Living Simple 1: Vacation

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Selasa, 10 Juni 2014

The Desert in Bloom

uyguguygu 14.43 Comment

We went out to Moab, Utah for the holiday weekend at the end of May. I have never been to Moab on an overcast, rainy weekend but this turned out to be the most visually dynamic trip I've ever taken out there. In contrast to the harsh, direct light that is typical of Moab in Spring, the clouds acted like a soft box and the colors of the red rock and wild blooms changed as the sky changed throughout the day.

We camped in the desert outside of Moab and arrived just in time for the sky to clear up for a brief moment. I saw the Milky Way splashed across the sky and a meteor shower sparkling and streaking above me until I couldn't keep my eyes open any more. The second day it rained like crazy, with all six of us hiding in a car during a torrential downpour with epic lightening strikes. Right before the rain shower I took a quick walk with my sister-in-law and we photographed everything we saw blooming. Finally, on the third day it was overcast and cleared up around the time we left. We got to see the clouds rise out of the canyons, hiding just the very tops of the mesas and rock formations, forming islands in the sky.

Rabu, 25 Desember 2013

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

uyguguygu 14.19 Comment

We went back to the midwest this year, to my parents house. My parents moved this year and this is the first time I've actually stayed at the new house. We had to use google maps to find it which was a strange and unfamiliar feeling.

They are now out in the countryside and I love the place they moved - there are three tack shops within a ten mile radius, a lake, a pool in the backyard, and enough room for everyone, and I mean everyone, to stay here without having to crowd in. My entire family and significant others plus my in laws are here, too!

A midwestern Christmas is always cozy - we see the the family members from my mom's side of the family on Christmas Eve and the cousins do a silly white elephant gift exchange. Then, on Christmas morning we all exchange and open presents and then tinker the rest of the day with all the new stuff. Our day also included a walk around the neighborhood in the new snow, and a giant dinner with everyone!

***

It's beautiful here! The vest is from Land's End. The button down and jeans are from Madewell. I'm wearing my mom's sorrel boots. The scarf in my hair is vintage.

Minggu, 07 Juli 2013

Fourth of July in Small Town, Western America

uyguguygu 18.13 Comment

We went away for the long holiday weekend, down to a cabin in the mountains above a tiny little town that seemed to be populated by people from Texas and Oklahoma and their giant RVs. For the first time in a very long time I had absolutely no cell phone reception, no internet, no computer.

Bliss!

I sat on the back porch of the cabin and watched the rainstorms roll in. I slept and rested. I read several books. I even started writing a story. We went out for dinners at little western cafes, took a jeep up a mountain to an alpine lake along a narrow old mining road from the 1900s, stopping to look at old cabins and wreckage from the claims there.

Left without the distraction of the internet, of phone calls, even of music and noise, I was able to center, regroup, spend time with family, and celebrate the United States of America.

Senin, 17 Juni 2013

Finding Alaska: Cruising Prince William Sound

uyguguygu 17.19 Comment

We went looking for Alaska last week, flying into the never ending days, into the alpenglow that never quite settled on the mountains, and the forest so thick you need some major orienteering skills, a map, and a compass just to get through it and not get lost.

One of JR's and my goals is to visit all fifty states. I think we have about 10 or so left - mostly the Pacific Northwest and New England. We also had Hawaii and Alaska left so when I saw amazingly cheap flights to Alaska I jumped and off we went!

Alaska is a crazy place to be - the cost of living is exceptionally high with food being outrageously expensive. The beauty is second to none, and the 24 hours of sunlight in summer will start to drive you just a bit crazy if you don't have a good eyeshade or blackout curtains.

We did Alaska on a shoestring budget - we chose one "major" outing (a glacier/whale watching cruise that was certainly the highlight of my trip - watching a blue whale breach is unlike anything I've ever seen before!), bought camp fuel and cooked most of our meals over that from the grocery store, camped inexpensively (hotels run between $150 - $300 a night!), only ate out twice (to the tune of $40.00 for an average dinner!) and chose lots of free activities - driving up as close to the arctic circle as we could get, climbing a mountain in Denali, lots of walking and hiking and looking.

