2020 Vision - checking in

In October last year I had time to think and doodle ideas around doing a special project in 2020. A list of 20 things didn't seem like enough. Likewise doing something 20 times didn't seem like enough. But 20 lists of 20 things each? Well, that's a project.

Now that a quarter of the year is behind us I wanted to tally up how I'm doing. I chose to do things that I like doing -- but wanted to do MORE of. Things like hiking, running, crafting, reading, and writing. And having adventures, of course! I also allowed my longer-term 101 things in 1001 days project to peek in here -- with any 20 of those doing double duty in this project.

Some of these things should have been really easy. But with the way things are changing, some things that seemed easy now seem uncertain. By now I should have at least 10 hikes, at least 8 bike rides, at least 6 runs, etc. But staying closer to home and self isolating is the new normal.

20 hikes
Ideally most of these will be new hikes rather than old favorites. Snowshoe trips count as hikes.
We had a planned snowshoe trip cancelled, sadly. And with trails and parks closed, we've stopped getting out. This will be challenging.

7

0

20

20 bike rides
Not just a little commute, but say a trip downtown or something longer would count.
This might actually get some action with the weather getting better -- it's easier to practice "social distancing" on a bike, so maybe this is something we start doing in the evening after work.

2

0

20

20 runs of at least 5K
They don't hall have to be races -- I just need to set a low bar to get back into running.
We ran two 5Ks so far this year, and would have run another in March. Our 10K for April has turned into a virtual 10K. Somehow I doubt our June half marathon will happen. I had registered for 8 races this year, including one I've thought about doing for over a decade. But we've decided to start adding running back into our mornings. We go for a 4-mile walk every morning; a few days a week we'll start sprinkling running intervals back into the mix. I feel hopeful about this.

2

0

20

20 swims
The ultimate goal is to swim a mile at the open-water swim.
With local pools and beaches closed, I haven't been able to swim at all. This now seems impossible.

0

0

20

20 new recipes -- completed 3/27/20!
I've missed cooking; so I'll try a new recipe twice a month.
I got a couple of great new cookbooks and tried a lot of different things in the Instant Pot -- I'll call this a rousing success (and I keep cooking new things!)

20

0

20

20 new adventures
Think of 50@50, but just 20.
We had a lot of fun on our trip up to see the Northern Lights -- we may be limited in our adventuring for a while, but nice to have a good start.

8

0

20

20 books read
No big books this year -- but I'm going to count each of the volumes of Macaulay's History of England as a separate book.
I've read four volumes of Macaulay so far -- somehow since we've been staying home I haven't cracked open a non-recipe book. I think this will pick up again, just difficult to make myself sit and read.

7

0

20

20 sketches
Ideally I'll do this as a 30-day challenge again...
I have started doodling -- not sketching yet, but picking up a pencil. I think this will get going in the spring.

0

0

20

20 paintings
I'd like to go through the sumi-e workbook and play with my watercolor set. Not art, just paintings.
Haven't done a thing. I feel like I need to sketch before I can paint, so I'm setting up an arbitrary delay. But the year is young, right?

0

0

20

20 crafty blog posts / check-ins
Should be quite easy, since there will be 17 SAL check-ins, plus a couple of scrap posts too.
So far I've already done 14 of these, between the Stitch-a-Long, the OMGs, and ScrapHappy day -- of course, the best part of the check-ins is that I get crafting done so I'll have something to show!

14

0

20

20 embroidery stitches
I'd love to make a sampler of some sort using at least 20 stitches.
I designed a piece -- an outline of the state of Washington, a heart over Seattle, and rainbow stripes in different colors in the "background". The piece will have a total of 20 types of stitch; I've done 6 so far. I'm excited to keep trying new ones.

6

0

20

20 crowns in Duolingo -- completed 1/25/20
It's time to work on my Spanish again!
This was super easy -- and I'm happy to say that I'm still working on my Duolingo, and as of today have a 86-day streak. Very satisfying. And though I would be hard pressed to hold a conversation in Spanish, I do feel like I'm learning.

20

0

20

20 songs on the ukulele
I don't need to memorize the songs, just be comfortable playing and singing them.
I have this ridiculous idea for -- wait for it -- Apri-Uke-Lele. ("Ay-pri-you-kuh-lay-lee"). I'm going to challenge myself this month to play the ukelele for 15 minutes every day. Out of this I'll get a good 15-20 songs in the rotation, so I feel positive about this!

