Linna And I Met Up With Jim And Ione Darmiento On Thursday to Start Our Long Weekend In Glacier, Washington. Jim Rented A Super Cool Three Bedroom Airbnb That We Took Full Advantage Of The kitchen.
Our First Hike On Thursday Was A Short Hike On Table Mountain. Next Day Was Yellow Easter Butte…But It Was So Socked In From The Clouds The Views Were Thick Soup.
Jim Darmiento & Mt Bsker
It’s becoming a tradition on my birthday to hike up Camp Muir on Mount Rainier if I am not flying somewhere to celebrate.
Yellow Aster Butte
Date: September 30, 2016
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 7.5 miles / 12.07 Kilometers round-trip
Elevation Gain: 2,600 feet / 792 meters
Time: 4 to 5 hours
Location: Near Glacier, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Discovery Pass
Trail Conditions: Dry
Hiking With: My wife Linna, Jim & Ione Darmiento, Erik & Emelie Espling, John Biltucci
We didn’t have great weather on this five country European adventure, but we did have eleven rewarding days of wining, dining and some culture gathering. This was a true plane, train and automobiles adventure with four planes, five trains and three rented automobiles to conquer five countries in a very short period. Our Seattle group consisted of Jim & Ione Darmiento, Emelie & Erik Espling and my lovely wife Linna Freeman. This trip came together for various reasons…Emelie wanted to spend her 50th birthday in Nice or Monaco and Jim and Ione wanted to explore Europe for their first time and Linna and I just love to travel.
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Our vacation excursion started and ended in Amsterdam mainly because of the direct flight from Seattle. We all had the same Delta flight into Schiphol except for Emelie, she skipped Amsterdam and flew to London to run the renowned London Marathon for her first time and would meet us in Paris later.
We rented a 3 series BMW for the five of us (tight) and headed to our first Airbnb two day rental. Our home away from home was a cute farmhouse few minutes from the airport in the countryside. The ride should have only took us ten minutes, but we managed to double it because of the challenging navigation system we had.
After a speedy luggage dump and fresh jet-lag bodies we drove through heavy Amsterdam traffic to walk around in a daze and stupor among the other tourists for a couple of hours. One needs to be mindful of all the bike riders that goes zooming by you in this concentrated bike filled city, one wrong misstep and you are damaged goods. It didn’t take too long until the nap syndrome came on, so we headed back for a siesta. The problem with naps during the jet-lag stage…you tend to sleep much longer then you should. I was able to pull myself from a death sleep to wake everyone else for a much needed dinner…especially before everything closed for the evening. We found this great Italian restaurant very close to our farm house, the Bistro Nice bistronice.com.
Our second day in Amsterdam we explored the Red Light district (of course) and spent the evening on a private boat ride rentaboatamsterdam.com cruising the numerous canals with Captain Mark aboard the Admiral Heijin. I did this same boat tour three years ago with some highschool buddies and we had identical weather…damp and cold. I totally recommend a private boat tour…it’s personal, romantic, entertaining and makes site seeing stress-free.
PARIS, FRANCE
We had first class train seats from Amsterdam to Paris…speedy, peaceful and quiet. We met up with Emelie, she just ran the London marathon and her train came in 5 minutes after ours. Our Paris apartment rental was close enough to walk from the Gare du Nord train station, we had a great location but a shitty apartment. This Airbnb was probably the worst vacation rental I have stayed in with all my travels, only one bath, sluggish internet and beds sized for children.
We only spent one full day in Paris and of course it wasn’t enough time to see much, but we did make sure Jim and Ione went up the Eiffel tower to see the city. We didn’t have rental cars with us in Paris, but shuffled ourselves around using Uber Van, this became an economical way of transport…averaging 4 to 5 euros per person.
