Brooklyn, BMore and DC: The Ultimate East Coast

It has been a few days since I returned from the Epic East Coast Adventure, but with Halloween and the start of my new job (updates on this later!) I’ve had negative time.

So it happens. A few Fridays ago, I found myself transported from the quiet mud season of Steamboat (with rumblings in the air of near by ski mountains opening and snow on the horizon) into New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Holy cow there are a lot of people there. And there are so many people you can’t even decide who to ask for directions to the M60 bus stop…so, like I did what all visitors to the wonderful North East United States do. Like a deer in the headlights. I asked..a hologram. Yes, they have holograms that give you directions there. It was insane.

But my time there was amazing. Not only did I get to see Andrea for three whole days while I stayed with her in Brooklyn, but I also got to see Jeanne, as our visits ended up coordinating perfectly, so we stayed together for the weekend. Reunion! Friday night, we had some amazing Jamaican curries at a restaurant the size of a shoe box and then we went out to explore Andrea’s neighborhood for a little while.

Saturday, we went on a run and ended up at an amazing Dim Sum restaurant. We basically ate one of everything off of every cart and it was delicious. Not to mention, we were stuffed and the whole thing cost us each $10.

From there, we took the subway back to Andrea’s neighborhood and wandered around a bit before heading home to get ready for the evening. And the evening was awesome. Nicole and her boyfriend, Jason, came by (bearing a massive bag of Asian groceries for me) and we all headed up to Williamsburg area for some yummy food and fun times. Such a great night.Sunday, Jeanne and I found some incredible bagels and spent almost the entire day back up in Williamsburg. Such a fun neighborhood! Cool shops, thrifting, bars, restaurants, and art galleries.

Monday I headed to BMore on the Bolt bus and got there just in time for the BOMF Happy Hour at the Leinenkugels Beer Garden. It was soooooo great to see all of my BOMF family and spend the evening catching up! From there, Kim, Mike and I went to Little Havana for some dinner and then back to their boat (where I stayed for the few days I was there).

Tuesday I spent the day with Rami doing BMore things…Hampden thrift stores, yummy beers in Mt Vernon and touring MICA a bit. I also made a quest critic appearance in Brockett’s Graphic Design 1 class. Pretty cool! We ended the night with Mike and Kim at Salt, and amazing gastro pub in the Patterson Park neighborhood.

Wednesday I ran with BOMF in the morning (so great). Then, Rami and I went to brunch at On the Hill up in Bolton Hill and then to the American Visionary Museum. Basically my favorite museum in BMore. Then I grabbed the MARC train to DC!

DC was excellent. I spent a few good days with Gramma and Grampa chatting about life and everything else. On Thursday, we went into DC to see my show at the Jane Haslem Gallery. Pretty exciting to see! And then out to dinner at Chef Goeff’s in Rockville.

Friday it was back to Steamboat…and 14″ of SNOW!

Such a great whirlwind of trip.

Buffalo Pass Camping!

We spent Friday night up on Buff Pass. Epic coldness, a little bit of snow. Most of these photos are from some morning explorations and the drive back down. The views are killer. See if you can find the deer!

Macon & Back to the West.

The leaves are starting to change here in CO! A drastic difference from still sweltering GA weather. But it’s beautiful and I am looking forward to some hiking here soon.

My brief visit to Macon was pretty great, though I never seem to plan enough time there. Amid searching through storage for some drawings to mail out to DC, I managed to collect enough other things (mainly books) that I mailed a 40lbs box back to Steamboat before I left. In between all the business, I enjoyed spending time with the fam. I had lunch with Betbet at S&S, which was the best. And, I somehow managed to see Fred just about every day I was there. As usual, we had some beers, talked about life and art and he managed to be his normal thought provoking and reassuring self.

I went out for First Friday and enjoyed seeing the show at the Macon Arts Gallery. It was curated by Jonathan, who I worked with last fall. The artists were Carol Dodd Porter and Ann Baker. Excellent. I ended up buying one of Carol’s paintings. I also ended up running into everyone ever…as Carol is pretty popular among Maconites. She is one of my favorite local artists as well.

And, as usual when one goes downtown in Macon on a Friday night, I ended up out way too late having way too much fun. Only regrettable on the five mile run I went on at 9AM…with only a few hours of sleep to go on.

