Behold, some of the most influential people on the Interwebs at one table!
I was so happy to see my friends Jeanna, Al and Cari yesterday at Purple Cafe. Al, I owe you a drink.
Camping was rocky
To follow-up on my Paolo vs. Wild post, let's just say Wild won by KO.
I won't repeat everything that's been said at AM|PM by Amanda, but I'll provide the Cliff Notes version here.
We left way too late on Thursday and took Scott's advice to camp at a closer location than Dewey Lakes. The forest service road to the campsite was too much for the Ford Focus and my blood pressure so we turned back. We tried a close hotel, but it was full so we tried another campsite along Hwy 410.
By this time it was pitch black out and we got lost in the camp site, if that's possible. We ended up stopping across from an abandoned airstrip and pitched a tent using the car headlights.
Little did we know that we were at a horse camp site. We slept terribly. Lesson learned.
We woke up early on Friday morning to avoid a ticket for camping without a pass and went to Sunrise at Mt. Rainier instead of Dewey Lakes. We weren't really prepared for another night at a camp site, so we figured we'd hike for the day and head home.
We weren't really prepared for a full day's hike either.
Amanda and I are collectively stubborn. We think we should do things that we probably shouldn't. In this case, we hiked WAY too deep into Rainier. We started at 8:30 a.m. and didn't get back to Sunrise until 4:30 p.m. We stopped for a combined total of one hour between breaks and eating. We hiked around 10 miles and exchanged 3,000 to 3,500 feet in elevation.
The last three miles of the hike was a 2,500-foot elevation gain. I literally thought I was going to die. I couldn't even hold the camera, which is why there are no more pictures.
I write to you sore and tired. It was a totally satisfying experience, kind of like running a marathon... But you don't necessarily want to go back and run a marathon the next weekend, ya dig?
Same ish, different place
Hi everybody! I launched Word Is Born four years ago, in August 2005. Since then, I've grown, the blog has grown and its followers have grown. I'm extremely proud and sometimes overwhelmed by that progress. I've created more than 1,100 posts so far, which have been met by 3x that many comments and nearly 80,000 visits from all over the world.
Considering this, I decided it was time for a change. Or maybe Barack Obama's slogan got to me. Probably both. Yes we can.
After my engagement to Amanda, many of you asked about the fate of the Word Is Born. It shall persist. Hopefully after I'm married Word Is Born will only be that much more entertaining. We've traveled on this blog from post-undergrad to new jobs to living with The Wives to grad school and so on. The greatest adventures lie ahead and I'll continue to chronicle them here.
To accommodate a bigger effort, I've transitioned to Wordpress for publishing. With Wordpress I'm able to create pages, jumps and lots of other nerdy tricks to make Word Is Born more friendly, intuitive and fun to read. I previously used Blogger and was (thankfully) able to import all of my posts since August 2005 so that the new Wordpress archives are complete. However, some links may be broken. Nothing's perfect.
You probably noticed that the URL has changed. Update those bookmarks and RSS feeds! I've bought wordisborn.com, paolojr.com, paolomottolajr.com and paolomottola.com in the interest of owning my personal brand on the Internet. Paolojr.com/blog and wordisbornblog.com will land you here. The old paolojr.blogspot.com address will redirect here as well. Or should.
Like anything online, this site is a work in progress, and I welcome your suggestions for improvements. You know where to find me.
Here's to another four years, another 1,000 posts, another 3,000 comments, another 80,000 visitors and you.
Best, Paolo
I shot a wedding
But I did not shoot the deputy. A couple weekends back, Sergio and I shot a wedding for one of Wesley's good friends. The bride and groom were awesome and the whole wedding at Lake Union Cafe was stellar. Sergio and I made some great shots. You can see Serg's at his blog. Mine are below. Enjoy.
I'm also available for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.
And the closer...
Paolo vs. Wild
Amanda and I are taking off for the Cascades tonight to go camping. Per Scott's recommendation, we're heading to Dewey Lakes, which is just around the corner from Crystal Mountain (surprise, surprise) in Mt. Rainier National Park. You can read Scott's review of the hike here.
We've been looking for an opportunity to go camping, so Amanda and I both took Friday off from work and spent most of yesterday evening packing. However, we're going for different reasons...
Amanda wants to hike in, pitch a tent, sleep on the ground, cook over a portable burner and use nature's infinite restroom for recreation.
I'm going to prove that I can camp. I've never been camping before. My most recent hike was a hike from hell. I've slept in tents for concerts at The Gorge, but that's as far as my camping resume goes.
Some might say, "Paolo, you've gone backpacking before so you're used to living off the bare essentials in relative discomfort and inconviences. What gives?" Running water and civilization, I argue. All jokes aside, I expect the weather to be splendid and I might just enjoy the adventure.
Assuming I don't pull a Christopher McCandless and eat the wrong berries, we should be back by Saturday. Wish me luck in the Great Outdoors.