Life Lately

In watching the blog traffic, it's very clear that you, the readers, are most interested in the more personal posts, so I thought I would try out a new post topic called "Life Lately." In these posts I will be sharing tid bits from my daily life. 

As you may know, last week Katie and I celebrated a birthday. My +1, the Mini and I used it as an opportunity to try out a new restaurant here in Portland called Tusk. They have an awesome outdoor patio, cool decor, a full bar and delicious food. 

We ate outside on the patio, and here is a photo of just a few of the dishes we enjoyed. The tomato salad was so fresh and so tasty! 

As a bit of a birthday celebration I had some girlfriends over for dinner, and the Mini helped me make an apple crisp. I pretty much make up my own recipe, but this recipe from friend and blogger Robyn of Real Food Whole Life is pretty close.

This apple peeler made peeling and coring all the apples so easy. Thanks to my friend SC for letting me borrow it. I think we might need one of our own. 

We've been without a rug for a while in the master bedroom as we moved the rug to the living room (thanks to the dog for ruining the one we had there). As a birthday present my mom and dad bought me this fantastic Draftsman Rug from Schoolhouse Electric.

I'm so happy to finally have something cushy in the space. It makes the room feel cozier and makes foam rolling a lot more comfortable. 

I've been having major mountain withdrawal since we got back from our big trip. I've been hiking/jogging a 10+ mile loop in Forest Park called the North Nasty (it has about 3,000ft vertical), but it's just not the same as being in the mountains. I have a really hard time finding friends to go on big adventures with me outside of Portland, so on Friday of last week I decided to go solo. I packed up my bag and went out to the Gorge to do the Ruckel Ridge Loop hike.

It's a 9+ mile hike up a steep ridgeline that ascends nearly 4,000ft. 

The views are beautiful!

I had a great time except I lost my favorite hat. It got caught on a low hanging tree, was pulled off m head and I watched it fall to is death down the side of a cliff. Clearly this was before that happened. 

It was a good week! Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more "Life Lately" posts.