utah

husband scott and i were in utah last week. we had never been. (scott just corrected me. he has been to utah. it was the second time for me since i helped michelle move). it is so pretty. i wish we had more to time to spend there. when i helped daughter michelle move there from arkansas via texas, we couldn't stop and enjoy all the great stuff between texas and utah, especially the grand canyon. it's hard enough maneuvering a 14 foot u-haul truck.

i would have loved to take the time to do that again. instead we had a week and flew to las vegas, took a shuttle to st george where michelle picked us up to drive about an hour to cedar city. cedar city is a little city of about 28, 000 & about 5400 feet above sea level with mountains all around. it has a few sweet places to walk around...

we walked around suu and i took a few photos of some pretty trees, but they're on michelle's computer, so here is a photo of us walking around the trails up the hill from milt's steakhouse (mmmmmmmmm). although it doesn't look that cold (note to self: puffy jackets make one even more puffier), it was. there was patches of snow...

and bear tracks!










just kidding...no bear tracks, but then, again, there could be...or not...



we were about 40 minutes drive from brian head ski resort. so, we drove up and skied a couple of days. the first day looked like this...

this is a view from our window. so beautiful.

this what we skied in on our last day. it was snowing and really cold. and it was very foggy and misty. mist when it is icy kinda' hurts your face...


it was also very hard to see past about 5 feet, so it made skiing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more exciting.


plus, it was deep powder...well...deep for us since we are use to the icier packed snow of colorado. i kept my weight on my heels just to keep my toes up and that isn't, probably, the proper way to ski...


of course, i am definitely NOT a proper skier...


not by a long shot.

doesn't michelle look cute with her fox hat and go pro?


i think so.

the next day, we drove about an hour from cedar city to zion national park, in dru's awesome jeep. we decided to challenge ourselves to a hike up angel's landing. that was the sorriest performance by me...ever. i had to stop, ALL THE TIME, because i was out of breath and my calves were burning. i was so disappointed in myself, but we made it to scout's lookout.

it was soooooooo beautiful. scout's landing is so worth every calf burn and every ragged breath i took.

i chose not to go on to the summit. i would like to say it was because it was recommended not to because of snow and ice, and also because of my hurt finger, but reality was that i was too out of shape to tackle it.

husband scott & dru started out towards the summit, but scott decided it was too intimidating with those icy, snowy and slippery conditions (& tennis court shoes...really?).

michelle and dru have made it to the summit, (twice for dru). i would like to return, some day, and try again.


i would have to make sure NOT to read this sign as i pass it to screw up my courage to continue...

it says something about 6 people have died climbing angel's landing, since 2004.

scary...




also, hurt fingers make it harder















after our climb, we went to eat lunch at blondie's diner in springdale. it was dee-double-licious. the french fries were really good, especially with the fry sauce...

which is mayonaise and ketchup mixed together, and it is a utah thing. apparently one can ask for fry sauce anywhere in utah and they (the utahans) will know what that is.









but, you know what really made this diner so special?

it was because of lori. she was so very nice and has the best sense of humor. she truly made this place extra special. i wanted to take her home with me. i love her!

seriously, she made this diner top on my list, and the lady behind her helped her serve and she was great, too. of course, when you work at a place where you see this from your window...

how can one not be in a better frame of mind, right?

you can't go home again, sorta'

this is a photo of my landmark for waukomis where my mom grew up and i spent a week or two in the summer with my great grandmother and aunt, when i was old enough to not be too homesick without mom and dad (my mom also worked here weighing the trucks...one of the few things that hasn't changed... except for the satellite dish, of course).

husband scott and i drove up to enid, oklahoma, saturday to celebrate with my aunt and uncle and their 50th wedding anniversary. i haven't seen my cousins since the last family reunion which was about 10 years ago. some had changed enough for me to almost not recognize them and some looked exactly like they have been for so long, making me wonder which category i fell in...i hope it was the latter.