Packing for Alaska was a bit challenging - the weather is pretty unpredictable up there and every single travel source I read said to pack technical hiking clothing, quick dry, waterproof, etc. It's just not my style to look, for lack of a better word, like a superhiker head to toe in Patagonia and I have slowly culled most of that out of my wardrobe and replaced it with more everyday clothing that can double as hiking apparel.

The weather forecast was predicting sun for the first half and rain for the second half so I packed accordingly - the Barbour coat with the hood shoved in the pocket, a fair isle wool sweater, some t shirts, a few pairs of jeans, my hiking boots, some random shirts. It turned out to be almost 85 degrees the entire trip...so I only wore about half of what I packed. The sweater and jacket came in handy for an early morning hike and a boat ride but the rest of the time I wore a short sleeved shirt and a lighter chambray shirt over it to try to outsmart the massive mosquitos that own the state. By the end of the trip I was definitely sick of what I had to wear.

***

All pictures taken in Whitter, AK.

Sabtu, 11 Mei 2013

Finishing Twenty-Seven

uyguguygu 19.54 Comment

There is a ghost town in the desert. When they put the freeway through it didn't reach to this town so it died when the oil ran out. We take the back roads often through the desert and we know this ghost town well.

Near this town there is a field of daises. It had taken me by surprise - we were driving along and all of a sudden we were surrounded by a field of white. I had never seen it in bloom like that so I asked JR to pull over and I hopped out into the field of daises. They were tough little buggers, those desert flowers. I had to pinch them hard with my fingernails to pull them up.

We kept going and found a place to pull over and camp in the BLM land, right against the mesas, in a flat spot against the tumbled rocks. In the morning it was cold and a little overcast, and the wind was incredible. I woke up early before everyone else got up and walked a ways down the road, meditating on the last day of my 27th year.

Its always hard for me to give up another year for some reason and I get a little melancholy around new years and birthdays. I'm not afraid of aging by any means, but I wonder a lot if I did a good enough job with the year that I'd been given. The desert is a good place to let those thoughts settle.

Minggu, 14 April 2013

Adventure Time: A One Day Colorado Itinerary.

uyguguygu 19.02 Comment

We went adventuring yesterday, JR and I. We got in our tiny car, packed with a little bit of cash and my knitting project, and headed out south and west to see what we could find.

(I needed a day off from reality - reality has been so difficult lately!)

As we were driving through the backroad of Colorado we stumbled upon vineyards. In a bit of glory, these vineyards were attached to Mount Holy Cross Abbey, a former boy's catholic school and monastery. The grapes are partially grown on the grounds and other people in the community (including the inmates at a nearby prison and people who live around the Abbey) contribute the rest.

Even in the middle of a desolate spring the vineyards are beautiful, and the Abbey itself was gorgeous having been built in a style of architecture that is not commonly seen in the West, especially a rural area.

After wandering around the grounds for awhile we continued up into the mountains, stopping at The Royal Gorge Bridge park. This was a pretty huge tourist attraction and I imagine it gets a lot of visitors in the summer but since it's not quite tourist season yet we got to wander around a nearly empty park. I'm not a huge fan of heights but I enjoyed myself regardless, sweating it out as I crossed the gorge in their cable car and the bridge. We also took the incline railway down to the bottom, and then back up.

Finally, we had a very late lunch and went hiking at Hellen Hunt Falls on our way back. I love Hellen Hunt Falls area because it's one of the lushest places along the front range. Colorado is incredibly dry and I struggle with how brown it looks most of the time. I miss the humidity and the water and the moss and the way a damp forest smells so I head to Hellen Hunt for a bit of that every so often. It's an old park area that used to be the grounds of a hotel and so there is a little bit of infrastructure in the park - old bridges and buildings and crumbling water supply systems - that you can stumble upon as you hike around. At the top there's a beautiful waterfall and at the bottom there's a great visitor center with the history of the park as well.