Remember you can click on the pictures to see a bigger version, some of the pictures dont show the whole picture on the post.

Camping on Lake Mills 08/09/10

Glines Canyon Dam on Lake Mills

Lake Mills will be no longer accessible soon, and soon after that it will no longer exist.  The Glines Canyon Dam that creates Lake Mills will be taken down through 2011 into 2012.  This is one of the largest dam removal projects in the world.  A little farther done the Elwha River you run into Lake Aldwell and its dam will also be taken down simultaneously.  Olympic National Park will be heading up the whole project. This will help return salmon and steelhead back to the river, which have been absent since 1927.  The Elwha River used to be known as the best fishing river on the west coast (not including Canada and Alaska).  100 lb salmon were common to the river.  

Lake Aldwell Dam

My turn, so Brian thought it would be important for us to go kayak in the lake before it is a thing of the past. Plus we hadn’t kayaked in over a year, so sad! We have some great friends with a terrier names Spot who agreed to take on watching Nala for us, which was exciting to have a little time away and a little scary.  By the way she did great, only peed on their carpet once and played with Spot and even met a cat for the first time.  I dropped Nala at the babysitters Sunday afternoon and then met Brian at the end of his shift in the Elwha area of the National Park. We drove to the place were we put the kayaks in the water and got them loaded up and pushed off around 4p.m. The lake is beautiful and it was so fantastic to be back on the water, I had totally missed it.  We reminded ourselves how to paddle and as usual got to racing right away. We enjoyed a really leisurely paddle to the end of the lake where we intended to camp, it was maybe a 45 minute paddle with only a little bit of rough water at what I think they call “Windy Point”.

We coasted inland, got out and carried our kayaks onto the bank for the night. We set up camp, I usually start on the tent and Brian gets the varying sizes of wood for the nights fire. Brian was itching to fish so we went back to where we docked our kayaks and I got a piggy back ride out to a stump in the bay where I sat and was the official “fish spotter”. I have played this role before, I generally get bored quickly but it was such a beautiful afternoon, the water was calm and the fish were jumping. I had a great view from my stump, the lake and trees covering the mountains surrounding the lake, toppled trees in the water which had flowers growing from them and of course my amazing husbands backside J I would yell “fish” and point and then he would cast in that direction and I’m sure he’ll correct me after he reads this but I think “We” caught 6 fish. I would yell “Ohhh, fish”, more excited than I expected it to be, I think it’s cause he was really catching the fish I would spot.

Brian took some photos of me on the rock, one of which I’m going to work into advertising for my business and I got some good shots of him fishing.  I got cold and hungry which is what usually happens and we ended the fishing session. Actually I went and made some chili (started the camping stove all by myself) and Brian fished some more. We had chili and chips and carrots for dinner and of course followed it up with S’mores. I had a little time for deep breathing and just soaking in the sounds of the forest on this really great big log.  There is nothing like the peace that the forest brings, it’s all encompassing. I find that it makes me feel small and so very connected all at the same time.

We both slept really well and actually didn’t wake till 9:30a.m the next morning. We had some oatmeal and coffee for breakfast. Coffee also tastes way better in the forest.  We packed up and made lunch at the same time, sausages and apples, and filtered some more water for the journey home. Brian thought he had some more time for fishing 

so I decided to get into the hammock that we always bring with us. It isn’t a necessity but I’m always glad when we bring it because it’s so nice to sit in and I’m always amazed when I fall asleep in it. Brian got me my sleeping bag and I got into that and then back into the hammock and had an hour or more nap which was excellent. We were stalling a little bit during this time because the water was a little rough. By the time Brian had enough fishing and I was up from my nap we headed out back on the water to home. It started raining shortly after we began our paddle and once I decided it was okay if I got drenched it became actually really refreshing and fun to be kayaking in the rain. It was a quick paddle back and ended in Ranger Doolittle chatting with several different people at the boat landing about the changes that are soon to come to the area. We got going soon and went to pick up our little girl who was very excited to see us.

It was a great weekend and a very relaxing camping trip, even if it was a little short.

