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BY Nancy Mueller 2 Comments ON May 10, 2013

Mother's Day Hike to Swamp Monster Trail

HikingWestTigerMountainTrail

Okay, time to dust off those hiking boots and poles and start taking to the trails! Adventurous wanderboomers in the Pacific Northwest will find plenty of hiking trails on Tiger Mountain to satisfy a variety of skill levels.

But if you’re looking for an easy first hike to launch your hiking season and a popular way for intergenerational families to celebrate Mother’s Day outdoors, here’s a good place to start:

SwampMonsterTrail

Swamp Monster Trail on Tiger Mountain is a kid-friendly, young-at-heart, easy-on-the-knees kind of hike. Along the mostly flat 0.6 mile trail, hikers can read a series of seven storyboards that tell the tale of Zoe the Raccoon, who fears that a swamp monster lurks nearby.

TigerMountain

Should you be worried about a possible sighting? Well, anything’s possible in the forest of the Sasquatch or Bigfoot, of course. But let’s just say that I didn’t catch a glimpse of anything out of the ordinary on this particular day. . .

Wander on!

Nancy 

How to Get There:

From Seattle, head East on I-90, to Exit 20. At the end of the exit ramp, turn right, then right again which brings you onto the access road for Tiger Mountain that leads to High Point trailhead. Keep on driving up the gravel road, past the overflow parking area, until you reach another parking area for the trail.

For more Photo Friday fun, check out Delicious Baby.

What about you, wanderboomers? What’s your favorite place to hike? 

Filed Under: Activities, Baby Boomers and Travel, Destinations, Hiking, Pacific Northwest, Seattle, Travel Experiences, WA, Washington State Tagged With: Bigfoot, hiking, hiking boots, hiking poles, I-90, intergenerations, Mother's Day, Pacific Northwest, Sasquatch, Swamp Monster Trail, Tiger Mountain, Zoe the Raccoon

BY Nancy Mueller 21 Comments ON October 18, 2012

Sharpening the Travel Writer’s Saw

A seasonal shift is underway here in the  Pacific Northwest, bringing cooler temperatures, cloudy skies and colorful foliage. Soon, soon enough, I’ll begin the steady retreat into silence and solitude to dream, write and reflect on my travels over the past year. But first, I have a writer’s conference to attend . . .

An annual three-day, sell-out event set in the waterfront community of Edmonds, Washington, Write on the Sound Writers Conference attracts aspiring to best-selling authors. Writing workshops cover the genres of fiction, non-fiction and poetry alongside presentations on marketing and social media strategies for the business side of writing.

Here are just a few of the gems I picked up at this year’s conference earlier this month to help me hone my writer’s craft:

From travel guru, Rick Steves, who lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, on Travel Writing . . .

“You need to be a keen observer and have a basis from which to make observations. Your writing smells thin when you don’t really know the culture you’re writing about.” Action step: Do my homework before I travel. Learn as much as I can ahead of time to inform my writing.

“You’re a lint brush when you’re out in the field. Every night with good discipline you go back to the hotel and type it up, even if it keeps you up past your bedtime.” Action step: No excuses. Write up my notes, download and categorize my photos each night when I’m on the road.

“There’s a spiritual dimension to travel and it’s important not to shy away from that. Your readers should know who you are. You can write in a respectful way about spiritual issues.” Action step: Be authentic. Remember to share my stories in my own unique voice.

“There is a dumbing downess [in travel writing]. I try to smarten up and engage my readers. As travel writers, we have an obligation to inspire people to be moved and changed from their travels.” Action step: Always keep my readers’ needs in mind when I write. Respect their intelligence.

“My mantra is ‘Content is King.’” Action step: Forget the fluff. Add substance that will change readers’ lives.

From Bharti Kirchner, author of five novels, several cookbooks and scores of short pieces, on How to Add Sizzle to Your Fiction and Memoir . . .

“Writing about cuisine adds to the description and is tied to culture. How people prepare, store and serve food is cultural. For example, in India there are definite rules about who eats with whom, and older people and children are always served first. Banana leaves are typically used so there’s no need for recycling.” Action step: Bring in cultural references through my food writing.

“You can get away with using adjectives in food writing. It’s sensuous, vivid and makes your writing more accessible to the reader.” Action step: Remember to engage the senses to make my writing more vivid and lively.

“Food writing shows the emotional climate and complexity of a character, e.g. How are they eating? Absentmindfully? Mindfully? What and how do they order? What do they like to cook?” Action step: Pay attention. Become a keen observer. (Gee – Where have I heard that before?)

