~ blue Missoula ~

As the subject of politics can sometimes elicit excitement and alter behavior, I went on a road trip over the weekend to Missoula Montana with Josh and Eric. The origins of the trip go back a few weeks when we were staying up past our bed times discussing the impending presidential election. Liberals in Idaho frequenlty confront reality when wanting to 'get involved' with politics beyond the local level. It's unfortunate that anytime I might consider volunteering for the state democratic party about, oh say, the presidential elections, I am detered because it seems like an incredible waste of time. During the political discussion of a few weeks ago, Eric mentioned that the Idaho Obama Campaign is encouraging potential volunteers to head to Montana because it has more democratic leanings than Idaho.

And so early last Thursday morning, we loaded up three adults, their crap, and their mountain bikes into my fuel-efficient vehicle and drove to Missoula. The drive was long, but it wasn't horrendous by any stretch of the imagination. We arrived in Missoula at about 4:00 pm and made our way to Eric's brother's house, where we would be staying. If you recall, Thursday was the night of the Vice Presidential Debate, so we declined a family dinner engagement and went to downtown Missoula to watch the debate over some beers. There was a bit of a snafu in the communication between Eric and the Obama Campaign dude, in which the latter had informed the former that there was to be a debate watching party, when that information was untrue. We made our way to the Union Club, thinking we were going to be watching the debate with other bleeding heart liberals, but other bleeding heart liberals we did not find. Instead, we got some grub from the bar kitchen (I had a chilli hot dog with fries, if you are curious) and watched the debate. The bar ended up getting really packed with other debate-viewers, so we were far from lonesome. Afterwards, we wandered around downtown.

The next morning, we rose and went back downtown for breakfast. Upon the suggestion of a local, we went to a very small place on Higgins. The goodness of the breakfast was slightly overshadowed by the crowdedness of the place (as Eric had to sit alone in the corner for some time due to lack of available seating). Afterwards, we wandered around that part of town, venturing into a few shops, including a bike shop and some kind of strange novelty shop. We also explored Eric's old neighborhood, including a walk by his old house. The males also got their swing on. After extensive wandering, we went to a coffee shop where I had lunch of a roasted red pepper sandwich and barley salad. I also took the opportunity to visit a yarn shop that was reported by various internet folks as being the best yarn shop in Missoula. Once I walked into the shop, however, I was to feel slightly uncomfortable as the shop owner was discussing her ill health and impending death with a friend. I was unsure what the most polite behavior would be in this instance, so I just kind of walked the circumference of the shop quietly and slipped out.

Then we went over to Rattlesnake recreation area and went on a fun mountain bike ride. I must say, the mountains outside of Missoula make the Boise foothills pale in comparison. Eric led us on a ride that took us way up the mountains and afforded us a lovely view.

The downhill was great fun, punctuated by a herd of wild turkey sighting. We ended up doing two loops. The first took us up the mountains at a fairly steep grade and wound us along the side of the mountains. The second was up some of the roads at a more moderate grade and down some singletrack with switchbacks. Both times we ended the loops with a fun jaunt through what I called Sherwood Forrest, a section that had truly sweet winding singletrack in which the autumn colors were striking on the adjacent trees.

The ride was a lot of fun and left me wanting to take a longer trip to Missoula to have more riding in its mountains. Afterwards, we picked up a large quantity of pizza for Eric's family, as a token of appreciation for letting us invade their home. We had every intention of hitting the bars that evening, but found ourselves watching "Empire Strikes Back" instead. I have to say, watching a Star Wars film with commentary by a five and four year old is a quality experience.

The next day, we went to a bakery downtown for breakfast and coffee. Afterwards, we went to the Obama campaign headquarters and spent half an hour in an asinine training, as though canvassing is rocket science. We got our clipboards and went to a neighborhood near the University to do our political duty. Eric went by himself and Josh and I teamed up. I thought the volunteer coordinator was full of doo-doo when he estimated it would take us 3.5 hours, but he proved to be right on the money with his estimate. Josh and I were able to get several people registered to vote and got quite a few absentee ballot requests completed. We also had a good conversation with a Republican leaning Obama as well as a few Independents. Therefore, if Montana goes blue this election, it will be ALL because of us. We rule.

By the time we were done canvassing, at around 2:30, we were all starvin' marvin. Eric directed us to a drive-in where we procured some delicious drive-in food. Of course, I couldn't allow us to have a normal / boring drive-in experience. I had to go an drop Eric's burger down the front of my person and onto the car floor. The server person was nice enough to get him another free of charge. Then, as I was exiting the car, I managed to drop the entire tray that was loosely affixed to the window and which was supporting multiple uncovered containers of ketchup, all over the ground. The resulting ketchup splatter caused me to have a large quantity of ketchup all over my clothing, compounding the preexisting ketchup and mustard stains that I aquired when I dropped Eric's burger onto my person. Anyway, I was just keeping it interesting for everyone.

The next adventure was to Blue Sky Brewery for some free beer. If you've ever been to a local brewery, you can imagine how that adventure went. We all had to try on every single Brewery hat, had to play with all of the beer openners, had to put the beer cozies on our heads, and in general defied our maturity level. Afterwards, we returned to Eric's brother's house for some R&R. That evening, Eric went to a family BBQ and Josh and I had a date in downtown Missoula. We went to a sushi place, where we enjoyed some fairly good sushi, and then wandered all around, having various silly moments. We explored the river area, having a great deal of fun running on some grassy mounds and eventually went to a bar for some wine. We returned to the homestead where Eric recounted the shenanigans of the family BBQ.

The next morning, which would have been Sunday, we had a hearty breakfast with the family, which included pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage made from a deer that Eric's brother shot and killed. We then loaded our persons, our crap, and our bikes into the car and set off for Boise. The drive back took longer as a result of more lengthy stops, including a lunch stop at Kooskia.

Photos for this are available here

Posted by jennifer at 8:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ Seattle adventures ~

Josh and I went to Seattle for a few days last week to celebrate the anniversary of my birth. Yay, birth! Our adventures centered around eating, shopping, and wandering. As a preliminary, photos are available on my Seattle photoset.

For the hotel, I received a banging good deal on a place downtown. Downtown, however, has a number of meanings. For me, "downtown" refers to a place where all of the cool young people spend their time. I attribute this interpretation to the fact that Boise is not a big city. In cities larger than Boise, "downtown" generally refers to the business and financial district. When I scheduled the hotel, I didn't give any consideration to the meaning of "downtown." And so, in Seattle, we found ourselves among lots of people in business suits, towering skyscrapers, and concrete. As such, we embraced our walking shoes and the bus system, so as to spend a good amount of time outside of downtown.

For the hotel, I'd also like to mention that this was advertised as "a three-star hotel for the price of a two-star." Which was exciting because Josh and I normally stay at 1 or 0.5 star hotels, so we were living the high life!

We arrived at the SeaTac airport Wednesday afternoon. The bus system, I found very user-friendly and affordable. It cost $1.50 to ride from the airport to downtown. After we checked into our hotel, we employed a technique that we used several times during the trip: asking locals for recommendations. As restaurants in the downtown area were pretty expensive, Josh asked a local person for a cheap place for dinner. She referred us to Bruno's, an Italian / Mexican restaurant. That odd combination (Italian/Mexican) should have compelled us to turn around, but we were hungry. The interior of the establishment was overflowing with plastic plants, which should have also compelled us to turn around, but we were hungry. I had a chimichanga from the Mexican side of the menu, and Josh had some spaghetti from the Italian side. The two sides of the menu offered very different experiences: I loved my chimichanga, Josh was really disappointed with his spaghetti. I had a decent opinion of the establishment until we were about to leave and I decided to visit the restroom. Let me tell you, if I had gone to the restroom when we had first arrived, I would have insisted that Josh and I leave immediately. I was very disturbed and revolted by the conditions of the restroom and I can no longer look back on my chimichanga experience without being grossed out.

