My winter break is quickly coming to an end.  It is amazing how fast 2 weeks can fly by.  Time off is definitely a benefit to the teaching profession.  So, what have I been up to over the last couple of weeks?

My vacation got off to a busy start with a run up to lost lake on Thursday 12/18 (school was cancelled on Thursday and Friday due to all the snow).  Andrew joined me and the dogs for a 2 hour slog in about 8 inches of fresh snow.  Nothing like a strenous workout to kick start the vacation.

Friday, while Heather worked, I joined Andrew and some others for a backcountry ski trip.  We parked at the Heather Meadows lodge and began a tour around Table Mountain over to Ptarmigan Ridge.  We took 2 short runs in some awesome low-density powder that was almost waist deep.  A traverse around the west side and up over Table Mountain brought to our last run of the day, a moderately steep, longer run down the break between the east prow and west cliffs of Table Mountain.  Again, we found deep, low-density powder.  The only drawback was the overall snow depth was a little lacking and many of us found a few rocks with our skis. 

Due to the great skiing and large group, I was a bit late for Heather's office party, the Mindfly Mystery Murder.  Although we were about an hour late, we were quickly able to integrate into the game thanks to the great planning by Kyle.  Initially I wasn't sure about how the night would go, it turned out to be a lot of fun with some good conversations and lots of laugh.

Rich and Katrina were staying with us for a couple of days and we had planned a snowshoeing trip in the hills, however, another winter storm was moving in and they wanted to head home to Olympia a bit earlier than planned.  This meant plans had changed from a strenous day of excercise to a leisurly breakfast at the Old Town, a trip to Fun to Shop (for Heather and Katrina) some sledding (for Rich and me) and an ealry goodbye as Rich and Katrina hit the road around 1:00.  Since we were already out and about, Heather and I made a trip to the dreaded mall (thanks for the tools Mary ) and ran some other Christmas errands.

Sunday found us on another adventure, this time a 4 hour ski tour in the Chukanuts.  We headed up on our tele skis while our oft- accompanying, strenous activity seeking, dog loving friend, Sam Clay, joined us on a pair of backcountry skis.  Mocha and Lucy were also eager and willing to make the trek with us.  We headed up Cleator Road, skied down to Fragrance Lake, through the wooods, to the top of Burnout.  We were hoping for a fast ski down the road but the deep snow slowed us a bit.  Once we connected back in to Fragrance Lake Road, the pace quickened and my quads were burning before long.  A 20 minute ski on the Interurban Trail brought us back to the cars, exhausted but feeling great.

Because the time-optimist in the group (me) incorrectly judged the length of our tour, Heather and I were late in getting to Dierdre's for a small dinner party.  Even though the snow was coming down, we made the trek back out to Deirdre's and enjoyed some great food and company.  Troy's putanesca was delicious and Deirdre's  baked pears put the finishing touch to an enjoyable evening.  

Monday, while Heather had to go to work again, I headed up to Mt. Baker for some 'on area' skiing with Sam, Dirk, Randy and John.  Good snow and small crowds made for a great day out on the slopes.  I still don't have those tele turns down but I'm sure working on it.

Tuesday started out early with a strenous session at the gym with Heather and Adam.  It has been quite awhile since I have done the 'torture chamber' and I was sore for week.  Guess I need to get into the gym a bit more often.  I used this early start as an opportunity to get a bit of grading done, however I spent the time checking email and reading the paper.  Not very productive in terms of getting work done, but then again, this is my time 'off.'

While the snow was heavily falling early Wednesday morning I headed out join Adam for a bit of duck hunting, something entirely new to me.  It was snowing so much that we had to brush off the decoys every 20 minutes or so.  6 ducks down, a couple of hours cleaning, some homemade biscuits and I was headed back to town.  Quite an adventure that I'll write more about later.

Christmas Day was full of adventure with a trip out to Blackberry Acres for a nice Christmas dinner and games with our friends Adam, Lenore, Nate, Christina, Enid and Rich.  You can read the full story in Heather's blog:  'Blackberry Acres.'

On Saturday, we joined Sean for an epic run up on Galbraith.  Although we didn't go very far or for that long, it was one of the more difficult runs I've ever done.  This was mostly due to the large quantity of wet, high density snow that covered a thick layer of slippery ice.  After a climb up the ridge, I wasn't sure that I could keep running but somehow we all pushed ourselves to go a bit farther and finish out in style.  

Another day of skiing 'on area' at Baker kept Heather and me busy on Sunday.  The snow was great and although the crowds were a little larger we had a good time.  Heather worked on her tele turns and skied in style, especially for her first day back on the slopes this season.

So that, pretty much wrapped up the first part of my winter break.  Full of fun and staying busy.  This seems to be how most of my breaks start off, busy and full of activity.  For some reason, though, I don't seem to be able to maintain this for very long as you will find out if you read Part 2 of A Teacher's Winter Break.

