Combined Kristin and I raised over $4500 for the National MS Society. Our 28 member team Lyn’s Leggs raised $30,000. And so far the 2007 MS Bike Tour’s 1800 participants have raised over $1.2 million!

THANK YOU to all of you that sent support! These events are only successful because of your generosity. If you haven’t already given and would like to contribute, please do. Donations are being accepted for this event through October 19th.

Check out my photos from the weekend.

To donate visit my personal page

Click here to view the team page for Lyn’s Leggs

Thank you for your support!
-Brandon Wilhite

Kristin and I received a Baking Illustrated cook book as a wedding gift from some of Kristin’s cooking group friends. From what I understand Baking Illustrated is the holy grail of baking books. It was a very nice gift but, it has been almost three years since the wedding and neither one of us have attempted any of the recipes yet. Kristin is an amazing cook but, she is self-admittedly not a baker. I have heard it said that - cooking is an art, while baking is a science. In the back of my mind I would love to be able to bake. Not that I think the baking itself would be that fun but I love to eat the results. And hopefully I would learn to enjoy the work.

It is Blackberry season here in the Northwest right now. Blackberries grow like weeds everywhere. Most people think of blackberries as annoying sticker bushes that take over every untended piece of soil. And they are, but they also produce copious amounts of sweet berries.

So I set off from our apartment with my bowl in hand without really knowing where any blackberry bushes were. It didn’t take long to find them. Only half a block from our place is a little park that is overrun with blackberries. There were plenty to pick from. I filled my bowl in less then 20 minutes of foraging. I busted out the Baking Illustrated book and started reading. They do an amazing job of explaining the details of baking; what really is happening between the ingredients - and it really is a science. I found it very interesting. I made my store run to buy all my ingredients. Then I was off to the races washing berries, mixing dough, rolling out crust, mixing berries, and baking! It was a fun adventure and the results were a big success if I don’t say so myself.

Go bake a pie - it’s fun!

Last weekend Kristin and I biked to Gig Harbor. The ride included three ferry rides, one bridge crossing and many hills to climb. Her folks live in Gig Harbor so it makes for a great overnight biking destination - we can travel light not needed to bring any overnight gear with us.

Our route took us in a big two day loop starting and ending in Seattle. Saturday we head South along the Seattle waterfront wrapping around the shoreline to Alki beach in West Seattle and then south to Fauntleroy where we caught a ferry across Puget Sound to Southworth near Port Orchard. From Port Orchard we pedaled South on scenic country roads down to Gig Harbor. If we actually got to quit at Gig Harbor it would have been a breeze but Kristin’s parent live just South of the Harbor on Wollochet Bay. Which means we had to make the wicked climb out of Gig Harbor. All the roads leading South out of Gig Harbor are some of the steepest roads I have ever biked.
Sunday we left heading East from Gig Harbor across the old Tacoma Narrows Bridge - unfortunately the sidewalk on the new bridge is not open yet. Once across the Narrows we made the quick jaunt up to Point Defiance where took the short ferry ride to the South end of Vashon Island. Vashon Island was quiet, scenic and HILLY. The roads on Vashon have smooth wide shoulders. And the smaller shoulder-less roads are only lightly traveled. Drivers seem to really believe in the Share the Road signs we say all over the island. From the North end of Vashon we caught the ferry back to Fauntleroy in West Seattle and then backtracked along Alki and the Seattle waterfront on home.

Now enters the more safety focused Lasso Golf. The rules to Lasso Golf are similar to horseshoes, bocce ball or lawn darts for that matter. You setup two three-rung plastic ladders about 20 feet apart. Then you get points for getting your lasso - two golf balls tied to either end of a short piece of rope - to wrap around one of the rungs of the ladder. 3 points for the low rung, 2 points for the middle and 1 for the top. Fun game for all. Get yourself a set and invite the neighbors over for a bbq and have a good time challenging each other in lasso golf.

UPDATE: Just uploaded a video of me and the Speedster to YouTube - check it out.

