I had an action packed double weekend. Friday we spent the day at Joan's with just a few friends enjoying the sun and swimming and aquaskipping. I tried all last summer to get the hang of it and I finally figured it out. Here is a video. Riding it kind of reminds me of the "It" from South Park. Watch this video for instructions on how to ride the "It" and/or the Aquaskipper.

Saturday we had friends over for sausages and beer at our place. We took a break and flew kites at the park. After fantastic bullfrogs with real lemons, we went outside to watch the fireworks. We then had some berry cobler and then stumbled train-like down to Fremont. We were late enough to get into the Ballroom cover free and we danced until closing.

David Johnson and I have been thinking about skiing Mt. Baker for most of the year. We've been piecing together the gear for glacier travel all year and practicing at Gas Works park. This weekend was the only time we could coordinate our schedules. So Sunday afternoon we drove to the south side of Mt. Baker. We hiked in 3 miles before starting skinning on the Easton Glacier. I accidentally brought my old skins. I threw a little fit, but then found a way to jerry rig them with zip ties to make them work. We camped at about 5800 feet. The weather was actually quite good on Sunday and we could see the San Jauns and the Olympics as the sun set.

We woke at 5 am on Monday to socked in weather. Fortunately there was enough of a boot path that we could navigate to the top. We did make it to the top, but with no views. We skied down as far as we could and it rained the entire way out. We had tons of fun and 16 miles and 8000 vertical feet was a perfect way to work off all the beers we drank during the first half of the weekend.