After I got back from said run, Mom and I spent a few hours at the Wesleyan Market. Such a cool local scene is popping up in Macon, and I have to say I am impressed. We wandered by some really cool craft stalls, vegetable stalls and ended up by the adopt a pet area…where I almost took home every dog and cat they had. On the way out, we stopped by the peanut man’s truck and bought some boiled peanuts (heck yes!).

I spent the  afternoon with EDawg and Mitch. After I gave up trying to learn to ripstick (E and Mitch are both pros) we went on a driving adventure across town in attempts to get EDawg’s ears pierced. Epic fail but an excellent adventure. Plus, who can forget ‘this bad boy?’

All in all a great few days! I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning (gross) to begin the journey back to CO. I slept most of the ride up to the airport, but I did snap this photo of the great ATL sunrise!

A now that I’m back, I am looking forward to a lot of great things! First of all, snow. Snow would be great asap. Ski season in 73 days! I am running the Emerald Mntn 12k next weekend, followed by Octoberwest, which is Steamboat’s very own Octoberfest coupled with a beef cook-off! And I am making plans to head back to the East Coast, only this time the North East in the middle of October.  Also, I just got a job with the city working with the after school program. My first day is Thursday, so I am pretty excited!

Hello, fall!

Travelling in the USA

With an awesome week of travelling behind me and a few more days of adventure ahead, I have to say–sometimes, its nice to stay stateside and go exploring.

The adventure started last Tuesday, smushed into the back of Lindsey’s Honda Accord. Blake and I shared exactly 1.5 seats next to a boat load of luggage. The rest of Lindsey’s life was packed in the trunk, which was not to be opened until the final destination, lest it explode. EL rode shotgun.

The first day, we drove up through Wyoming and out across Nebraska en route to Omaha, which we arrived in slightly before midnight. Deciding that we had no energy to go out, we crashed in a Marriott in the Old Market neighborhood for a few hours. We got up super early to meet our friend Lindsay for breakfast at a delicious little bakery before hitting the road for Chicago!

Eight hours, lots of energy drinks and a Cracker Barrel stop later, we arrived in front of Allison’s apartment in down town Chicago. We hurried to unload and then drove west to Allison’s boyfriend’s house. Chance was an excellent host and made a feast of steaks, chicken, roast corn and asparagus for us and a few of his friends. We hung out in his back yard for a while before calling it a night.

The next day was supposed to take us to Nashville, but I decided to stay on in Chicago for a few days and head to Culver with Allison and Brooke for the Labor Day Weekend. I spent Thursday and Friday touring Chicago on foot. I enjoyed a few good hours at the Museum of the Art Institute (see the photo below of part of Chagall’s American Windows), hung out in millineum park, the Navy Pier, Michigan Ave and Old Town. I also spent a good afternoon on the beach enjoying the waves of Lake Michigan. Thursday night, I went to a gallery openning at Zia Gallery in the suburbs with Allison. It was nice to do some artist schmoozing and also see some great work!

Friday night, we packed up the cats and headed out to Culver for a weekend with Allison’s family. While we did get a bit of precipitation that drifted up from Hurricane Isaac, it turned out to be a great weekend! We spent Saturday having lunch with Allison’s grandma, touring the equestrian center at Culver Academies (he horses there have Tempur-Pedic floors!) and watched movies while it rained. I made Beef Stroganoff for dinner and Allison managed to get the soaked wood to turn into a great backyard fire for s’mores!

Sunday, we woke up early and headed to the Tipacanoe River for a kayak float with some of the girls’ friends. Mr. Epley made 5 gallons of Sangria and supplied all of our kayaks. It was a blast! Then we headed to the Epley’s house for some excellent BBQ and an afternoon of card games. Allison and I also decided to check out the Angry Czech Brewery, a new Culver addition. It was great! I got a flight of their beer and even sampled the root beer.

Monday, it was finally sunny! Brooke, Allison and I took the boat out for a spin and then we picked up their friend JoJo and went tubing…so much fun. Then we swung back by the dock and picked up Allison’s parents and headed to the marina for a late lunch before heading back to Chicago.

After a quick Labor Day Outlet Mall stop, we made it to Chicago just in time for dinner, Chicago Pizza!~ And some excellent fro yo.

