Day Ten: A Hike, a Picnic, a Nap in the Sun and a Potluck

Sort of a hum-drum day.  NOT!  Jason and I went on a hike to the top of Chuckanut Mountain to Lookout Point.  It was amazing!  I had a really hard time getting up the darn thing, and had to rest a LOT — but it felt good to move my body and smell the fresh forest.  We packed a blanket, water and a picnic and went while Jahn was at school.

On the way up, I tripped, and my noise scared a poor owl who woke up and flew from the ground up into a tree.  We got some video of him/her, and although there’s no audio on the camera,  Jason made a noise or 2 that got the owl’s attention, and they looked straight into the camera!!  Very cool!  I’d never seen an owl in the wild before.  Seen them at zoos, and heard them at night, but never seen one for real before that.  We showed the footage to Jahn later after we got home, and he thought it was great!  I tried to post it here, but for some reason, I can’t get it to load.  Sorry.  

We ate a delicious meal of mango, avocado and banana, plus trail mix that had raw Spanish peanuts, pecans, goji berries, raisins and dried white mulberries in it.  The we fell asleep in the Sun (and in each other’s arms) while on the blanket.  It was SUCH a nice day that we hated for it to end.

Jason and I at Lookout Point

But we had to get back down the mountain (which is really more of a glorified hill with a great footpath) to pick up Jahn from school.  So we did, and spent the rest of the day getting ready for tomorrow’s yard sale and tonight’s potluck/party.  We’re hoping to make enough at the sale to get a new sofa (one that won’t show kiddo stains).

After the yard sale prep, it was a quick shower for us, and then I made my decadent fudge torte with German chocolate frosting for a potluck/party Jason and I were invited to.  I also made a cabbage dish with that wonderful tahini dip that Jason makes, just in case there wasn’t any other raw food there.  And it’s a good thing I did, too, because there were 2 salads there, and one had salmon on it, and the other onions.  I’m allergic to onions something fierce, so Jason and I had the cabbage/dip and cake for dessert.  The cake was a smashing success, even with cooked fooders, and I made contact with someone named Jaime who wants to promote my website when it launches.  SO COOL!

My two-layer German Chocolate Cake with Ganache

All in all, the best day I’ve had in a long, long time.  Got TWO dates with Jay (Jason), got Sun, got to spend time with friends, got to just have fun!

To recap:  breakfast was my usual pick-me-up chocolate shake, lunch is listed above, I had a bit of chocolate frosting as a snack, and dinner was red cabbage with tahini/nama-shoyu sauce and a piece of German chocolate cake.

We were up super late, so I hope I’ve got the gumption to do the yardsale tomorrow.

Day Four: Sea Bird Watching and a Picnic

I woke up feeling pretty sluggish, so I made a chocolate & maca shake and it perked me right up.  My side of the family invited us all to a sea bird festival, but Jason had to work, so Jahn and I went with my mom, dad, sister, her husband & son.  We packed a picnic lunch of strawberries, grapes, Clementine oranges, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, chocolate cheesecake and lemon cheesecake.  Jahn and I stayed totally raw, despite being surrounded by peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bologna sandwiches, Cheetos, Doritos, juice boxes and hard-boiled eggs (left over from Easter).  I made sure to pack the cheesecake because I knew that it would fill us up quickly so we wouldn’t be tempted to eat the other things.

But the picnic was the last part of our outing.  First, we went to the funnest little festival.  It was all about sea birds, and there were real birds from a sanctuary there (permanent residents that are too old or injured to be returned to the wild), free games, prizes, face painting, a nature hike and a ferry boat ride!  Jahn and his cousin Ben got to actually drive the boat!  It only held 16 people, so it was very cozy, and the boys were beyond proud of themselves for actually steering under the Captain’s supervision.  Too fun!  And they even got Honorary Captain certificates to commemorate the day.

Then it was off to the picnic (which I described above) at a local park, where the boys got to run off the rest of their energy.  I was even able to keep up with them and didn’t need a nap!  Then Ben came over to our house and played with Jahn for a few hours.  Jahn discovered the sweetness of dandelion flowers and was smashing them up and eating them.  Ben wasn’t as keen on it, but we all had a taste and had some fun gathering up flowers and leaves and trying them out.  Worst case scenario, we get a little liver cleansing out of it.

I certainly got my exercise and was ready for bed by 10.  I had a bite of raw pizza with Jahn and the rest of the fruit with chocolate left over from the picnic.  Then, for dessert, we had sliced bananas with raisins on them, drizzled with strawberry and chocolate syrups.  Delicious!  All in all, a great day, and Jason stayed raw all day, too.  Looks like we’re finally on our way!