Top Ten Tuesday: Non-bookish Hobbies

 This week's topic is non-bookish hobbies.

We did this topic 5 years ago, I confess my answers haven't changed much since then...

Besides reading and blogging which to be honest takes up most of my free time, my hobbies include:

Painting:

I haven't done much lately.

Puzzles:

I haven't done much lately

Writing:

I wrote an article in SLJ about Teen Summer Romance books that came out this year.

Hiking

Another hiking year: Grand Canyon (rim to rim) and Acadia 

Traveling:

Nantucket

Bar Harbor, Maine

Grand Canyon

Snoqualmie, WA

Vermont

Florida

Hanging with Friends:

Lots of friendship moments this year. 

Hanging out with my dogs - on the porch or walking

Taking Pictures 

Baking:

Recent bakes: apple crisp, pumpkin chocolate chip bread, and applesauce.

I love fall baking! 

Watching Movies/TV to relax 

I do a fair amount of knitting to keep my hands busy while watching TV.

What do you like to do outside of reading/talking about books?

Vacation Photos: Glacier National Park

We took a long vacation last week. The first stop was Glacier National Park.

Here are some photos from the park and the surrounding area.

Just a neat tree!

I might try to paint this.

We saw so many waterfalls!

The mountains were impressive and amazing

More mountains

(another good picture to paint)

We walked along a lot of rivers/streams/lakes

Another small waterfall

Lots of hikes to lakes

The other half of the lake

The color blue comes from glacier run off.

Want to know something sad?

The glaciers in the park will be gone by 2030 - that's six years.

Climate change is real, friends.

The best part of this hike was the lake views.

It rained. I did not have a rain coat

It hailed - for a brief moment. That was kind of fun.

The hike starts at a lodge - where the previous day, there had been a fire in the fire place.

I was so looking forward to that fireplace after the rainy cold hike.

Sadly, it was not roaring that day. 

The second best part of the hike, was the main reason for it - getting to this glacier. It was neat to see. 

We took a waterfall hike and saw three waterfalls.

More waterfalls

We also saw a black bear!

Views on the way back

The last hike in Glacier was the Highline Trail. It's a little scary if you're like me and don't like heights. This is one of the passages of the hike.

The views were amazing! 

I loved how the fog snuck in

It's such a gorgeous place! 

Stay tuned for pictures of our next stop: Banff!

If We Were Having Tea

 

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time...but here goes.

If we were having tea, I'd tell you:

1. It's that time of year again - the best and hardest time at the library. Summer reading is amazing because you get to connect with little kids, teens, and adults. You talk about favorite books and recommend books (my favorite part of my job) but you also bond at programs. It's heartwarming and amazing. But it's also really really hard. For an introvert, being social every day (because we have multiple programs every day) is draining. What is hard for you this summer?

2. I shut my Etsy shop - I usually wait until December to agonize over whether it's worth keeping open for another year or not. But there were so many hoops to jump through lately that I just didn't have patience for it anymore. But that doesn't mean I'll stop crafting.  And it does mean I'll give away most of the items I had created to holiday donation baskets where my parents live. It was a sad day for me because of course I feel like a failure, but that's just how things are sometimes. Failure is a part of life and while it sucks, I'm dusting myself off. What do you do after you fail at something?

3. I've been on a couple vacation this year, and I have one more planned for July. It's a family vacation and I haven't seen anyone in a while, so it will be nice to catch up. Are you traveling this summer?

4. I did a brave thing in terms of my writing this month. I'm finishing up a revision. I think my WIP is there - and if it doesn't hook someone's attention, maybe it's not the right time. I have another idea that I've been kicking around my brain for the past couple of years. Once the revision is done, I'm going to turn my attention towards writing that. It's a little bit different for me, but I think it will be really fun to write.  What are you goals for the summer? 

Oh and this was inspired by a post a million years ago by Jamie over at The Perpetual Page Turner

Where I Was (part 2)

After hiking Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon, we traveled to Vegas for some R&R. I know that doesn't seem logical, but...that's who we are. I wanted a place with a fun pool. Of course I did some reading by the pool.

I saved Kristan Higgins's new book for this trip. And of course, it was amazing. I couldn't put it down.

We also went to a wax museum, my first time. It was fun, but it took a bit to get into it.

 Here are some of my favorite photos.

Singing with the Rat Pack

The Hulk grabbed me.

Box Out, Box Out!

Then we just walked around a bit and looked at everything.

We got to visit with some friends for drinks.

Plus I got to chat with an author friend. Sadly, we didn't take a picture this time. 

But you can read about the first time that we met here!

And her books are amazing!

Where I Was (part 1)

So, we've been planning this trip for a little over of a year. 

We hiked Rim to Rim (roughly 20ish miles) over the course of three days.

We hiked and camped. And then we finally made it out. 

It's awe inspiring and hard to process the beauty of it. We took a bunch of pictures, here's just a handful. 

Here's the canyon the day before we went down. Plus you can see the rain cloud over the canyon.

Day One: We started in the dark and it was REALLY cold. Here the light is starting to come up.

Day One: Gorgeous

Day Two: This was the easiest hiking day. 

Although I felt like I was in Lord of the Rings - as part of the fellowship.

Day Three: Almost out.

There's the top!

The last little 3.5 miles was ROUGH. And maybe the 1.5 before that was tough.

But I did it! And I feel accomplished!!