Canyoneering

I forgot that the husband took these photos while we were exploring a canyon during our trip to Boulder, Utah last month. These pictures are particularly notable because there are few pictures of me in general and almost none of me with Lachlan. I'm the one who is usually taking the pictures, which means there are a ton of Lachlan and plenty of the husband with Lachlan, but I'm mostly MIA.







And yeah, the scenery really is THIS AWESOME. Really truly.

A few days away...

Last Thursday the husband and I packed up the kid and the dog and drove about 5 hours west to the most awesome teeny tiny town ever. Boulder, Utah. You may have heard about it before if you read this post from two years ago. Otherwise I'm willing to bet you've never heard of it before. But put it on your map, because it has one of THE BEST restaurants this side of the Mississippi.

The thought of that long of a drive with a 10-month-old didn't totally appeal to me, but I had a (rather significant) birthday this past Saturday and the restaurant is soooo good, and I figured that I've been working hard enough lately that I deserved a break, so I figured we could manage. :)

We stayed at the Boulder Mountain Lodge again, and we ate every single meal at Hell's Backbone Grill. I ate the pork tenderloin chop twice. I screwed up on the third night and had their chicken. I'm still dreaming about that pork chop... There's a reason it's been written up in the New York Times, is loved by Sunset magazine, has appeared numerous times in Bon Appetit and is Zagat rated. It. Is. Amazing.

We did a tiny bit of hiking, but mostly we just hung out with Lachlan and enjoyed a few sunsets.

And today? Well, today it's back to business as usual!

Completely random photos

I'm still waiting for Goober to arrive. At this point I have removed every item from every kitchen cabinet and drawer and cleaned and reorganized everything. So now I'm moving on to the absolutely shocking mess of photos on my computer.

Many of the same pictures appear in one or more sizes in up to 10 different folders in various locations around my computer (and on CD)! Organizing them is a monumental task, but it's also a lot of fun and I've rediscovered lots of photos that bring back great memories. Here are just a few of them.

Sadie Bug. This dog cracks me up on a regular basis.



Simon. Oh, Simon. I still miss him like crazy.



Ah, now this one brings back some memories. I lived in Baltimore for many years, and I used to love having parties at my house (it helps that I had some of the funnest friends in the world)! I often had different contests for my parties and guests could compete for prizes. Contests included best hat, best use of leftover Halloween candy, and--for this party--best use of a fruit or vegetable. If I remember correctly, this was the winning entry, which was created by my friend Young.



I spent the majority of my time in Baltimore gutting and rebuilding a 1920 brick rowhouse. At one point, I had a brand new wall of white drywall that was just BEGGING for some art. So I had a few friends over one weekend, and, with the help of good music and freely flowing mimosas, we proceeded to create our own art using paint. Each person had their outline drawn on the wall, and then we took turns adding to each outline, moving to the next person each time a new song started. This was a total blast and actually delayed progress on the house for several weeks because I didn't have the heart to paint over them!



Of all the photos I have from Afghanistan, this one of this young man holding a stack of naan has remained one of my favorites. It was taken right outside the shop of one of my three go-to guys for carpets just off Chicken Street in Kabul.



And here's another favorite. This is me with my "bodyguard" shopping on the streets of Kabul. For a small "fee" he stayed with me while shopping, carrying my bags and helping me navigate beggars and other street urchins. No matter how much time had passed since my last visit (almost a year at one point), he always seemed to find me within just a few minutes of my arrival on the street AND he remembered my name. He spoke perfect English and had a great sense of humor. I still remember being completely dumbfounded during my visit in 2005 that he knew more about the status of Michael Jackson's child molestation trial than I did!



And now back to organizing...

Telluride truffle

Yesterday the husband and I drove to Telluride for the day. We took the scenic route there, which took about three hours, and enjoyed a few sights along the way. That's good, because once we got to Telluride we realized that we were there right in the middle of their off season, and even most of the shops that are normally open during the off season are closed on Sundays!

But three shops were open--two clothing stores and a place called Telluride Truffle. And let me tell you, this shop made the whole trip worthwhile.

I have recently cut way back on my gratuitous sugar intake, but that wasn't going to stop me from trying this bad boy, known as the Timberline truffle, with an orange and white chocolate center covered in milk chocolate. It was quite possibly the best thing I've ever eaten. Ever.



The husband chose quite an assortment for himself, including the Class 5 truffle (decorated to look like a little person skiing down the slopes--cute!), which is bittersweet chocolate and raspberry.



And this little cutie, the Spiral, which is Grand Marnier and milk chocolate.



He also helped himself to an assortment of their gourmet chocolates.

If you're looking for a great gift for a candy snob, or even for a corporate client or someone you really, really like, you can buy your own Telluride Truffle online here, and they'll ship it for you. You won't be disappointed!

Meeteetse

The husband and I just returned from a long weekend outside of the tiny town of Meeteetse, Wyoming visiting my in-laws. I mentioned yesterday that they have a gorgeous ranch crawling with wildlife, but I failed to mention that once again my camera never made it out of my computer bag. Drats. But here's a photo of a spot in Meeteetse I found online that isn't very different from what their ranch is like.



See? Gorgeous.

On our first night up there, one of the main topics of conversation was the recent bear attacks. It sounds like the "problem" bears that are removed from Yellowstone are relocated to an area not that far from their ranch! The husband had to go out early the next morning with his sister, and I told him that I'd be really mad if he got eaten by a bear!

On Monday we drove about 1.5 hours north to Montana to visit some friends of mine that I've known for most of my life. We met them for lunch in the cute town of Red Lodge and then did some quick shopping. The prize of the trip was this shirt the husband bought, which was oh-so-appropriate under the circumstances!



