Loon Ski Resort- New Hampshire

Loon is one of those "ski mountains with a view".  The mountain resort is located outside Lincoln, New Hampshire in the beautiful Whites at the bottom of the "Kanc", looming over the East Branch Pemigewasset River.  Anything nestled in the Whites is bound to be beautiful and Loon Mountain does not disappoint.  You glide off the lift, turn around, and BAM the view in front of you nearly knocks you off your skis.  On a clear day, it is mountain peaks for miles, those rolling Whites laid out in front of you tempting you to climb each and every peak.  

Turning 31 - Snowmobiling Weekend in New York

I have been lucky to spend some birthdays in some beautiful places around the world and in good company.

I turned 25 on the slopes of Killington, where Thatcher and I tried to navigate a "new to us" mountain.  26 was spent on a plane to Salt Lake City, where I spent a week running, skiing, sightseeing and falling in love with Salt Lake City and Park City.  By 27, I was living in Utah and spent the evening at one of my favorite restaurants in Salt Lake City, eating beef stroganoff from Copper Onion and devouring chocolate cake from Gourmandise.  I celebrated 28 on the beaches of Puerto Rico, scuba diving with turtles, swimming and sliding down natural waterslides, hiking through rain forests, and celebrating a friends wedding.  I spent 29 deep in the woods of Vermont, convincing 5 of my friends to spend the night in a yurt in northern Vermont (in February) and hiking Camels Hump - getting a little lost while trudging through waist deep snow.  I spent 30 in Banff, Canada - skiing, snowshoeing and dog sledding into a new decade of my life.  And here we are at 31, a birthday spent in the lower Adirondacks, snowmobiling and snowshoeing in the woods of New York.

Red Iguana - Salt Lake City's MUST HAVE Mexican Food

A line on a Monday outside of Red Iguana 

So there's this place - this wonderful magical place full of warm tortillas, savory mole sauces, and pork products in nearly every form.  Oh and an abundance of spicy, salty margaritas.

Where is this place, you ask? It's Salt Lake City's famous Mexican restaurant, Red Iguana.  You are probably envisioning a hip and trendy taco joint smack downtown in the city.  Instead, it is literally and figuratively located on the "wrong side of the tracks" at the other end of the city, about a mile and a half from the downtown area.   All of this amazing Mexican food is contained in a basic nondescript yellow and red building with a huge lit up sign inviting you in to enjoy "Killer Mexican Food" right through the front door covered in a variety of random stickers.  To really set the ambiance, its neighbor is a rundown no-tell motel, honeymoon suite, weekly rates, and creepy gnome characters in a no longer functioning abandoned outdoor pool included.  That Travelodge sign with the creepy characters featuring "Kiddies Fairy Land"?  All real.  Let's just say you don't come here for the ambiance, you come for the mole.

Winter Weekend in Stowe

The Grandview Barn on Stowe Hollow Road

Mountains or Oceans.... the oh-so-important question asked of many outdoor enthusiasts and single folk swiping on dating profiles.  For a long time, I was a die-hard no questions asked ocean person.   But as time goes by, I can't deny that there's this magnetic pull to the mountains.  And this attraction?  It's pulling me a little harder into the woods than into the water these days.   

The more time I spent on mountains, the more I started to crave the way my calves burned on a hike, the bittersweet feeling of setting up your tent in the dark, and the absolute quiet that comes with being alone on a far away trail.  

These days, I want to be on a peak with my dog, I want to steal sweaty kisses from someone on a summit,  I want to sit on a rock and eat my smooshed sandwich and warming craft beer - items that taste so much better at elevation.   I want to see the view above the treeline and find the nearest brewery once the bags and the dog have been loaded back into the car.  

The more time I spend in the mountains, the more these scales start to shift.  Jagged peaks and densely wooded trails have become just as important to my happiness as a rugged coastline.  

Stowe Gondola, Stowe Mountain Resort

To be fair, I don't need the Rocky Mountains or 14,000 footers to find my footing -  our mountains here in New England are always beautiful, can certainly be challenging, and are often underrated.   Let me camp in the Berkshires, wander in the Whites or hike in the Greens - that always does the trick.

New Year, New York - The Adirondacks You Didn't Know About

There is this quote I think of often when I am in my "9 to 5" mode.  It's a famous saying by John Muir and when I'm stressed out at the office or packing my bag for a much-needed weekend away in the woods, it pops into my head.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.  Awakening from the stupefying effects of the vice of over-industry and the deadly apathy of luxury, they are trying as best they can to mix and enrich their own little ongoings with those of Nature, and to get rid of rust and disease.” -John Muir

Moose River Lodge

After the chaos of the holidays and the madness of those last few months of 2018 (she was a doozy) this is exactly how I was feeling.  Tired, nerve-shaken and much too over-civilized.  Cabin fever was setting in and I needed to escape my house on the shoreline for a cabin in the woods.  I get that itch, that itch to be anywhere but home, to explore somewhere new.  I need to go find those mountains, lakes, and streams.  So at the end of December, I packed my bag and the dog and headed north to spend 5 days in the Adirondacks of New York.