Paris was mainly cold and wet but we succeeded to find a warm spot to spend a couple of entertaining nights. Our first night we met Nicholas Darde, the owner of Café Bar 21, he was just closing his establishment when we walked by after dinner out and he invited our group in for a personal festivity. We might have had a little too much celebration, we didn’t leave our dreadful apartment until the afternoon the next day. For an encore, Nicholas invited us back for a personal chef fixed menu feast. We were totally overwhelmed with his creativity and presentation of dishes coming from his petite kitchen.
NICE, FRANCE
From Paris we all booked the same Air France flight down to Nice and took Uber to our hotel for only one night stay. For being the fifth largest city in France, it seemed really small to me, but we only walked around our neighborhood and down to beautiful Mediterranean coast. I fell in love with a pair of eye glass frames along our walk to the water and became the only large purchase I made for the entire journey.
Erik booked a Michelin restaurant for Emelie’s 50th birthday, it was fantastic food and presentation but the tone was more on the stuffy side compared to the night before in Paris where the venue was more stimulating and buzzing. It became a leisurely night especially after two late nights in Paris and flying during the day, I suppose our minds, bodies and souls were exhausted. We rented two cars the next day and headed for the most densely populated country in the world…Monaco.
MONTE CARLO, MONACO
Driving twenty minutes to get to Monto Carlo, Monaco was easy, but driving around one way streets, tight turns and finding parking the next twenty minutes wasn’t easy. At this time, Jim opted out of the fun and headed for our next destination…Cinque Terre, Italy. Too bad for him and Ione though, they missed out on one of best lunches we had on this European journey…the Beefbar monaco.beefbar.com.
CINQUE TERRE, ITALY
It’s not recommended to drive to or within Cinque Terre, but our group did anyway and it’s probably a good thing our Airbnb house was located at the westernmost village Monterosso al Mare because some of the roads to the other villages were closed to rock slides. We found out the hard way, we drove over thirty minutes on our third day heading to Riomaggiore when we came to a closed road and had to turn around. We decided to take the train instead which was dirt cheap anyway…in fact free if you don’t buy any tickets and just hop on.
We spent three nights in Monterosso and was able to catch up on our laundry, our house was located on the old side of town away from the noisy tourist area. We hiked over to the next village of Vernazza on our first full day and I was surprised by the steepness in some areas, but totally worth the sweat and highly recommended the hike for the views and photo ops. After a few cold beers and a pizza we took a 30 euro personal water taxi back, I wouldn’t recommend this especially when you could train back for free.
We ended our last night stay with a two hour boat tour of all five Cinque Terre villages. I truly enjoyed this and highly recommend this to get a full perspective from the water and provides abundant photo ops too.
LAKE COMO, ITALY
We had a three hour drive to our next destination, Lake Como for two nights. Like Paris our Airbnb in Como was in a wonderful location, we had shopping, restaurants and the lake within walking distance. Unlike the Paris apartment, this apartment was magnificent with large comfortable bedrooms with your own balcony, two bathrooms, new appliances and fast internet. Linna and I wasn’t a fan of Lake Como, but we really didn’t adventure out much either. We did have a splendid dinner our first night at Osteria, just a ten minute walk from our apartment.
We dropped Eric and Emelie at the Milan airport and the rest of us headed towards Chamonix, France hoping to take the tram up to view Mont Blanc up close, but just like last year’s visit for Linna and I…it was covered in dense cloud cover. No worries though, we had an enjoyable lunch along with some shopping in the quaint ski town of Chamonix.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
We continued onto Geneva, Switzerland to catch our flight to Amsterdam. We spent the night at the Hilton airport and flew direct to Seattle the next day.
Overall it was an exceptional trip with good friends, lovely dinners and cool cities.
Mount Ellinor
Date: April 17, 2016
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
Distance: 6.2 miles roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 3,200 feet
Time: 3 to 4 hours
Location: Near Hoodsport, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: Northwest Forest Pass Required
Trail Conditions: Dry to Snow-Pack
Hiking With: Jim Darmiento, Ione Darmiento, Linna Freeman & my wonder dog Macho
Just what I had suspected…the forest road to the trailhead was filled with bottomless pot-holes, but my loaner Q5 Audi took them like a champ and I didn’t go around them either the suspension took each foot deep hole like it was nothing.
