Ingredients:

• 3 cups rolled oats
• 1 cup mixed nuts and seeds (I used almonds and cashews)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup of sweetener (I used honey, but you could also use maple syrup, agave nectar, brown rice syrup, or molasses)
• 1/2 cup dried fruit (I used cranberries)

Preheat oven to 300*F. Place 9 x 13 inch roasting pan over 2 burners at medium-low heat. Add oats and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown and become fragrant (about 3-5 minutes). Add the nuts and seeds and continue to cook for another 2 minutes stirring frequently. If using it, add coconut and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes. Add cinnamon and sweetener and stir to coat. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice while baking. Add the dried fruit after granola is done baking and place pan on a wire rack to cool. Be sure to stir the granola every so often to break it up as it cools. Transfer granola to a sealed container and store in cupboard or refrigerator.

I love the idea of making homemade granola! I can’t believe I haven’t done it soon, its so easy and budget-friendly!

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• Run a half marathon (did the Chicago Rock n’ Roll half marathon earlier this month!)
• Try Bikram yoga
• Buy a bike to ride around the city
• Swim with dolphins
• Do indoor rock climbing (even better, I did outdoor rock climbing!)
• Learn how to ski
• Run a sub-9 minute mile
• Go snorkeling
• Kayak down the Chicago river
• Run a race in another city
• Take an outdoorsy vacation (went Lake Tahoe!)
• Buy a fitness DVD
• Go parasailing
• Complete a triathalon

6 items completed in 5 months, not too bad! I may have to start adding on to this list!

I am looking into doing another half marathon in another city, possibly Las Vegas! I may also register for the Hot Chocolate 15K here in Chicago in November, or even challenge myself to the Chicago Urbanathlon! Have you guys heard about this thing? It sounds like a city-wide obstacle course!

What have you accomplished in your fitness routine this summer?

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We climbed to the top where the view of Devil’s Lake was amazing!

We trusted our lives to Dave to secure the ropes…

The first thing to learn about climbing was belaying – a climbing technique referring to your partner acting as an anchor for you so that if you (the climber) fall, you will be secure in your harness and not fall to the ground. The person belaying sits at the base of the rock wall while the other person climbs.

It’s harder then it looks…

In the photo on the right you can see me really small on the side of the wall near the top (although I never quite made it to the top because the climb got too challenging for my beginner skill level)!

Will also took a shot at climbing up!

Dave’s an awesome climber and makes it look far too easy!

He even made it to the top of one wall in an incredible 5 minutes!

After a full day of climbing we headed back to the camp site for some dinner and beers by the camp fire. The brownies were also a big hit!

The trip was a blast; I’m so glad I got a chance to learn how to climb! Thanks Dave! With my trip to Lake Tahoe and weekend camping I feel like I’ve had my fair share of outdoors activities for a while, back to the city please!

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Before I go pack the car for the drive up there I wanted to share this yummy recipes with you guys! I made some brownies to take along for everyone; shhh don’t tell them they’re vegan! The recipe came from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar; I tripled this recipe to have enough for everyone.

Ingredients:

• 3 oz of silken tofu (about 1/4 of the package)
• 1/4 cup soy milk
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch (I used arrowroot powder)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 325*F. Line an 8 x 8 inch brownie pan with parchment paper. Blend the tofu, soy milk, and oil in a blender until smooth. Use a spatula to transfer to the mixture into a large bowl. Mix in the sugar and vanilla using a fork. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt (the recipe stresses the importance of sifting the ingredients to prevent clumpy brownies). Mix batter until smooth.

Transfer batter into pan and smooth the top with a spatula. The batter will spread during baking, so don’t worry! Bake for 30-40 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Remove brownies and paper from pan and allow to cool on rack for 15 minutes before removing from paper and cutting. Sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar if desired and enjoy!

I had to try one before packing them up for the trip, and let me tell you, they are so rich and chocolatey! No one will ever know these are vegan!

See you all when I get back!

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Monday we went white water rafting out in Auburn, CA. We had to leave the inn at 5:30am to drive 2 hours to get there and meet the van by 8. We rafted with a company called W.E.T. River Trips. We met up with our group behind  a nearby grocery store, and then all piled into the W.E.T. River Trips van with our guide and rafts to drive 40 minutes down to the river.

We rafted down the Middle Fork of the American River, with class 3 and 4 rapids. The ride was phenomenal, the rapids were totally crazy at times! However there was also a fair amount of time we spent calmly floating down the river and paddling. Our group stopped for lunch along the way and then continued on the trip. This was an all day trip and by the time we finally made it back to our inn in South Lake Tahoe at 6:00pm, we were completely wiped. Nothing else was planned for the night but some good old Chinese take-out and sleep!

Tuesday we rode bikes down to the shops and restaurants in the ski village. We spent the day walking around, shopping, and eating lunch at Stateline Brewery & Restaurant at a table outside.

 
We started with some incredible spinach artichoke dip…

 
Then split a Caesar salad with chicken…

And finally shared Mahi Mahi fish tacos. It was a ton of food, but extremely delicious!

After lunch we biked back to the inn to plan the next half of our day. We decided to drive to another hiking trailhead, this one much shorter and easier than Horsetail Falls! We went on about a 1 mile hike near Emerald Bay to Eagle Lake where there were tons of people swimming and enjoying the warm weather. We took a long swim and then hiked home (again, pictures pending).

Late night plans included a quick dinner at Goodfellas pizza and dessert at Coldstone creamery (where I had coffee ice cream with Heath Bar mixed in – by far the best combination in my mind!)