Our next adventure involved a lot of wandering around. We wandered over to Pike's Market, along the waterfront, and then through downtown. We stopped for beers at a place called Cyclops, where Josh ordered a special local beer that I forget the name of. Later that evening, we went down to Pioneer Square. From a street vendor, we bought DELICIOUS hotdogs and then went to New Orleans (a pub) for more beer and live jazz music. There, we had the Purple Haze raspberry beer, about which I had mixed feelings. The jazz was wonderful.

THURSDAY

The next day, we started the day right with some caffeine and treats at a coffee shop. We then went over to Columbia Tower, and rode the elevators to the 73rd floor to admire the view. After that, we went back down to Pioneer Square and did our main tourist activity, participating in the Underground Tour. It was very interesting and provided a good opportunity to get out of the rain for a bit. Ah, I haven't mentioned the weather: it was overcast and rainy for 99% of the time. You all probably recall the numerous times that I have indicated my preference for non-rain, but it proved to be quite tolerable with my rain-proof jacket.

For lunch, we wandered over to the International District and went to an "authentic Hong Kong" restaurant. Josh and I were feeling like exploring food options outside of our normal comfort level. And so he ordered noodles with oyster sauce and kidneys and liver, while I ordered shrimp potstickers and some meat/rice dish that I forget what it was. Josh's noodles were good (I helped myself plenty to his meal). I've been wanting to try liver for some time, as it is supposed to be really good for one's person. I ate 1.5 pieces of liver before the gag reflex began. Josh ate all of the rest. The kidneys were a different story. I'm not sure the nutritional benefit of kidneys, but Josh ate one piece and was extremely revolted. He articulated that the kidney tasted like solidified urine and recommended that I not sample one. My personal meal experience would have been better if I had gone with vegetarian options, as I am not a very good carnivore. I ate most of my rice and had some good potsticker experiences, but then I had several instances where I bit into a meat product and wasn't sure what it was that I had in my mouth, and wished that I had gone with a vegetable dish.

We then wandered for a very long time. Eventually, we got to the Capitol Hill area where we visited some shops and had a sit-down at a coffee shop. As we were making our way back to downtown, Josh became stricken with a severe case of Athlete's Foot. I surmise that the soggy shoes from all the rain were responsible. We parted ways at a pharmacy where he could get some ointment for his feet and I continued to wander. I went into a number of retail stores and tried on about four hundred clothing items, but did not find anything I wanted to purchase. I then returned to the hotel, utterly exhausted, and vegetated in front of the television for some time.

That evening, we went for dinner at Elliot's which came highly recommended. We spent a lot of money on crab, which Josh has apparently never before eaten. It was not the best crab dinner as a result of what I believe was margarine instead of butter. Afterwards, we wandered some more.

FRIDAY

After getting some coffee and breakfast, Josh and I took the bus up to the Freemont area where we walked around. There were a number of shops we visited, and Josh procured a pair of pants. We also had lunch there, at some super new-agey/hippie place which I don't recall the name of...something like Silence-Heart-Spirit, or whatever.

After that, we decided to catch a bus to the university district. While waiting at the bus stop, I identified a fellow knitter by her hand-knit scarf and struck up a conversation about local yarn shops. As a result of my being VERY introverted, I'm not generally one to converse with strangers and, for me, meeting people is near-to impossible, but throw knitting into the situation and I'm suddenly rather extroverted.

In the University District, Josh and I found several second-hand stores to peruse. I had good luck and found FIVE shirt items for no more than $10 each. Afterwards, I deposited Josh at a coffee shop and went off to the recommended yarn shop, where I found myself in yarn shop heaven. It was called Weaving Works and I was impressed with how well organized it was. Normally, the yarn organization of a yarn shop can elude me, but this place was very well organized by fiber content and then by brand. I was shopping for yarn for two projects that I've got in mind and I splurged big time. After considerable thought and comparison, I chose Noro Silk Garden for a scarf and Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed for a sweater. They are glorious! I also purchased two sets of four buttons, which I found very satisfying. Afterwards, we asked some people for a dinner recommendation and they referred us to an Indian restaurant. Josh and I shared an order of samosas and a curry dish. I also had a beer. It was, by far, the best meal of the entire trip, and was one of the more affordable meals.

To top off the evening (and because our feet were tired), we decided to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. It was not very good and we probably could have done something better with our time, but whatever.

SATURDAY

We got breakfast at a recommended establishment (which proved to be not very good) and walked around a bit before catching the bus to the airport.

All in all, it was a good trip but the weather made me somewhat depressed. We arrived to a sunshiney Boise and my spirits are getting back to normal. Yesterday, we went on a fun mountain bike ride. I need to put in some time on the bike this week, as I recently found out that Josh and I have been sponsored to ride the 100 mile course in this coming weekend's Bob LeBow Bike Tour for which I am utterly unprepared! Something tells me that I will not be riding the entire 100 miles - - hello sag wagon!!!

Posted by jennifer at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

~ Arkansas ~

Spent the last week in northwest Arkansas visiting Josh's family. We had the opportunity to visit a number of the little towns around the area and do a bit of exploring. I was a bit surprised by how hilly and lush (by winter standards) Arkansas is. It would have probably been better for my impression of Arkansas to visit during the summer when the lushness would be more vibrant, but I don't think I could handle what sounds like a very active insect infestation. The trip, for me, would have been better if I had not come down with a flu virus two days into the trip. I am not a good sick person and found myself battling the crankiness.

Highlights of the trip included walking through the cute neighborhoods, finding two good coffee shops (one with good soup, the other with good coffee), visiting a wonderful knitting shop, and having some good people moments. In particular, I had the opportunity to don some real leather biker gear and go on a motorcycle ride through some hills into Missouri with Josh's father. The best day was when the family caravanned to Eureka Springs and spent the day walking around the cute town in the Ozarks. The sun came out that day and the light was simply glorious. Josh and I hiked up to the top of one of the hills into a strange rural Arkansas Ozark neighborhood and had a great time exploring. That evening, the remaining members of the family went to the Crescent Hotel which is apparently haunted by ghosts - - and had plenty of fun.

For photos, here's the link to my Arkansas photo album. I have omitted the hundreds of photos of people opening presents.

As fate would have it, Josh and I continued to have travel snafu after travel snafu. On the way to Arkansas, Josh and I made it to our destination...our luggage did not. As there are not a whole lot of flights to rural Arkansas, it took some time before it arrived. On the way to back to Boise, our already incredibly long travel day was lengthened because the Atlanta airport was completely shut down due to fog, so we had to be diverted to Dallas, and so the sitting around in the airport was augmented considerably. I spent all day yesterday recovering from the flight. We could have gone to Europe in the time that it took us to fly halfway across the country. Anyway, it's nice to be home.

Posted by jennifer at 9:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ merry making ~

~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~

On Saturday, Elizabeth and I went on a big wonderful hike in the Owyhees in the Wilson Creek area. I was particularly proud of myself that I was able to successfully navigate us to the trailhead without too many wrong turns. About three weekends ago, Josh and I engaged in a big mountain bike adventure in the Owyhees, which included a bit of riding the Wilson Creek area. Due to the rugged and unorganized features of the trail that we rode, we assumed that we had failed to locate the actual Wilson Creek trail. As such, prior to embarking this weekend to the area, Josh recommended that I take Elizabeth to this other trailhead, which we were certain would be the real Wilson Creek trail. It was not. Elizabeth and I spent a few minutes hiking on some singletrack until it branched into an ATV road which ultimately took us to the main road in a very roundabout way. I tried to explain that this is all a part of the Owyhee experience...uncharted and unmarked, with different makeshift trails and ATV roads intersecting everywhere, and the constant probability of getting lost. During this part of the hike, we encounterd some horse riders who directed us to the "real" Wilson Creek trail, which was the trail that Josh and I had ridden bikes on. Apparently, it forms a great big loop. Elizabeth and I navigated ourselves to that proper trail and had this glorious hike through some amazing Owyhee scenery, which you may view in the photos above. During the hike, we saw a big lizzard and had a number of really gross and fascinating conversations about what she's been learning in her anatomy classes.

