Your next adventure: Sea Kayaking

While Alex and I were on the Olympic Peninsula, we thought it would be awesome to go sea kayaking in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

We were right, it was pretty awesome…minus some big waves and choppy water.

Alex was in charge of this adventure, which he booked through Olympic Raft & Kayak. He selected the 2 hour tour, which includes a guide, transportation to the kayaking location, slash gear, your kayak…and plenty of play time with the resident dog, Steve.

The Olympic Raft & Kayak staff was awesome! I forgot my sweater and they managed to find me a warm fleece to borrow, how nice is that? They’ll hang onto your rental car keys and any other valuables you don’t want to risk falling into the ocean, have a great bathroom setup complete with showers, and again…they have Steve.

Steve, to dog, will great you at your car and show you the way…he’s a great dog ambassador for kids (or adults) who are hesitant around dogs. He doesn’t jump on people and all he wants to do is play fetch…so if you start playing with him, expect to continue to play with him. Steve is the best.

But enough about Steve.

Alex and I were on our micro-adventure with a family of four from Chicago and our guide, who grew up in Olympia and goes backpacking and rafting in his spare time. He was really good at answering all of our questions, not making anybody feel like they were stupid (even when I crashed into Alex who then bumped into some rocks. oops), and made sure we were comfortable while trying to get ourselves out of some extra choppy water.

If you ever have the opportunity to go kayaking, especially in the Pacific Northwest, I’m going to highly suggest you go sea kayaking. If you’re like me and uncomfortable (understatement of the year) in water, getting a guided tour is totally worth it. I was more worried about dropping my phone (I use a Lifeproof case – the green one, so I was worried about losing my phone more than getting it wet) than about the act of kayaking because our guide made the whole thing seem doable and safe.

I can’t wait to go kayaking at our local beaches this summer, and hopefully going stand-up paddle boarding!

Things to consider when you go kayaking

Wear sunscreen, bring a hat
Bring a change of shoes, the ones you wear kayaking will most likely get soaked
Dress in layers – it was super windy and cold in the bay so that fleece they lent me was perfect
Go with a friend! That way you’ll both get photos
Ask about conditions before going out if you’re not with a guide
Eat a good meal before going out, there isn’t time to stop for a snack

Do you kayak?
What activity do you want to try this summer?

June 18, 2013 { 6 comments }

in Adventure, Travel., Weekend

Kam goes to: Olympic National Park

Where do I even start with this one? Olympic National Park was Alex’s #1 park to visit since we started this endeavor, and spending a long weekend in the park was exactly what we hoped – magical.

If anybody ever talks about her weekend in Olympic National Park and does use the word magical…well, there is something very wrong with that person. Magical can’t quite capture this multi-environment park. It’s other-wordly. I was able to go from an Alpine mountaintop, to the rainy and secluded coast, and to the moss-covered wonderland of a rainforest.

All in one freaking day.

The clearest way into the Universe
is through a forest wilderness.
-John Muir

We stayed at the Super 8 Motel in Port Angeles, which offers free wifi, free parking, and a free breakfast in the morning. If you’re not concerned with staying in a fancy hotel, this is a great option for you. It even came with a small fridge, so we were able to have “hotel dinner” to help save money.

We started our adventure on Thursday at the Visitor Center on the way to Hurricane Ridge, the rangers were super helpful with letting us know about the closures in the park. One ranger spent quite a bit of time with us, writing out the high tide and low tide times for the next few days, giving us the driving times between different areas of the park, making suggestions for seeing what the park had to offer, and showing us photos she took on her tablet. Honestly one of the best interactions with a ranger we’ve had at any of the parks.

We started our day early on Friday, grabbing a quick breakfast before heading out to Rialto Beach. We spent a few hours on the (really, really wet) beach, exploring the shore, taking photos of the sea stacks, being followed by a few river otters, and chatting with a local about the history of the areas. Magical.

Our adventure didn’t stop there, we had a more proper breakfast in Forks (please see below for my suggestion on dealing with anything having to do with Forks), and then drove to the Hoh Rainforest. The Hoh Rainforest should not be missed…yes, it’s a drive, but it wouldn’t be as magical of a trip if you don’t go there. All I need to say: banana slugs. Because, why wouldn’t you want to drive a couple of hours in search of a banana slug? We did about 5 miles of the Hoh River Trail before stopping for lunch…and the shore called to us again so we decided to check out Ruby Beach. It wasn’t as deserted as Rialto, but it was much drier.

