Arn is the Martha!

My husband made me a delicious pie for my birthday a few weeks ago.  We had fresh organic Palisade peaches on hand and while I was at work he made the the pie.  The crust was great and he even made a lattice top crust.  Wow...........who knew.

Crested Butte Fall Weekend....................Whatever !

Whatever!

Mirror Lake (near TinCup,Co)

Spring Creek Reservoir

Clyde likes to play with rocks!

Twin Lakes

Favorite Hiking Food - Goldfish

Tin Cup, Colorado

Spring Creek Reservoir

A couple of weekends ago we went to CB to see Mere and Tim.  It was the weekend that Budweiser created the fake town of Whatever.  Everything was blue and Tim was involved in the creation.  Mere and Tim had wrist bands for the event.  We borrowed them and checked it out. It was pretty cool and we're looking forward to the commercials.  We also went a few places we've never been to before.
We drove out Brushcreek and went up a 4 wheel drive road for about and hr. and hiked about 2.5 mil. to Twin Lakes.  It was amazing and we only saw one other hiking group all day.  We also checked out Tincup, Co. and went to Mirror Lake. Tincup was a grouping of small cabins and we were hoping the only place to eat in town would be open but it was past the season.  The drive up to Spring Creek Res. was very pretty and so was the lake.   We will definitely return to these spots.  We had a few drinks at the Ginger Cafe and a great dinner at Garlic Mikes.  Meredith also made Elk Enchiladas which were delicious. 

Salt Lake City / Tooele Utah Fun

Sundial Peak and Blanche Lake

Blanche, Florence, and Lillian

Valerie and I spent Labor Day weekend in Salt Lake City.  It was nice to be back.  The drive was easy and we had no problems.  We arrived in Tooele where Dani and Bart live since they got married the end of Aug. We spent the first day checking out the Farmer's Market downtown, shopping and checking out some of our favorite places.  We met Robbyn and Steve at The Cotton Bottom Bar for a garlic burger.  On Sunday Val and I went on a hike up to the 3 Sisters Lakes in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  It seemed much harder than it did 20 yr. ago.  It's about 3 miles up to Blanche Lake, Florence Lake, and Lake Lillian.  It's pretty much uphill the whole way and was pretty crowded.  We did see a moose just off the trail about 30 ft.  Dani and Bart had a cookout that evening and we had some Dutch oven cooking which was wonderful.  On Monday we were going to try another hike but it was more crowded up the canyon.  We did have a wonderful breakfast at the Silver Fork Lodge which was one of our favorites when we lived there.  Dani and Bart's reception was Monday evening.  It was beautiful, the food was great, and it was nice seeing all of our old neighbors.  It was at Louland Falls which I didn't even know existed the whole time we lived there.  We drove back early on Tuesday morning.

Louland Falls

Great beer made by Steve Dunn

Val just after saying that the Farmer's market didn't have many trash cans!

Silver Fork deck up Big Cottonwood Canyon

Silver Fork Lodge

Tubing Clear Creek

On one of the last weekends in August we went to Golden and went tubing on Clear Creek with Val and Eric.  I was pretty fun and wasn't that cold.  It seemed like you could tube for a mile or so before getting out of the water.  The Creek is also the Kayak Park and is beautiful with manmade areas on the riversides (to decrease erosion). The bike path runs along the river so it's easy to tube and then get out and walk back up to do it again.  Chops and Turk enjoyed the water too.  We stopped by the Cannon Ball Brewry to try their beer and the food truck pizza.

Bandon, Oregon

Salmon caught in the bay.

Wizard's Hats

Low tide walks

The View from our room at the Bandon Inn

Elephant Rock

Great driftwood

Face Rock

Star Fish

A Great Irish Bar

Dying Seal

We loved Bandon, Oregon.  We were there last month for Dani and Bart's wedding and really loved the town.  I could see going back and spending a couple of weeks there.  We walked the beaches at low tide (Coquille Pt), enjoyed the sleepy seaside town, ate as much seafood as we could, checked out some golf courses (Bandon Dunes), collected rocks and driftwood, watched people catch Dungeness crab off the dock, went to the farmer's market, spent time with friends, and relaxed.  What a wonderful place to discover!

Discovering Oregon

Atop Thompson Rock overlooking Hwy 101

Kite surfers - Hood River

Tsunami Warning - notice the drowning person.

Whale Sighting

Hobbit Hike to the Beach

Passion Flower

Multnomah Falls

Amazing Vegetation

Sacajawea and her dog/Lewis and Clark Trail

Last month we discovered Oregon.  I think if I had known what it was like earlier in my life, I'd be living there.  It is absolutely beautiful.  We flew in on a Tues. afternoon and took the next day to drive up the Columbia River Gorge Highway.  We hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls, hiked Thompson Rock, saw Mt. hood, watched kite surfers in Hood River, went to a couple of wineries, and drove back through Washington State on the other side of the River.  Val flew in on Wed. eve and we took the whole day on Thurs. to drive down to Bandon, Oregon.  We started in Portland, drove over to Lincoln City, and drove down Hwy 101.  It was pretty foggy off and on but we really enjoyed it.  We stopped at a few beaches, had clam chowder for lunch, saw seals and a whale, hiked the Hobbit Hike, and got to Bandon in the late afternoon.