Hiking = marital bliss

We went on a seven-mile hike at Mt. Rainier today, and it just about killed me. I was gasping for breath for most of the hike. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I felt like someone was squeezing the ever-loving life out of me. Okay, so I haven't been to the gym for seven days, but I haven't gained any weight and there's no reason I should have had such a hard time hiking. We were at 7,000 feet and I'm use to being at sea level, and it was 84 degrees, and half of the hike was uphill, but come on, those aren't really legitimate excuses. My husband was hiking circles around me and he rarely works out (he even jogged part of it and I couldn't keep up).

It was still a lot of fun in spite of me feeling like an 80-year old woman trying to climb Mt. Everest. We always have a lot of fun hiking. We never argue when we hike. It's weird that we can fight like cats and dogs, but put us in hiking boots on a mountain trail and suddenly we're romantic and sweet as can be to each other. I've never understood it, but that's just how we work. Something about being in the great outdoors in such a beautiful place, we just can't be unhappy with each other.

Tomorrow morning it's back to the gym for me, no excuses! I've been skating by all week not working out and so far haven't gained any weight, but this is just wrong. I have to get back to working out. I'm setting the alarm for 4:40am and plan on being at the gym when the doors open at 5am. I'm already tired just thinking about it.

We already have another hike planned for next weekend. We bought a season pass to Mt. Rainier park so we figured we have to go every weekend between now and when it closes in October to make it worth it. Plus, now that I bought a much more fuel efficient vehicle (Nissan Altima - love it!), we don't feel so guilty about driving for an hour to get to the park.