Ha!

Speaking of bears, if you'd like to win a set (or two) of letterpress printed (and certainly vegetarian) bears like these, be sure to visit yesterday's post to enter!

Armed bodyguard

I got home last night from a whirlwind trip through Philadelphia and Baltimore to see all of the fabulous friends I made during the seven years I lived in Baltimore.

Coming home yesterday, I realized that from now on I need to travel with an armed bodyguard when I'm back there.

See, whenever I visit Baltimore, I always fly home with a box like this. And, as you might imagine, I attract a LOT of attention.



It's probably a good thing that most people don't realize that I'm not carrying lobster. Because if they knew that I was carrying one dozen of these bad boys, I would surely get mugged!



What are they? They are jumbo lump crab cakes from Faidley's at Lexington Market in Baltimore. And you seriously haven't lived until you've had one! I brought six for my parents for their 45th anniversary present, and six for me and the husband (i.e., six for the husband...).

These tastey delights are SO good that when I called the husband yesterday to tell him I was at the airport, his first words were something like, "You got the crabcakes, right????" Hmmm. Glad to know that he missed me...

Bambi's brother

While at Black Canyon National Park the other weekend, the husband and I drove down to the bottom of the canyon to see the Gunnison river up close and personal.

On our way back, a young deer crossed the road, heading toward the river for a drink. We pulled over and I got out with my camera and got these photos of the fella with his friend, who were rather unafraid of me. In fact, one of them came walking up the hill straight toward me! Too bad my camera wouldn't focus a little better... The hung out by the river for a bit before slowly making their way across the road and back into the trees.

Black Canyon National Park

Last weekend the husband allowed me to take a break from tiling/grouting/floor sealing/painting duties, and he treated me to a visit to Black Canyon National Park about 1.5 hours from our house.

The drive and area around the park was unremarkable--rolling hills covered in juniper and pinon pine with bigger mountains in the distance. It looked like regular old western Colorado. But then we got out of the car at the first observation deck and my jaw literally dropped. I never would have imagined something like this hidden in the boring hillside!



The 2,000+ foot tall walls of the canyon drop almost vertically to the Gunnison river below.



We drove on South Rim Road, a 7-mile paved road along the edge of the canyon with 12 overlooks, the most spectacular of which were reached after a short hike.



At 2,250 feet, this cliff, known as Painted Wall, is the tallest vertical cliff in the entire state of Colorado. And yes, it was spectacular to see in person!

Friendship cove (and the trip that almost didn't happen)

How appropriate that I spent most of my Lake Powell vacation with my friends in an area known as Friendship Cove. It was the most amazing, private spot. It was a little tricky to get our houseboat  in and out of there, but it was well worth it. (Yes, that is our enormous boat! We were late getting our reservation in, and all the smaller boats were already reserved. Let's just say that the five of us had plenty of elbow room on that sucker!)











What vacation would be complete without a horror story about how the trip almost didn't happen? Here's ours. We were in Bluff, Utah (which is equivalent to the middle of nowhere), about 3 hours from home and about 3 hours from the Lake Powell marina where our reservation was. We were in our truck, and as we headed out of the tiny town of Bluff, we felt a wobble-wobble on the right side of the truck. Thinking it was a flat tire, we pulled over and checked them. Both tires on the right side were fully inflated. Thinking it must have just been a weird spot in the road, we climbed back in and started down the road again. Wobble-wobble, wobble-wobble. Fortunately, Tony stuck his head out the window as we were driving. He looked back at the rear tire. Fine. He looked up at the front tire, turned back to the husband with a white face and yelled, "Right front! Pull over!"

To make a long story a little shorter, there are 8 bolts that hold the tire onto the truck. All but two of the bolts broke off inside the wheel. That wobble-wobble was the right front tire about to come completely off the truck!



And the bolts didn't just get loose and come unscrewed. They BROKE, down inside the wheel, so it was impossible for us to fix. A few more yards down the road and the last two bolts probably would have broke, too. I still get sick thinking of what would have happened if our tire had flown off at 65 mph!



Fortunately, we were near a very popular boat launch on the river, so our friends caught a ride back into Bluff and scored the last room at the local hotel. The husband and Sadie and I waited a few hours for the tow truck to arrive to haul us about 1.5 hours back toward home to the nearest area that could repair the truck. But this was Friday night, and we were supposed to pick up the boat on Saturday morning and we couldn't change our reservations. So the husband's wonderful and totally awesome uncle brought my car to us on Saturday morning. It was tricky to fit four people, a dog, and all of our gear and food into my tiny Rav-4 for the rest of the drive to the marina, but we were highly motivated! The timing worked out just right, and we were able to pick up a repaired truck on our way home.

The conclusion of almost everyone who has heard about this is that the bolts were probably over-tightened when we recently had new tires put on the truck. The moral of the story is that if you ever have to change a tire or get new tires, make sure the bolts aren't over-tightened because the stress that places on the bolts causes those suckers to snap in half!

Rules of houseboating

There are some things that you should do on a houseboat and some things that you probably shouldn't. I suspect this might fall into the latter category.



Thank goodness Sadie was there to save the day!

Inner peace, Sadie Bug style

I think Sadie enjoyed this little vacation as much, if not more, than the rest of us.

She had her fill of fun on the beach, from chasing the frisbee



to hunting lizards in the brush and fish in the shallow water (quite unsuccessfully).



She also did her part as lookout,



from watching for hidden rocks and sand bars just below the surface







to helping the captain guide the ship.



But this dog can teach us a thing or two about the joy of letting the breeze blow through your hair (or ears)



and how to properly relax...