I’m Ali.
Let’s keep it simple:
- I’m a web designer.
- I live in Portland, Oregon.
- I’m from Idaho, went to college in Montana, and lived in Wyoming.
- Andy is my partner. He’s great.
- I’m obsessed with cats – my cat Kona is the best.
- I’m a morning person.
- I don’t style my hair. Pretty much ever.
- I don’t like “exercising”.
- I’m an environmentalist and animal rights activist.
- I’m a feminist.
- I’m a photographer, skier, hiker, camper, backpacker and wannabe mountain climber.
- I love being outside more than almost anything else.
Why this blog?
I’m a woman.
I’m a nature and outdoor recreation enthusiast. And a woman. And those two things don’t always get along as well as they could. I was made fun of for being an outdoorsy tomboy in grade school, and to this day rarely find outdoor gear on sale that isn’t pink. It can be difficult to find women that share my high-level enthusiasm for the outdoors.
But ladies, I know you’re out there (or maybe want to be). I want to share stories about my adventures on the trail or slopes, and about being a woman in those spaces. And if I can inspire more of you to get out there, or feel more confident while doing so, then that’s a good enough reason alone.
We have a duty to our planet.
I live on planet Earth, so do you, and so does everyone and everything you know. And our planet is under attack. I want to share photos and shed light on the amazing things you can find when you leave the city limits, and help to drive home the importance of protecting those things against the ever-increasing onslaught of legislation and social ideals that try to take them away from us.
It’s a little personal.
And I admit, I’ve always been really shy, and struggle with sharing my thoughts with people, even close friends and family. I don’t know if it’s because I believe they’ll think I’m wrong, stupid or out of touch, or simply because I’m not completely at ease with myself. So I view this as an attempt to beat some of these fears.
Why is my blog part of my professional website?
At first, I wanted to set up an independent blog with a clever name related to women in the outdoors. Nerd alert – I’m a web designer and was thinking about search engine optimization, the importance of having a descriptive web address, the idea that a website should serve a single purpose…
Maybe it’s a stretch, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to encompass all of me in the same place, and show my professional work alongside what I do on evenings and weekends. Why should they be separate, when it takes both sides to see who I fully am? Plus, only showing my outdoor self when I actually spend the majority of my daylight hours at a desk, while romantic, isn’t honest. We suffer from enough fake personas on social media every day.
So Adventures by Ali was born in a folder on my professional website, just like being outside is a folder of my life. Cheesy metaphor: complete.
Cheers,