The beginning of our new garden!

Janelle and I our pumped to have our own garden in our own yard.  Today I tilled the grass.  I believe the next step will be to get dirt, here are two pictures Janelle took, it will be fun to see the changes take place!  The garden space is 16X32 almost 3 times bigger than her garden last year in Seattle.  We think we are going to grow most of it by seed, so we only have about 3 weeks to prepare.

I am growing a Hop garden on the other side of the garage.  I have picked out 5 different hop plants to grow.  I started brewing beer last month and I am excited to grow my own hops.  I should of taken some pictures of the process but I was to focused on making sure the beer turns out great.  My friend Bud joined me on the adventure.  We bottled Saturday Feb. 13th so it will be ready to taste on the 27th.  We did taste some of it before bottling, of course it was warm and flat but it tasted really good.  We will see how it tastes in 2 weeks when its cold and has bubbles.  I can not wait!!  (it's a IPA)

Valentines Day

Lower Elwha Dam

Janelle and I had a lovely Valentines Day.  The day started out with us going to Church and then we headed west on Hwy 112, we were going to drive to the very corner of Washington, Cape Flattery.  Flattery, it just sounds like a place to go on Valentines Day.  We went and saw the Lower Elwha Dam, which will be taken down (blown-up) in the next year and a half.

On our way driving down a back road to Salt Creek Beach we saw a Eagle right off the side of the road, what a beautiful creature!  We arrived at Salt Creek Beach to find mostly blue skies.  We had a picnic lunch on the beach with hot chocolate!  We walked the beach and enjoyed a rainbow, a nap and the pleasure of being lightly rained on while the sun was shining.  I think that is romantic? Anyways, we could not of asked for a more beautiful February day.

LOVE!

We continued our trek and stopped in Sequi and Neah Bay.  Neah Bay is also the home of the Makah Tribe.  We took a picture of there welcoming Indian figurings.

Finally we got to Cape Flattery where we took a 1/2 mile hike to the corner of Washington.  There were many beautiful views that pictures can't fully represent but here are a few we took.

 Cape Flattery Lighthouse Cape Flattery Island

What beautiful trees and small "Rock Islands"

 This had a deep cave, signs said caves ran under us as well!

Looking North, you can see Canada

  Looking South

On the way home we stopped by a little cafe called the Blackberry Cafe.  They served delicious desserts,  so we decided to have dessert before dinner.  Janelle had a chocolate brownie with a blackberry frosting and hot fudge and I had the raspberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  The blackberry pie had already been all eaten up. 

When we got home we cooked dinner together, grilled salmon, brussel sprouts and Janelle wanted my special hashbrowns.  We ate while watching the U.S.A women's hockey team clean-up on China.  I can't give you anymore details of our Valentines Day but the whole day was special, we had such a good time!

Work, The Parkway just disappeared! 01/18/2010

Here are a few pictures of the parkway just after Lake Dawn road.  It is the only entrance to Hurricane Ridge; it looks like the Ridge will be closed down for a while L

You will see in the first picture that it has a lot of the road and then you will see in the last picture a big chunk fell.  I wasn’t ready with my video when it happened but it was amazing to see it; such power! The middle picture shows how far the slide happened you can see fresh cut trees all the way down at the end of the picture.

Dr. Doolittle's own Practice Room!!

Ok I have a few more late blogs to add, but here is a short recent one.

Today Janelle started seeing patients in her own practice room.  WOW, I am so proud of her, this has been a hard 3-4 months for her.  She went from residency in Seattle to starting her own business a week later and now she has made another step forward.  I have to tell you it is amazing how many people she already knows.  People see me name tag in the park and ask me if I am related to her.  It is definitely a switch of roles for me and her.  Her practice is taking off and she is working her tail off to keep it moving.  Once again I am so proud of her.  Sometimes she comes home and her head is swirling. I can't imagine how it would be to start a business without business training, but she is learning a quick curve and exceeding.  She says she really enjoys the doctor-patient part of the day its all the other stuff thats giving her grey hairs.  Only a few grey hairs ;)  So here are a couple pictures!

