Keeping It Easy

My husband and I love to hike, explore new trails, and just enjoy nature. That’s something I love about living in the Sacramento area, there are so many hiking trails all around us. It’s so easy to escape to an entirely different climate if the valley gets too hot – like taking a day to enjoy a little snow in Squaw Valley … in July.

Or checking out the gorgeous rocky beaches in Santa Cruz.

Oh, and hiking gorgeous waterfall trails in Maui.

So I was delighted when Makai’s, a sporting goods shop, offered to send me a product to try. But I’m embarrassed to say I received it a couple of weeks ago and am just now reviewing it, my schedule has been insane lately. When I received my product, I was a little stumped on how to review it. It’s an Ultimate Survival Technologies StarFlash Signal Mirror.

I do some crazy stuff for this blog. But, sorry guys, I’m not going to purposely get lost in the woods to try this bad boy out!

It’s a tiny, thick mirror about the size of a credit card designed to reflect sunlight so bright it can be seen for many miles. The purpose is to signal help when you’re stuck in a rural area, great for hiking, boating, roadside emergency kits, etc. The instructions are pretty straight forward.

Obviously testing it in my kitchen is not ideal, but I could tell this little mirror is very reflective. It’s also light weight and compact, easy to pack. And it has a string hole to secure around your neck or in a bag.

The instructions are also on the back of the mirror so you always have those. The star aiming system is pretty slick and straight forward.

Truthfully this is something that I hope to never need! But it’s also something I won’t be venturing into the great outdoors without from now on. Growing up camping, hiking, and boating with family, I can think of a few times something like this would have come in handy – like when our boat broke down, or we nearly got overturned and stranded while rafting, and even when I was flagging down the tow truck last Saturday. I’m thankful Makai’s sent me this and it’s something hubby will be taking on his next backpacking trip.

But hiking is something I didn’t get today. Instead I had a leisurely morning at home drinking coffee and tackling a few things I didn’t get to over the busy week, like cleaning all the makeup, dirt, and nutritional yeast off my digital SLR camera.

And I had two smoothies, one for breakfast before a morning run and one for lunch that was unusual.

It packed frozen banana slices, cauliflower, yellow squash, hemp protein powder, chia seeds and a little stevia and vanilla for flavoring. Honestly, it wasn’t a bad combo, it tasted like a milder banana soft serve with a smooth and rich texture.

In the afternoon, hubby and I caught Captain America. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would, great positive story of heroism and amazing effects. It’s an epic adventure that runs through a lot of action and phases in a short time, not boring or slow at all. The positive takeaway message I got from it was use good health choices as your shield and never give up. I’m totally looking forward to the Avengers movie next year … yeah, I’m a geek.

We got out around dinner time, but our kitchen was still pretty empty. So we stopped by Whole Foods to pick up some groceries and why not dinner while we’re there?

I made a pretty basic salad from the salad bar and jazzed it up when I got home with a heirloom tomato, nutritional yeast, and Bragg’s Liquid Aminos.

Not the most exciting food day, but I was happy to get back to high raw after too much eating out last week.