i hadn't seen one aunt since i was a little girl and couldn't place her until my mom told me who she was and then, it clicked. of course. she had hardly changed at all. i don't know why i don't keep in touch with cousins and aunts and uncles. they are family that i have so many warm and fuzzy memories with them and they are so nice!

at the same time, it's distressing to see who is still alive and who isn't and how some have struggled with health issues. i want time to stand still to be able to go back and see that nothing has changed, but it does.

i don't like it...not one bit.

the party was held at the church where my aunt and uncle were married, and i was baptized, and where my mom and dad were married, and where we went to mass every time we were in enid on a sunday or sometimes, saturday. and...we went to oklahoma a lot while i was growing up.

during mass, i would look at the stations of the cross and try to memorize the order (i still don't know them all). in the70's or 80's, the stations were painted over in brown and i was soooooo disappointed. i loved the painted surface. brother john went into the sanctuary before mass to show my sister-in-law and he came back to tell me that they had all been stripped and brought back to their original state. i was so excited. i hate change, especially when it interferes with my childhood memories. however, i noticed during the service that the altar looked different. uncle gene told me that it was all taken down and now, it just doesn't look right. i hate change. luckily, the stained glass windows are the same. they are amazing and the pews are still as uncomfortable as ever which i didn't mind since that is how i remember them.

i wish that we had more time to go to my aunt and uncle's home. they live in the same house that my grandparents lived and farmed and where my uncle and dad grew up with 6 other siblings!!!

but, husband scott had tickets for the rangers game (go rangers!) and we had to get back. (he gave up his world series ranger ticket for saturday's game to go to the celebration).

on our way home, we went through waukomis and snapped a few photos.

this is where my mom grew up. i have always liked the shingled sides. mom says that the chapmans live here now, but do you see? the screen door is still the same with a 'p' for pittman on it. the flower garden is gone and it needs a coat of paint, but it still looks enough the same to bring back good memories.

so you can go back home again...sorta'

i'm off to florida to celebrate turning 50...my sister that is...not me (i get to look forward to 55 next birthday...rats).

i hate mondays

sorry for no posts for the whole week...did you miss me? i am sure you did (not).

i had a good reason for not posting. i was moving daughter michelle from here to utah with me driving a truck, by. my. self. that's right, i drove 20 hours in 3 days in a 16ft rental truck with daughter michelle's possessions in my, well, possession. it was a first for me. more on that for a later post...i promise.

i got back last night and now i am tired. i've got a whole bunch of laundry to do tomorrow...i didn't feel like  doing it today. husband scott went out and bought new underwear so he would not have to do laundry while i was gone. he told me that he thought about calling me and asking me how to use the washing machine, but changed his mind and went shopping instead.

soooooo...as i said i got back last night. i had never been to utah until last week. i enjoyed being with michelle for the whole week, driving, unpacking, organizing, exploring the place and just sitting around watching last season's mad men. (i cannot believe i have to wait until 2012 to see more...seriously.) i guess i am glad to be home. i already miss my daughter. empty nesting sucks!

so i went from this:

so much fun!

to the saddest photo in the world:

so why is this so sad?

it's a photo of me waiting in the las vegas airport...for 2 hours...leaving michelle in utah...while drinking a $3.50 iced tea (really? $3.50 tea).

then being home, without children, on a monday...i hate mondays.

back!!!

i'm back! did you miss me? i was on vacation for a week and just got back in last night. so far, i have managed to avoid the heat. i need to go outside & survey the basil. i think i need to cut it down some and make some pesto FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. but for now, i will do laundry in the air-conditioned house.

i spent a week with husband scott's side of the family. we flew into san francisco and drove to tahoe & spent a couple of nights, then we drove to sister-in-law's home in fallon, nv for a few nights (and a day spent in reno) then back to san francisco (with a small stop in sacramento) for 3 nights before flying back home. it was a whirlwind trip and i hope to tell you alllllllllllll about it. for now i am missing the freezing temperatures of san francisco. okay, it wasn't technically freezing there. i bet it is never technically freezing there...ever. it was 64 degrees when we left. sixty-four degrees!!! how can it be so cool there and 105 degrees here in fort worth? that's a forty one degree difference.

