4th of July Weekend, or, I Discovered the Filters on My Smart Phone

I cannot tell you how glad I am that Bobby and I did not spend 4th of July weekend in Santa Fe. We were crazy lazy, sleeping in and staying up late and I didn't cook one time. Thanks to all the local restaurants for feeding us. We played in the pool and local toy stores, read books, worked out a few times, rode our bikes a bit, and had an excellent 4th of July.

 These puppets were grossly over priced, and had the most condescending faces. At least Bobby's was funny.

 Mine was kind of terrifying. Like he's muttering "Don't MAKE me do something I'll regret". Got it, bunny.

 Here's another reason I'll never have thousands of followers. I had never been to a frozen yogurt- sorry, fro-yo!- place, so we went last weekend. It was tasty, but I'm still not understanding the fro-yo obsession. Maybe it's the adorable over lapping hand hold that makes it crazy delicious? Or maybe it's pretending to kiss it while having your significant other take a picture of your fro-yo love? Who can say. Was it good? Sure. Is it deserving of more than one picture on any blog on the internet? I would say no, but that's just me.

 On the 4th, we noticed that no one was at the pool. How did we get the place to ourselves on the 4th of July? Who can say, but we were happy.

  Yeah America, let's go cowboy hats. The pool was deserted the entire time we were there, and after a few hours we decided to mosey into some dry clothes and grab some grub. We had already decided that parking 2 miles from City Park and schlepping ourselves + any creature comforts to a park filled with 4th of July celebrants was not on the agenda. Here's why (the following is slightly sarcastic and tongue in cheek, but mostly just brutal honesty). 4th of July revelers usually fall into two diametrically opposite camps- drunken assholes who are way too loud, too drunk, and wearing far too few items of clothing, or harried, stressed families dragging a bunch of kids out way past their respective bed times to watch fireworks that will either a) bore them to tears or b) scare them to tears. Now, of course, I'm being a bit hyperbolic and over simplistic. There are certainly many people, drinkers and families alike, who do not fall into one of those two groups. But those two groups tend to dominate the energy because they are mortal enemies. So the sloppy drunk college girls piss off the parents who really don't want to have to explain to their 4 year old those kind of age inappropriate things, and the parents piss of the sloppy drunk college girls for trying to ruin their good time. On top of all that, it's generally hot, crowded, and there is an unacceptable port a potty to person ratio. Then, when the fireworks are over, everyone willingly takes part in an ungodly traffic jam that rivals any Wednesday morning rush hour situation, and we all sit in our respective cars in bumper to bumper traffic, listening to terrible music from said sloppy drunk college girls, watching people get arrested, and trying in vain to just get home because we're hot and tired. Don't get me wrong, I love watching fireworks. I've also had excellent 4th of July experiences in parks, with strangers, despite all of the previous. But we weren't interested in looking on the sunny side of things while ignoring the bad, so we decided to just skip the potential bad altogether and have our own little celebration.

We did drive around City Park, just to check out the situation, but it was already madness a full two hours before sunset. People were parking miles away, and it looked like a fireworks march to Mecca. This confirmed our plan to do our own thing. We changed course and drove out towards the reservoir. There's a convenience store at the base of the foothills that services the boaters and campers that are heading towards the reservoir, and it had a huge fireworks tent set up.

These took me way back. They were my favorite as a kiddo

 We snagged the hen and a box of colored sparklers and then continued on our way up into the foothills. A lot of other people had the same idea, but even with cars lining the shoulder the hectic, packed feel of the City Park celebration was absent.

 After the sunset (which was beautiful in its own right) the horizon started lighting up with fireworks. From the hood of our car on the shoulder of the road we were able to see 3 or 4 shows at once.

I spent my time watching, not taking pictures, so this is the best one I got.

 We also played with our sparklers, which was nostalgic fun. I discovered the filters on my smart phone, that night which created some neat images. I put them all into overexposed black and white, and I really like the way it turned out.