We had to start at the lower trailhead because the road to the upper trailhead was snow filled. The hike started steep and eventually got into snow. I love hiking in the snow because it’s actually easier to step straight up than hiking in loose gravel.
We didn’t make the summit, but decided on a lunch spot with a huge view of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Mt. Saint Helen’s and Puget Sound. We ended up back at Jim’s cabin for a swim and a cold beer.
Our Moab adventure started early in the trip with my good friend Jim Darmiento and his wife Ione missing our 6:00 a.m. flight from Seattle to Salt Lake City, Utah. So it was my wife Linna, me and my longtime friend Mike Curry on the flight to Salt Lake City. We ended up picking up Jim and Ione at the Salt Lake City Airport four hours later in our BMW (Bigass Mormon Wagon)…also known as a Chevy Suburban. After everyone was loaded up we headed down to Moab with a lunch break at the beautiful Sundance Resort.
Our first day in Moab we hit the Jail House for breakfast on Main street and then we were off to Arch National Park which was totally awe-inspiring and just a five minute ride from Moab. Note to oneself…start very early, it’s much cooler and less people! I am pleased that Linna convinced us to go back to the park at sunset to watch the Delicate Arch change from a sandy brown color to a vibrate orange. We finished our day with a 9:30 p.m. dinner reservation at the Desert Bistro desertbistro.com which was the finest restaurant in Moab.
Linna was able to convince the group a second time to get up 5:30 a.m. and head off to Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park to watch the sunrise and see the sun rays turn the Mesa Arch from a dull sandstone color to a fiery glowing orange. This was completely worth waking up damn early, I absolutely recommend this. We hit the highly rated Love Muffin café lovemuffincafe.com for breakfast after we got back to town, great food but long lines and ordering at the counter gave me negative vibes. We still had plenty of time for a nap before our river adventure in the afternoon.
If you only have time for one adventure in Moab during the summer…I highly recommend paddle boarding on the Colorado River with Paddle Moab paddlemoab.com. Josh (guide/owner) made the 2 ½ hour river trip exhilarating, entertaining and relaxing.
Most Seattleites either fly south to Mexico/Arizona area or off to Hawaii for a warm weather vacation. For some odd reason this will be my first visit to the Hawaii islands. My good friend Jim Darmiento set the ball a rolling by finding an enormous house on the beach in the town of Hana on the island of Maui for all of us to appreciate. When I say all of us I mean Linna Freeman (my wife), Ione Darmiento (Jim’s wife) Rick Massie (friend and co-worker), Scott and his wife Jesse (daughter and son in law to Ione).
We all flew the same airline and flight over to Maua on Hawaiian Airlines for only $300. After landing, we drove to Costco to pick up groceries for the week; we had no preset meal plan so we all just grabbed something we wanted to consume or cook up.
Once on the road the adventure begins right away with the famous twisty rode to Hana with hundreds of tight curves and single lane bridges. We just happened to hit a huge rain storm all the way to Hana; the torrents of rain was crashing down between the hillsides which was totally awesome to witness the power of rain-water. The guidebook stated that “Hana as a reputation for being a rainy place and receives over 80 inches of rain yearlyâ€, our first two days clearly lived up to that.
We chose Hana for more a peaceful serene setting without the tourist influence. Our house was perfectly located near the famous Hamoa Beach…considered one of the best beaches in the Maui for body surfing. Our crew woke around sunrise (06:00) each day to start the day with a hot cup of Kona java and a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs that was cooked up by our own Rick Massie. After breakfast each day was a short walk to Hamoa beach; most mornings we were the first ones enjoying the fine salt and pepper sand and the powerful waves.