i LOVE san francisco. there is so much to do. we were there for just 2 full days and almost 2 half days. that is not enough time to do everything. we did do a lot of stuff considering the time restraint.

now, my first piece of advice when going to someplace as wonderful as san francisco is to BE SURE THAT YOU CHECK THE CHARGE ON YOUR BATTERY CAMERA or you may end up in a really cool place like...the ferry building where you want to photograph every. thing. in. sight. but you didn't check your camera battery the night before and end up with one photo like this:

which was taken on a whim for carrot loving niece vanessa. little did i know that the last photo taken for the day would be this:

a photo of niece gina's most delicious egg sandwich for breakfast from il cane rosso. little did i know that i would not be able to take a photo of anything else that day. i couldn't take a photo of the logo for il cane rosso. totally click on the website and look at how cute it is! it totally stressed me out. all the food there was in the ferry building. the cute displays and colors of miette!!! missed opportunities. lots and lots of missed opportunities. 

i couldn't buy any of the lovely cheeses at cowgirl creamery (was afraid it would spoil) or the yummy displays of bread at acme (wouldn't stay fresh by time i got home)... or so i thought. i did luck out with the napa farms market in terminal 2 of the airport where i picked up some goodies for dinner at home.

sourdough bread from acme, gouda & triple cream mt tam cheese from cowgirl creamery, fennel and orange sausage from boccalone and leftover quinoa salad from mission pie (olives from jar in pantry).

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...delicious!

luckily, i wasn't with my mother-in-law when a topless lady came walking by in union square...i would have hated to know that i didn't have a charged and ready-to-shoot camera for that!

the last state park we spent the night was degray lake. the lodge was big and more hotel - like. not resort nice like mount magazine, but more like a holiday inn or lesser hotel room, but the view was nice.

in our cabin in petite jean was what my grandma jean would call a one butt kitchen. it was a cute kitchen and it made me smile while i was cooking there, but definitely, only one butt at a time fit.

this is a rustic cabin in petite jean. i loved how cozy and tiny it was. it would be really nice in the spring when one could spend the day outside on the back porch. this is the front end of it.

we visited mount magazine and at the visitor’s center, there was an armadillo madly digging around the front of the center. this is the closest i have ever been to a live one.

new year’s day was spent in a 2 bedroom cabin in devil’s den…one of my favorite places we visited. it had a little bit of everything. but what made it so very special?

was it because daughter michelle and son-in-law dru stayed with us for two nights here?

was it because we all watched the tcu vs wisconsin rosebowl game together?

or was it because tcu won?

YES

right after christmas and before new year’s eve, husband scott and i packed up to drive to arkansas and stay at a few state parks. it has become a new ‘new year’s eve’ tradition. so far we had been to cooper lake and caddo lake in texas. this year, scott wanted to scout out some parks for a future project and so off to arkansas we went.

it is really pretty there. this is a photo of one of the lodges we stayed in lake fort smith. it was too large for the two of us. it can sleep up to 28 people. it was brand new and nice with 6 rooms, a fully furnished kitchen, a large gathering room (photo), outside was a porch, further out were 2 picnic tables with barbecue grills and a basketball court. so, it would be nice for a family gathering. i would highly recommend it and for $320 a night, it is so very reasonable.

so here is husband scott enjoying a motel in bar harbor, maine (though, it looks like he is not enjoying me taking a photo). this is highview motel which i truly recommend. it is family owned, very clean, and look at the great screen door.

