Why I like where I live...

What do you like about where you live?, or a similar topic, has been brought up a few times in recent months on my lampwork forum... I have to say that I am lucky in that I live in a place I like really well, so there are always many things I can answer in such a thread. Things like the skiing and hiking in nearby mountains, wonderful neighbors, great weather, my great location with nearby shopping an easy access to anywhere in the valley, and wonderful neighborhood parks. I could go on and on about what I like about living here.

Tonight I can add another.. all sorts of great, fun, free, entertainment. There are lots of free events in the summer; concerts, movies, street fairs and festivals. This is a hard place to by bored, even on a budget. Last week I got to see a free Utah symphony and Opera Concert at the Gallivan Center, tonight I went to a Sundance Film screening at Red Butte Gardens, tomorrow I may take in the Decemberists at the Twilight Concert Series downtown in Pioneer Park. We really have a lot of entertainment options here.

Tonight's movie was "The Music Never Stopped" I would give it a thumbs up if you have a chance to see it. Not only was the movie good, but the setting spectacular. My picture does not do it justice. Sitting in the grass, watching the movie, the sun setting over the valley and mountains to the west, turning the sky pretty shades of pinks and blues. And we get such lovely blue skies here, due to the lack of humidity. It is rare to have the muggy, gray hazy summer days like I grew up with in the midwest. And then there is the temperature. Red Butte Garden is up the mountainside, next to a canyon. Canyon winds blow most every night, making the venue breezy and cool. Even in the heat of the summer, it's jacket weather as the sun goes down and the breeze picks up. Cool weather, fresh mountain, air a lovely sunset and a good movie. What a nice way to spend an evening. I'm definitely spoiled... just a little.

Random...

Some random photos, observations and weirdness from my trip to Wisconsin.

Beer, look at all this beer! Good beer! And wine and liquor! In a grocery store!...Hey, I'm from Utah, where the only booze you can buy at the grocery is 3.2 beer, so I was really excited and awestruck to see this amazing selection at the grocery. And yes, being the tourist I am, much to the embarrassment of my friends, I took pictures! (That's right, you can't take me anywhere!)



More interesting shopping... a few finds from the local consignment store. Someone please tell me what what these things are, why they exist and who would want them. A caped dog with an industrial looking artificial leg, wearing dog food on it's collar... why?? A giant mouse lamp? Why? again. It would be interesting to know the provenance of these items... I'm sure there are stories to be told. I think Tom, he resident english major/comic book writer of our group should write a story about the super hero dog...


And look... more interesting things followed us around. This blimp kept flying over Heather's house, welcoming us to Wisconsin... How often do you see a blimp!


And what party would be complete without junk food and booze? Somehow we bought a lot of chips... which seemed to follow us everywhere, from the dining room, to the beach, out to the back yard. Overindulgence for sure...they were eventually banished to this lonely spot on a chair. And just like in the old days, we had a few drinks. Our hostess with the mostess put her best bar forward, she broke out the leftover Mount Gay rum from out last reunion. And the bar came complete with binoculars... and floor cleaner... hmmmm... how did that happen? But it gives me an idea... perhaps drunk cleaning makes house work more fun..

My last bit of amusement... from the hotel where we stayed. A pancake machine! How cool is that? I didn't even know such things existed!!!

Random...

Some random photos, observations and weirdness from my trip to Wisconsin.

Beer, look at all this beer! Good beer! And wine and liquor! In a grocery store!...Hey, I'm from Utah, where the only booze you can buy at the grocery is 3.2 beer, so I was really excited and awestruck to see this amazing selection at the grocery. And yes, being the tourist I am, much to the embarrassment of my friends, I took pictures! (That's right, you can't take me anywhere!)



More interesting shopping... a few finds from the local consignment store. Someone please tell me what what these things are, why they exist and who would want them. A caped dog with an industrial looking artificial leg, wearing dog food on it's collar... why?? A giant mouse lamp? Why? again. It would be interesting to know the provenance of these items... I'm sure there are stories to be told. I think Tom, he resident english major/comic book writer of our group should write a story about the super hero dog...


And look... more interesting things followed us around. This blimp kept flying over Heather's house, welcoming us to Wisconsin... How often do you see a blimp!