Well, since Heather put in a link to my pie crust recipe, I figured that I should actually write an entry for this it.  This is a very simple crust that works equally well for pies and quiches.  I usually double the recipe, making 2 crusts at once.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pastry flour (whole wheat or white)
• 1/2 cup unbleached white flour
• 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
  
• 3-6 Tablespoons cold water
• Extra flour for rolling the dough

 Directions:

1. Combine both flours and the butter in a large bowl.  Using a pastry cutter (my personal favorite), two forks or a food processor (only requires a few short bursts), cut together the butter and flour until they make a uniform mixture resembling coarse cornmeal.
2. Add a little bit of water and stir the mixture with a fork.  Continue adding the water, a little at a time, until the dough begins to hold together.
3. Gently roll the dough into a ball.
4. Sprinkle a bit of flour on the counter and begin rolling out the dough into a crust.  Be sure to roll in all directions from the middle of the dough.  I usually flip the dough over before it gets too big and add a bit more flour to the counter to keep the dough from sticking.
5. To transfer the dough to your pie or quiche pan, loosley roll the dough onto the rolling pin.  You can then carry/lift the dough into your pan.  Carefully unroll the crust.  Don't worry too much if it breaks a bit.  You can always mend the breaks by gently pressing the dough together.
6. Finish off your crust by crimping the edges between your fingers or with a fork.

Your crust is now ready for whatever you want to put into it.  If you made a double batch, roll the remaining dough into a ball, wrap with Saran-wrap, put into a freezer bag and place into the freezer.  It should be good for about 6 months.  To thaw, place in the refridgerator for a day.  You can also defrost it in the microwave but be careful not to cook it.

Stay tuned for a quiche recipe in the near future.  It will be a great way to fill your crust.

Alright, here goes my first attempt at a blog entry on our website.  I'm expecting lots of comments from all of you out there reading this.  If you give me some good feedback, I might even invite you out for the next ride!

Heather and I have recently reinstituted our weekly mountain bike rides at the cost of missing a bit of Frisbee here and there.  It's funny how difficult it is sometimes to get the motivation to gear up, load the bikes on the car and hit the trail.  Once we get going, however, it is a different story and we always enjoy the excursion on the local trails.  Last week was no exception.

Since it has been fairly hot recently, we decided to go for a ride in the evening (7:00).  This way we could take both the dogs and not worry about them passing out from heat exhaustion.  Heather wanted to ride in the Chukanuts and so we parked at Highline road and began making our way up Cleator.  This is a 3.5 mile climb that pretty much works us every time.  I wasn't especially looking forward to it on my single-speed.  I had also ridden with some friends that morning for about 3 hours, so I was already a bit worked.

I should also mention that Heather had the brilliant idea of stopping by Diego's to get some fish tacos and a burrito so that we could eat dinner at one of the tables on top of Cleator.  I also brought along a frosty malt beverage to enjoy with my Mexican food.

The ride up took about 45 minutes and was actually quite enjoyable.  Once at the top, we ate our dinner along with a little help from Mocha and Lucy.  Who knew those two would like fish tacos and burritos so much?

After dilly-dallying for a bit longer, we got on our bikes and started heading down.   The first trail is called 'double black diamond' by mountain bikers and is affectionately known as 'chinscraper' by the local running community.  This trail is pretty steep and had some fun root and rock challenges.  We made it down in the dwindling light and Heather took the challenging upper exit onto Fragrance Lake Road.

Once we got down to Fragrance Lake, Mocha and Lucy had to take a quick swim, drink a bit and unceremoniously shake off the water on some innocent bystanders.  Due to the ever-growing darkness, we quickly got back on our bikes and rode around the lake to the '2-dollar' trail.  By this time, we started hearing a bit of thunder off in the distance and it was now dark enough that the trail was difficult to discern.  At this point, it was time to employ the 'loose arms' technique of mountain bike riding.  Since it was nearly impossible to 'read' the trail for roots, rocks and small drop-offs, we had to keep our arms loose so they could extend or contract when necessary, kind of like shock absorbers.  About 1/3 of the way down the trail, the thunderstorm really started to pick up and we began seeing flashes of lightening.  Based on my rough estimates, the storm was still at least 10-12 miles away.  We began to feel the excitement of riding in a thunderstorm at dark and quickened our pace as much as was reasonable. 

After some pretty fun riding, we found ourselves back on Cleator road with just a short jaunt back to the car.  The sky was really starting to light up and we saw lots of lightening bolts out over the San Juans.  As the thunder grew louder and the storm got closer, we arrived back at our car, just as the first drops of rain were starting to fall. 

Isn't Bellingham a beautiful place?  There aren't that many places out there where you can get out to awesome trails in such a short amount of time.  We really are fortunate to be living up here where we can enjoy so many different outdoor activities.

Enjoy the trails.  

Miguel