Paolo vs. Wild

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Amanda and I are taking off for the Cascades tonight to go camping. Per Scott's recommendation, we're heading to Dewey Lakes, which is just around the corner from Crystal Mountain (surprise, surprise) in Mt. Rainier National Park. You can read Scott's review of the hike here.

We've been looking for an opportunity to go camping, so Amanda and I both took Friday off from work and spent most of yesterday evening packing. However, we're going for different reasons...

Amanda wants to hike in, pitch a tent, sleep on the ground, cook over a portable burner and use nature's infinite restroom for recreation.

I'm going to prove that I can camp. I've never been camping before. My most recent hike was a hike from hell. I've slept in tents for concerts at The Gorge, but that's as far as my camping resume goes.

Some might say, "Paolo, you've gone backpacking before so you're used to living off the bare essentials in relative discomfort and inconviences. What gives?" Running water and civilization, I argue. All jokes aside, I expect the weather to be splendid and I might just enjoy the adventure.

Assuming I don't pull a Christopher McCandless and eat the wrong berries, we should be back by Saturday. Wish me luck in the Great Outdoors.

Hot like Tim's Jalapeno Chips

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I'm going to get local-TV-news cliche and talk weather. Because it is hot. It is really f'ing hot.

That picture you see to the left is of the thermometer at my house on Monday. That's been the average temperature this week, around 90 degrees.

Now I've been in hot weather, people. You might recall the 119-degree heat I endured in Palm Springs before. I could tolerate that because I was in the right frame of mind. Here in the Northwest, we don't have hot weather, so I'm not mentally prepared for it. So I suffer.

When it's hot like this I get into a terrible habit of drinking water, beer, whatever to try and cool down. I don't actually cool down so I keep drinking until I'm full of liquid. Like a dog chasing its tail, I can't stop drinking and don't want to. You know that feeling where you jump and can feel the liquid move in your belly? That's been my existence for the past few days.

It's hot like Tim's Jalapeno Chips. And I need more water.

Lazy Sunday on the river

in

Amanda and I in the S.S. Mottola

Yesterday, Scott played tour guide and took a group of us out to float the Green River at Flaming Geyser State Park in Auburn.

Courtney and Scott in the S.S. Baby Blue Beluga

The place was packed. In fact, the park entrance was blocked off to keep anymore cars from entering. We parked out on the road and caught a ride with some dude named Earl.

A brief note about Earl: Earl was a smart guy. He had a truck and was basically shuttling people to and from the park entrance. He also had arranged for all the girls to ride in the truck with him while the guys all sat in the truck bed. Convenient, huh? We thought Earl was spreading goodwill, but his agenda was quite clear based upon the gender divide. I asked Courtney about her no-hesitation jump into the truck to join Earl. Her reply: "The boy has a truck. Momma didn't raise no fool."

We finally made it to the entry point and jumped in with our inflatables. Most people on the river had tire tubes. Scott had ransacked a G.I. Joe's closeout sale and we came with a battalion of small rafts and a party island. We were the group to be seen.

Aubrey and Valerie on the party island (left); me so happy (right)

I've floated Green River before, and it's too bad that the river has such a bad reputation for that whole Green River Killer fiasco decades ago. It should have have a bad reputation for the trashy people that party on the river (ourselves not included). The number of pregnant women smoking was staggering.

Captain Chaffee

Tyler manning the dingy

Goofy poses

Still, the experience was a blast. River floating has to be the #1 best way to enjoy hot weather. Green River offers a variety of ways to enjoy the water: swimming holes, chutes, small rapids and rope swings. The water temperature was cool, but not frigid and combined with good friends it was a perfect way to enjoy the day. (See Amanda's post on AM|PM about our quite-the-opposite, busy Saturday in Seattle.)