We left our perfect location one day to hike the Pipiwai trail to the Waimoku waterfall. This is a very easy 2 mile trek of only 600 feet gain with a mystical 400 foot waterfall that awaits your arrival. Another day excursion we were off to one of the largest and coolest freshwater pools called Waioko by the Hawaiians or the Venus pool by others. You will find numerous deep spots to dive or jump in…depending how courageous you are. Jim Darmiento and I were the only daring among us to make the plunge in the darkish colored water from being so deep.
We had the pleasure to witness a beautiful marriage ceremony right on our own beach house. Scott and Jesse decided exchange wedding vows in Maui after being together for over 10 years.
We make a trip to Winthrop, Washington at least once a year for cross-country skiing. We took off from Seattle on Thursday making a four day holiday. Our group consisted of Rick Massie, Jim Darmiento and his wife Ione and my wife Linna Wei. About half way to Winthrop, we stopped for lunch at the Milepost 111 Brewing Company www.milepost111brewingcompany.com in Cashmere, Washington for a sandwich and beer.
We have been staying at the Cottonwood Cottage www.cottonwood-cottage.com for the last four visits. This three bedroom cabin is located on the outskirts of Winthrop right on the Methow River and walking distance from Methow Valley Trail System. The Methow Valley www.mvsta.com is considered to have more cross country ski trails than any other place in United States.
After settling into the Cottonwood Cottage we were off to our favorite pub house in Winthrop….the Old School Brewery www.oldschoolhousebrewery.com This small place has been around for years and if you don’t get there early on weekends, you will find yourself standing. They have live music on Friday and Saturday and usually a different band each night.
This year the state of Washington didn’t receive much snow including the Methow Valley which limited where we skied. We actually had to drive to higher elevation to find quality skiing.
The last time I visited Winthrop goo.gl/7yrYi6 was January, 2012 for some bad ass cross country skiing with the same group on this trip; Jim and Ione Darmiento, Rick Massie and my wife Linna. My friend and co-worker Jim Darmiento rented the same cabin goo.gl/BJtMK6 this year as he did for the January trip and again…it was perfect. All four of us drove up on Thursday and met at the cabin and then headed off to town for some warm Mexican food.
Contrary to popular belief, not all Chinese know how to ride a bike; this was Linna’s first riding experience and just the little bit we saw in the parking lot….we were having doubts. She successfully rode the trails and only biffed it once after hitting a rock sticking up. After a shower back at the cabin, we headed to our favorite place in Wintrop the School House for some grub and beers. We ended the night back at the cabin sitting around the firepit.
Next day we hiked up Goat Peak to say hi to the famous Lightning Bill; he has manned the forest look-out tower every summer for 19 years. He was actually boarding up the tower for the winter as we summited. After a few pictures and munching down Linna’s legendary sandwich we headed back down for a hot shower to get ready for dinner at the Sun Mountain Lodge.
We packed up and headed toward Seattle Sunday morning stopping in Leavenworth, Washington for lunch.
Goat Peak
Date: September 21, 2013
Difficulty: 4 out of 10
Distance: 5 miles / 8 Kilometers roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1,500 feet / 457 meters
Time: 2 to 3 hours
Location: Near Mazama, Washington
Users Group: Hikers & Dogs Only
Permits: None Required
Trail Conditions: Damp
Hiking With: Jim Darmiento, Ione Darmiento, Linna Freeman, Rick Massie and Macho.
The hardest part about Goat Peak goo.gl/XUCb1n is the 11 miles of rough gravel road heading up to the trailhead. The trail starts off fairly easily and then gets down to business with over a mile of steepness without traverse. The last half mile lets your heart-rate calm down as you stroll to the look-out.
At the look-out you will encounter the famous Lightning Bill and his two dogs Thunderdog-Shilo and Blaze; he has manned the look-out for 19 years now. Our group arrived on top just in time to snap a picture with him before he closed down the tower for the winter.
After a quick descent we headed back to our rented Cottonwood Cottage in Winthrop, Washington and cleaned up and had a lovely dinner at Sun Mountain Lodge.