0

0

20

20 new things in my portfolio
Could be emails, blog posts, etc.
I've actually written a number of email campaigns at work that I'm quite proud of; the challenge is capturing them and putting them in my portfolio. So that's something to focus on this month.

0

0

20

20 new skills
Not sure what this could be ... I want to learn some new things.
This is a funny category. So far I've put a travel journaling course (online) and making arboreal salve in here. Other ideas are folding origami cranes from memory, kumihimo braiding, adding a watermark to an image, and taking some courses on Coursera. So more to come on this.

2

0

20

20 Thames Path posts
I want to document that trip from years ago.
I have FINALLY started this. I've written and published 5 posts so far, and I have 15-16 left to go. And at the end of it I vow to recycle / get rid of all the bits and pieces I've saved in a bag since then. Not the books, but the train tickets, bus tickets, and lodging receipts can go.

5

0

20

20 movies
This is easy -- or it should be.
This *should* have been easy ... now with movie theatres closed, it seems like a stretch. If we get past, say, August, I'll allow new movies that we stream to "count". But not yet.

7

0

20

20 hours stitching acanthus -- completed 3/24
This will be harder to track than to accomplish!
I'm sure that I had done more than 20 hours on acanthus by March 24, but that's when I actually tracked it.

20

0

20

20 hours volunteered
I suspect the difficult part will be identifying volunteer opportunities.
Well, that *would* have been the difficult part... I did some research into volunteering on trails, which would have been my next goal. I had even signed up to sew masks for a local hospital, but they changed the program. But I'm sure there will be more ways to help.

4

0

20

20 things off my 101 things in 1001 days list
This is a bit of a cheat -- but will allow me to do a range of projects.
So far I've set up email subscriptions on the blog, tried 5 vegan cheeses, completed the "love your lettering" course, and embroidered a pair of dish towels. I'm close to a few others, so I feel good about this. After all, 101 in 1001 days ends in September 2020!

4

0

20

I have a 2020 Vision tracker on the blog, and I'll do a check-in every quarter. If you're keeping score (I am, of course!), I've completed 128/400 things -- putting me at 32%. Not bad for being just 25% of the way through the year.

Overall progress

128

0

400

Hike of the Week : Dosewallips Steam Donkey Trail

The other day we got up early, jumped in the car, and took the ferry across from Edmonds to Kingston. We drove down to Dosewallips State Park, parked the car, and headed on a little loop of the Steam Donkey Trail. 

The trail was an odd little trail -- a trail that existed to get you into the outdoors for a while rather than to take you anywhere or show you anything. And that's just fine. 

It was mossy and lush and green, and the trail had been well maintained and cleared of the recent blow-downs. There were also plenty of signs so you didn't feel lost.

The little bridges over the streams were well maintained.

One suspects this stream gets quite full at certain times of year, so the bridge (seen above) is definitely needed!

SpoooOOOoooky Phantom Creek!

Okay, maybe not super spooky...

And I always always always love a boardwalk through a marshy area:

Towards the end of the loop we passed this funny little flooded pond -- it seemed out of place, somehow.

But my favorite spot on the hike was this tiny little bridge:

And then we were out!

Dosewallips Steam Donkey Trail

3.0 miles

574 feet elevation gain

2020 Vision : January wrap-up

You know how much I love a project... and you know I love making lists. Because I wanted to do something special for 2020 I came up with the idea of my "2020 Vision" -- twenty lists of twenty things each. They're a mix of easy and difficult things, but all things I want to get done. And I'm happy to report that I'm doing pretty well for my first month. Sure, some of the lists haven't been started yet. But I feel happy with my progress so far.

Let's start with great news: I've completed one of the lists!

20 Crowns in Duolingo -- completed 1/25/20
I've gotten into the habit of spending 5-10 minutes on Duo practicing Spanish every morning. As of today I've got a 27 crowns and a 26-day streak going. In related news, I've shifted my "Spanish!" task in 101 things in 1001 days from the vague "I've got a Rosetta Stone course" to "Reach checkpoint 2 in Duo".

20

0

20

Now for the "bad" news: I haven't started several of the lists. I say "bad" because I knew some of them wouldn't start until later in the year. Still, full disclosure here.

