A Mini Capsule Wardrobe, a Walk in the Forest, and Bad Driving Conditions

I was gone this weekend again - off to see L's folks for our Christmas visit with them. We try to make our trips up-Island and to the coast be like surgical strikes: quick, efficient and with a minimum of baggage (minus gifts). Therefore, a capsule wardrobe was in order to maximize outfits but minimize valuable packing space that could otherwise hold gifts!

Our travel involves driving for about 3 hours, then sitting in the car waiting for a ferry for about an hour, then sitting on the ferry for an hour an a half. I tell ya, travel is tough. Anyway, one wants to be comfortable (especially when sitting in a little Miata).

Travel outfit (Friday):
My leather skirt (last seen here) because it's warm (it was very cold out!) and loose and comfy. Layered tee over long-sleeved tee (which means the graphic tee can get another use (if I don't spill on it) because it's not next to my skin). The serpentine necklace and the silver hoop earrings are the only jewelry I took, and the skinny belt was the only accessory. I wore my little short cowboy booties all weekend. I wore knee-high socks (not shown) with all the outfits because sitting in tights for that long is not happy-making.

As an aside, how much am I loving long skirts in the winter? So much!

I also layered this awesome vest over pretty much everything I wore all weekend, whenever I needed extra warmth:

It's faux leather and faux fur, and was 50% last ticketed price at Esprit, which made it $30. Regular price was $139.95. Score!

It has a little faux bone toggle-type button so that you can do it up, and is SO soft - it feels and looks real. I knew we'd be going for at least one walk while we were up there, so I packed a hat, gloves and scarf:

I only wore the hat on the trip down-Island (to hide my gross unwashed hair), but I wore the boots and scarf a lot.

Long tee (Plum), tee (AVA, consignment), skirt (Danier Leather, thrifted), boots (Miz Mooz), necklace (gift from Elaine), belt (Plum), hat (DeLux), gloves and scarf (The Bay, several years old).

Check out the view of the Island from the top of the hill:

Those mountains have some fine skiing, so I'm told. You couldn't pay me to strap on skis. Oh, no.

We wandered by the local park where I drove a helicopter:

My pilot skillz are madd!

We wandered down a "road" called The Cut:

It was cut through the original forest to put power lines in to the town over a century ago. That's forest on either side. There are bears! but not at this time of year, because they are hibernating. Good! Stay sleeping, bears!

See the frozen puddles? We had fun jumping in them, although some had water.

Look how cool the patterns were in the puddles:

It's like a topographical map!

We took an even smaller path and headed into the woods. It is a good thing that L grew up there and is savvy in the ways of the woods, because this city girl would have been lost pretty darn quick. The path was half-frozen, half-mud, and some of the "bridges" were not in good shape:

We crossed much worse than that (and I'm proud to say my Miz Mooz did not even leak, although they are a bit muddy). Scary!

How beautiful is the West coast forest?

Moss, lichens, ferns, salal, fir and cedar trees...and it was dead silent, no bugs or birdsong at all.

If you were to head through these trees you would be heading into the wilds of British Columbia:

Nothing but logs, trees and black bears!

We walked into the forest for about an hour, and every so often we heard this popping/cracking noise - it was the trees swaying gently, "talking" to each other:

That skinny fir in the centre was one of the culprits - we tracked him down! Those trees are all secondary growth (most of the old, original trees were chopped down in the early 20th century) and are over 60' tall, I'm sure.

Some of the stumps of the old trees are still there - you can see one just to the left side of the path below:

They're all covered in moss and have ferns and other plants growing out of them - they're called "nurse stumps" (I learned that in Brownies when I was a kid, when we would go for nature walks - this impressed L, who had never heard of that term).

You can also see the faint hint that the path was once a road. A 3' wide path is all that remains. Isn't that nest of roots on the fallen tree awesome?

This is what I wore for my forest expedition and lounging around the house all day:

My jeans got pretty muddy because I had to pull myself over a few trees that had fallen across the path. The drapey cardigan is new - picked it up at Dots a couple of weeks ago for $29.99. I'm wearing a cami for extra warmth under the cashmere sweater (only worn twice, here). I wore the twisty necklace as a choker this time.

Cardigan (Kensie Girl), sweater (J. McLaughlin, consignment), jeans (Esprit).
Unfortunately, after our walk, poor L came down with the same stomach bug I'd had last weekend. He managed to stay up long enough to see the Seahawks beat the Saints (go, 'Hawks!), but he was a mess all Saturday night. I can't believe we made the 8am ferry and drove all the way home this morning/early afternoon.

Especially when you consider the winter driving conditions:

Yikes! It snowed while we were away! The roads had been plowed but there was still a lot of ice and snow, and believe me, a little convertible is not meant for driving in that.

Thank goodness it wasn't windy, raining or snowing!

We did see an accident, and at least one 4x4 SUV fishtailing all over the road (right after he zoomed past us!).

I'm happy we don't usually get much snow in my town (up-Island gets much more), but it sure is pretty:

Ooooh! Aaahhhh!

I am in awe of L's driving skills at the best of times, but when the road's wet, it's cold and sun is glaring in our faces...

Eeep! We slowed right down. Thank you, L, for getting us home in one piece.

Because we had to get up so early, I didn't shower and my hair was disgusting (see note above about the hat). So this is my one and only "head chopped off" shot of today's outfit:

This belt is too big to actually wear at my waist, I discovered, but oh well. I had my hat, scarf, gloves, furry vest AND a wool coat over all of this.

I am so glad to be in other clothes again, and so happy to be home safe and sound! How was your weekend?

Cardigan (Kensie Girl), t-shirt (AVA, consignment), skirt (Danier Leather, thrifted), belt (Plum).