Where to visit on your next weekend in Olympic National Park

Hurricane Ridge
Hoh Rainforest
Rialto Beach
Ruby Beach
Elwa

I cannot capture the magic that we encountered over the few days we were in the park, so I’ll be back with more posts. If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some of the photos I took while in Washington. If you don’t, you can find me at @CampfireChic.

Before you go

Check the park website or call the ranger station for closure updates
Get your fill of Mexican food, the area isn’t known for it and the last thing you want to do is be disappointed when trying to satisfy a craving
Bring extra water – I only remember 2 water fountains and neither were water bottle-friendly
If driving from SEA-TAC, load up your phone/music player with some podcasts…it’s a long drive to Port Angeles
Practice saying, “No, I’m not here for the Twilight Tour”

Have you been to Olympic National Park?

June 17, 2013 { 4 comments }

in Adventure, National Park, National Parks, Travel., Weekend

Essential Reading

How are you feeling? I bet you’re ready for the weekend — ready to take a quick break from things…ready to tackle your to do list…ready to lose reception…ready to reconnect with your friends and family. Whatever your plan is, I’m hoping that you’re feeling well and taking steps toward any goals you may have set for yourself this week/month/year.

What I really needed this week was a kick-in-the-butt…a kick to get me out of a rut, a kick to keep me from falling back into the rut, and a kick to keep me from falling into other ruts…so really, what I needed was a few kicks, it looks like. The articles linked below helped me a bit, and maybe you’ll find something helpful, too.

This week’s Essential Reading:

19 things to stop doing in your 20s (but seriously)
Attention geeks: Send your old comics to the troops!
While you should totally buy the Lauch the **** Out of Your Ebook book, here is a quick checklist to review before launching your next product
Sarah has a quick tip for getting **** done
Yes, climbing is dangerous…and sometimes you need to know when you’re really stuck
I’m probably the last person to find out about the secret Starbucks menu…but at least now I know about the smores frappuccino
Check out these 3 email marketing tips

What kind of kick-in-the-butt do you need today?

Before I go, I wanted to know if any Campfire Chic readers are signed up (or planning to sign up) for Ali Edwards’ new 12-week workshop, Hello Story? According to Big Picture Classes, Ali Edwards will introduce you to 12 storytelling techniques—never-before-seen in her prior journaling workshops—that will bring creativity and clarity to both your writing and your page designs. Every week, you get to sit over Ali’s shoulder and watch her transform her story ideas into timeless, authentic, story-rich scrapbook pages. Class dates: July 8-September 29. Register here.

June 14, 2013 { 3 comments }

in Essential Reading

How to Launch a New Product: My Favorite Resource

Nearly everything I learned about launching digital products and online courses I learned from this ebook.

This ebook has taught me you can’t just put something out in the world and hope people will see it, like it and buy it.

You’ve got to lead the way.

PLEASE don’t just put up a blog post saying ‘I made this; here’s where you buy it.’

PLEASE don’t just tweet a link to your shop saying ‘new stuff here!’

From the ebook: “The bottom line is that if you want to sell your [product or service], you’re going to have to get involved with that dreaded ‘M’ word: Marketing.”

Over the last few weeks you’ve probably seen some posts or tweets or excitement about my upcoming BUILD ecourse. Kam and Mollie and Megan and Allie have all posted about it, and I’ve already got a list of bloggers looking forward to the official launch – and it is still weeks away.

Any excitement you see from Listers pre-March or pre-September 30 Days of Lists? A huge portion of all registered participants join us in the first couple days after opening registration. That’s all from having a strategy behind launching our registration.

This isn’t just a put-it-out-there-and-see-what happens. This is a carefully planned, honed and strategic approach to making our products and services available.

Which, again, I learned from this ebook: How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook by Naomi Dunford and Dave Navarro.

NOTE: That IS actually the name of the book. Replace the four asterisks in your head with whatever word you prefer.

This 100+ page book comes with worksheets and very clear steps for how to plan your product launch.

But that’s the thing. You have to PLAN.

I have read this ebook about 3 times – It’s so good that every time I read it I learn something new….. so when I started to plan the release of my BUILD ecourse, I knew I needed to give myself plenty of time.

Four months, to be exact.

It’s still a bit too early to see exactly how my BUILD launch will do, but I’ve already got WAY more interest than the 1 ebook I released without any kind of launch strategy. And we’re still weeks away from the ecourse even being available!

Keep in mind that this book is all written from the point of view of selling an ebook (pdf download), but I have used it very successfully for all kinds of online offers (30Lists, Onward and Upward and ebooks). The basics are easily adaptable.