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In other news, on Friday, I spontaneously acquired a new mountain bike. To make a long and involved story "short," Josh was looking at this Stumpjumper hardtail last Thursday and felt that it would be a better bike for me than the HiFi that I've been riding. He had developed a theory that the HiFi was too much bike for me and that I should ride a bike that centered my weight lower to the ground to increase stability. What is more, this Stumpjumper has v-brakes and not disc brakes, which was particularly exciting for me. So, it was absolutely random that he called me on Thursday and planted the seed of this new bike in my head. I let the seed take root over night as I pondered and researched it. Initially, I wasn't enthusiastic about the idea, but on Friday, I took my lunch break and went to the bike shop to see this new bicycle and it became an agonizing decision for me. I was not at all concerned about the money, as the only reason that I work is so that I can afford those things that make up a lifestyle that brings me joy and happiness, however I was concerned about the prospect of buying yet another bike that wouldn't be perfect for me. There is an agonzing uncertainty when it comes to trying to find the right bike. And bikes aren't the sort of thing that one can purchase, ride around for a bit, decide it's not the right bike, and return for a different bike.

On Friday, as I was test-riding the Stumpjumper, it was apparent that I would not be afraid of the bike. I have written extensively about my strong disc brakes that lack proper modulation and how I exist in a constant state of fear with regards to these brakes. And this fear has been justified and reinforced by the simple and plain fact that I have crashed a number of times on this bike as a direct result of these brakes and the fear that they have caused. I understand the concept that one must have correct form and skill with regards to using one's mountain bike, but at the same time, I feel that the mountain bike should be a user-friendly tool to enable me to have fun on the trail rather than being an obstacle to overcome. And so, I decided to get the Stumpjumper. Even though it is a "downgrade" in terms of going from full suspension back to a hardtail, I decided to sacrifice cushy suspension in favor of not being afraid.

The pro-con list that developed during this decision-making process was rather extensive and complex. In the end, the decision became easy when I imagined riding my favorite trails and no longer being afraid. And I am confident that I made the right decision in getting the Stumpjumper. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to take her out on a ride. Josh and I did some old favorites, Sidewinder and Shane's Loop. The first point to make is that I haven't had so much fun on a mountain bike ride for months and months as I did on this ride. The difference was palpable. I also haven't ridden as fast, both uphill and downhill, for months. I felt so comfortable and relaxed on the bike, what with the sheer lack of fear, and I cannot begin to articulate how CONFIDENT I felt! For the first time in what seems like a LONG time, I felt in control. The ride on the downhill felt tight, controlled, smooth, seamless, nimble, stable, and incredible. I was able to let go of the brakes and just fly down the trail, knowing that I could slam on the brakes at any given moment if necessary. Whereas on the HiFi, I always made a concerted effort to keep my speed at a controlled pace because I was concerned that if I had to brake suddenly that I would fly over the handlebars. And this, I feel, is the primary advantage of weak v-brakes...being able to let loose yet still be in control. What is more, a primary difficulty that I had with the HiFi and downhill form was the concept of putting weight onto the front wheel. As I was afraid of flying over the handlebars, you know, because I flew over the handlebars and crashed several times, I would try to keep my weight as far off of the front wheel as I could. Proper downhill form requires weight on the front wheel to ensure stability and traction, which can feel very counter-intuitive if one is afraid of flying over the front of the bike. On the Stumpjumper, my lack of fear of crashing over the handlebars allowed me to comfortably put weight onto the front wheel during my downhill, which increased my feeling of stability and control. All in all, the experience was amazing and to further my feeling that this was the right decision is the generocity and understanding of the bike shop bosses who let me basically walk away with the new Stumpjumper in a quasi exchange for the HiFi.

Posted by jennifer at 8:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ mini-vacation Salmon, Idaho ~

I have found that when one has the opportunity to embark upon a spontaneous mini-vacation, that it is generally in one's best interest (of having a splendid time) to take advantage of that opportunity. Last week, Josh and I had such an opportunity - - he had the rare, so to speak, chance to take a three day "weekend" (being that his normal weekend is Friday and Saturday, it became a three-day with the additional day off of Thursday). It turned out to be a perfect week for me to cut my hours short by two days, despite the short notice of taking Thursday and Friday off on Monday. We then had two days to come to an agreement about how to spend our mini-vacation. Now, I don't know about all you other couples out there, but occasionally Josh and I find ourselves engaged in heated negotiations to agree on something. With regards to the mini-vacation debate, we each had our hearts set on a certain place, only for the other person to articulate a number of reasons in disfavor of that location. Eventually, the night before we were planning to set off on our adventure, we found agreement on the location of Salmon, Idaho.

According to Mapquest, the drive from Boise to Salmon is estimated at 5 hours and 11 minutes. Josh and I had established approximately 3 hours as the maximum time allowance for driving, so it's surprising that we decided to travel somewhere with almost twice the travel time. To compensate, we decided to stop at about the halfway point for a big bike ride. We stopped several miles before Stanley and completed a 20 mile loop around the Knapp Creek area of the Sawtooths.

The Knapp Creek Loop was pretty fun. When we arrived at the trailhead, there was a big bright yellow sign indicating that the area was "BEAR COUNTRY" and advised trail users to make noise so as not to startle any bears. Now, I have read enough reports about people in Idaho being mauled by bears to take a sign like that seriously. Which is why, for the majority of the ride, Josh and I were singing and humming nonsensical tunes for to not startle bears. For me, however, it was a nice change to fear being mauled by a bear than to be afraid of some aspect of the bike ride. Indeed, there was nothing about the ride that could have frightened a 'fraidy pants like me. It was labelled as a beginner/intermediate ride, the only reason for the intermediateness about it being a wee little bit on the technical side and the length (20 miles being nothing to shake a stick at). Personally, I was loving the wee little bit of technical action on the trail - - one does not see much technical spots on the Boise foothills - - and it was a nice challenge that made the ride more interesting. Another interesting factor about the ride were the number of creek crossings we faced. There was quite a bit of water running down those mountains, sieved nicely into streams and creeks. The first major creek crossing I peddled my way through no problem, despite my feet and ankles dipping fully into the water. The other major crossing was more of a river which was far too deep for peddling. Wow, ice water from the mountains can sure make one's feet lose all circulation quickly!

The last few miles of the ride got a bit old for me - - we left Boise at 9:00 in the morning, started our bike ride at 1:00 in the afternoon, and that was a long time for me to go without a full meal. At mile 17 of the bike ride (which was around 2:45), I was officially about to faint from starvation. We had all kinds of energy bars and calorie drinks, but I needed FOOD. After returning to the car, we quickly made our way to Stanley where we had a big meal. The last leg of the drive was a bit more tedious and uncomfortable, as our butts were in the process of withering up and dying from sitting in the car for so long.

