Saturday, July 26, 2008

Vacation Appraisal: Needed, but not what was expected.

My first week of official vacation: How did it go? Quite disappointing. Let’s look at how that came to be.

So I was planning on going to Flaming Gorge for 4 days, the whole reason why I took the vacation days, and the trip got cancelled two days before we were to leave. That was a little disappointing because I was really looking forward to riding behind the boat all day long for four days. But I really needed a break from my fabulous job, so I still decided to take the leave. I did manage to get out behind the boat, but only once.

I played hockey Friday, Monday, Wednesday night, and Thursday morning. It's a lot of fun and helped make up for not going to Flaming Gorge.

The biggest disappointment came on Friday. I was planning on driving out to Steamboat Springs, CO to see my sister Kira, Andrew, and my cute niece Masha, while they were out in the area for a wedding. Well I only alotted about 36 hours for the visit since Mapquest said is was only a little longer than 5 1/2 hours to drive out there. It turned out that it takes about 8 hours if you're pushing it. So I would have ended driving for 8 hours to stay for 8 hours, sleep for 8 hours, only to wake up and drive back for 8 hours. We decided that it just wasn't as convenient as we thought it'd be and bagged it. So I was really disappointed in not being able to go out and visit with them and that weighed down on me.

I did luck out and was still able to go out camping with Charlotte and Joni, which was a lot of fun. But overall the vacation wasn't what I was expecting. But I do like how I used only 3 days of vacation for 9 straight days away from the office. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Camping: At it once again.


Here I am once again out camping: same game, different crew. The cool ting about this time is that I didn’t have to do any of the planning or organizing. Charlotte handled everything. This time we went up to Green Canyon in Logan. I was a blast. I only knew Charlotte and Joni out of the group that I was in. We met up with a bunch of people already up in Logan. They happened to snag a really cool secluded campsite tucked away and under the canopy of a grove of trees.

I got bunked up with Joni for the night. She was a lot of fun and we enjoyed staying up late talking about life, her boy toys, Charlotte, girls, and what we really wanted to be doing with our lives. I will say this, I am pretty sure that this was the worst night of camping sleep that I have ever had. It was really warm in the canyon during the night and my sleeping bag was a little too warm for it. Anyhow, enjoy the pictures.

Joni setting up a tent for the first time


Sleeping mat blow up montage



Cheesy Group Shot


Hanging up my hammock over a scary broken limb trying not to fall and impale myself


Hammock Fun



Take notice that Charlotte is cooking THREE hot dogs and they were all for her


Sterling and Alex


Campsite mascot that we saved from the firepit

I don't really know what's going on with this picture


The cheesey couple


Charlotte and my response to the Cheesey couple


One last late night hot dog


Joni stole that last of my hot dog


Getting ready for bed


Not really a morning person


Cleaning out the tent

Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Fourth



Justin, his mother, and I decided to make it a good 4th. We headed out to the posh Park City to enjoy the festivities. Part of the festivities was our visit to the outlet stores. I definitely think that I spent too much, even though it wasn't that much.

After shopping, we happened upon a small middle eastern cuisine restaurant . I enjoyed some delicious hummus and then a bit of savory lamb kabob. Eventhough it was quite tasty, it still happened to maintain the Park City requisite of small portions and high price, and left me a little hungry.

We walked around Park City, veiwing this store and that, treating ourselves to the fancy life, and eventually found our way into an art studio that Justin had previously perused. I happened upon a Rembrandt that just caught my eye and kept me wanting it. It was the "A young man an in a velvet hat" original etching.



It was only about 4" by 4", simple, detailed, and eloquent, which was emphasized by the incredible vintage black framing. Now I'll tell you I was right about to purchase it, if I had only remembered to transfer $29,500 into my checking account.

The fireworks were at Park City Mountain Resort. The fireworks started 45 minutes late and they were quite lacking. I will say that even though it was a great day to remember and celebrate the things that have brought about and sustained our independence, the show wasn't what I expected. Maybe it's because I grew up in Madison and had many opportunities to see the million dollar Rythmn and Booms show, but I could have put on a better show in my backyard. But we did have a blast and made a good time of things. Here's some of the pics from last night that I caught with my iPhone.