scott doesn’t particularly like staying at b & b’s. he doesn’t like the intimacy of staying in a home. he feels that he has to be quiet and not disturb his neighbors. some of the places we stayed were very charming, but small or much to scott’s chagrin came without a tv. how can he stay on top of everything going on without a daily dose of cnbc? or espn? or cnn? i, not so secretly, like the fact that i can’t watch any of those channels. and why do men beeline straight to the remote when entering a hotel room? i also tried to save money by choosing a more inexpensive room which sometimes meant that the private bathroom was across the hall. it was not a shared bathroom, but to have to go across the hall…..well husband didn’t like that much.

these things don’t deter me, however.

i mean, how can one NOT like a view like this one at squall inn in wiscasset, where the host comes out and talks to you. paul was a great story teller and with his british accent, i couldn’t get enough. i think that husband scott came out on the porch just hoping paul would come out and say hello.

and, the bed and breakfast places were in charming houses like this one in bridgton. this one came with the nicest dog, daisy, which is a great compliment from a cat person like me.

noble house also came with a bottomless jar of homemade cookies, conveniently located. i am very appreciative of rick and julie for not commenting on the fact that scott and i ate on the average mmmmmmmm…about…oh i don’t know…a dozen cookies a day.

the breakfasts we ate were really good especially at the noble house and squall inn. and, one could, if one wanted, skip lunch since the breakfasts were very filling. we didn’t do that, but one could.

actually, at the end of the trip husband scott wasn’t complaining that much about the b & b’s. he got pretty comfortable.

the best part of staying at a bed and breakfast, though, are the people that stay there with us. we spent 4th of july weekend at one place. we had breakfast and great conversation with mitch and his girlfriend. we sat on the porch with everyone else and cheered the runners that ran by us for the four on the fourth, which included george and his daughter misty. we would talk with another couple who goes to bridgeton 3 times a year and stays at the noble inn each time.

and…we met chris and christine who decided to get married on the bridge in bridgton and spent time at the b & b with us, too.

could you do that at your average hotel?

nope!

rest of maine coming soon

(W)holey mackerel, Batman! (ha ha…did you see what I did there?) We ate well in Maine. We had great great food and I photographed some of it. I couldn’t photograph all because a. sometimes I inhaled it before realizing I should take a picture b. I would forget my camera or c. it was too dark and daughter Michelle says that food doesn’t look good when taken with a flash.

The best restaurant that we visited in Maine was in Portland. It’s called Fore Street and I highly recommend it. I had the mackerel (see) and husband Scott had cod. We actually went there because a blogger had, well, blogged about Fore Street having the best lobster roll in Portland. What she didn’t say was that this restaurant has a rotating menu and only serves fish during its peak flavorful season and soft shell lobster wasn’t peaking at the end of June. Scott didn’t care because his fish was delicious and YEAH it was. When one cooks it in ham stock and serves it with fresh chard and bacon, I think even cardboard would taste good that way. So with cod AT ITS PEAK was even more delicious!

We, of course, had fried fish…more than once… 2 times to be precise which was pretty good for me (I mean good in that I could have eaten fried anything everyday). This is fried calamari (above) and fried whole clams - well, without the shell (below). The fries were amazing, too. This is from Seabasket in Wiscasset and we had equally good fried Maine shrimp, fried clams and fried pickles at the Angler’s Restaurant in Searsport. Maine shrimp is sweeter and smaller than regular shrimp. And at Angler’s, there was Dr Pepper!! Sodas always make fried stuff tastes better and Dr Pepper was NOT a common choice in Maine.

Chowder (or chowdah) was a choice everywhere. I had several cups of it for lunch. This is haddock chowder from The Brown Bag in Rockland. It was really really good. I also had really good clam chowder at Cappy’s in Camden. I found that I like these the best because they were made with very little ingredients and it was rich without being cloying. I don’t like thick chowder. There was haddock, potatoes, salt & pepper, and either cream or half and half in this one. I couldn’t tell if it was heavy cream because it was too thick or greasy. Sometimes there was celery and a little bit of onion, but that was all. No flour, no extra herbs or vegetables. Very simple and very delicious.