More on Independence Day

Coming back from our backpacking trip on Independence Day was only the beginning of the day for me! As soon as we got back, I got to work unpacking, doing laundry and cleaning up my gear and getting it put away.

Then I worked for two hours in my garden. I HAVE SLUGS IN MY GARDEN!!! They are eating all my strawberries and the leaves on my pea plants. So I decided to finally take the time to research what I can do about them and then wage a ware on them. I cleaned out all the weeds and dead leaves underneath my plants. Then I dug up the ground around the plants, put some rocks around the roots of them and threw some oats around since I hear that will help get rid of the slugs. And then.... be prepared.... I murdered all the slugs I found with salt. Yes. I know. I might have been a little sadistic yesterday afternoon.... but only towards those darn slugs! Slugs that keep eating my garden. I have several slug carcasses in little piles of salt lined up on the wood that borders my garden... let all other slugs be forewarned from entering my garden. Grrrr. :)

After my little murderous rampage, I went mountain biking with some friends up at Lambert Park. Then we came home and I finally got to shower! Just in time to ride our bikes up to campus again to watch the fireworks show from the Stadium of Fire.

And I must be in a little destructo stage right now. Last week I got into a little fender-bender on my street and then last night I totally got knocked into a car by the curb on my bike and put a scratch on this family's van. The family was sooooo nice. The dad told me not to worry about the scratch. I still feel bad though. :( I hope this stage ends soon.

A Little Stream-Crossing, Backpacking Trip

I found an amazing trail up Santaquin Canyon to go hiking/backpacking into! It was so GREEN and lush. And there was a beautiful stream running through it. The canyon was pretty narrow so we had ford through the stream several times. And we found a perfect campground too!

Jed, Jen, and I actually backpacked in and stayed the night, but Wendy and John hung out with us until after dinner on Friday night. We found our campground, set up camp, and then took off to go exploring further up the trails. There were flowers everywhere! And butterflies too. Dozens of them. You just wouldn't believe that it was so green and lush and beautiful up there. And the hike really wasn't too bad. It's a perfect trail to do on a short weekend since it was only a 30 minute drive from our house and about 30 minutes to hike into. Perfect!

My new tent that I bought over the winter when it was on sale was perfect! It was light and kept us dry during the night-time rainstorm we had. We really lucked out with the weather. The weather forecast was really sketchy and calling for rain the whole time we'd be hiking and then supposedly clear up during the night. I'm glad it came through the way it did.

I also bought a water filter and a camp pillow. The pillow - oh the pillow! - was heavenly. That was a good purchase... and the water filter is fun to have now.

And it's a good thing, Jed had his iPod Touch with him. That Monopoly game really saved us from going to bed at 8:30. Ha! It was fun to play. We saw a coyote that night and then a deer in the morning as we hiked out. Boy! Was that stream cold in the morning.

Big Springs

Wendy and I enjoyed the Big Springs trail today. It is one heck of an up-hill slog for 2 miles, but once you get up to the top the downhill makes it all worth it! I just feel like I'm flying through the meadows and the trees. And sometimes we even see some wildlife this big meadow - as we did one Friday night.

A Beautiful Morning Greeting

This is what I woke up to this morning. Aren't they beautiful????? I love them.

Life List Achievement: See Wicked

Wicked came to Salt Lake City, but no matter how I tried both on-line and on the phone, I could not get through to buy any tickets!!! Only those that camped out at the actual box office had any luck buying tickets. And then they've been scalping them for crazy prices.

So I heard that it was playing in San Francisco through the end of June, so... I thought I'd visit my sister and her family and see if she and her husband wanted to go see it with me. And they did!

We loved it. It was so fun, light-hearted and energetic! Glinda was a hoot! The set and visual effects were impressive as well. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was so worth seeing!

I Left my Heart in San Francisco

The day after I rode the Little Red Riding Hood, I flew out to San Francisco to visit my sister, Joni, and her family. It was such a beautiful day when I flew in we stopped by the beach along the Great Highway and walked around.

Joni and I had the pleasure of joining Ethan on his 6th grade class field trip to Chinatown where we went on a tour of Chinatown. And would you guess the coincidence - the moment I stepped off the elevator from the parking garage to the little park there in the middle of Chinatown, I hear someone shouting my name and see her running to me - it was my roommate, Amanda, from freshman and sophomore year of college!! Can you believe the coincidence? She lives in Provo as well and we rarely see each other there, so to come all the way to San Francisco and run into her there was wild! I saw her again the next night at Wicked. It was so fun to run into her!

The Chinatown tour was fascinating. We stopped by a temple, a pharmacy, a market and a fortune cookie factory - but the factory was not what you would guess it to be - it was more like a long closet with only 3 or 4 workers as opposed to the big production was expecting to see.

The next day my sister and I took their convertible into Napa Valley. We went on a tour of a winery where this extravagant man shipped bricks and stones from European countries and European masons, carpenters, fresco painters, builders, etc., to build a castle! On his vineyard property. $40 million dollars and 14 years - that's what it took to build that place. The poppies outside the castle were beautiful! Then we went to lunch at another winery, window-shopped along the main street in Calistoga, and enjoyed some little ice cream before we headed back home.

Then that night.... YES!!!! I saw Wicked!!! To be documented in the next post - since it is a life list achievement.

Life List Achievement: Ride a Century

My good friend, Janie, and I did it! We rode a full century, 103 miles, on our road bikes! Janie has done it before, but I hadn't.

We participated in the Little Red Riding Hood Century Ride that they hold every June up in Cache Valley in Utah. It is a women only ride and super fun. They held a luau the night before and we definitely partook of the yummy luau food that night. And we picked up our registration packets and I picked up my jersey. I ordered the jersey thinking it might be fun to have it but I told myself that I could only get the jersey if I rode the full century. And we did! I deserve my jersey!! :)

Saturday morning, we woke up to rain. Ugh. That was going to be bummer deal to ride through the rain. The weather forecast said it would be partly cloudy in the morning but then scattered thunderstorms would roll in around 11 am and stay for the rest of the day. So the ride was not going to be fun. But! The weather cleared up just as we started the ride at 7:30 in the morning. It was definitely a little chilly, but it warmed up and then guess what! The thunderstorms never came in!! We had a mean headwind for the last 40 miles, but a sweet tailwind for the first 60 miles.

The ride was beautiful and they had some yummy snacks about every 20 miles. We rode from Wellsville, Utah by the mouth of Sardine Canyon all the way up to Preston, Idaho and then back down to Wellsville. I felt great for the first 60 miles, and then I started to really feel the fatigue as we fought the headwind. And then after mile 80, my knees really started to bark at me. But we finished! And thank goodness for drafting. We had several women ride with us and help pull and draft. A couple times we drafted off a large group of women and that was fabulous! It was so much fun!

And then we crossed the finish line and had our picture taken with the Big Bad Wolf!! :)