12/15/2009 A whole lot of Snow fun!!

So here I lay in a cabin in Mt. Rainier National Park.  I first want to say Happy Birthday Mike!  I feel bad I could not call you today but there is no cell service or available phones here in the park!  You are a wonderful older brother and I feel every year I get to know you better than the one before.  I look forward to the future growth in getting to you!

So I have had a great last two days.  Yesterday I took a National Park Service test on scuba diving skills, it was a 2^nd test after passing my scuba diving physical fitness test.  I passed my skills test so all I need to do is turn in some paperwork and I will be officially part of the National Park Service dive team at Olympic.  The team is made up of some really cool people, all pretty much work on Lake Crescent.  I am excited to be part of the team!  One part of the test (luckily in a 12 foot deep pool) was to dive to the bottom in full gear and take off all my gear (my flippers, mask, BCD vest and of course the regulator (for you non-diving folks that is the piece I get oxygen through) then return to the surface, where the instructor then says ok now go put it on.  I tell you diving down with chlorine in your eyes and finding your regulator first (I mean what else would you want first) was awkward but then putting all your gear on under water, well that is a work out and it was very interesting but it worked out. After I finished the test I had about 30 minutes to get home change and meet another Ranger to drive to Mt. Rainier (about 4 hours).  I was pretty exhausted last night.  You may think , well Brian why are you there?  well let me tell you.

I am here for avalanche training.  It was very cool first day, I learned a lot. (one being that running in snowshoes at 5400 feet is exhausting).  The first half of the day was classroom and the second half of the day was n the snow up at paradise.  It was so nice being out in the snow.  I am looking forward to tomorrow and Thursday.  I guess I haven’t told you yet but I am working the winter weekends at Hurricane Ridge.  It sets about 25 minutes above our home in Port Angeles.  It’s also over 5000 feet high, a beautiful place and such easy access.  I am excited about “rangering” there”  My first day was last Sunday and my supervisor showed me the ropes!  OK I better go to bed I have a long day tomorrow.

Today we learned about snow stability.  After the classroom we headed up to paradise to play in the snow.  Our goal was to dig some pits and lean about the layers of snow and how secure it was.  We learned a few different snow tests to understand the avalanche danger, as well as learning how to read the weather and weather trends and try to determine what was going on in avalanche areas, Good Stuff! Anyways…. So we arrive at paradise and split into 3 groups, one instructor per group.  We all headed to a paradise valley, as we started to hike into the trees (the safe trail, since we were at a high avalanche danger) we spread out (which is safer)  I was right behind my instructor and we hit the end of the trees, it was about a 38% slope and another instructor noticed across the valley (a beautiful valley) some crowns (areas where slabs have broke free, they were about 8 feet deep. As we looked around we noticed some cracks in the snow about even where the instructor and I were standing.  I asked him if this made him feel nervous? (I know I was.)  He said yes he was definitely concerned, and he stopped the group.  He said that he had never seen so much avalanche hints at the park there (which meant a lot with his knowledge and experience).  So here I am keeping my eye on the instructor in case something broke loose and he did a few slab tests, I was glad when he was done.  We made our way back up the cliff and found a safe spot to do our dig tests.  So much information I have learned in 2 days and I guess we are so lucky to have seen the conditions on the mountains that we saw.  I wish I had pictures for you but I really don’t want to bring my camera into this weather.  It snowed pretty heavy but wow what a view, I look forward to taking Janelle out on the ridge when I get back home! Tomorrow is my last day, I am excited for it but I am also ready to get back home to Janelle.

Thanksgiving Week in Port Angeles!! 11/26/2009

(you can click on pictures for a closer look)
Saturday night Mama and Papa Johnson arrived in Port Angeles from Minnesota.

I had worked my last day in Kalaloch for the year on Wednesday before, and moved all my gear and 7 months of living stuff back to our new home in Port Angeles. I was Blessed that my work weekend was Thurs. Fri. and Sat. So those days still counted in my work week. These days helped Janelle and I clean and prepare to host our first Thanksgiving. I spent a lot of time in the attack preparing a nice warm cozy room for my newest sister Meredith. You have to take care of family!

