Travel
August 23, 2014
The 2014 SCA Roaster’s Guild Retreat, Stephenson, WA
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July 25, 2014
More pictures from California 2014: Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and San Pedro
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July 20, 2014
July 7, 2013
We just got back from visiting Chris’s brother and his wife in Lexington, VA. We haven’t been back since winter of 2012, so it’s been a while. And since they have three kids, there were definitely some changes!
It rained almost every day, and while that may seem tedious, to us it was a welcome reprieve. Of course as luck would have it, Flagstaff also got rain while we were gone. C’est la vie…
Anywho, we got to watch the fireworks in a place that wasn’t ready to blow. And we drove a bit on the historic Blue Ridge Parkway.
And we spent a lot of time with some great people, so it was an extremely memorable trip.
There you have it! Oh, if you’re wondering why Pierson is missing in so many of the pictures, it’s because he was in Lacrosse camp all day and wasn’t always with us. There’s always next time!
June 14, 2013
Chris and I just got back from a trip to Sandpoint, Idaho. Why Idaho? Chris took a class offered by Diedrich manufacturing company on their coffee roaster. Chris is going to go into business roasting coffee!
Sandpoint is beautiful, and while Chris was in class all day I explored the town.
Sandpoint is built around the shores of Lake Pend Oreille, which has a surface area of 148 square miles and is roughly 1100 feet deep. It’s also surrounded by the Selkirk, Cabinet, and Bitterroot mountain ranges. Despite all this beauty, the population of Sandpoint is only 7,000.
It’s even got a little beach! It was just gorgeous.
While Chris was in class, I walked all over-went to the library, ate downtown, and read on the beach. When Chris got out, we went to dinner and drove all over the scenic road that spans the lake.
It actually reminded me lot of Flagstaff, vegetation-wise. Only it had water…
We flew into Spokane and had a few hours before our flight out to do a little sight-seeing there, too.
We went to the Manito Park, which has a bunch of different gardens, including this Japanese one. I wish we would’ve thought to take some pictures in the rose garden!
These are only the pictures from my phone; I’ll post the ones from Chris’s phone later.
March 22, 2013
We went to Napa specifically to tour some wineries. I love wine tastings-I love wine and I love to see the inside of the tasting rooms. The ones in Napa far surpassed any I’ve ever been to before; you could tell that there was some serious money being spent on the public image.
Napa Valley is gorgeous, too.
This is Shannon. She was nice.
On the second day we went to a few wineries after lunch. The first, Sterling, required you to take a tram to the winery. A tram! And then we were given directions to go on a self-guided winery tour across the property.
Besides touring some wineries, we also ate. A lot.
I had one of the best meals of my life at Mustard’s in Napa. Thank you, Cindy Pawlcyn.
And like I mentioned before, we walked. Everywhere.
The photos tell it all: San Francisco is an amazing and energetic city and Napa is verdant, lush, and beautiful. It was great to experience the fast-paced environment of San Francisco with the laid-back one of Napa. Honestly one of the best trips we’ve ever taken!
March 22, 2013
We just got back from a fun-filled week in San Francisco and Napa to celebrate our tenth wedding anniversary. It was an amazing and event-packed trip; we both feel like there was very little that we didn’t do, and we are both in love with San Francisco! We had both been there before-him for quite a few Grateful Dead concerts, and me when I was 18 with a girlfriend. I hadn’t really explored the city too much on my earlier trip (it was very short and I was very young), so I was unprepared for how much I would love it.
We stayed in San Francisco for two days in the Embarcadero district, then we rented a car and drove up to Napa for two days. Our final day we drove back to San Francisco and stayed in the Union Square area. And I know San Francisco has got a great public transportation setup, but Chris and I used very little of it-we walked everywhere! From the Financial district to Golden Gate park to Haight-Ashbury to Chinatown and Little Italy…I almost wore through my shoes. We both loved looking at all the beautiful architecture and all the unbelievably vibrant and diverse scenes. But enough talk.
Chris’s favorite coffee company-Blue Bottle. We went to their shop at the ferry building (Pier One) and the one in Mint Plaza and we had breakfast there every day while we were in San Francisco. So good, and I’m not even a coffee aficionado.
