then there was no way I could handle the infamous “expert” Slickrock ride. I was thoroughly intimidated. Luckily, one of my best friends who drove fourteen hours to meet me in the beautiful Utahan desert, Aurel Baker, was determined to ride Slickrock and was willing to coach me through it.
What I discovered out there was definitely difficult, but it was also one of the best rides of my life, and I came out of that one 4-hour long journey a dozen times better of a biker than going in.
Besides biking, Aurel and I had an excellent time camping, dunking in the ice-cold Colorado River, catching up and drinking beer from the local Moab Brewery (the Dead Horse Amber Ale was our favorite- it tastes much better than the name implies).
Moab is a beautiful and magical place that I can’t wait to get back to, and next time I won’t let any “expert” trail ratings slow me down.
Relaxing at Camp
Getting ready for our first ride at Klondike Bluffs. Little did we know that we were parking 2.5 miles away from the actual trailhead. Oh well.
Aurel on Klondike Bluffs- our first experience with slickrock.
View from top of Klondike Bluffs
Recovering from a doozy of a ride our second day.
Aurel and I excited to start out on the famed Slickrock!
Slickrock
Aurel riding a serious downhill
View of the Colorado from Slickrock
Steeps on Slickrock
Kicking back after a weekend that went by way too fast!