And what party would be complete without junk food and booze? Somehow we bought a lot of chips... which seemed to follow us everywhere, from the dining room, to the beach, out to the back yard. Overindulgence for sure...they were eventually banished to this lonely spot on a chair. And just like in the old days, we had a few drinks. Our hostess with the mostess put her best bar forward, she broke out the leftover Mount Gay rum from out last reunion. And the bar came complete with binoculars... and floor cleaner... hmmmm... how did that happen? But it gives me an idea... perhaps drunk cleaning makes house work more fun..

My last bit of amusement... from the hotel where we stayed. A pancake machine! How cool is that? I didn't even know such things existed!!!

Flashback....

Flashback to the early '80s...Oxford, Ohio, the Miami University Botany Department. Graduate school. Classes to take, classes to teach, research to do, oral exams to pass, theses to write and defend. There's nothing like struggling through a graduate degree to make you bond with your fellow classmates. And bond we did. Those were some of the best years of my life. All these years later we are still friends and despite being spread across the nation we manage to gather now and then for a reunion. This time in Milwaukee, where Heather, our resident over-achiever with a PhD directs the electron microscopy lab at the university. The crew... Heather, me from Utah, Dean from California, Riley form Tennessee, Lola from Maine, Kathy from upstate New York. Along with my school friends came a few wonderful spouses, Heather's husband Tom and Riley's wife Sue. I am so happy that my friends all married well, and that despite their spouses not being "one of us" (I think Sue used those words), they have all really become "one of us".

Upon descending at Heather's we discussed when were last all together. We think it was 2003, entirely too long ago. But you know, we the minute we got together it was as if we had all been all together yesterday! Let the fun begin.

Heather lives just a few blocks from Lake Michigan... We stopped at a consignment store as we strolled over the lake. Riley found a great Native American family that he wanted to adopt.




And Dean found a great new potential addition to his wardrobe...


And at the lake, why not crash a wedding party?


We also had an afternoon at the beach... there was talk of swimming, but the water was COLD, and the bath house closed, so we just had a beach party instead. Chips!! Yum!







After the beach we went and grabbed lunch... talking and eating... some of the things we do best! Isn't this how we got through grad school? Eating, drinking and talking... Friday night pizza parties, dinner parties, crazy theme parties. It is a wonder we all graduated!

And the universe must have been watching us. As we ate lunch, what showed up in the parking lot? The Joy Farm bus!!! We were all for a ride to the "Joy Farm"!!!

Heather, our entertainment director, all decked out in the beachware she provided for us all.

More things I've never done....

And this time the thing I should of done was one I should have done sooner. I went with some friends out to see the Spiral Jetty, an earthwork sculpture that was built into the Great Salt Lake back in 1970. During much of my time here in Utah the Spiral Jetty was under water. The Great Salt Lake is a big catch basin. Runoff flows in from the mountains, but there is no where that water leaves the lake, besides through evaporation, so rain/drought cycles control the level of the lake. I moved to Utah in '85 after the big flood years, so the lake was very high and the Jetty submerged. After the droughts of recent years, the lake has receded and 2010 was supposed to be a great year to see the jetty.

But I never got up there in 2010 like I wanted to. I meant to, I really did, but never seemed to find anyone who wanted to join me at times I could go. It's a 100 mile drive, and the last bit of road was purported to be pretty dodgy, and I didn't want to find myself stuck in the boonies by my self, so I never made it out there.

On Monday my friends wanted to go, as they heard it may be the last chance to see anything. It turns out the bad road had been redone, so getting there was problem. But the jetty was, for the most part under water, the water was about knee deep over most of the rocks.

It was still beautiful. The water in this part of the lake, which is extra salty, is pink due to all the halophilic (salt loving) bacteria in the water. A nice contrast to the black basalt rocks lining the beach. The vistas from this far north end of the lake are magnificent. Definitely worth the drive and the looksie, even if the jetty was mostly submerged. Next drought cycle though, I'm going back for sure!!!

My picture postcard for the day....

Lake Blanche and Sundial Peak

Lucky that I live in a place with so many wonderful things right in my own back yard. I can leave my house, hop in my car, and in less than 20 minutes, I can be at a trail head in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and in a 2.75 mile hike be here, at Lake Blanche. Now granted, it's a butt kicking 2.75 mile hike with a 2700 foot elevation gain, but it was well worth every step to stand at the top of the world next to an alpine lake surrounded by snow capped mountains. Pretty as a postcard for sure!