Saturday after they arrived we went to my Olympic Park Christmas party, it was nice to introduce my family to my new work-mates. (though I am still getting to know everyone here in Port Angeles)

Sunday morning Leslie, Marlene, J and I went to church, the early service. We had to get home in time for the Seahawks game, they lost ☹ but everyone of us wore a Seahawk Jersey, I am proud of parent Johnsons because the game was against Minnesota. (someone has the picture I have not seen it yet) I continued watching football while Janelle took the parents to see her garden, work and Sequim.

Monday – We met in the morning at J and I’s favorite breakfast place, “Haven”. A place with good size portions, tasty food, coffee cake, scones, muffins and even gluten-free bread. They have great combination plates, my favorite is there Mediterranean omelet. The restaurant has a real homey small town feel to it. It’s also a small place, long room that is very narrow, like a hallway. After breakfast we went to drive to Kalaloch where I spent my summer. We stopped at Lake Crescent, A beautiful long (11 miles) lake that was dug by a glaciers many many years ago, 8000 years ago a mud-slide from the mountain above blocked the valley and it filled with water, it is around 624 feet deep. This summer my dive buddy Morgan and I dove it. We only went around 100 feet deep. It is beautiful clear blue and you can see forever underwater. It has straight down rock wall cliffs, it feels like you are flying along a mountain. Anyways, we took a few pictures and continued on our trip. We arrived at Kalaloch 2 hours later. I showed them my living quarters for the summer and the ranger station. We then went to the Lodge enjoyed lunch while looking out over the ocean. It had been a slightly windy rainy day so the view from inside was warm and pleasant. On our way out we stopped by Big Cedar tree one of the largest cedars in the U.S.A, snapped a few photos and went to Ruby Beach, we didn’t walk the trail down to the beach it was raining pretty hard, but you could see the rock formations in the water just off the beach. A beautiful view! Our next stop was a detour off HWY 101, we went to the Hoh Rain forest, a beautiful rain forest where the trees are covered by a gorgeous green moss, the woods are thick and the trees are all huge. It is one of the few temperate rain forests in the U.S and also one of the largest. It receives around 140-165 inches of rain per year. We were blessed with a herd of Elk that slowly crossed the road right as we were entering the park. I would say there was about 50 plus of them. A few of the elk had antlers, which is a good thing after hunting season. The Hoh River ran right next to the road and campground. What a wonderful diverse area! On our way back we stopped in Forks, J and Marlene looked around the Twilight store as Leslie and I sat on the bench in the front of the store. I bet that bench gets used a lot by all the husbands, boyfriends and dads that make the trip to Forks to satisfy the Twilight groupies. As we got back into Port Angeles we stopped at a Mexican restaurant where the group enjoyed some Kiwi Margaritas, I did have a traditional one on the rocks but the Kiwi ones tasted pretty good too.

Tuesday – Janelle had to work and so I played tourist guide. It was really nice to spend some time with Mama and Papa Johnson. We went out onto Ediz Hook, a large spit that protects the shores of Port Angeles. The Coast Guard has a base out at the tip. We ate lunch at a little dive seafood place at the harbor, great clam chowder and fish and chips! We continued to Sequim, a town about 20 minutes away and went down to Dungeness Spit. It was a spit type of day. We got some coffee in Sequim where Marlene disappeared into her new favorite little shop called Doodle-bugs. After that we headed to the Park Visitor Center where we schmoozed and learned park facts. We sat down and watched a 20 minute movie on the Olympic National Park. What a great day, we finished off with a great chili dinner made by Marlene.