Modules included:

Analyzing the market for your ebook
Finding and wooing your ebook buyers
Setting up your mailing list
Writing your ebook
Launching your ebook

Module 5 (Launching your ebook) is broken farther into 5 stages:

Preparation: Getting things together before you launch
Pre-launch: Where you make your first batch of money
Launch: Build up the buzz, build up your list, and let it fly
Post-launch: Where do we go from here?
Ongoing: Even more opportunities to make money via your ebook

My one disagreement with How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook is that the ‘writing your ebook’ is step 4.

I totally understand making sure there are people who would buy the ebook you have in mind before writing it, but for me personally I need to do the bulk of the writing first so I know what I’m dealing with. Often my ideas change partway through and I don’t realize the CORE of what it is I am offering until I’m editing the finished product.

I (personally) couldn’t craft a launch around something not at least close to being done. But maybe you’re different.

But, here’s the deal. If you want to get started making money from your blog … and you want to create and sell your own products or services…. You’ve got to get invested in MARKETING (or hire someone to help you).

And this ebook -
How to Launch the **** Out of Your eBook -
is a GREAT place to begin.

At the daily blog Lemon and Raspberry, Amy T Schubert writes about blogging, memory keeping, doing what you are meant to do … and how those all combine to help you live your best creative life. She has been a writer, photographer and encourager for most of her life. If you’re looking for a free guide to jumpstart your creativity or one-on-one blog-business coaching, head over to Lemon and Raspberry. For more day-to-day fun (including cat photos), follow Amy on Twitter and Instagram at @amytschubert.

June 12, 2013 { 3 comments }

in Better Blogging, Brainstorming, ebook, Goals, Guest Post, Inspiration, Review

3 Ways to Capture Your Ideas While on the Run

Sometimes I sit down to brainstorm blog posts or new products or some sort of new campaign and my mind is blank…but when I’m sitting in a waiting room, I’m struck with inspiration and scrambling to capture my ideas. It may be an idea for a guest blog post to pitch or simply a way to share my next adventure with readers so I don’t want to lose any of those ideas. It is important to me to not forget them because I’m the type to dwell on knowing that I had an idea and promptly forgot what it was.

You can’t plan out when inspiration will strike, but you can plan ahead so you’re ready to capture your ideas. Today, I am going to share three easy ways for you to capture your ideas while you are away from your desk/workspace.

Yellow legal pad

As a new fan of How I Met Your Mother, I was thrilled when Ted pulled out a yellow legal pad (and backup yellow legal pad) in P.S. I Love You in order to work out a big problem. Let’s start with the science behind using a yellow legal pad: studies show that color helps us remember things – hence why many teachers encouraged us to use colored index cards to make flash cards when we were younger. Having that pad available only for notes makes it part of a ritual or habit. You’ve set aside that specific thing for notes and brainstorming…don’t add your grocery list to it, it’ll throw things off. If you have a large enough bag, carry your legal pad with you and take it out when you reach the coffee shop just in case you have an idea and keep it handy while you work at home.

Go digital

Evernote and other apps are perfect for organizing your ideas. You are able to sync your accounts between devices so you can pull up that photo you took on your phone with your tablet. Evernote lets you organize voice recordings, text, and photos in handy folders so you can take a moment once a week to organize your thoughts and get things settled. By having an app that syncs, you don’t need to worry about forgetting your yellow legal pad at home – you probably have your phone or access to a computer most of the time, right? Another option? Email yourself! I do this all the time: I send myself a few emails with ideas for blog posts and open them up as I go and start drafting. I also send myself notes via email when I find articles online I want to share in an Essential Reading post. You’ll find my to do lists and deadline reminders in my inbox, as well.

Put it on your calendar

This works with paper and digital calendars, which is awesome. Say you come up with a few blog post ideas (5 ways to style a sparkly scarf, a dehydrated meal for backpacking, and a post showing off your recently decorated den) and don’t want to just write them down someplace to possibly be buried in your other amazing ideas (because your ideas are probably amazing, that’s why you have so many!). Plop those ideas onto your calendar ASAP. Use a pencil for your paper calendar if you’re like me and have issues committing to a finalized editorial calendar, or throw your ideas into your digital calendar and make it easy to move things around. Another tip: after you create the event in your digital calendar, add some notes to it! I like to outline some blog posts right away so I don’t forget where I was going with something (like 5 ways to live a more balanced life).

How do you capture inspiration when it strikes?
What do you do with your ideas once you’re able to sit down and evaluate things?

June 11, 2013 { 10 comments }

in Better Blogging, Brainstorming, Inspiration, Organization, Productivity