20 swims. The Ballard Pool should reopen soon; I hope to get at least one swim in in February!
20 sketches. I had originally thought about starting this on February 1; however something else has won that spot! Looking at March for this.
20 paintings. I want to do this mostly in the summer; so we'll try it then. That said, wouldn't it be fun to paint the Northern Lights?
20 embroidery stitches. Just learned that February is National Embroidery Month. (Who knew??? DMC knew.) So I'll work on an embroidery project next month and start my stitch sampler, too.
20 songs on the uke. Sigh. I miss playing. Not sure why I can't seem to make myself pick it up again!
20 new things in my portfolio. I've actually produced some things I'm really proud of this month at work; I just need to document them and add them to my portfolio.
20 Thames Path posts. I will start writing these in February -- they'll start publishing in March!
20 hours volunteered. I'm going to pick a race to volunteer at with the Magnuson Series as a kick start; though that race probably won't be till March.

And now for the "works in progress" -- these make me feel like I'm getting stuff done!
20 hikes

2

0

20

20 bike rides

1

0

20

20 runs at least 5K long

1

0

20

20 new recipes

5

0

20

20 new adventures

2

0

20

20 books read

3

0

20

20 crafty blog posts

5

0

20

20 new skills

1

0

20

20 movies 

3

0

20

20 hours of stitching acanthus 

10

0

20

20 things off my 101 list (yes, this one is a "cheat" and double dipping, but when else will I get those things done?

1

0

20

Did you set goals for 2020? How are they going? We'll see if I can keep moving forward!

Hike(-let) of the Week : Twin Ponds Park

We didn't have a ton of time -- so much to do! -- and the weather was pretty miserable. So we pinpointed a park near where we needed to head later in the day and decided to explore there.

I thought I had never been to this park -- though when we were walking around I realized I had been there when the north pond was home to river otters. Still, it was a nice, very brief walk.

We parked on Meridian and entered the park via the Trail of the Cedars.

It was well maintained, level, and dry despite all the rain we had been having. Soon we came into sight of the first pond:

You can tell by the photo just how rainy it was -- absolutely pelting down with rain.

We followed the edge of the lakes, eventually going around the northern lake. The water seems pretty high here...

And eventually went around the soccer field and into a little wooded area called the Arboretum, behind a p-patch and a tennis court. But this was essentially a dead end, so we headed back the way we came.

There's a trail -- we could see it in person, and it was marked on the map -- but it looked pretty overgrown, and I had read that there's a little stream crossing, so we avoided it and skirted the soccer field again.

We walked next to the lakes for a bit.

And then crossed a little "land bridge" between the two of them. Isn't this beautiful?

But all too soon we were back at the Trail of the Cedars and back out to the car -- a very short "hike".

the very wet wildlife

Still, it's the first conscious "let's go out and walk on a trail" of the year, so I'm including it in my 2020 Vision project. They can't all be big treks!!!

Twin Ponds Trail

1.3 miles
43 feet elevation gain

Concrete and the Skagit Eagle Festival

Yeah, I love the town of Concrete. We love camping in the area, hiking in the area, and stopping in Concrete when we can. Visiting their Skagit Eagle Festival had been high on my list for 2020.

We stayed in the very nice cabins at Rasar State Park, ran a 5K on Saturday morning, and even (finally!) went to see a movie at the adorable Concrete Theater. But other than that, it was ALL ABOUT EAGLES.

After the run -- and because the weather seemed to be holding -- we drove out to Rockport to the Skagit Eagle Interpretive Center. I really just wanted to poke my head in and look around, but it turned out a National Forest Service ranger was about to lead a nature walk along the river, so we joined in.

And then the heavens opened. A little boy, visiting from Texas, said, "Whoa, is that HAIL?!?!" Luckily Wil had suggested we put on our goretex jackets and hats, so we weren't caught out. Still, the weather and my level of preparedness (did I mention I was in running tights?) and the large group of chatty folk -- never great on a nature walk -- meant we went rogue and turned back on our own.

So of course we went to the little Rockport Pub, which is adorable, and I had a pint of very nice tart raspberry cider while Wil wisely had a hot toddy.

Then we walked up to the 530 bridge over the Skagit and chatted with a NFS volunteer who let us look through her spotting scope at a juvenile eagle in a nearby tree. Then we drove to the little pullout "park" near mile marker 100 and looked at an adult.

Eventually we drove up to Newhalem -- I thought the road was closed there; turns out you could still go another few miles to Diablo -- and started to head back downriver. We popped into "downtown Concrete", desperately wanting to patronize the hardware store but realizing we weren't really in a position to buy a big leaf rake and keep it in the car.