dungeness spit, Sequim

Wednesday – Was a morning of rest. Janelle and I slept in, Mama and Papa Johnson came over just before lunch. After lunch, I went to do the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving day. I was gone for about 2 hours trying to make sure I didn’t forget a item. I believe Leslie found a cozy spot on the couch and kept the couch warm. Janelle and Marlene baked pumpkin and Apple Pie as well as made a wonderful Pork Butte for dinner. Janelle here on the left gives a smile as she gets in a pie making frame of mind.  Here is a picture of me preparing some stuff the night before, cutting onions with my scuba diving googles on.  Later Leslie and I went out to buy a Thanksgiving table and a extra pie plate. I ended up getting a nice piece of 4 by 8 plywood. I cut the corners off making it a nice oval shape and added some 2 by 4’s to the bottom so it would fit over our small dining room table. It turned out great! Late that night my parents and Meredith arrived. Mama and Papa Doo picked Meredith up at the airport and made great time in getting to P.A. (Port Angeles). I believe they drove straight onto the ferry. We saved them some Pork Butte and we quickly called it a night. Oh yeah, of course the day was filled with Pork Butte jokes.

Leslie straightening out the table after single handedly carrying it into the house.

Meredith adds some Turkey Spirit

Moms prepare to set the table

Nothing like a smile and a swig of olive oil!

Thursday – I got up all by myself at 7am while everyone slept in. I needed to prep the Turkey, my first Turkey and I wanted it to turn out not just good but great. (thank you Uncle Craig for the pre-help with the Turkey, great game-plan)  That was my goal for the whole meal. I love to cook and I don’t like to follow recipe’s. For me, I feel food should be part of a mood or feeling so to follow a recipe may fit your mood but to make something without a recipe on feeling and food is to adapt it perfect for that day and meal. I have to be honest I was pretty nervous about the whole meal, cooking for all your loved ones is a big deal to me and I wanted everything to turn out great. I pretty much told all the parents that Janelle and I were cooking this first Thanksgiving dinner and we did not want any help ☺  We really wanted to host and take care of the family. To give all the parents credit they did a good job of letting us cook. You know, that is hard for a parent to do, for them to just relax and enjoy the day. They and Meredith did help set up the living room for the big feast. I was excited to see that the dining room table I put together the night before worked out well. Leslie later said that he was impressed with Janelle and my ability to team work in the kitchen. (That made us feel pretty good.) Janelle and Meredith got up around 9 am when the first football game started. It was nice to have a view of the TV from the kitchen. The rest of the family showed up soon after as well as a new friend of J and I’s, Matt who also works for the park. He was away from family for Thanksgiving so we adopted him in. The Turkey came out a nice and golden brown and it finished about 2pm, right on schedule. Janelle was in charge of a Brussels sprout dish, she sautéed them in garlic and scallions and topped them with melted parmesan. She also made a beautiful Spinach and glazed pecan salad with raisons and a balsamic vinaigrette. We started dinner with a nice gentle amuse bouche. It was a vegetarian broth with some smoked salmon, a chanterelle, a half cut cherry tomato and a drop or two of truffle oil. It was a nice warm up for the palate. It reminded me of my Canlis days.  The other courses were the stuffing, which for the life of me I can not remember all the ingredients, but I do remember more chanterelles and raisons. The gravy, (which also doesn’t come to mind) I know both sets of parents are cringing right now because they love to lecture me on writing down my creations. I do know it had a pound of chanterelles that I had picked this summer and the perfect amount of truffle oil. I had substituted a Cauliflower mash instead of mashed potatoes. It was cauliflower cooked and mixed with butter, cream cheese, sour cream, roasted garlic and chives. MMMM MMMMM GOOD! The truffle oil and Chanterelle Gravy went perfect with it.