Now the embarrassing thing, is that I've lived here over 25 years and this was the first time I've done this hike. I moved here, site unseen, from Ohio in 1985. Other than flying in to Denver to travel to our research field site in western Nebraska, I had never been to the mountain west. When we moved here we spent a lot of time exploring Utah and surrounding states, but somehow missed some very local adventures... partly because we always had a dog who wanted to hike with us, and dogs are not allowed in many canyons for watershed protection reasons. Then we eventually had kids, and well, everyone knows how that can slow down the adventuring. So somehow, in all these years, I have never done this hike. Shameful really. But now that I'm single, unencumbered by my grown kids, and have found friends who like to hike, I am really going to make it a point to explore all the local places I've never been. So much to see, so much to do!!!!




Lake Florence and Dromedary Peak


The view back down to the trail head

Lake Lillian

Oh how I adore the tiny alpine wildfowers!

Now for something completely different....

My social life. I'm 50, divorced, and this year became an empty nester. A year and a half ago I joined a social group through meetup.com, which has greatly enhanced, errr, actually given me, a bit of a social life. One of the more frequent group activities is dancing. I am the first to admit that I can't dance. I've never been a dancer, despite taking lessons (ballroom, country swing, belly dance) over the years. I swear that I am rhythmicaly impaired and up until 18 months ago I was a complete and total dance-a-phobic.

A year ago in March the group went on a St. Patty's Day pub crawl. At the 3rd bar there was dancing. I got a drink, I chatted, I enviously watched the smiling people dancing and having fun, but I could not get up the nerve to join them. You know, because I can't dance, I look stupid, and am sure somehow everyone will be staring and laughing. All probably not exactly true, but it is what goes through the mind of a dance-a-phobic. At the next stop on the pub crawl there was more dancing, and it was here that I had an epiphany:

The only thing that could possibly by more awkward than my poor dancing abilities, was the fact that I was the only one standing on periphery not dancing.

I felt like a dork and finally stepped out onto the dance floor. And guess what? Nobody laughed. Not out loud at least. So now I go dancing. Nearly every week, and while I'm still not good at it, I have fun dancing with group at various places.

Last night we went someplace new, the Skybar. A nice place, with great views from up on the 13th floor of a downtown hotel. But the crowd was young, really young, mostly kids in their young 20's. My little group was mostly people over 40 so we may have been a bit out place, but we still danced and had fun.

My amusement for the evening was really kind of weird... the dance floor had disco lights which shined big, like 4 inch in diameter, colored spots on everything. The spots were even more interesting when they landed on some people, like the gal wearing the zebra striped mini skirt. Those zebra stripes were much more fun in all the pretty colors. The lights reminded me of the children's book "Put Me in the Zoo", that was all about polka dotted leopard who did amazing things with his colored spots and thought that was reason to be put in the zoo. It was a favorite book of mine and my kids. So as I a danced all I could think about was lines from the book... like.... "and now I put my spots on you!"

Silly I know, but my silly thoughts amused me all night... and I like being amused. I was also amused, after posting something about this on facebook, when a friend retorted "I think that book would hve been appropriate reading material for most of the people at that place last night."

The canyon called again

And it was not even an odd day. But when I came home tonight I remembered that the gate is scheduled to open tomorrow, so tonight would be my last chance to do my new favorite evening hike- Burch Hollow to Elbow Fork and back down the road to the car. I took Daisy, although I was a little worried because last time she did that hike with me we got back to the car and she couldn't jump in. I had to pick her up, all awkward 80 lbs of her, to get her in the car. She will be 11 next month (77 in dog years), has a bit of arthritis and (just like me) is a bit "fluffy". It makes me terribly sad to see my favorite hiking body slowing down and unable to go the distance. Especially since she really wants to accompany me. So tonight we took it easy, more of a saunter up the hill, meander down the trail, with lots of stops for me to enjoy the wildflowers and use my camera. The flowers were really lovely tonight. The Wasatch Penstemon, one of my favorite wildflowers, was in full bloom.

And Daisy did well. When we got down the road to the parking lot at the winter gate I could tell she was scoping out all the cars looking for ours. She was ready to be done and I'm not sure she was happy that ours was a half mile further down the road at the Burch Hollow trail head. But she trooped along, and, luckily for me, managed to hop up into the car on the third try. Poor baby. She had a hard time getting out of the car when we returned home. It's so sad to see my baby get old.




I just adore this rocky section of the trail and all the lichens on the rocks.





Ah. the penstemons... I just love them!