Today was cleaning the house and planning day. In the day we cleaned the house, and in the evening we planned out Meals (Breakfast, Lunch Dinner), Daily Todo, Travel (how to save money to travel more) outside next to a fire. We did a lot and were proud of everyone to get this all completed in one day. The kids had great ideas and solutions.

It was unusually warm today. I was wearing a T-shirt next to the fire and felt fine. I picked up my new snow boots this morning. They are The North Face Chilkat v400 boots. They feel light and comfortable. Nice boot for the price. I am planning to use them on my winter hikes and bike rides in the cascades.

 ⛅ 61°F – 45°F 🙂 | Seattle 

I am learning a lot at work. I am now responsible for all the Team leads in my group across the globe.  Tonight was the company’s Christmas Party and was held at Dave & Buster’s. The food was okay, but everyone had a lot of fun, including my family. The kids were running around playing games and collecting tickets to cash in for prizes. I stayed up late and will be getting less than 6 hours of sleep. It was worth it.

 🌧️ 42°F – 30°F 🥱 | Seattle 

Me and my son woke up around 6 am and decided to purchase some donuts from Top Pot for breakfast. We wanted to surprise the girls when they wake up. We watched TV and played games for much of the morning. In the afternoon I worked on my bike fixing the breaks. New pads and recalibrated them resolved the issue. It is ready for my next trip up the mountain. It snowed a few inches over the weekend. Hopefully the weather is decent on Sunday for a bike ride.

Afterwards I did some house hold duties around the house.

Me and my son read together for a few hours then played games. The girls are both sick and spent time recovering.

 🌧️ 50°F – 40°F 🙂 | Seattle

Was up at 5 am to start my trip to Rattlesnake Lake to start my trip up Iron Horse trail. My objective is to go to Carter Creek Campgrounds. Hopefully there is some snow. The trip was cold. 25°F at 6:20 am. But the sky was clear and you could see the stars. The ground was frozen and there were patches of ice. The rock faces were incased in ice. When the sun started to peek over the Cascades the wind started to pick up. The bike handled well. My cold weather gear held up nicely. My mittens kept my hands nice and warm. I inserted some disposable heat pads in them. Any time I took a picture I had my bare hands exposed to the elements. But then stuck them in my warm gloves. I arrived  at Carter Creek Campground. The trail was clear of any snow, just mostly frost. My breakfast was frozen so I had to use military heaters to defrost them.

After breakfast I went down the train back to the car at 25 MPH. It was a jarring ride down with the ground frozen. 2 miles away from the trail head I had to slow down.

It was a beautiful trip. Hopefully I can do it once again next weekend.

☀️48°F – 25°F 🙂 | Seattle 

I did the normal Saturday Morning grocery shopping. On the way back from Costco we went to South Center Mall to go to Daiso for some containers. We even bought pretzel bites and walked around the mall talking. Later in the day I worked on my bike for tomorrow’s trip up Iron Horse Trail to see if there was any snow. The rear tire is very wobbly and needed to tighten the spokes and work on the brakes. On a quick test run it was much better. Packed the bike in the car for tomorrow’s early morning trip. I want to start the trip before sunrise.

 ☀️ 46°F – 28°F 🙂 | Seattle 

 First thing in the morning me and my son went for a bike ride around the park. We spent 2 hours in the morning and a few more after dinner. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious.  The turkey in the Dutch oven came out moist and scrumptious. I went for a solo bike ride to the beach. It was far and my ebike can go up very steep hills without issue.
At around 6 pm there was police activity around the park. My wife and daughter didn’t feel safe. I understood there concern and opted to go home tonight so they could get some well-deserved rest. So we backed everything up in 30 minutes and headed home. Once home we unpacked everything so I can start cleaning the gear in the morning why my wife went to work.

 🌤️ 48°F – 37°F 🙂 | Seattle 

Packed the car and drove to Dash Point for Thanksgiving. I rented a cabin there for two nights.  We had issues accessing the cabin and had to go to the Camp Volunteer to get the cabin code. Once we unpacked, we were tired and went to bed. Tomorrow should be a beautiful day for a hike or bike ride.

 ⛅ 50°F – 43°F 🙂 | Seattle