Lake Serene, or how to toughen up your Girlfriend

So I have been living in Seattle for a few months now and I am really happy with the choice of moving here. Three months in a nutshell. Work is ok, getting used to a 8-5 day again and doing reserach, good people to work with, not so interesting work at the moment. Started running more since Michi and I signed up to be doing the World Rogaining Championships in May, woohoo! Should be fun. Anyhow, joined Attackpoint www.attackpoint.org which is a great program to track my training and progress. So about 4h after i arrived at the airport I met Yumay at my friend Rainer's appartment (I stayed with him in the beginning) and we hit it off right away, and been together since. She is fit but only because she works out in the Gym, and has no real experience (at all) in anything outdoorsy except skiing. So we decided anyways to go do a hike, and man can that turn out ugly when expectations are unmet, on either side (do I speak of experience ya think!!??).

Anyhow me being an airhead I figured hey lets go to Lake Serene, a great mountain lake I had been to twice... kind of forgetting that it was March and there was still a TON of snow. Forgetting about this we drove out there and started hiking, she in sneakers! She is a chronic underpreparer I found out over time. It looked like a fine day, a little cloudy but good otherwise, and I was impressed by Yumay's speed up the hill. Shortly before we reached the last hill I knew we were in trouble. Snow was on the ground and became more and more by every foot we climbed, and soon we were potholing through a foot of snow. It was trecherous to walk on the planks that were set up, and Yumay wiped out twice and got some really nasty bruises. Without a whine or whimper she took it (heck I d have whined to kingdom come), and on we went. At the top we were wet and cold, so we took a few quick pics and off we went. Down was worse, tired legs and slippery snow, yeehaw, the wiping out continued. Back at the car Yumay was excited about the trip and told me she wanted to do another one next weekend... whoa, Girlfriend 101 passed, Grade A+, next week will be 102 and I am sure I can find a tougher hike :)