Happy Halloween

I seriously don’t know how time flies by so fast overall and yet drags during times during the work day. LOL one of the mysteries of life, I guess. I’ve been enjoying my autumn. I had to go to Phoenix 2 different times for work recently so I got a hit of 90 degree weather mixed in with the perfect weather. Everybody there told me I got there for some nice weather and I disagreed with them. 60s is nice weather.

The clouds were lovely in the air

I have a pretty low key Halloween planned this year, which is nice because it’s freezing outside. I’m going to get pho takeout and head to my sister’s house for dinner. Then go home and put on some classic horror movies and give candy to the few trick or treater’s that I get. I bought candy I don’t really like so I haven’t eaten as much of it as I normally would have. I guess that’s a good thing. Anyway, it’s going to be nice and I’m looking forward to November.

Scenes from a little hike

FHE this week

Another Weekend

I had a great weekend with the family. I spent Friday night sleeping on the trampoline at my sister’s house. Two of my nieces, 1 nephew and the cat decided to join me. LOL – I wouldn’t have been there by myself, of course.  The cat kept my feet warm until the middle of the night when I was too far out of my sleeping bag and then I realized I was laying there all cold because I didn’t want to wake the cat. So I finally moved and he woke up and then walked around on top of us for a few minutes and found a new place to sleep. Then I was warm the rest of the night. The only other big problem is that now everything is covered with dew in the morning and we were wet. Savannah actually thought it had rained on us. So note for self: if we do this next year, it has to be during the warm part of summer. 

 

Hard to tell, but there are water drops all over the grass

We got lots of candy at the Peach Days parade and then I went home and took a nap for the afternoon. After that I was pretty lazy the rest of the day. On Sunday, I took some of the peaches we got and made another galette. It doesn’t look like much, but it was tasty with vanilla ice cream. My mom had “autumn” colored sugar crystals and they were good in theory, but not so much after they baked.

It rained on Sunday and now I am super ready for fall weather. I have a list of books I want to read, I have hot chocolate ready to be drank, my sweaters are hanging in my closet, I have a bunch of new soup recipes to try, and I ordered some fall/winter scent perfume samples. LOL, I’m ready, I tell you!

Here It Comes

It's finally September. It's still in the 90's but these next few months are my favorite of the year and I'm so happy it's here. I can't wait for soup and sweaters and books and walking with long sleeves so I don't have to be covered in sunscreen.  Plus peaches. I ate my first 3 of the season on Monday and they were delish. My mom's tree is almost ready so I'm hoping for a couple more from her and then I can get them from the farmer's market or the fruit stands on the highway. Yum!

My Weekend

I spent a fun weekend in Cedar City with my niece. We went to the Utah Shakespeare Festival at Southern Utah University. This was my second time going. This year we saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Twelfth Night. It was my second time seeing both of them on stage but I still loved them and thought they did a great job.  This year I saw some of The Greenshow also. It’s put me in the mind to try reading another Shakespeare play. There are a few I’m interested in learning more about or curious about the story.

While we were waiting we went into the Southern Utah Museum of Art and saw the Al Farrow exhibit. I loved it. He made religious buildings and structures out of guns and ammo and gun parts. I thought it sent such a powerful message to be able to make art out of something that people have used for killing.

These are just a few of them. I just really enjoyed the exhibit. It was thought provoking. 

Anyway, I had a good time with everything we did. Now I have to get ready for the work week and back to the grind. 

The Next One

Well, I have my next trip picked out. This time I am going by myself with a tour group. To Egypt! It's been on my list since I made it and I've wanted to go there most of my life. Or since I read Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters as a teen. It's also never somewhere I thought I'd go on my own so I'm happy to do this with a group. This will actually be the first time I've ever done an entire trip with a tour group. There are pros and cons to both ways, right? While I do like planning a trip, it is actually really nice to sit back and let someone else do it.
I wanted to go when I saw the dates and itinerary and then when the company opened it up, I hesitated. I wasn't absolutely sure that's where I wanted to go next. But then they got down to 3 spots left and I signed up as fast as I could. I didn't want to be left behind. And now I'm just excited. It's not until early next year so I've got awhile to wait. And up my walking so I'm getting more miles in. I'm not sure how big the pyramids really are, but I know I'll be doing a lot of walking!

More Travels

May just worked out for vacationing this year. I spent this last week in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. I have had it on my mind to go to Newport and see the old mansions and summer homes of the rich people. :) I love historic homes and I loved Newport.

We toured 5 of them. I could have done a few more, but not on the same day. Five was plenty for one day. Plus, we walked and it was a lot of time on your feet. I only took pictures of the outsides of them because I have tons of pictures of insides of various palaces and castles and homes and I never look at them and they are a little bit useless out of context.

Marble House

Rosecliff

The Breakers

Chateau-sur-Mer

The Elms

The cliff walk was just beautiful.

Then we spent a couple days on Cape Cod and took a ferry over to Nantucket. If I had planned better to get out of the harbor part of Nantucket, I would have liked it a little more. It was a beautiful place, and also had a bunch of historic homes that I had fun looking at as I walked the streets.

And finally, two other stops were to Edward Gorey's house and Plymouth Rock. 

Road Trip

My mom and I took a little road trip to Scottsdale last week. The object of the road trip was to get to The Poisoned Pen bookstore and a book signing of C.S. Harris, Anna Lee Huber, and Victoria Thompson. I spent so much money in that bookstore! I feel good supporting independent bookstores, even if this one isn’t one I can get to often. Or possibly ever again.

 It was definitely worth going to and fun to hear each of them talk about their books. 

Near the hotel we found a Cornish Pasty Co. restaurant. Yum! I’ve eaten there in Seattle and will admit that we also bought a half baked one to take home and eat.

It was a long time in a car, but fun anyway. It rained on us quite a bit on the way down. And a little bit on the way back home. Still, it was great weather.

And we got to stop at Horseshoe Bend on the way back…with about 1000 other tourists. It was kind of busy for a drizzle-y Thursday morning. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the summer.

We also did a quick little hike to the toadstool hoodoos. It was nice and way less crowded than the horseshoe. Plus, the parking lot is small so the big tourist buses would have a hard time getting in there. 

It was a fun, fast trip!