From Bernadette Pajer, author of the Professor Bradshaw Mysteries, on Trigger Writing . . .

“Trigger writing is the relationship between words and what they fire in the mind of the reader. Readers bring emotional memory to your writing. You can trust that your audience will feel it which helps avoid over-writing. For example, the word ‘dumpster’ sets a scene. It grounds the reader in an image and a smell without need of further description.” Action step: Use descriptive words to show, not tell.

“After triggers, readers want the writing to slow down so that they see it unfold.” Action step: pace my writing.

“Story trumps everything else because the situations the writer has put the reader in have triggered something, i.e. a memory or strong feeling. The reason you’re a writer is because you have a story to tell. If you felt strongly about someone or a situation, someone else will, too.” Action step: Cultivate my travel stories.

 

What about you, Wanderboomers? What travel writing tips do you have to share with us here as a reader and/or a writer?

Filed Under: Activities, Baby Boomers and Travel, Travel Writing, WA, Washington State Tagged With: Bernadette Pajer, Bharti Kirchner, character, content, cuisine, Edmonds, Europe Through the Back Door, Fall, fiction, food writing, memoir, non-fiction, Pacific Northwest, poetry, Rick Steves, sharpen the saw, spiritual, story, Travel Writing, Washington, Write on the Sound

BY Nancy Mueller 10 Comments ON October 11, 2012

Foraging Fun with Jennifer Hahn

Author. Poet. Teacher. Naturalist. Forager. Jennifer Hahn packs an impressive resume after more than 25 years as a wildlife adventurer whose travels span hiking the Pacific Crest Trail from Northern California to Canada and kayaking solo from Ketchikan, Alaska to Bellingham, Washington where she now resides. Along the way she’s also led tours throughout the Pacific Northwest, Baja, Mexico and the Galapagos Islands.

In person, Jennifer is petite, vivacious and down to earth – literally. Her passion for sustainable foraging fills her conversations and writings.

After publishing her first book, Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through the Inside Passage, Jennifer began a second book about the foods in the wild that had kept her alive on her kayaking adventure. But as a steward of the environment, she felt morally responsible to include only those foods that wouldn’t be decimated by greater consumption, resulting in her book, Pacific Feast: A Cook’s Guide to West Coast Foraging and Cuisine, and companion laminated guide, Pacific Coast Foraging Guide: 40 Wild Foods from Beach, Field and Forest. Included are her harvesting guidelines like the 1-in-20 rule when it comes to sustainable foraging. If there are more than 20 plants, you can dig one up and leave the rest for reproduction. If not, take none.

With Jennifer in the lead, we’re off for a day of our own foraging adventure to discover the diversity of tasty edibles found in our own backyards.

Hiking with Jennifer through the six acres surrounding the home she shares with husband, sculptor Chris Moench, is a walk on the wild side. She cautions us to watch out for stinging nettles before describing their diverse uses in cooking, fiber production and medicine.  Nearby we discover wood sorrel, a shamrock-shaped plant with a lemony flavor that grows in moist, shady places.

Further along Jennifer points out huckleberries, purslane, a plant high in omega 3 with a crisp, lemony bite that’s perfect in stews, and the licorice “many-footed” fern root, good for soothing sore throats. A self-described spiritual eater first, she demonstrates how to harvest mindfully and says “Thank you” to the plant for giving its life after breaking off a piece for closer inspection.

Our picnic lunch at nearby Lake Padden begins with Jennifer’s recitation of Rumi’s poem that starts, “Lord, the air smells good today . . . ” Newly inspired and satiated, we continue our day of foraging fun with an afternoon hike, gathering native trailing blackberries, salal berries and strips of madrona bark we find on the ground along the way.

But our day of sustainable food discoveries is not quite finished yet. Still to come is dinner at Ciao Thyme, a popular Bellingham kitchen restaurant, where restaurant owners Jessica and Mataio Gillis will show us how to create cooking magic with the fruits of our labors.   I can hardly wait . . .

What about you, Wanderboomers? What’s your favorite recipe using locally sourced foraged food?

