As usual, the first couple of months were a blur. We snowshoed around home and visited Tahoma. Nothing too special so far, right? I mean, it was special, but not extra-special.

February found us in Arizona where I got my butt kicked by their equivalent of Mailbox, searched for (and found) signs of the past, finally found some burros, and wrapped up the trip in the red rocks of Sedona.

We returned home to meh weather and an alert on my Apple Watch. Afib? What the heck is Afib? Uh oh. ER. Quite the scare, but in the end not that big a deal. I went on some meds, got off the meds, wore a monitor, took off the monitor, and was pronounced out of the woods if I was ever actually in them. I could go back to my regular activity, but with a realization that I'm frickin' old and need to take care of myself. Compare a picture of me from the beginning of the year to one at the end of the year and you might notice a difference. (A 65 pound difference, to be exact.)

March, April, and May were more of our usual tomfoolery. That's the shoulder season so we'd be in snow one day and rain the next. Or both conditions on the same day. We found flowers and many miles on the bikes and an acceptance letter for Mr. HOS to UW. At this point in the story I was stoked beyond belief. You'll see in Part Two how gutted I was when he actually left.

May was also when Lilly made the mistake of going on a couple of my stereotypical poorly planned adventures. We tagged an old favorite for a beautiful sunset and she experienced the joy of waking up stupid early, driving a long time, and getting to a summit only to be chased off by a storm. While HOS was my weekend adventurer, Lilly was my three-day-a-week walkiepoo partner. Math is for nerds (tag yourself if you're a nerd) so I haven't figured out who adventured for more miles, but it's pretty close between the two of them.

Of course, Tinkham crushed them all as my most frequent adventure partner. She never said no even when it would have been prudent. She'd just lol her tongue out the side of her grinning face and run up and down the mountain while I slogged away. Good dog.

Also in May, we introduce Hetzel to late spring snow, I pushed decided weather wouldn't stop me from returning to the Ramparts (it should have), and TNAB made a brief resurgence.

June started all normal-like. With snow rapidly consolidating we toured the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and the traditional Father's Day spectacular in Mount Rainier National Park. Mr. HOS and I did an urban adventure race that had us canoeing, biking, and running around Seattle.

Then things got really weird. Or should I say, Las cosas se pusieron raras? Cuz we hopped a plane (or two) and found ourselves bleary eyed in Madrid. Not the towns in Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, New Mexico, or New York. The city in Spain. WHA? Or rather ¿QUÉ?

Lilly was studying abroad in the south of Spain. Per section 10, subsection 24, paragraph 1998, parents are obligated to visit their children while they are studying abroad. Look, it's right there in black and white. It's not like we could have said no.

Mrs. Moosefish and I had a couple of days in Madrid to get acclimated before Lilly made the train trip from Alicante. She toured us around a bit, we visited Toledo. We followed her back to Alicante where we saw the town catch fire and explode for the Hogueras de Alicante. They know how to do a festival.

While in Alicante, we rented a car and Lilly and I went to hike the la pasarela de la presa de Relleu. There I found a a new definition of pain and suffering, as I was slowly digested over a thousand years. Actually, it was more me suffering heatstroke/heat exhaustion/whatever. The hike itself was pretty mellow, but the unrelenting sun combined with my Pacific Northwest constitution had me dizzy and on the edge of passing out while on walkway precariously attached to the wall of canyon. Thankfully, Lilly cooled me off and got me out. How embarrassing if my first rescue was there. (And probably expensive.)

Lilly said her goodbyes to her host family and the three of us traveled north to Segovia for a few last days. It was a great town. Highly recommended. Mellow and still close. We day tripped to El Escorial to see a royal library (Mrs. Moosefish wouldn't be a librarian if we hadn't made that trip) and then we visited the Valley of the Fallen to see what happens when fascism is allowed to fester. Pro-tip: Don't let it fester. Root it out. Burn it. Get on the right side of history.

Back home, it was summer. Tink, Clara, and Mr. HOS were happy to see us. We visited the Tatoosh and it was AMAZING. And then another adventure took us on an abandoned trail that's been itching my brain for far too long.

Phew. That's the first half (and a bit) of 2025. What more could there be that would force a Part Two? Well...

But before we get that, it's important to acknowledge the lands we traversed. Each post includes a land acknowledgement specific to that location. We live on the lands of the Snoqualmie people. You can look up the ancestral peoples of anywhere on earth at native-land.ca.