But we made it! The night before, we made reservations to stay at the Greyhouse Bed and Breakfast (see above photo), which is 12 miles outside of town along the Salmon River. We stayed in one of the cabins for a very reasonable rate. Our cabin was nice and odd. It was a good solid cabin with a comfy bed...and it was decorated with a simply ridiculous amount of fish motifs. There were stuffed fish everywhere, several on the bed as pillows, some on the chairs as cushions, and even some sticking here and there for mere decoration. The walls had a wide assortment of fish in various format, everything was fish, fish, fish. Whatever, the bed was comfy and there was plenty of hot water.

After settling into our fishy cabin and taking showers, Josh and I decided to drive on over to Salmon for some groceries. It was about 8:00 by the time that we hit the road again. We took a quick tour of the town, which is super cute, and stopped by a grocery store for some food items, and beer. We then sat on our porch at the cabin, snacking and drinking our beers. It was very nice.

The next day, we rose at 8:00 and had breakfast with our fellow bed and breakfasters. We also procured a map of the area and began to ponder our adventures for the day. After breakfast, we went back to the town for some real exploring. We walked up and down Main Street, visited the Lemhi County Historical Museum (where Josh and I were both conned into picking up solidified hair balls from cows' stomachs - - those Salmonites have questionable senses of humor). Josh took the opportunity to question several individuals about possible mountain biking trails. There were several options and, ultimately, we decided to ride Twelve Mile Creek for the reason that we would not have to drive to get there (it began a block down from the Greyhouse Bed and Breakfast).

Twelve Mile Creek is a forest service road that travels up and up into whatever wilderness area. I think that we were forewarned that it is a rocky road, but it's difficult to know how much weight to give various warnings. You know, Josh and I have been warned about mountain biking on this or that trail by all sorts of non-mountain bikers, only to discover that there was no need for any kind of a warning. This Twelve Mile Creek forest service road was just like the warnings we heard... ROCKY - - and I don't mean there were some rocks on it, I mean that the entire road for miles and miles is nothing but big loose rocks, such that it was quite a challenge to ride. And it was HOT. The grade did not seem like much, but after looping around the first switchback, I glanced down into the bottomless void from which I had ridden, and realized we were climbing much more than it seemed. We stopped at several of the streams coming down the mountain and stuck our heads in the icy water to cool down - - did I mention that it was HOT?! We made it about 9 miles up before we gave up - - we were hoping to arrive at some scenic meadow area, but with each switchback going higher and higher, our hopes diminshed. And the rocks were making for something of an unpleasant climb. It was not the nice technicals of the ride the previous day, it was frustrating rockiness that was just a pain in the bottom. So after 9 miles of butt pains, we turned around. I had been a little wary about the prospect of the downhill on such a rocky, deceivingly-steep road with a massive drop off into a deep void off the side of the road (see: fraidy pants). So I started my descent focusing on my proper biking form, not looking at the scary drop off next to me, and trying to not wipe out on the rocks. At some point, I thought about how one could really fuck one's self up by crashing on such a road. Somehow, in spite of all these scary factors, I was having fun! I hit a massive rock head on, unintentionally, and it was absorbed into my shocks and my descent continued uninterrupted. As I continued down, carefully engaging my breaks at the proper times (not in corners, not as I hit big rocks, not as I rolled through loose sections of rocks) and let my wheels carry me through the sketchy sections, it became really awesome. Soon, I let go of the breaks all together and only used them to keep my speed from getting out of control. According to my computer, I was going 15...18...20...22...25...27 miles an hour down a steepish rocky road, faster than a car would have gone, with my shocks absorbing all of the rocks so that my ride was cushy and comfy. For a good while, I was even seated, with the rear suspension making for a smooth ride. After a while, I started riding over the bigger and looser rocks, just for practicing. At the bottom, the straightaway before the highway, I was going almost 35 mph, which is pretty fast for me. It was a great ride!

That evening, we went back into town for some dinner at a place called the Shady Nook. I enjoyed some blackened salmon and sweet potato fries and Josh had some kind of alfredo pasta thing and french onion soup. We then wandered around down by the river where Josh impressed me with his ability to skip rocks. I hypothesize that the skipping of rocks is some base animal instinct that dudes have retained over the ages in order to attract a mate. The rock skipping ritual lasted quite some time, it was as though Josh was showing of his vibrant plummage.

The next day, Saturday, was the end of our mini-vacation. We had breakfast at the Greyhouse and loaded into the car for the drive back. We opted to go the LONG way so that we could see Craters of the Moon. We biked a 7 mile loop around the area, and saw lots of volcanic stuff. I'd never been there before, so it was nice to have that opportunity.

Also during the drive back, we opted to stop in several of the small towns along the way for a quick walk around. In Mackay, pop. 500, we found a number of yard sales to peruse and managed to skedaddle out just in time to miss the town parade. I don't parades. We had lunch in another little town, Carey, I believe. Also, I had quite the giggle as we passed through Arco, the first community in the world to be lit by nuclear power!

The great misadventure of the trip was while we were driving along this remote highway after leaving Mackay, at 65 mph, and all of a sudden Josh (who was driving) looked in the rearview mirror and screamed "Your bike is gone!" I practically had a heart attack as I looked back at the trunk rack to see no Minty Fresh (what I named by brand new expensive bike). Immediately, we turn around, thinking that the bike must have flown off the rack (because it was on the rack when we left Mackay). The amazing irony being that this was a brand new fancy pants rack that Josh arranged for us to use specifically for this trip. For years, I've used this trunk rack that my dad found at some thrift store for $5, and it has served me well (no bikes flying off). This rack that I've had, however, has just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. The manner in which it fastens to the car is questionable, and Josh and I are always going to great pains to secure the bikes to the rack. So for this big trip, Josh wanted to have the piece of mind of using a high quality brand new bike shop recommended rack. It attaches to my car so much better, and it has wonderful pads and straps for the bikes, to hold them securely. So it was quite the shock to look back and see that my bike was no longer on the rack! As we were driving back from whence we had came, I was scanning the sides of the road, expecting to see my brand new (expensive) bike, having been crushed and run over by the traffic, all bent up, broken, and sad. Boy, was my heart rate up. We did not drive for very long when we began to wonder if perhaps the bike was somehow dragging along behind us. Josh pulled over and I ran to the back, where I discoverd my bicycle dangling by the cheap cable lock that we had used to lock the bikes to the rack while in the thief-ridden town of Mackay. Somehow, the straps securing the bike to the rack came undone and the bike flew off the rack, but the lock held. I cannot find the words to describe my relief that my bike was not only NOT bent, broken, and sad along the side of the road, but that it appeared to be undamaged. I was so glad that we had randomly decided to put the crappy cable lock on the bikes, which would have done nothing if a thief had really wanted to steal our bikes, but which managed to hold the bike up enough so that it wasn't even dragging along the road as we sped along at 65 mph. There is not even single a scratch on sweet Minty Fresh!

Whew!

Anyhoo, here's a link to my flickr set on this mini-adventure.

Posted by jennifer at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ cramping quads ~

Is it true that when one does an extra-ordinary amount of difficult physical activity, that one is the most sore two days later??? I guess I'm not so much "sore" per se, but rather that one of my quadriceps is seizing up into these painful cramps. I hypothesize that it is acting up because of an unusual quantity of bicycle riding I engaged in this weekend. After all, on Friday I did a 17 mile ride, and the next day, I rode 25 miles, both on the mountain bike.

The second of these long rides was to the old ghost town of Silver City. After 12.5 miles of riding uphill and getting overheated enough to stick my head into a creek to cool down, I was happy to arrive at the dusty gates of Silver City. Josh and I had driven to the end of the pavement and then ridden bikes the rest of the way (12.5 miles rest of the way). The ride was not as difficult as I had expected. Not nearly as steep and the road was in much better condition than I expected it to be. The road, however, was hardpack with a thin layer of loose sand, and I had a near-wipeout-miss. The ride was made difficult by the heavy backpack that I was carrying. I hate carrying things on my back and I actively seek to avoid it under most circumstances. However, it was necessary for me to carry extra water, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and some other supplies, and I had no other means to carry them except for aforementioned backpack. But, oh man!, it was so heavy and it felt like it weighed an extra 30 pounds and was dragging me down, cramping up my shoulders and back.