We went to a late showing of Dinner for Schmucks at a nearby theater as well. I’m usually against seeing movies on vacation, but after all of our outdoor activities during the past few days, it seemed well deserved. The movie was of course hilarious and a great way to end the trip!

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After the jet ski tour we hit up The Cantina, a local Mexican restaurant for some lunch.

We split a massive chicken burrito and I of course got a strawberry margarita because “I’m on vacation.” Then we headed over to Horsetail Falls, a massive waterfall off a mountain southwest of Lake Tahoe.

If you look carefully you can see Horsetail Falls dead center in the background of this picture; it’s white in color because the water is rushing at an incredible rate down the mountain. Upon seeing the beautiful waterfall we decided to make it to the top, yes the top. We had heard there was a gorgeous lake at the start of the falls called Avalanche Lake and we were determined to make it there for a swim!

The hike started off relatively easy, we walked near the water to see the falls and kept pushing our way to the top.

The trail soon became more difficult to find and we had to rely on stacks of small rocks built by hikers before us (as seen in the picture). This clue ended up being a total lifesaver later on in the hike!

During the whole hike we had fantastic views of the waterfall!

It was at about 2 hours into the hike when the trail disappeared, and we were on our own. We had heard from other hikers coming down the mountain that the hike got more difficult along the way, but we had no idea what we were in for. We climbed up the side of the mountain using rocks and boulders to pull ourselves up. Some of the rocks were slick from the nearby water making this was an extremely dangerous and terrifying experience that I had neither the skill nor the endurance for. The sign at the trailhead stating that “there had been many fatalities on this hike” was clearly not kidding.

But we kept seeing hikers descending the mountain reassuring us that we weren’t too far from the top and that the view and lake at the top of the waterfall was well worth the climb. So we continued on our way…

3 hours, 2 Cliff Bars, and not enough water later, we finally reached the top!

And low and behold, the incredible breathtaking Avalanche Lake!

The water was FREEZING, but as tired and hot as I was from the climb, I jumped in anyways! I even swam out to a little island in the middle of the lake!

After a nice long swim we came across two other hikers making there way to the top who were kind enough to take our picture at the peak of the waterfall! Luckily they were more experienced hikers and kindly led the way back down the mountain as we followed.

This hike was definitely not what we had in mind…

Anticipated length of hike: 1.5 hours
Total length of actual hike: 5.5 hours

Anticipated difficulty: moderate
Actual difficultly: more difficult then you could ever imagine

In sum: totally worth the time, effort, and 3 days of muscle soreness to follow!

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We arrived in South Lake Tahoe late late Friday night. After an hour drive from the Reno-Tahoe airport we finally arrived at this cute little inn where we stayed called Alder Inn. Alder Inn is owned and run by the the most amazing family with incredible hospitality. Our stay at the Alder Inn was wonderful!

Each room at the inn is themed. Our room had a wild west theme that was so cozy and welcoming! Not to mention the complimentary Bare Naked granola and Craisins greeting us on the bed as we walked in!

Saturday morning we rode bikes over to ride the Heavenly Gondola. The gondola is most commonly used in the winter time as a ski lift, but in the summer it still runs to bring tourists up the mountain for an incredible view of Lake Tahoe.

The ride up the mountain had the most amazing views of Lake Tahoe!

I couldn’t stop taking pictures…

The first stop off the gondola was a lookout point over Heavenly mountain and Lake Tahoe. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees and the wind picked up due to the change in elevation by the time we reached the lookout!

 
Here I am looking for Emerald Bay, which we are going to be touring tomorrow on jet skis!

The second and last stop on the gondola was the top of the mountain. Here you can hike a couple trails (which would otherwise be ski runs in the wintertime). We hiked both the East Peak Lookout on the Nevada side of the state line, and the California Trail Lookout on the California side of the state line.

Both trails were extremely hilly and offered a great workout to start off the day!

   
Taking a break from hiking the hills of the mountain…

After our hike we went to Riva Grill, a restaurant on the Marina not too far from our inn. I ordered the most incredible pizza; shrimp, avocado, tomato, pesto, cilantro and mozzarella cheese! This pizza was by far my favorite meal of the trip! I can’t wait to get home and make one of my own!

 
After a nap after lunch, we drove up the east cost of the lake to Sand Harbor, where the outdoor Shakespeare Festival going on! The stage itself was set up quite simply, but with an amazing backdrop of the lake! The showing for Saturday night was The Complete Works of Shakespeare (abridged). Three actors set out to cover all of Shakespeare’s work in under 2 hours, quite a feat right? The show was extremely entertaining – the actors put a modern comical spin on Shakespeare that made his work accessible to everyone regardless of how familiar you were with Shakespeare’s work.

We got to sit on beach chairs in the sand and enjoy our own dinner and wine. We had stopped along the way to pick up some tortilla chips with guacamole, some crackers and cheese, and a bottle of white wine from the cutest wine cafe near our inn called Apres Wine Company.

And yes, those are glass cups borrowed from the inn. Cheers!

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However there were a few essentials that needed to be included: sunscreen, bug repellant, water bottle, water-proof camera, and of course, miniature travel-sized everything!

I think I packed enough Trader Joe’s Trail Mix and Cliff Bars to feed an army!

Oh and I couldn’t pass up this adorable straw hat while shopping yesterday.

What do you think? It totally says “a weekend at the beach” right?

Hahaha I love it. Next time you hear from me I’ll be in California! Which is a good thing because it looks like it’s going to rain in Chicago!

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