There’s a market in the ferry building that houses individual stalls selling local produce, artisan cheeses, flowers, wine, chocolates and gelato…the list goes on and on.
More Blue Bottle photos-these were taken at the one in Mint Plaza.
This is the custom-built machine they use to make iced coffee. It drips through so slowly. There’s a reason for it, but I don’t know what it is. Ask Chris.
This is the siphon area. The water is heated and then sucked through a tiny tube into the top portion of this custom thingamajig. Again, ask Chris. It tastes good.
This is the Blue Bottle sign. I thought it was cute.
This is just a pretty tree. Chris thought it was more important to get the tree than my entire head. Granted, I do have a large noggin.
I sure do love the drama of an aquarium…seriously, it’s awesome: the dark lighting, the somber voice-overs, the artfully lit displays… just love it.
Jelly fish are cool.
I had raw oysters for the first time. Not too shabby…not too shabby at all.
Can I just say something about driving in San Francisco for a minute? I’m not a wuss, but there’s something about driving fast in tiny lanes over A BRIDGE and knowing that you’re going over WATER that makes me feel a little…nervous. Just a little.
We went for a hike in the Muir Woods on our way to Napa.
Wowza, this is a long post. And I’m not even into Napa yet. More to come!
August 11, 2012
On the fourth day of our Colorado adventure, we got up fairly early in Golden, grabbed a coffee and a breakfast burrito downtown, then began driving back to Telluride. It was a five hour drive, and we wanted to make sure we had time in Telluride to play. We got into Telluride at about lunch time (Chris was very proud of the time he made), and we grabbed a bagel at Baked in Telluride. After eating, we went and checked into our hotel and went on a short hike at the top of the gondola ride.
(For those of you who don’t know, Telluride is situated at the bottom of a box canyon. Mountain Village is a few miles away, and to travel between the two towns there’s a free gondola. It offers amazing views and stops at the top of a mountain before dipping down into the two towns.)
After our hike, we went to dinner at a Thai restaurant called Siam. It was so good! I had scallop fried rice and Chris had shrimp pad thai.
The next day we got up early to drive back to Flagstaff-we were anxious to get back to our animals! All in all, it was an awesome vacation and a great respite from the day to day routine. Our annual Telluride trip is definitely one I hope we can continue in the years ahead!
August 4, 2012
On our third day, we woke up to drive the final leg to Golden where our friends were getting married that night. We grabbed a quick cup of coffee that morning, and ended up running into another farmers’ market in Salida’s local park. It was the perfect opportunity to pick up a gift for our friends, and we chose a local wine and some fresh, homemade artisan pasta with garlic. We thought our gift would make a great night for the newlyweds!
Oh, and it just happened that there was a bike race going on downtown that morning. Chris had a good time watching.
We then began the drive into Golden. I had specifically planned to have this day of driving be the shortest, but unfortunately, traffic was horrible. The road was really curvy, and people were driving like mad men. We finally got to Golden tired and hot, but figured we should investigate the downtown area or we would regret it later. Golden, CO, is very famous for one thing: Coors. The Coors plant is a very obvious part of the downtown area, and the illustrious river runs right by it and through the downtown area. As luck would have it, we also hit downtown during their yearly Buffalo Bill days, and it was crazytown. Regardless (or maybe because of), we got a great feel from the town. It seemed very friendly and community-oriented.
We then headed back to our hotel room and began getting ready for the wedding. The wedding was to take place in Dunafon Castle in Idledale, and to get there we had to drive through a tiny, old-fashioned western town called Morristown. It was awesome! The road was windy and surrounded on all sides by tall hills, and when we got to the castle we were astounded. It’s actually a private residence, and surrounded by green fields, small ponds and tiny bridges, and beautiful, leafy trees, including an incredible weeping willow. The whole scene was incredibly picturesque-just like something out of a fairy tale.
After we partied at the wedding, we drove to our hotel and on our way saw a black bear! He looked right at as and lifted himself on his back legs. It was one of the most amazing sights I’ve ever seen and something I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, it was too dark to get a picture, and we wouldn’t have wanted to startle him any more than we already did.