Silver City itself wasn't quite what I had expected. As a ghost town, I had imagined abandoned buildings and tumbleweeds rolling through the streets. I also wasn't expecting to see as many people as there were. Not only are the buildings in use, some people actually live there, but most of the buildings are being renovated and restored. There were also a lot of people there, it was a popular place! Most everyone was driving an SUV or ATV and we had several people exclaim to us, "Did you ride your bikes the whole way up that road?!!!"

As some point, we were down by the creek that runs through the middle of town, underneath a large wooden building, when a dude in an ATV came by and offered to let us see the inside of the building. As we were on the wrong side of the creek from the front door, he allowed us to sit on the hood of his ATV (me, holding on for dear life!) while he took us across the creek. Inside the building, we discovered a veddy veddy old Mason Lodge. There were all kinds of odd things here and there, peeling wallpaper, and dusty cult trinkets. Probably the most interesting find was an old globe that (you know, because it was old) had different nation states than what we know today.

Silver City is in a valley in the mountains. After we had ridden ten miles up and up and up the mountains, we had about 2.5 miles to descend into the town. On the return trip, my legs were cursing me for making them continue to work. I kept telling them, my legs, that they didn't have much more work to do, that it was almost over, but they were having none of it, being all cranky and pissy with me. After that climb, there was a good long downhill which I took the opportunity to practice braking techniques. At the very end, there was another climb right before the spot where we had parked the car. I must have gotten some sort of adrenaline rush on the downhill, because I suddenly had more energy than I had on the rest of the ride and it was probably the funnest part of the whole ride for me. It was one of the steeper grades, yet I was easily going twice as fast than my average pace up the rest of the climbs.

Incidentally, I've got a computer hooked up to my computer, so I do know for a fact the distance and speed at which I was riding. My fastest speed on that downhill was 28 mph, which felt pretty fast to me. On the ride the previous evening, the mere 17 miles on the Boise front, my fastest speed was 32 mph, which I was peddling down Bogus Basin Road in an effort to catch up to some downhill riders we had chatted with up on the trail. I thought it would be super funny if I zoomed up to them and said, "Hey guys, how's it hanging?" while passing them. Unfortunately, right as we caught up to them, one of the dudes crashed on the pavement in a spectacular tour de force and I had the opportunity to see his muscle tissue poking out from under his knee and an arm with a lot of missing skin. Somehow, his friends kept on riding, so Josh and I kept the dude company until his friends had the sense to come to his aid. I felt a little bad for how happy I was that it wasn't me who had crashed, 'cause I bet it sucks to be him, but hey, at least empathy doesn't imply that you physically experience the same trauma and pain as another. Empathetically, I felt for his pain, but I certainly didn't feel his pain.

Oh, but to return to the title of this post, Cramping Quads, I'd like to direct your feelings of empathy towards my quadriceps which are crampy and seizing up with tightness. Boo!

Posted by jennifer at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ I <3 NY ~

New York City made me sick! Literally, as I have a miserable flu, complete with a sore throat and body aches. Until yesterday evening, I thought that my ill feeling was due to over-exhaustion. As I began to feel worse and worse, I asertained that I was truly under the influence of a maladie acquired some time during the tour-de-force which was my vacation.

Step one: Complain.

New York is a stinky, dirty city. Everywhere I went, particularly the underground mass transit, I inhaled the smell of urine, feces, and vomit. Seeing someone's discarded soiled pants at the subway station was hardly worth noticing, as the grime and grossness were all too common. I determined that the reason I smelled urine and feces everywhere was because of the quaint tradition of not offering public restrooms in the city. All week, the practice of going to the bathroom became an exercise in offensive strategy. Also, the urban wildlife was remarkable. I've never paid much attention to those stories of rats in the subway, but they're true! Rats the size of small cats! And the honking of car horns...never stopped. I spent the duration of the week unable to completely relax because of a lack of establishments for rest and recuperation. The coffee shop experience is THE staple of my quality of life. Who knew? that there are no coffee shopes in New York as I know coffee shops?!!

Step two: Fondly Remember

New York is a very interesting and stunning place. It was unlike anywhere I've ever been. Even though I took 150 photographs, I felt that I wasn't photographing much at all, because New York is an over-photographed place. And I've seen the city so much in photos and movies that I recognized most everywhere that I went.

Seeing old friends: By far, the best part of going to New York was the opportunity to see some friends who I haven't seen for a long time. Lola, who lives in Astoria, and Zach and Corey who came up from Massachusettes...ah, it was as though I saw them just yesterday, nothing had changed. The great thing about me is that I've got great taste in friends, who have excellent senses of humor and keep me laughing and laughing. Josh also had the opportunity to see his brother Seth, who lives in Brooklyn.

Eating: One of the nice things about having local New Yorkers, Lola and Seth, around was that they took us to some fantastic places to eat. My favorite was an Indian restaurant in the East Village called Panna II, followed by a Japanese sake bar on 47th street where we drank sake from a box.

Sight Seeing and Activities: Josh and I walked and walked and walked around the city. We hopped onto a boat which took us around the southern part of Manhattan, which allowed for us to gain a good perspective on the city. We went to a Broadway show, Spamalot, based on Monty Python's Holy Grail, which was too funny! I had the opportunity to visit the Met and MOMA for free, where I took in some art. Josh and I travelled to the top of the Rockafeller Center for a view of the city. We spent a bit of time in Central Park. We got to see Noe Venable play at a small venue in the East Village, and it was a wonderful concert. We went by the United Nations, saw Ground Zero, and marvelled at some really huge buildings. We saw the East Village in depth. Soho was overpriced and disappointing. The Meatpacking District was overpriced, but had some good galleries. We saw a photo shoot for a high end fashion magazine there. I saw some celebrities in Greenwich Village. We saw Newt Gingrich in Midtown.

Man, I've got a lot of stories from the trip. But I'm tired and I have the flu.

If I had it to do again: I would have liked to spend more time in Central Park and Brooklyn.

Feel free to navigate my photos on flickr. Josh has also posted photos on his flickr deal. I will leave you with a shot of myself and Josh, at night, with the Chrysler building in the background.

Posted by jennifer at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Marsing ~

This weekend, Josh and I went on a mini-vacation to Marsing, the Gateway to the Owyhees. We have been through Marsing numerous times, having thrown some money down at their eating establishments after a hike or bike ride in the Owyhees. While Marsing might not seem like the most amazing place to go on a mini-vacation, it holds a warm place in our hearts and is much more quality than a superficial view conveys. We left Boise on Saturday morning, after procuring some good coffees for the road. Josh had made reservations at the only hotel in Marsing, the Whitehouse Inn. I suppose that from the name, I had expected something slightly more grand than what was the reality. Somehow, the name "Whitehouse Inn" compelled me to assume that we would be staying in a beautifully renovated historic building with a view of the stunning Owyhee mountains. Yet, as I pulled up to the front door, I was a tad surprised to find that the so-called Whitehouse Inn was nothing more than a trailer park, with trailers that had been sectioned off into multiple "hotel rooms." After seeing our portion of the single-wide trailer, I was greatly relieved that we would at least have our own restroom. While I may be harshly judgemental, I'm not much of a snob and I don't insist on existing always with a silver spoon crammed into yee olde netherparts. At the same time, I found that staying in a converted single-wide trailer was to be one of several white trash experiences.