In a substitute for the can of cranberry, shaped as the can, my family is traditionally all for, I made a beet, cranberry and carrot sauce with honey and clover, the texture turned out beautiful and it was the perfect match with the turkey.  I was in creative mood so I decided I would try to make my first mushroom duxelle. I used mostly boletes (porcini mushrooms) king, queen and admiral boletes, all I had picked from the summer/fall but I also mixed in some chanterelles. You first chop them up into tiny pieces (aka duxelle) I sautéed them up in butter to where a few were getting crispy I also added in scallions, bacon, green olives, roasted garlic and port. It had a nice consistent texture and it was full of flavor, boletes are amazing mushrooms. Finally we made some garlic bread with homemade roasted garlic and butter.  While we were cooking we passed around the Port bottle, everyone at the house took at least one swig, I think we created a new tradition for this Doolittle family Thanksgiving. We had a few different wines to compliment the meal (all of course in there correct glass). A buttery Chardonnay, a light Pinot Noir were the main two we had with the meal.  After a hour or two of hibernation on the floor and couch and where ever you could find the space to lye down we enjoyed Janelle/Marlenes pumpkin and apple pie with vanilla ice cream. HEAVEN. We finished a puzzle everyone had taken turns working on throughout the day and of course the Packers won! A Blissful beautiful day that Janelle and I truly enjoyed spending time with all the family. I did really miss Mike, Carrie, Mary Jean and Alex but they had other family they had to attend too. It’s hard to get everyone together now-adays. It was a day Janelle and I will never forget! Thank you!
puzzlen

Victoria, B.C

Friday – On Friday we all got up by 7AM, yes you read that correctly 7AM so we could get ready and catch a ferry to Victoria BC , Canada at 8am. Janelle and I had a hot dog at 8:15 for breakfast mmm mmm nutritious. The ferry takes about an hour and drops you off in downtown Victoria.  We walked onto the ferry because there is no need for a car because everything is so close to the waterfront. It was a beautiful day as you can tell from the pictures. It wasn’t very busy either. You see it was black Friday and any city in the U.S was probably a zoo, but in Canada they have a different day for there “Thanksgiving”. 
Can you believe they let this crew through the border check

No Comment!

Awwwwww

 We didn’t do much buying but what a great place to go shopping if you are normally a black Friday shopper. OK enough talking about that, since shopping isn’t my thing, I am a buyer, meaning I already know what I want before I go to a store. Anyways, we did see a lot of shops, we tried on some Chinese hats in China town and posed next to statues, the moms went to the Christmas village while Meredith, Janelle, Papas X2 and I went to the Irish Times Pub for a stiff drink, well I had Scotch the rest of them had hottie totties. We ended up having lunch at a place called Sticky Wicket pub & restaurant. We had a fun little dart tournament there, lets just say Meredith and my dad got a little competitive with each other, the funny thing is they tied for last, I had my “A” game on, and Janelle took second. Victoria was beautiful! We all had such a good time hanging out. I think my dad took like 800 pictures. He is quick on the trigger. We caught the 4pm Ferry back to P.A and were ordering Gordy’s Pizza by 5:30pm (That is Janelle and my favorite pizza place, it is soooo good!) We had a Mediterranean pizza, yummy. We played games the rest of the night. (Oh I would get in trouble if I did not mention that Mama Doo won a poker game against all of us, very impressive! Meredith was the runner-up.)

The whole Crew!

Saturday – I know Mama and Papa Doo had breakfast at Havens and Mama and Papa Johnson joined them for coffee. Meredith, Janelle and I slept in, we can’t keep up with those kids! We met up with all of them in downtown P.A where we did some more looking around and Christmas shopping. The Johnsons including Janelle had lunch at Ricks Restaurant while I drove back with my parent to our place to grab some stuff. My parents took off for Seattle and the Johnsons met back at our place. The Johnson and I went to the top of Hurricane Ridge so they could see the beautiful view.  It is where I am working this winter, unfortunately there was low clouds so they didn't get to see the view but we enjoyed the snow. The rest of the day was just hanging out and playing games

Sunday- Not to much to tell sadly. Meredith, Mama and Papa Johnson left for the airport and Janelle and I vegged and watched football all day.

It was a very special week for Janelle and I, we had so much fun hosting Thanksgiving. It was nice to take care of family and spend so much time with all of them. It is to bad we all live so far apart ☹ We love you all and we very much missed all the family who couldn’t come that week. We are thankful for all our family and friends! God Bless!

P.S sorry for all the typo’s it was a long quick “write” specially since I am so behind! ☺