Fall 2012 Sweataway: Day 1

Happy Fall Equinox, Jewish New Year, etc.  Whatever you call this lovely season where the days are still warm and the leaves get pretty...we have plenty to celebrate here at Team Matson:

• This Sunday, we sent off the last of Jared's med school secondary applications!  We've only been prepping for this round of applications for, like, 10 months.  We started the secondary applications in June and have been able to submit one each for the thirteen schools to which Jared applied.  Now we're just waiting for a final letter of recommendation to be submitted, and then it's on to interview season! 
• We both PR'ed on our Paleo Baseline WOD retests! (I beat my previous time by almost a minute.)

• After much suffering (not sure whose was worse...ours or the suffering of those who had to put up with us), we won our box's Paleo challenge!  Team Matson tied for first and split the prize money.  (lululemon, here I come.)  I intend to write a post soon recapping our caveperson experience and results, but for now, here's the money shot:

• God has been exceedingly gracious to us, and we've found that through His mercy and guidance, we actually like each other more now than we did when we were dating.  Crazy!

Once a quarter, we like to take a few days for a mini vacation.  Sometimes, depending on work schedules, holidays, and budgets, we don't actually go away.  We stay home, unplug from the world, and enjoy our local scenery.  The main point is that we are focused on enjoying each other's company.

In May, we went to Portland for the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon, so we were about due for the next little excursion.  We coordinated our work schedules to see what days we could both take off, and then we pulled out our "Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest" guidebook to figure out where we wanted to go.

We came up with a few options and finally settled on a trip to Mount Rainier and booked the Sunrise Guest House at Almost Paradise Lodging.

As usual, when making our plans of how to spend time, we wanted to factor in great food and great workouts.  Jared took the helm on the food and dug out about 20 cookbooks and offered me some options for meals and desserts. 

I scoped out a few CrossFit gyms in the surrounding areas so we could be sure to get our WOD on!  Jared also wanted to go for a trail run at Mount Rainier - I love hiking but it's not quite hard core enough for him, so slow trail "running" has been a great compromise for us.

Sunday ended up a little stressful.  We had intended to finish the final secondary application on Saturday...but we both kinda forgot about it.  Between church and the application and a classic Meghan 3 hour packing fiasco that involved a load of laundry and several loads of drama, we got started much later than we'd hoped to leave home.  We even had to stop on the way to fill up our cooler with groceries (thank God Trader Joe's is a chain)!!!

Getting closer...

Eventually, after Lucy (our adorable but inconsistent GPS) tried to lead us down an old gated dirt road, we made it to Almost Paradise around 6 in the evening.  I can't tell you what time it was exactly, because I had left my phone at home.  Nope, not a packing mistake.  We decided we would take zero calls over the weekend...and that meant no texting, either.  I figured it would be more freeing and less tempting if I just left the hell-beast behind.  (It seems no one broke a limb or caught rabies while we was gone...apparently the world can go on without us.  Who knew?)

You'll see this main house/lodge when you pull in.

We were greeted upon arrival by Dugan, the owners' sweet dog.  I am not a dog person (probably from years of people saying, "Oh, he's very sweet" before their pet jumps on you, slobbers on your face, or actually bites you), but this guy was really a sweetie.  No barking, jumping, or anything.  Just friendly and cute.  He was followed by Carol, who runs the place.  She greeted us kindly before inviting us in to do a little paperwork.  Afterwards, she led us around to our guest house, the Sunrise Guesthouse.

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first.  From reading the BPTK guidebook, I had pictured us being in a little cabin off in the woods all by ourselves.  I believe this is the case for one of the cabins, but some of the guesthouses are actually like condos within the main lodge. The view above of the main lodge is from our parking space:

You can see the back of "our" sauna on the right

So I realized almost at once that, even though our area was enclosed with its own fences and such, as far as total privacy, it wasn't what I was expecting since if we were talking loudly in the outdoor area, anyone in the driveway could probably hear us and vice versa.

Walking up the little trail...hot tub on the left, sauna on the right

However, once I got over my initial surpise, I started to feel excited to be there.  Carol assured us that our guesthouse did not share walls with the other guesthouse...all the spaces between were storage space, and all guests were asked not to venture around to other areas, so that you could be sure of having your own space all to yourselves.

Plus, did I mention we had our own hot tub and sauna?

There was a burn ban on, so no campfire this time.
Note the grill in the back if you want to barbeque!

Our own sauna (post WOD heaven)

Hot tub complete with Ernie's best friend!!!

The inside of the guesthouse was perfect!  Rustic cabin flair...without being outdated or losing any comforts.

Fireplace in the kitchen

Full fridge/freezer stocked with condiments;
popcorn near the microwave

Sitting room with television (no reception for TV)
and DVD player, along with CD player and the option of
turning on outdoor speakers if you want to sing the
Rubber Ducky song in the hot tub with full soundtrack

Slippers and extra towels in the bathroom

Robes!!!

Jared made us an amazing frittata for dinner.  As usual, he built on the original recipe, adding extra spices and cheese. 

It was killer - but so much food we decided to save some for breakfast the next day!
We generally don't play board games or card games, but Jared did bring along our knock-off Jenga game.  We took turns in the midst of cooking and unpacking.

Yes, I am usually the one who makes it fall.  Oops.

After dinner, Jared decided to go ahead and bake the pumpkin whoopie pies so we could enjoy them during the trip.  Holy yum, to quote Tina from CNC.

We finished off the evening with a soak in the hot tub.  Boy, what a treat to be away from everything and just relax!


Up next...goin' WODding at Graham CrossFit.