After settling into our accommodations, Josh and I hit the town. We walked "downtown" where we got some very affordable soft tacos from Freddy's Taco stand (a joint that we've eaten at a few times before). Freddy's Tacos is wonderful. It appears to be a family-run establishment that offers affordable food at incredible quality. Ah, just the thought of my tastey tacos makes my mouth salivate. Josh, who is WAY more social and outgoing than I, chatted with some local Marsingians, found out how to pronounce some Spanish words, and through the interaction I was able to get my hands on some homemade salsa for my tacos. I probably applied too much of this homemade salsa, but it was amazing! Zing! Then, we located a park and had all kinds of fun. We swang on swings, teeter-tottered, slided, and I managed to persuade Josh to let me into his fort which he was protecting by throwing rocks and twigs at all of the enemies.

Then, we went down by the lovely and radioactive Snake River. Marsing is also a check point for motorcycle enthusiasts. At the river, there was some kind of motorcycle congregation which we took pains to avoid. The ground was littered with goatheads and I spent several moments plucking them from the soles of my shoes. The most notable landmark in Marsing is Lizard Butte which is basically a hill with some volcanic rock that looks like a giant lizard. It's pretty cool. As you recall, Easter was on Sunday, and while neither Josh nor myself are big followers of Easter, we had planned on joining the locals at the top of Lizard Butte at sunrise for their Easter Sunrise Service. While we were walking along by the river, we took the opportunity to people watch some of the locals as they were fishing in the lovely and radioactive Snake River. Now, it's not as though I am this neat-nick clean-freak, but the polluted waters of the Snake River is not the source from which I would like to get my fish.

On our way back to the "hotel", we stopped by the grocery store, where I was a little surprised at the numbers of dead animals hung about. The entire Marsing adventure had undertones of white trashedness, but this grocery store which displayed dead animals alongside food and beverage for sale was the second clear demarcation of a white trash experience for me. You know how when people hunt and kill animals, they display the dead animal carcass as though it was a trophy...I've never much understood that. Above the greeting cards, in this grocery store, were moose and elk heads, above the candy and pre-packaged baked items, stuffed turkeys. Along the cereal aisle, there was even a dead mountain lion. I know that it's hard to judge taste sometimes, but I prefer to not live around dead animal carcasses, so I've never quite understood the many people who choose to swathe their walls with dead animals. I mean, why not display a family photo or a replica of some famous painting? What is the appeal of dead animal carcasses as décor? …Yet another mystery of life.

That afternoon, we utilized Marsing's Gateway to the Owhyees, to enter into the Owyhees for some mountain bike riding. We went to someplace a bit west of Jump Creek and explored some motorcycle roads. It was a lot of fun. At some point, we rode up to this plateau to take in the view. Josh noticed, in the distance, that the wind was causing a mighty dust storm. And by the look of the clouds, and the smell in the air, it was apparent that we were about to be caught in a sudden torrential downpour. We immediately started to ride back to the car, but the wind was so strong that it proved to be a harbinger of the difficulty that lay ahead. Twice, the wind coming at me to the side was so strong that it literally blew me off the trail and the rain came very quickly. Rain plus strong wind made every exposed part of my person freeze, and then the wind would whip up the sand against my leg, which stung my frozen flesh. What is more, our lack of structured exploring made me feel slightly concerned that we would lose our way. Nevertheless, we made it back safely and returned to our trailer section for a shower before going out to eat.

For dinner, we chose Marsing's finest restaurant, the Sandbar, which is beachside of the lovely Snake River. The meal truly was lovely…it just took forever to arrive. I was concerned about gorging myself on the appetizers. The vegetable soup that came first was divine, and my salad that came twenty minutes later was incredible. An hour later, when my entrée arrived, I was quite uninterested in continuing to sit at the table. Yet, the food was good (though, Josh's was better than mine). Throughout our dining experience, there was a group of real and old school cowboys next to our table. They were having some conversation about the good old days of being a real cowboy, when you could herd your cows in the open range...or whatever. At some point, it was the most obvious thing I've ever seen, one of the cowfolk turned around, looked up Josh and I, turned back around and started saying something about "ferners." Again, I'm not a snob with a silver spoon, but sometimes it takes a bit to understand some of the regional dialects. It was very apparent that he had said the word "ferners" in response to seeing Josh and I, and I was able to deduce that he was poorly enunciating the word "foreigners." I thought it was rather rude. Anyhoo. After we were finished eating, we thought about going to one of the local dive bars, but didn't. We went to bed feeling fully satisfied. Ah…but I probably should mention that the freak torrential downpour which had disrupted the bike ride had not abated by bedtime. In fact, all throughout the night when I would wake up with insomnia every ten minutes, the torrential downpour continued. This put a damper on our plans of attending Easter Sunrise Service at sunrise on Lizard Butte. In fact, it put a damper on the rest of our Sunday plans, which had included a hope of returning to the Owyhees for more mountain bike exploration. Instead, we returned to the big city where I remained exhausted and lethargic all day from my lack of sleep.

You will be pleased to learn that I managed to post a variety of photographs of the adventure.

Posted by jennifer at 7:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ Parma, Nyssa, Ontario...ho! ~

On Saturday, despite the pain from my mountain biking crash, I had the opportunity to go on an exploratory adventure. Josh and I packed up our persons and drove West. Our first stop was his old stomping ground, Parma. As we pulled off the highway, we drove up to a replica of Olde Fort Boise, which is apparently the only thing to see in Parma. In front of the withered concrete structure was a sad looking model of Big Foot. At the base was an educational snippet about Big Foot, as though Big Foot were, you know, real. ...It was odd. Speaking of Parman education, while we were there, we stopped by Josh's old middle school where it appeared that the construction of a new building may have destroyed the hiding place of a time capsule that his class had burried beneath the earth. Despite his saddness, he was able to have some fun at a nearby park. Here's a sweet photo of the little apple of mine eye finding some joy in the day.

We then drove our persons across the border to Nyssa, Oregon where the fun was simply overwhelming. The two-block downtown provided ample amusement for two young bumpkins like ourselves. We started the Nyssan adventure by entering a quilting store and wandering the stock of brightly colored fabric. There was a seemingly antisocial genderless being playing a game on a computer and Josh bought a small stuffed animal friend of the ground hog variety with top hat and bow tie which we named Half Chubb because of its resemblance to a semi-erect penis. Nyssa provided ample more excitement, including a video rental establishment with cheaply priced items and a "fashion" store which embodied the epitome of gaudy.

View image

And so we found ourselves in search of further excitement in Ontario, Oregon. I might mention that before leaving Boise, we stopped by the record store for some new compact discs with which to listen to some musical tunes, which included the new Modest Mouse album. Josh had wanted to purchase tickets to their concert while we were at the record store, but he learned that the tickets sold out in seven minutes. So, no dice..or, no mice. Anyhoo, Ontario. Our hunger compelled us to drive around town looking for a tasty place to eat (rolling of mine eyes...a tasty place at which to eat, but we were so hungry that we could have eaten an entire establishment). After driving around for a good amount of time, we finally decided to enter a cheezy "Italian" restaurant whose decor I simply could not contain my disgust for. I dunno, call me Judge Mental, but I found their expression of the shabby chic with cheap "made in china" knock-off furniture along with plastic grape vines and postcard photos of Italy not the choices that I would have made if it had been my restaurant. We ordered some garlic bread and sauce which was veddy veddy yummy and some calzones which were alright. I wanted four beers but had water instead. After filling our bellies with authentic Italian food in an establishment that made me feel like I was on the streets of Roma (insert another rolling of the eyes), we wandered the streets until we came upon the local train station.