We stopped in at Miga, an Asian restaurant down on the highway near Annie's Pizza Station (Don't worry -- we had already bought our Annie's Pizza on Friday night!), and had really nice bibimbap and a traditional Korean drink. One of those two things caused me to flush BEET RED, but them's the breaks.

Then back up to Concrete where we had a time-wasting drink at the Pub, and then -- dream fulfilled! -- to the Concrete Theater to see a movie!

Okay, so we'd seen Star Wars before, but still. That theater is so sweet, and the couple who own it are so lovely, it was a pleasure to go.

Sunday morning we got up, layered up with warm clothing and gore-tex, and headed back to Rockport for another adventure: an eagle-watching float trip on the Skagit with Skagit River Eagle Tours.

We were driven upriver to Marblemount, then climbed aboard big aluminum boats with comfy seats AND HEATERS for a float downriver. The boat was uncrowded with 5 passengers plus our friendly guide, and for the next 3 hours we floated along, our guide pointing out sights and telling us things -- and of course watching eagles.

It was getting wetter by the minute, but I especially loved floating down "eagle alley" and seeing the big adults so close. I was amazed by their big furry legs.

The trip was really lovely -- and when we got off the boat, we headed up to the car and I suddenly realized just how cold it was, and that the "handwarmer" parts of my sleeves were soaking wet and I was shivering. (It was fine on the boat near those heaters!!!) We grabbed some dry clothes and headed over to the Rockport Pub where we were treated like regulars (2x in 2 days = regulars!), ordered hot toddies, and I changed out of my wet shirt into something dry and warm.

The weekend was great -- and we probably had better luck sighting eagles in the bad weather than we would have in good weather.

The Skagit Eagle Festival continues for the next three weeks, with some activities available every weekend, and others only on certain days. Skagit River Float Trips operates every day and the float trip is fun. Besides, EAGLES.

Salmon Run 5K race report

It will come as NO SURPRISE to readers of this blog that the running fell off. A combination of a couple of injuries (Damn that hip flexor! What's going on with that ankle?) and alternate areas of focus (Kilimanjaro! Fuji!) meant that I essentially switched from running shoes to hiking boots. But I miss running. I never ever thought I would say that, but I really do.

So I decided to set myself a part of my 2020 Vision challenge of running at least 5K at least 20 times. And, of course, that made me look at races, and well, I signed up for some. More on that later.

By SkagitRiverQueen at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47474503

I love the town of Concrete, and visiting their Eagle Festival had been high on my list for 2020. So when I saw the festival included a 5K run/walk, well, how could I resist?

We drove north from Seattle on a quiet Friday after work -- so great to have so little traffic because most people were still not back in their offices after the holidays! We had decided to treat ourselves by booking a cabin at Rasar State Park -- really lovely, and I would love to stay there again (perhaps in nicer weather...).

Saturday morning we got up and drove out to the Double O Ranch, which was hosting the race on their land. During the drive we had big splatting rain, drizzle, and sunshine -- including seeing a rainbow as we turned down the lane.

We went to sign in, picking up our cozy fleece neck gaiters, and looking at the course map. Yeah, I took a picture of it... though I will say they had good markers and people at the various turn / split points.

We could have waited till 10am for the official start... but given that we seemed to have a little break in the weather (and we weren't going to be running the whole thing, therefore not in contention for any award), we set out at 9:45, walking down the hill toward the river, breaking into a trot when it leveled out.

We turned right just before the river, following the edge of a field, on a bumpy, grassy track. We walked this, too -- I'm too blind and clumsy to run on a rutted path!

Then up into some foresty area, and on to the water stop. We admired the very handsome pug who was working as a mascot, exchanged chitchat with the volunteers, and moved on. We walked a bit, ran a bit -- but mostly walked. Eventually we turned back toward the water stop to complete the first, larger circuit, and noticed some runners on the other side.

Past the water stop again, through the forest on the small loop, and then we turned left (no third loop!) and headed back to the start. As we got pretty close, we noticed a runner coming up behind us, so moved well off to the side. We stopped a few yards short of the finish line to let a second runner cross, and then essentially just smiled at the people and went to the car. It was a *little* weird that they didn't acknowledge us in any way, but whatever. We weren't wearing our neck gaiters so maybe they thought we had just walked off the street? Eventually we made a point of telling them our names in case they worried later that we hadn't finished... but it was still weird.

Still, we got out, did a little running, and it was a little like the old days. And it was my first run of 2020!