We left our shoulder side spot and headed back home right as a storm started up. The hen was shot off in the parking lot of our apartments, a fact I regretted a bit once I was reminded that it made a shriek (sorry neighbors!). The rest of the night was spent on the back porch, sitting by candle light and listening to the storm blow through the enormous aspens in the courtyard behind our apartment. We didn't plan one bit of it, and it couldn't have gone any better.

Memorial Day Weekend Camping Fest

Bobby only has to work a half day today, and he gets Monday off for Memorial Day, so we decided this was the perfect time to head back to South Dakota to see the Badlands. When we went to South Dakota last summer we were expecting to have a good weekend filled with Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands. Much to our surprise, South Dakota ended up being way cooler than we ever expected, and we barely had enough time to fit in said historical monuments, Custer state park for seeing wild buffalo, Wind Cave Nat'l Park for awesome camping and a creepy cave tour, and the Mammoth Site on the way back (a totally rad working archeological site that is the world's largest center for researching mammoths). We realized we would have to return the following summer and devote an entire weekend to South Dakota once more, just to soak it all up.

As a result, this afternoon we're heading out to make camp in Jewel Cave Nat'l Monument, so that tomorrow morning we can tour Jewel Cave (apparently it's the second longest cave in the world, that's crazy). Then we head out to Badlands Nat'l Park to spend the day hiking around and then camping in the grassland. Sunday morning is more Badlands hiking, then a drive through the park to get to Nebraska, where Sunday night will be spent in Chadron State Park. Monday morning we'll see what Chadron has in the way of  trails, and then we'll hit up Nebraska's cheesy Carhenge tourist trap on the way home. Although I don't think anything could top the epic cheesiness of our experience with Moqui Cave on the way to the Grand Canyon.

I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't get rained out. Although camping in the rain is when you really test just how much you like camping, right?

Gettin' Our Nature On

Karin and Hermes left yesterday morning, and I have to say that a great time was had by all while they were here. They drove 15 hours through the night on Friday, arriving at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. They took a well deserved 4 hour nap, and then Karin and I made food to pack and Hermes and Bobby went to REI to rent a tent. When they returned we packed up the ol' station wagon. Love this car, lovey love love.

I also love these boots. They have served me well this winter, and definitely kept my feet warm that weekend.

Bobby's fish eye lens had been in the repair shop, and he had just gotten it back a few days prior. He was excited to take it out and play around with it. Here we all are, ready to hit the road.

We were camping in the Poudre Canyon, which is only about a half hour drive from our house. This was our home for the night, a camp site right on the river with a fire pit, picnic table, and an old school water pump. The water was so good, I'll forgive it for being freezing cold and making my hands numb.

Tent set up time! The rented tent Karin and Hermes used was the same model as ours. I love REI. Not more than I love our station wagon, but definitely right below it.

This tent rolls up really small, goes up in mere minutes, and comfortably sleeps two. I highly recommend the half dome if you're in the market for a tent. This thing has been with Bobby about 3 times longer than I have and it's still going strong.

Hey mister. *wink*

Karin and Hermes are newly married, by the way, and this was their first camping trip as a married couple. Tent + knife pose = newlywed bliss.

Posing with our twinkie tents. Bobby is so kindly enveloping my face to keep it warm.

This was dinner- made from scratch veggie and bean chili with a sprinkle of cheese and a bit of green onions. Wheat crackers on the side because I was too lazy to make cornbread.

There was Shiner to be had for those partaking. Check Karin's hat. It's a cat. The tail popping out of the side makes me happy.

After dinner we explored along the river bank, and took advantage of the opportunity to take ridiculous photos like this. I'm pretty sure every martial arts choreographer in the biz will be bangin' down our doors when they get an eyeful of this sweet magic.

Down by the river, but without the van.

Once the sun started to set it was fire time. More importantly (or I guess, on a related note) it was s'mores and banana boat time. Banana boats consist of bananas, chocolate, and marshmallows, all wrapped up safe and sound in foil and then tossed into the coals of the fire. There they undergo a beautiful transformation into a gooey, melty, chocolately soup of sugar and happiness.

