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Party Like You’re 827!

This summer, Jason and I successfully completed another trip around the sun. Hallelujah and mazel tov! Some celebrating of the Sabin variety was in order, by which I mean costumes, cake, armaments, quests, grub, and ancient sorcery. You know, all the usual birthday stuff.

Snuggling mountains was my primary objective on my birthday. Jason and I spent most of the day in one canyon or another and went to the Foundry Grill at Sundance Resort for dinner accompanied by a few extra familial nibblers.

celebrating with a Shire
You only turn 827 once!

Now, some people parade around on their birthdays in pointy hats; I prefer to parade around in pointy ears. A small entourage of questers joined Jason and me at Evermore, an interactive park, a few days after my birthday for an evening amongst fairies, ogres, and trolls… oh wait, we only had trolls and ogres in our group. We danced, joined guilds, and gobbled all of Bag End. By the way, I’d highly recommend Evermore to anyone that’s ever rolled a 20-sided dice or just relished being a drama queen. The park is exceptional!

peculiar seekers
FBI agents, pirates, elves, and aliens all came together for one unconventional quest.

For Jason’s birthday, some easy-going entertainment was in order. I made breakfast. We went to a matinee and ate dinner at Log Haven, my favorite spot to sniff summer and fine foods simultaneously.

a boy's birthday breakfast
Buttermilk pancakes with smoked salmon and horseradish cream may sound odd, but they were scrumptious.

In observance of Jason’s slow ascension to elderliness, we invited a few friends to go axe throwing with us. My skills oscillated between fairly good and fairly horrible that evening. How can two arms be so inconsistent?

patchy blades
Jason’s axe skills were as erratic as my own.

One of my birthday gifts to Jason was an escape room adventure, an undertaking we like to puzzle over regularly. Yes, we found ourselves questing again with a handful of chums, this time with magical relics our aim and Excalibur ours to claim. With 12 seconds to spare, Camelot was liberated and our egos left undamaged. Phew!

puzzling over Camelot
We escaped with Excalibur in hand and just a few grains left in the hourglass.

Birthdays are a special time when you dress like it’s Halloween, toss weapons around like soccer balls, pull swords from obstinate rocks, and chow down in the crannies of mountains.

Rachel August 14, 2019 No Comments

Cups, Coasters, and Watercrafts

Families are cool. Cool activities are cooler with a cool family. Here are a few unrelated cool things my cool clan has done together lately. (Yes, I know you are currently questioning the coolness of this content.)

tea and company
Afternoon Tea is an excuse to don a cute dress and request feminine company.

A group of the ladies, and one unintentional man, went to Afternoon Tea at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. This exceedingly-British affair featured elegant drinks and miniature foods. Posh teas and cocoas, scones with clotted cream, cucumber sandwiches, macaroons, madeleines, and harp music were all part of the tasteful experience. We extended our pinky fingers like pros at pomposity!

an amused family
Lagoon has been amusing patrons for over 130 years.

My parents paid for our entire gang to spend a day at Lagoon together as their Christmas present to us all. We went on a rather warm day with a large chunk of the fam and enjoyed ourselves despite the sizzle. We screamed and laughed on the Cannibal, Wicked, Colossus, Centennial Screamer, Tidal Wave, Rocket, Space Scrambler, Spider, and Dracula’s Castle. One of our nephews informed us he was officially a man because he had conquered the Cannibal, apparently the only prerequisite for manhood these days. We played carnival games for cheap prizes. We ate Dole Whips, frozen lemonades, and giant pretzels. We came home overheated and exhausted but amused. On a side note, if you find yourself at Lagoon, I’d recommend eating at the new beer garden. It offers large portion sizes of flavorful food and, more importantly, plenty of shade.

rafting Weber
The Weber River starts in the Uintas and eventually flows into the Great Salt Lake.

As a bonding adventure, the boys went rafting on the Weber River near Henefer. I received conflicting reports of this event with some depicting fearsome water and others a calm canal. The most accurate accounts indicate the river was fairly mild with Class II+ rapids on occasion. The only point all sources described as intense was the crossing of Concussion Bridge. This railroad overpass was so low to the water that everyone had to lie down in their boats, hence the headache. That nuisance didn’t dampen spirits though even if it dampened shorts. Splashing contests abounded, and the boys came back giggling and recounting incongruent tales of their exploits.

Don’t be jelly of my cool relatives; jelly is what goes on scones with clotted cream.

Rachel August 8, 2019 No Comments

The Fort and the Park

Jason and I traveled to Colorado recently to attend a family event and spend some time in Estes Park with said family. My sister, her husband, and my dad were amongst those present. It was a short but fulfilling trip with plenty of pines, climbs, dines, temperature declines… and other things that poorly rhyme, which I will not mention at this time.

On route to Estes Park, we stopped in Fort Collins for a day or so. Fort Collins is one of two towns that inspired Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. Its charming edifices surfaced unexpected cravings within me for Matterhorn-shaped macaroons and tipsy pirates. Instead, we toured the New Belgium Brewing Company, shopped in Old Town, and drank tea peacefully at a darling teashop while lightning splashed the sky and thunder growled constant complaints.

a whole lotta lightning
I wasn’t making up that lightning storm bit.
along the Lawn Lake Trail
The Lawn Lake Trail continues for nearly 12 miles. We didn’t continue for 12 miles.

After our respite in Fort Collins, we were off to Estes Park where we had rented a cabin situated in a hilly nook with log beams and room to hang. We wasted no time heading out into the opulence of nature in Rocky Mountain National Park, which is one of the primary reasons visitors swarm Estes Park in the summer. We did the Alluvial Fan Trail, but it was too short to satisfy. So, we followed the Lawn Lake Trail until darkness dissuaded us.

to The Pool
The Fern Lake Trail runs along the Upper Big Thompson River and affords ample magnificent scenery.
Arch Rocks
The path to The Pool passes between two boulders the size of houses.

The next day, rain was in the forecast. We were confident we could beat or outlast it, but I’m not sure there was any logic behind that conviction. If logic wasn’t in our corner, at least luck seemed to be as we trekked to The Pool on the Fern Lake Trail, about 3.5-miles roundtrip. We got back to our car just before the showers picked up substantially. Some members of our group ran (literally) the extra mile out to Fern Falls in order to catch that cascade and still stay ahead of the downpour. It all worked out somehow. Beauty was beheld, proper exercise was performed, and dowsing was delayed.

The Stanley Hotel
Does this historic facade look enchanting or sinister?

After our hike, we had prudently scheduled an indoor activity: a ghost tour at the famous Stanley Hotel. The Stanley Hotel was built in 1909 by Freelan Oscar Stanley of steam-powered-car fame. This 142-room resort is famous for inspiring Stephen King’s The Shining and for providing a set for Dumb and Dumber. The ghost tour was a little spooky but mostly just fun and informative. Learning about the unusual history of the owners and buildings was my favorite part.

Spring or Santa?
Snow accumulated on the ground the night before we left. It felt like Christmas in an alternate universe.

Although it was May, a winter storm warning was issued for the Estes Park area the next day, and we barely missed the worst of it when we headed out. Cute Colorado supplied much to jolt our systems: May snowstorms, historical phantoms, fermented concoctions, and quirky company.

Rachel August 3, 2019 No Comments
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