Filed Under: Activities, Alaska, Baby Boomers and Travel, Bellingham, By Land, By Ship & By Sea, Destinations, Food & Dining, Pacific Northwest Tagged With: adventure, adventurer, Alaska, Baja Mexico, Bellingham, Canada, edibles, foraging, fun, Galapagos Islands, huckleberries, Jennifer Hahn, Ketchikan, licorice fern, many-footed, Pacific Northwest, Spirited Waters: Soloing South Through the Inside Passage, sustainable foraging, the Inside Passage, Washington, wildlife, wood sorrel

BY Nancy Mueller Leave a Comment ON September 19, 2012

Mediterranean Mussels Magic at Taylor Shellfish Farms

With our geoduck and cracked crab cooking demonstrations behind us, host Jon Rowley introduces us to one more delicacy at Taylor Shellfish Farms: Mediterranean mussels.

Jon explains how these glossy blue/black mollusks are cultivated on mussel rafts, from which they are lowered into the water and harvested after about a year. The mussels attach themselves to the ropes by the soft byssus threads, called the beard, at the foot of their shells. Though strong as the silk of a spider’s web, the stringy threads are easily removed just before cooking by pulling upwards along the side of the shell.

But how do they taste? Time to find out! With mussels now at their peak season, when better to share Jon’s recipe for enjoying this Pacific Northwest treat than here on Wanderfood Wednesday?

Skillet Mussels or Mediterranean Mussels 1 – 2 – 3
(courtesy of Jon Rowley)

  • 1-1/2 pound medium-sized (11/15 to the pound) Mediterranean mussels
  • 2-3 sprigs fresh parsley
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Debeard and rinse Mediterranean mussels. Put mussels into a hot dry skillet. The first mussel to open will drop some juice onto the bottom of the hot pan. The juice will sizzle and scorch and provide the seasoning for the finished dish. The juice from the next mussels to open go to the bottom of the pan and deglaze the bit of scorched, carmelized juice from the first mussel.

Continue to cook mussels and reduce the juice until you see the mussel meats contract. Stir occasionally. Mediterranean mussels need to cook for awhile after the shells open.  The shells open before the plump meats are done.

While the mussels are cooking, chop garlic (coarsely( and parsley.  Use more or less than called for according to taste. When the mussel meats have contracted and are ready to serve, stir in chopped parsley and coarsely chopped garlic. The amount  of juice will vary each time you make the dish. Season with black pepper. Plate when the pan emits a pleasant smoky garlic aroma. Serve over grilled Italian bread on the side. You will want to soak up the juices!

How’s that for an easy, fast and delicious delight? Taylor Shellfish Farms ships orders across the United States. Just click on the link to place an order.

Thanks, Jon!

For more yummy recipes, be sure and check out Wanderfood Wednesday.

Do you have a favorite shellfish recipe to share with us here, Wanderboomers?

Filed Under: Baby Boomers and Travel, Bellingham, Food & Dining Tagged With: beard, beard of a mussel, Jon Rowley, magic, Mediterranean mussels, mussels, Pacific Northwest, recipe, Taylor Shellfish Farms

BY Nancy Mueller 4 Comments ON May 24, 2011

Seattle Sun Fest

It’s true that the sun has been in hiding here in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, it’s been a no-show for a record number of days this year – which makes it all the more spectacular when it does make an appearance.

Last week we had one of those days in Seattle – a day that reminded us why we live here, why we put up with the rain, the drizzle, the seemingly endless earth-ashen skies.

Oh, yes, we were ready. Local weather forecasters had predicted  “sun breaks” and “sun alerts” ahead. “Time to get out the sunglasses!” Not quite like the forecast for “hot & steamy” or “hot & sultry” that  I read in a Nashville newspaper during a summer visit. You will never see those words together in a Seattle report unless it’s a review for a racy movie.

Frankly, though, with all due respect to our weather guys and gals, we Seattlites have had our hearts broken too many times over false promises of sunny days on the horizon. It’s like having hope on a rope that gets yanked away from us at the last minute. Ha – Gotcha!

On this day, however, Seattle had a pitch-perfect day. I was lucky enough to be outside along with everyone else to soak up as much of the sun as possible and to snap a few of these photos.

Even the turtles were out sunning themselves on a log in a nearby pond, alongside the ducks sleeping in the marshes. On a day like this in Seattle, you don’t want to waste a moment of it inside if you can help it.

Filed Under: Baby Boomers and Travel, By Land, By Ship & By Sea Tagged With: Pacific Northwest, sailboats, Seattle, sun, turtles, weather forecast

Hello fellow wanderboomers! I’m a Seattle-based travel journalist, specializing in fun travel adventures for the young at heart. My articles have been featured in Hemispheres, AAA Highroads Magazine and Northwest Travel & Life Magazine where I'm a frequent contributor. When this Wanderboomer isn’t traveling, I help global executives polish their personal and professional brand for long-term results.
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