Bobby demonstrates proper s'mores building. You put the graham cracker + chocolate on the grill to heat up, so that by the time your marshmallow is toasted  covered in a fine black crisp everything is warm and melty and ready to be devoured.

Perfect.

Banana boat, after being fished out of the coals. I tasted this and said "heaven IS a place on earth!". It's that good.

We gathered around the fire waiting for it to burn out so that we didn't cause mass destruction, and then trundled off to our respective tents.

Our new sleeping bags worked like a dream. The sleeping pads were also great. I've never slept so well outside- well, ok, sleeping on the trampoline in a Texas summer is a little bit more comfortable, but sleeping bags are infinitely easier to transport than trampolines...

This is my Sunday morning worship service- hot cocoa by a fire, watching the sun rise over the mountains and light up the river, laughing and talking with friends in the cold mountain air. Amen and amen.

I got to share a tent with this guy. I'm a lucky girl.

Once the sun rose over the mountains and it was a bit warmer we broke down camp and changed out of our fuzzy pajamas. The agenda for the day was to hike the Grey Rock loop, and the trail head was about 6 miles from camp.

 At the trailhead- I think it's important to note that at this point, we though we'd be doing about 6 miles, round trip, and gaining about 1,000 feet in elevation... the reality? 8 miles, round trip, 2,300 feet in elevation gained.

 The bridge you cross right at the beginning of the trail.

 Since it's a loop, you can choose which route to go up/come down. We went with a steep, rocky trail with lots of tree cover for our ascent.

 Newlywed kiss break.

 Once you reach the base of Grey Rock (surely I don't have to point it out, but it's that big, grey, rock in the background :) you have the choice of going back down the way you came, going back down the other side of the loop, or doing the last .75 miles to summit the rock. Yes, that's right, in under a mile you go from here to the top of that rock! It was rad.

 But those last .75 miles are hard. I mean, this is the "trail". For more than half of it you're just scrambling over rocks, and the trail is marked by cairns- little piles of rocks that mark the way (they're arranged from bottom to top going large to small, like little totems). It's a bit ambiguous and we went off the trail once or twice, but eventually found our way back.

 The summit trail opens up into a little meadow right before the final ascent. It's nice to have this break because the last part of the trail is nothing but rock climbing.

 Case in point- that's the summit, and you climb over this to get to it.

 It's not crazy rock climbing as in "I need a rope and a harness, thanks" but it's definitely climbing, using hands and feet.

 I was so happy to be on the top! It was crazy to look down at the base of the rock and think how recently we were there.

 Karin and Hermes, surveying the landscape. We all had a snack and a water break, and then it started snowing pretty hard. Going back down was more tedious than coming up, because I really didn't want to slip and crack my tailbone on the rock, so it was slow going. Oh, and I was hiking in my snow boots, which, while warm, were quite cumbersome and lacked grip.

 To complete the loop we hooked up with the Meadows trail once we got back down to the base of the rock (Grey Rock is on the right in the background).

The Meadows trail was completely different from the trail we took up- very open, relatively low incline, and it snaked its way back and forth, switchback style, across the mountain. The view was great and it was just enough sun to be warm but not sweaty and uncomfortable.

Once we got back to the car we were all feeling every one of those 8 miles and 2,300 feet gained. After a quick stop at REI to return the tent we went home, showered, and then headed out for dinner. We were all in bed and asleep by 9 p.m. that night. I think that's a good indicator of how well the weekend went. Camping and hiking should wear you out, in a good way :)

Really, the only bad thing about the weekend is that Coloradans insist on pronouncing "Poudre" as "Pooder". Yes, I know, it's awful- Poudre Canyon is pretty terrible, huh? But I'll forgive them their pronunciation foibles since the Poudre namesakes- the canyon and the river- are a great place to camp in/by :)