Oh, hey there! Remember me?! That one girl who used to post recipes on the regular? Whoops, yep, that’s me! It’s been a while (give or take half a year, no big deal). I’ve been a tad busy over here starting my own business, running the Boston Marathon, hiking in Yosemite, you know, the usual. ;)

There’s a lot to catch up on, but first I wanted to share some highlights from our most recent vacation: Yosemite! We just got back last week and I think I’m still on a high from it all. We went on a guided tour with Arizona Outback Adventures and I highly recommend them for any trip you plan to do in the West! We went through them for our Grand Canyon trip two years ago and immediately afterwards we were already looking for another trip to do with them.

For this trip, we took my sister-in-law with us and drastically increased the level of adventure from any of our previous trips. We went backcountry camping for 3 nights and 4 days (never mind that I hadn’t gone camping since high school. Ha!), setting up camp at a new location each night as we hiked our way through the most hidden parts of the park. To say it was beautiful would be an understatement. Pictures just don’t do it justice. As the grand finale of the trip, if you will, we were able to hike up and summit Half Dome, one of the most iconic landmarks in the park (take a look at The North Face logo sometime…it’s an image of Half Dome. Who knew!).

When asked what my highlight was of the trip, I honestly can’t think of just one thing. The entire experience together probably was the highlight. One thing that surprised me, though, was how much Philip and I realized we enjoy camping. Granted, the weather was perfect and it was in California in a breathtaking national park, but either way, I think it’s something we’d like to try out again on our own. Most of the nights, we took off the rain covering of our tent and slept with just the pine trees and the stars overhead. Gosh, it doesn’t get any better.

Now, what kind of food blog would this be if I didn’t talk about the food. :) Our guide, Will, was absolutely incredible for many different reasons, but in particular, he was the one that cooked our food each night and I think he could definitely rival my cooking abilities. We had everything from quinoa and chicken curry to a chili macaroni with garlic bread. All made with one single portable stove and pot. I was pretty impressed by his creations! Oh, and we had a charcuterie-style picnic by the beach for lunch one day after a full morning of hiking. What a treat! Everything tastes better after hours of hiking, but I really do think this food was some of the best, considering the conditions. :)

Even the bear cans were kind of fun. Okay, maybe just at first, but the novelty of it quickly wore off. They were a little annoying by Day 4. :) Not to mention, we had to find a way to stuff them into our backpacks each day and hike with it everywhere. No easy feat!

From taking a cool dip in a mountain stream during one of our hikes and summiting Half Dome to sleeping under the stars and being in awe of this beautiful creation, this trip will be hard to top.

Pictures taken either by myself, my husband or sister-in-law, or the talented Susan Allen (follow her and her amazing photography on Instagram at @what.sue.seas)