Goodbye Toronto, Hello Seattle!

Hello again, Internet.  It’s been far too long -- for me at least -- and while I’d like to say a lot has happened during my absence, my life has been rather mundane of late.  After leaving Kalymnos, Greece, I spent a couple of days in Athens, then boarded the 21st airplane of my trip, bound for Toronto, and completed the last leg of my big around-the-world adventure.     

That was all very exciting and I have quite the stockpile of experiences to blog about.  But that – and life in general – had to wait as I was doomed to spend three weeks in Toronto absolutely cramming for the Ontario bar exam.  Turns out that skimming densely packed pages of legal fun while jet-setting through strange countries is not an effective study strategy. So, upon landing in Toronto, I chained myself to my parents’ dining room table and read through the 1500 pages of material the law society tells me I need to commit to memory in order to be a competent lawyer.

It wasn’t all tough times, though.  If I wasn’t studying I was climbing – and it feels like I did that a lot too (which, admittedly, is inconsistent with my claim to endless studying).  And, more importantly, I got to plan my next trip:  Today I woke at 4:30 a.m. and set off for the North Cascade Mountains of Washington State to attempt several alpine rock routes on Washington Pass.  After that it’s two weeks of unknown adventure before an attempt of Mount Baker at the end of July with Paul and Ellen.  It’s all a little daunting at the moment, mostly because my lifestyle over the last month or so didn't lend itself to getting in shape for climbing – a conclusion I reached a couple of days ago after a 10:30 a.m. swim and beer.  But that’ll just add to the excitement.

The object of my desires for the next week.  From cascadeclimbers.com.