Posted by jennifer at 2:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

~ Hiking the 8th Street Interpretive Trail, Drinking and Riding to Wineries, and costumed parties ~

This past Saturday was a great day for me. On Friday after I got off of work, Josh and I hiked the 8th Street Interpretive Trail. It was a beautiful fall evening. We spent the majority of the hike brainstorming what we wanted to be for halloween. A few months ago, I came up with the idea of being an activist for planetary rights, protesting the demotion of Pluto to less than full planet status. I thought I'd wear a garbage bag fashioned into a dark orb, spraypainted gray, with leggings and a protest sign proclaiming "Pluto is a planet, dammit!" No one seemed to think this as brilliant as I and the idea withered along with the fame and fortune of the once glorious Pluto. At about the time that I had this flash of brilliance, Josh decided that we should go dressed in Mormon temple garments which are not all that attractive. The plan went so far as to investigate the distributor of these elusive underpants, but we discovered that one needs one's Mormon identification numbers to even register one's garment size, so that idea was out the window. On our hike, we threw out hundreds of ideas. We were focusing on couple costumes, like Thomas Jefferson & Benjamin Franklin, Pamela Anderson & Kid Rock, and once he came up with the idea, Josh simply would not let go of the idea of going as Mr. Rogers and the Cat. And I found his manner of persuasion most unconvincing; he kept turning to me and articulating several "mew, mew, mew"s. I dunno, I feel very OVER the whole "going as a cat" thing, even if it's the Mr. Rogers cat. Me, I was obsessed about going as our pre-cool selves. By the end of the hike, we disagreed on the matter as though we were disagreeing over the quantity of some lifesaving elixir to administer to a dying person. Which was kind of ridiculous. Here's some photos of the hike.

And then there came Saturday.

I had been looking forward to the possibility of sleeping in on Saturday morning as a person wandering the Sahara would crave an oasis...my bed, the warm little nook tucked away from the street and city noise, where I have all my sweet little dreams and snuggle in my bundly pillows...yet there was to be none of that on Saturday morning. Somehow, the chi wasn't there. I couldn't find that spot of amazingness that I get lost in every morning when I need to get out of bed to go to work. It was something of a travesty. So I just got up and got ready for my big day.

At 9:30, I picked up Josh and we drove out to Nampa for a coffee at the Flying M coffee garage, which is a very quality place for a morning coffee experience. What makes it super satisfying are the TWO wonderful yarn stores and the THREE great used book stores within walking distance. That downtown Nampa, seriously, people need to appreciate it.

From there, we drove out to the St. Chappelle winery and had a good sampling of their wine selection. I didn't say anything at the time, but I felt that the wine pourer was being much more generous with Josh than with me. Neverthehoo, it was fantastic. Once imbibed, we changed into our cycling gear and set out on a bike ride. I have no sense of direction and didn't consult the map, so I don't have a clue what our route was. I know that we rode for a good distance. After maybe ten miles, we turned onto a dirt road that was difficult for me to ride my road bike on. This led us to the Sawtooth Winery, where we bumped into some folks that we had had an interaction with back at St. Chappelle (they took our photo) and they said that they had been cheering and toasting our cycling up the dirt road. At this winery, the wine pourer was extremely generous, pouring us a third of a glass of each wine...and I think we may have had about seven wines??? Granted, that is not all THAT much wine, but since we were on a bike ride, I feel that my blood stream had opened itself up to all liquids that I delivered to it, in the hopes of remaining hydrated. So the wine quickly made me tipsy. Speaking of tipsy, somehow I fell in love with this silly wine bag with a woman named Tipsy, described as a happy lush. I dunno, had to have been there. We spent some time at this winery outside, where there were some lovely roses that we stopped to smell.

As we mounted our trusty steeds, I was giggly and smily, clearly drinking and riding. We set out down the road and I found it quite a challenge to direct my bicycle straightly. At least it was a vacant farmroad. Oh yes, the scenery! It was beautiful. Farmland, but near to the Owhyees it was stunning, as is evidenced in my photos. At some point, we pulled over for a bio break and I became extremely alarmed when I realized that there was a bunch of idiots on the cliff above us firing shotguns. A dude in a truck pulled over and we all had a conversation about how horrid that was, but yawhatever free country bit, so they assured me that we were too far away for the bullets to hit us, but I was totally freaked. I mean, they were SHOOTING GUNS IN OUR DIRECTION!!!! Yea, I had something of a cow.

As we were driving back into town, we remembered having seen a sign at K-Mart for 40% off on Halloween costumes. We stopped at the K-Mart in Nampa and selected two cheap standard costumes. We then spent some time seperately resting up and then united once more to get ready for the evening. We donned our costumes and makeup and hit the Balcony Dance Club for hours and hours of dancing. I became utterly intoxicated over my vodka redbulls and was a dancing feind.

Posted by jennifer at 6:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

~ Peddling, Rocking, and Saying Goodbye ~

Day Six, the final day of the trip to Austin, October 20th, is rather fuzzy. This may come as a shock to each of you, but I haven't been creating these amazing detail-packed blog entries about my vacation from mere memory. Indeed, during the vacation, I took notes about the activities in my journal and from those notes composed these fantastic entries. The last day of the trip, unfortunately, I did not take any notes and I do not have the greatest of memories (which is why I am a voracious note-taker). Last night I popped by Josh's residence to deliver some pain killers and chicken noodle soup for his cold or flu, as well as a knitted gift for his birthday (Happy Birthday!!!), and we were discussing the final day of the trip and trying to remember certain details. What was particularly irksome was that we could not recall where we had had coffee that morning. Never fear, however, because this morning it hit me!

Friday morning began with us riding bicycles down the greenbelt area, across the Colorado river, and over to a coffee establishment called Flipnotics. This place is also a hipster clothing store and had a big patio with wireless internet and flowers. After getting our coffee, we initially sat outside. We moved seats several times because we couldn't get everything exactly perfect, and we ultimately sat indoors. If memory serves me correctly, we had a little bit of a late start that morning and I think that it was around noonish by the time that we left.

Our plan for the day was to go on a big mountain bike ride, exploring all of the trails around the Barton Springs area. Which was a lot of fun! Riding a bicycle on these trails was unlike any biking I have ever done during my entire one and three-quarter years' experience of mountain biking. Firstly, their trails were much more consistently technical than anything I've ever ridden. I was quite proud of myself for being able to ride as much as I did, and I was able to ride most all of it. Riding in the Boise foothills, truly technical parts of trails are pretty rare and I'm usually too much of a weiner to challenge myself over much of it. That whole "I don't want to fall and hurt myself" thing. But in Austin, there wasn't a choice. It was either ride my bike, have a lot of fun,challenge myself, and take a chance on falling and getting hurt, or don't ride, don't have fun, and don't take any risks. I chose the former. And it worked out beautifully. I had so much fun and I felt so proud of myself for being able to clear so much of it. Secondly, the trails in Austin were dense with folliage and trees. In Boise, the foothills have "high desert" qualtiy to them, which implies that folliage is almost nonexistant except for some knee-high sagebrush and brambleweed. In Austin, it was like a jungle, with the trees hanging low over the trails. So not only were the trails themselves more technical, but the trees growing all along either side of the trails and sometimes hanging over the trails, which meant that it truly was a full-body strategic riding experience. While I was popping my front wheel over rocks, I was also negotiating my handlebars around tree trunks, and bending my torso down low to avoid hitting branches.

From what Josh was telling me, the mountain biking in Austin is much more similar to mountain biking in most of the country, whereas in Boise it is somewhat exceptional. While I was feeling like a major accomplisher, Josh was feeling like he was back home in Kansas, it being the same sort of mountain biking that he first started riding on. Additionally, the trail system in Austin, while it was definately well-maintained and well-traveled, did not seem to be as well-mapped as in Boise. At several junctures, it was not readily apparent which way the main trail went. So on multiple occasions, Josh and I found ourselves on these offshoot trails which led to strange areas with deadends. Thus, our biking was quite the adventure. We found mini-canyons and caves, streams, and had a lot of fun.