In usual fashion I let time slip by and now I hear it is almost too late in the season to plant tomatoes. I have no idea if that is true or not because I have never planted anything in my life. But, what better time to start. I quickly googled ‘upside down tomato planter’ to find that about 60,000 other people are growing tomato plants in the abnormal direction. After scanning a couple articles I ran to Fred Meyer and picked up a couple tomato plants (a Tumbling Tom and a Window Box Roma), a couple 5 gallon buckets, some potting soil, and some hanging hardware and I was off.

After a few minutes - wahla! I’ve got a couple of my very own upside down tomato plants! Now bring on the summer sun and lets see if they produce any juicy red goodness! I’ll report on the progress later this summer.

My mom hides them in the couch end table drawer. My mom-in-law hides them in a little wicker basket next to pops chair. And my wife tries to get me to put ours away in this black box on our end table. It drives me nuts!

For starters, why hide the remotes at all when your just going to turn around and dig them back out everyday? Of course I have made the same argument for why we don’t need to make the bed every morning - we’re just going to ‘unmake’ it again at night. But, I digress…

My second beef to pick is IF we are going to be forced/guilted/coerced into hiding our remote controls PLEASE please please don’t make it overly difficult to get to the hiding spot. As you can see from the picture above - getting to our remote control hiding place is almost always booby trapped with an assortment of decor trinkets.

And Kristin wonders why I never put the TV remotes back in their storage spot?!

The weekend before last we joined over 1000 cyclist in pedaling 150 miles around Skagit, Island, and Whatcom Counties all in an effort to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Our figure eight route started and stopped in La Conner, WA both days. Saturday’s 75 mile ride took us through Anacortes, across Deception Pass onto Whidbey Island, through Oak Harbor and then back across Deception Pass returning to La Conner. Sundays ride took us North through the beautiful farmlands outside of La Conner around Chuckanut Mountains, almost to Bellingham and then South down the scenic waterfront Chuckanut Drive. The ride was challenging to say the least but, we had a blast doing it. So much so that we signed up to do it again next year!

The MS150 was a huge fundraising success. Thanks to your generous donations Kristin and I personally raised over $3000 for the National MS Society. In total, an estimated $1 million was raised by this event. This will truly make a difference for so many living with MS in our community.

Thanks again for your support!

Kristin giving “A Bike-by Kissing”

Kristin’s folks live in Gig Harbor so it would be a perfect out and back overnight destination. As we pedaled away from our apartment Saturday morning we both felt a little giddy thinking, “we are actually going to BIKE to Gig Harbor!?”. Gig Harbor is usually only about an hours drive South of Seattle - just across the Puget Sound from Tacoma. But with summer traffic and the additional traffic caused by the Narrows Bridge construction we haven’t been getting down to see the folks very often. Let’s just say it is a long enough drive that it stops of from just “stopping by”. So pedaling there seems like a very long trek! Another reason we were excited is that we were surprising Kristin’s dad - he had no idea we were coming. He had even called on Friday and left a message asking if we would come to visit even though he knew we were probably busy. We knew he was going to be shocked that we actually biked there!

The trip was excellent! We had a nice breeze at our back Saturday morning and made the 17 miles to the West Seattle ferry in time to catch the 9:15 to Southworth (Port Orchard). From there it only took us a couple more hours of pedaling through 24 miles of beautiful country side to land us at Kristin’s folks in Gig Harbor. What a great way to travel if you’re got the time! We were able to pack light - just our camel packs - because we both have spare cloths and toothbrushes permanently stashed at her folks. The family treated us well. We fully relaxed and recuperated all afternoon, evening and Sunday morning before starting our return trip around noon. The ride home was a bit more challenging. We took a different route back to Southworth and it proved to have much steeper hills plus the wind was now in our face instead of at our backs. But it was still a beautiful ride and the hills are strangely rewarding.

We are loving bicycling! If anyone is looking to pick up a new hobby I would high suggest getting a road bike and start putting in the miles. I think you will find it addicting like we have. I just hope we can find the courage to keep riding this fall and winter when the rain begins to pour.