Spring Thinking

Spring Thinking

uyguguygu   05.00   Comment  

Spring has arrived here in Colorado! Things are not quite green yet, but there are definite buds on the trees and bulbs starting to push up from the ground. We have a ton of tulips planted in the garden out back and I can't wait to see them come up and bloom! I will know it's really arrived when the 100-year-old rose bushes that cover the walls of our garden start turning green - they always seem like they are the last things to wake up in spring but the thousands of pink roses we get all summer are worth the wait. 

I don't know about you but It feels like we are exhaling the cold darkness of winter and with each deep breath we are breathing spring to life.  I am grateful for the sun, the beautiful weather we've been having, the chances to play outside after work and on the weekends, and the fact that I can shed my coat midway through riding my horse and trot around in a sweater or a down vest. I got a new swimsuit in the mail and things are really looking up! 

In addition to the lovely weather I made a promise to myself that I would buy myself flowers for each week of school I have left. After this week it'll be nine more. I have nine more to get through as gracefully and as patiently as possible and I have nine more little bouquets to pick out on Monday mornings and bring home for the weekend on Fridays. I picked out sunflowers the first week, white lillies the second week, and I'm not sure what will come next week! Keep watching instagram and this blog for real time postings of my flower choices. You're on the edge of your seat, I'm sure! 

Finally, here are a few things that have kept me occupied on the internet this week:

// For dinner this week the major hits have been stir fried tofu, mushrooms, and greens and this spicy Tofu Tikka Masala

// I can't wait to try curried kale next week

// Check out this excellent and lighthearted playlist of remixed folk songs - I listen to it right after work when I'm cleaning up for the evening

// I don't own a single coffee table book but I daydream about owning them regularly - I'd love this one about Detroit in 1968 by Enrico Natali to be in that stack

// Even though I'm more of a pearl stud earring wearer, these Rough Diamond Stud Earrings are a beautiful, fresh take on the classic diamond studs.

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I'm wearing my mother's tweed jacket from her college days, a Land's End Shirt (I love these shirts so much I own like, three of them), Madewell Skinny Skinny Jeans, and Frye Melissa Button Boots. The necklace I picked up in Anchorage, Alaska last summer. 

Denim & Lace

Denim & Lace

uyguguygu   15.57   Comment  

I raid my husband's closet quite a bit - oversized and cosy sweaters, comfy lounging T-shirts, half of his cycling gear, and most recently this coveted Levi's Cycling Commuter Jacket. I first spotted this jacket from across the room at a party, and unlike anything I've ever experienced with a person, it was truly love at first sight. I made a beeline to the person wearing the jacket and started asking about it - there were little reflective tabs on it, back pockets, a vented back, longer than average sleeves, and all sorts of functional and beautiful details. If you know me I insist on everything being functional and beautiful in my life and this jacket easily met both criteria. I talked the jacket up so much he must have thought I was flirting with him. In reality, though, I was just flirting with the jacket. 

Not too long ago JR and I went to the Levi's store and I saw it, the coveted jacket, on sale for next to nothing. We bought one for JR. I've been "borrowing" the jacket wearing it once a week with various outfits ever since. 

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I'm wearing the Levi's Commuter Jacket over a brand-less lace dress purchased at Buffalo Exchange. The shoes are from Urban Outfitters so long ago they don't even sell then any more. I'm wearing the same two vintage turquoise cuffs and the Wild Horse Feather's equestrian themed bracelet as the last post. The necklace was purchased in Alaska this summer and made by an artist who's card and name I've sadly lost! 

Under the Shadow of Denali

Under the Shadow of Denali

uyguguygu   17.29   Comment  

It's so wonderful to blog about the trip after you get home because it's kind of like reliving the trip, in a way. You get to reflect on it when all is said and done, and really think about the way it went. 

We left Anchorage and drove to Denali National Park. The sky was so blue, Southwest blue, the color of the turquoise found in bracelets out here, that it was startling and almost oppressive. I hadn't expected it to be so hot or humid.  

The roads up there have lower speed limits than the roads we have here so it felt like we didn't so much drive to Denali, we ambled. And I think it was a good thing. We stopped wherever we wanted. We took in the view again and again and again, and we watched as Denali loomed closer and closer, finally becoming clear in the distance, floating on that blue sky like a mirage or a dream or a reflection of something bigger than everything.

"That," JR said to me at one stop where we looked at it "is bigger than anything I've ever seen that's been made by a person." And indeed it was, towering over us, omnipresent in the way that only God's creation can. 

After we got into the car I thought to myself, "It's good to be awed. It's healthy. We don't do it enough." I thought about what awe was, about awe as a transformative process. To be awed is to allow ourselves to be humbled and that's a tough thing to do. Humility, at it's core, is making ourselves lesser to become greater people and I don't want to be lesser. I struggle with that and it is a continual process I have learned to at least allow myself to be humbled by the experiences I have and the people I love, and yes, even the things I see. 

All Aboard!! Train Travel in Alaska

All Aboard!! Train Travel in Alaska

uyguguygu   11.40   Comment  

One of the other things we were able to do in Alaska was take a train. Train travel is de rigueur for tourist travel throughout the state. Even though we had rented a car for a portion of the trip I wanted to see what it was all about - and lets be realistic...I just wanted to ride on a vintage train and experience life at that pace.

We headed to the station in Anchorage and got there obscenely early which turned out to be a good thing. I got some coffee, wandered around their gift shop, and then settled down on a bench. A sweet grandfatherly man from Montreal was kind enough to have a patient conversation in French with me so I got to practice that for a while. My autodidactic strategy for learning French has been to ask anyone and everyone to speak French with me if I find out they speak it so this was a great bonus. I mostly speak French to people with North African accents so I had to adjust and listen closely to adjust to the accent!

Our first seats we picked were in the Dome car, which were awesome. You could see everything from up there. Eventually I figured out that the pictures were better from the open air spaces between the cars and there was a bit of a "party crew" out there - rambunctious anniversary celebrators from Texas or some other southern state on their way to an Alaskan cruise. They were awesome and just about the funniest people I've ever met while traveling. I shared my Wasabi peas with them and they almost fell over dead from the taste (him) and spice (her). I guess they're not for everyone!

We settled in to watch the scenery pass (and it was quite lovely!) after awhile and arrived to our destination on time and in fine style!

Finding Alaska: Cruising Prince William Sound

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.

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All pictures taken in Whitter, AK.