At some point, we realized that we were starvin' marvin and we asked for some directions on how to get to some civilization. From these directions, we got outside of the wildernessy area of Barton Springs and was on some far end of Greater Austin that wasn't even on our map. We asked someone if there was a place to eat nearby, and he looked down at our bicycles, smirked, and said that we had to go up a certain hill to find any eating establishments. This certain hill was one that I had seen two minutes earlier and thought to myself, "Oh my! That's a crazy steep hill. Good thing we won't have to ride bikes up it." And I kind of gulped. As I approached the hill on the bike, switching for the first and only time into my granny gear, I kept the thought of impending food at the forefront of my mind to provide me with some pseudo calories. Needless to say, Josh arrived at the top before I did, but I still felt that I did a pretty good job on my climbing. At the top, one of the first things that we saw was a big sign that said "Chilis" and there was no need to even have a conversation. We went there, a chain restaurant that we could have found in any city, and had a fantastic huge meal. We also took advantage of the opportunity to cool down. Afterwards, we wandered through some of the shops, including a Nordstrom's Clearance Outlet where I considered buying a fugly pair of Prada bootties.

We continued riding for a time and then turned around and headed back downtown. From here, my memory is a little fuzzy, so hopefully Josh remembers what we did. I think that we rested at the hotel for a while. But eventually, we got all dressed up and walked down to Red River Street. We had hoped to eat at Moonshine again, but there was too long of a wait. Instead we went to yet another Mexican food place (yea, it might be a long time before I crave an enchillada). I wasn't in the mood for Mexican at all but we were kind of in crunch time and needed to eat something and this was the only place that didn't have a wait. Plus, it was right across the street from Stubb's Ampitheater, where we were going to be seeing Built to Spill play that night.

The concert was great! I am a fan of the Built to Spill. The opening band, which was named...something???...can't remember...wasn't all that remarkable. Josh and I found a place to sit, and we ended up having to keep our guard up to keep our spots, but it was a decent ways from the front and we could see Doug Marsh bright and clear.

I did not sleep very well that night. And we had to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get to the airport. Yet again, I failed at interpreting the bus schedule. I was certain that we could take a bus to the airport, but I had neglected to read the weekend schedule, on which there is no bus running that early in the morning. So we had to take a cab. And we had kind of a miserable airport experience. I was so exhausted, cranky, and very uncomfortable. Our connecting flight was delayed and I was blowing my discomfort out of proportion. I was so happy when I arrived at my home.

Posted by jennifer at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

~ 70 degrees, being intellectual, silly walking, steak ~

Day Five, Thursday October 19, of the Austin trip was the first "cold" day. The storm from the previous evening accompanied a cold front (which was still warm, considering that it was October, but cold for Texas). We rode bikes to the Spider House for a third experience. Having to endure mediocre coffee and a lame atmosphere the day before, we didn't feel like sacrificing quality just to try something new. This was to be our intellectual day. After coffee, we went over to the university area and visited the Harry Ransom Research Center, which has an impressive collection on Norman Mailer and a caricaturist named Topoloski. I felt very smartened by the end of it. And that was the first floor. We took the elevators up to the second floor, which had a collection of movie posters that I wasn't interested in. While Josh poked around, I sat on a bench and looked out the window and watched people. Josh joined me and we looked at people together. Then we took the elevator up another floor. This floor appeared to be merely offices, but we decided to walk around. At some point, we decided to practice our silly walks. As we walked past an open office door or window, we walked as mature adults, totally normal. But once we had past the doors and windows, we instantly broke out into a silly walk, and stopped the moment we came to another window or open door. We did this all down and up the hallways. It was pretty great, but perhaps you should have been there to grasp the pure genius of it. At some point, I realized that a woman had seen us and that we were going to be in the elevator with her. She seemed to be trying not to laugh and I was trying to retain my dignity.

From there we went to the Jack Blanton Museum of Art, where we saw a lot of paintings on the life of Christ and people wearing uncomfortable looking clothing. While I enjoyed seeing many of the paintings of Christ and of people wearing uncomfortable clothing, because they were good paintings, I eventually became a little bored of the redundancy of it. I understand that if you're really passionate about it, that perhaps you want to spend all of your time painting renditions of the life of Christ, hundreds upon hundreds of them, as well as people wearing uncomfortable clothing, but I dunno, variety is the spice of life.

After the Museum, we ate at a generic Mexican food joint. Then we went down Nueces and checked out the shops in the Warehouse District and Second Street. For me, it was total sensory overload at this point. From the overload of just being in so many new places for five days, to having a full day of looking at art, and then going into shops that had been creative in their decorating (one shop in the Warehouse District had decorated with strategically placed full length mirrors in a big circle around some of the clothing...I became disoriented and kept walking into the mirrors). We broke up the shopping with a visit to Bookpeople, a large independently-owned bookstore. Eventually we returned to the hotel for some rest.

That evening we walked down Red River street and waited for a table at a restaurant called Moonshine. After a thorough consultation with the menu, we each decided to order a Texas flat iron steak in bleu cheese butter and red wine reduction with vegetables. Now, a brief word about me and the meat. I am not much of a meat eater. If I was left to my own devices, I would probably never or almost never eat meat. It's partly because I'm down on cholesterol and saturated fat and I think there's plenty of other ways to get protein. Also, it's expensive and tricky for me to cook. Moreover, until the time that I met Josh, I had a firm dislike of all things steak. I think that the very few instances during my upbringing when I had steak, it was overcooked and hard to chew with no amazing sauce. And then Josh made me a steak medium rare and slathered it with the Stubbs' bbq sauce, and my opinion changed. Granted, I still only consume a steak about once every two or three months, but it is always fantastic. Anyhoo, so we were at the restaurant and we ordered these Texas flat iron steaks. And...remembering my first cut into it, dripping with bleu cheese butter...it was amazing. I think that it is impossible to describe it and still give justice to its awesomeness. After the second bite, Josh looked up and said that it was one of the best steaks he's ever had in his life, which I feel is telling. Ah, memories...see, I am a big fan of the good food, and I endeavor to eat this "good food" at all instances of eating. But sometimes, a meal is so fantastic, that I actually spend time reflecting back on it, my mouth watering. ....

After dinner, we walked around Red River looking for a place to get an adult beverage. Earlier, when we were in a Diesel store, we received a recommendation for a place called Club de Ville (which had a surprising similarness to the Neurolux even down to its old Best Western Crown Sign). In the bar's darkness, we found a pleather-cloaked couch and I ordered us a glass of wine to share. This crappy bar wine that came from one of those oversized wine bottles cost seven dollars, and I was not enthused about that. So we hung out in the smelly darkness drinking our overpriced shitty wine, and then left. We wandered and wandered. Every place along Red River was having some bands play and entrance covers were upwards of five dollars. Since I had just spent seven on a dumb bar wine, I was feeling picky about what I wanted to spend my money on. We went into a bar that was playing a ninja soccer movie and Josh ordered a jack and coke. But the place was lame so we left. Eventually, we wandered over to Sixth Street and entered the land of frat boys, their hoochies, and the meat markets in which they connect. Saying that I was "displeased" with the situation in which I found myself would be something of an understatement. And I think that I'm going to cut my description of this area down, because as I'm recalling my experience there, I'm becoming irritated and lamed out. Eventually we had some wine at a meat market and I started to get all depressed. I was sitting in the corner staring at all of these people who are the complete opposite of myself