Tuesday morning, I headed out to O’Hare for a flight to ATL. I got into Macon around 3:30 and spend the afternoon tooling around with Mom and exploring the new backyard.  A few more days and a ton of stuff to do here in Macon and then I’ll be heading back to Steamboat on Sunday!

Green River Rafting!

Possibly the greatest adventure yet.

We packed up Friday afternoon and headed out to Dinosaur to set up camp at the put-in. With a brief stop in Craig at Los Jilbertos for some amazing Mexican noms, we pulled into our campsite at the Gates of Lodore and set up camp for the night.The next morning, I managed to get a little run/exploration in and enjoy an amazing sunrise in the canyon (sooo awesome). We didn’t get on the river until the afternoon, but that didn’t matter, as we had only 2.5 miles to go the first day. So we spent some time exploring sandbars and floating around before setting up camp. When we did set up camp, we went on a quick hike/rock climb up the canyon to enjoy some great views before our great dinner of lamb and mashed potatoes!On day two, I woke up on a raft with a momma bear and two cubs right across the river from us. First bear sighting for me and it was awesome!After some burritos and cowboy coffee, we packed up and headed down river to our next campsite, which was supposed to be around 14 miles away. Unfortunately, we ran into a bit of a disaster with a rock the Lower Disaster rapids only a few miles from camp. We spent a few hours trying to pull the raft out free before giving up for the night and regrouping to try again the next day.So we found an impromptu camp sight for the evening. It turned out to be a pretty great spot, minus the location of the bathrooms, right in front of the rafts. So some of us girls got together and made a sign to alert people of an occupied groover…We spent the rest of daylight preparing our ropes for the next day. Then we played glow in the dark bocce ball and enjoyed chicken jambalaya AND peach cobbler with ice cream!

Upon the bugle sound at 5am on day three we started prepping for the rescue mission, when, just as the sun crested the canyon Kyle spotted the raft about 200 yards downstream in an eddy. In the best possible case scenario, the water went down enough to push the raft out and we managed to get the raft back, in relatively great shape along with all of the gear! So we loaded up and headed out early to make up for some lost miles. We covered some good ground and lots of fun rapids before hitting a good stretch of flat water where we all linked up into a giant raft train and floated for a bit.Our last camp sight might have been the best. First of all, it was in Utah! An excellent way to visit Utah for the first time is by rafting into it…The sight was nice and flat with lots of shade with a really cold, clear creek running through it. It was really pretty, and apparently skunk laden. We played around on the rocks for a while, had beef stroganof for dinner and planned the last 21 miles of our journey, read some great scary stories and relaxed.

Shawn and Jeff two-manning it..The last day on the river, the last morning of breakfast burritos and cowboy coffee and packing up camp. 😦

It turned out to be an excellent day of rafting with a lot of rowing. We passed out of one canyon and into another, saw a bald eagle, lots of big horn sheep and a few beavers! We made it to the docks around 8:30 and ended up pulling away around 10. We arrived home exhausted and happy at 2am. Not ready for real life and sleeping under a roof and technology. I think we need to have a repeat asap.

Frontier Days 2012!

Cowboys, kegs, camping and carnivals. IT.WAS.AWESOME.

We drove up to Cheyenne Saturday morning and had camp set up and a variety of Lunchables and other snacks stock-piled by mid afternoon. We pretty much just jammed to some music and hung out while we waited to head to the carnival grounds for a Blake Shelton concert. Camp activities included, siestas, sticky golf and watching the storm roll in.

When it was nearing concert time, we all piled onto a bus with a crowd that definitely surpassed the bus capacity by at least 500% and headed to the show.

So cool. We hung out outside the concert venue for a while in the Frontier Village, which had some faux western store fronts and tasty noms. The concert was awesome. Mr. Shelton played some of his best words and also a few covers of other peoples’ songs. The weirdest-Britney Spears’ Prerogative. After the concert, we proceeded to wreak havoc on the carnival by playing every game, riding tons of rides and eating corndogs…lots of corndogs.

The next morning, we woke up and, after visiting our new four legged friends, headed to IHOP for a big pre-rodeo breakfast!

And the rodeo…was so great. It was the championship, building up from the previous two weeks. Plus, it was right next to the carnival, so there was plenty of entertainment. I think the best was the Wild Horse Race…three cowboys get an unbroken horse and have to saddle it and then race it around the entire arena, while the rodeo crew shoots off canons. Needless to say, there were very few successful cowboys…

After the rodeo, we hit up the carnival for a little while longer before finally dragging ourselves back to the cars to head home. 😦

We are already planning next year. Only then, we will come for more days…or maybe the whole two weeks!

Austin Photos: Just a Few More Greats!

Happy*** Birthday!

A collection of celebration photos: Mimosas, kayak tours, cornhole and kebabs, laying by Barton Springs, Shady Grove dinners, fiesta cakes and other great adventures! Happy 25th Aldie!

 

A most epic two-day celebration of May 21st!

Austin-Possibly the Greatest.

Everything is everything in Texas.

Here are some of the greatest.

Food Trucks!~ Jalopy: Pulled Chicken Sandwiches! Literally…foodtrucks all over. Some of the best noms. Ever.

Like I said…The river and GREAT views of the skyline…all over.The Greenbelt…OR the trails by the river where I collected poison ivy. BUT the fact that there are hiking trails a 1/2 mile from Aldie’s home in the middle of Austin is amazing.Hanging out by the pool. All.thetime.AND this guy. Pintxo. ❤

Stand by for updates on: the rest of the adventure & Alden’s BDay!

Much Love.

San Francisco: Part 2

Amazing.

The last two days have been a cuisine and cultural adventure through this great city.

As it turns out, the comedian And’s parents had tickets for was great. Will Durst-political comedian extraordinaire. Somehow, he got laughs out of everyone from the two of us below age 30 to the sixty people above age 50. Plus, it was refreshing to have an unbiased and actual, real yet hilarious review of the last few months of politics…because it has been kind of funny if you take a minute.

And lets get back to the cuisine. We had dinner at Dosa before the show and it. was. delish. A dosa is like an Indian crepe. Basically a pancake or crepe type breading filled with potato masala and sometimes other things. Or you could eat what I ate, which they made me sample before I actually ordered it. The Extreme Hot Habanero-Mango Dosa. It appears that they mix a habanero-mango paste with the dosa batter. I might have cried, but it was the tastiest dosa I have ever had..even compared to the one in London.

Plus, Andrea’s father called me “teeny weeny bladder,” like I’m part of the family or something. What a great night.

And Wednesday was a great day! We started with a lot of errands, namely getting Andreas teeth to the dentist (I chose to take mine to Ross- Dress For Less for a little shopping fiesta while I waited on her) and then going to the DMV to get Andrea a new license—to replace the missing one we lost somewhere in between Denver and her parents house. Then we went to the Mission District for Tacos! Or…quesadillas/burritos. Yum yum yum.

We spent the afternoon on bikes. Excellent.

We biked a lot of downhill and a lot of uphill and finally made it to the Golden Gate, which we rode across with great finesse before coasting down into Sausalito for some exploring. Sausalito is awesome..huge, beautiful houses right on on the water and tons of art galleries. We did some window browsing, enjoyed ice cream in the park and then cloud watched for another half hour before catching the ferry back to San Fran.

And the fog rolling in is great..

We biked back to Andrea’s house (more uphill) along the water, which was really nice. And then we were whisked away by her friend Justin (who works for Facebook) for an excellent dinner at Pacific Catch. We had sushi bowls. Sushi bowls are so yummy. And then we split maybe the largest piece of chocolate cake ever. Ever. Think Matilda…only the three of us still could barely attack it with honest vigor. Food coma.

And then bars! It was raining, but we braved the onslaught and took the bus down to Hayes St. to meet Reisel (from Bmore/BOMF!) at Place Pigalle. An excellent little bar with a super nice bartender and a huge selection of decently priced micro brews.

From there we headed back to Andrea’s neighborhood to stop in on one of her fave bars, Bar None. Lets just say it has a row of beer pong tables in the back (there is no way this is in health code) and we made some friends. :]

An all around success, I believe!

Now its back to CO for a few weeks. Half marathon training is beginning to pick up and I am hoping to actually get out on my bike more in the coming days. This weekend should be fun-filled as well, as I have Steph mostly convinced to hold a BBQ for the Cellar Dwellers on Sunday. Plus, my friend Rami (from BMore) is visiting for a brief two days on his epic Western adventure. Amber (the new roomy) is moving in sometime next week. And then-Austin in 21 days!

I’ll leave you with this little gem.

A late night find in the City by the Bay.

For now!