Gail's visit part 2: July 3 2010

Gail always wakes up at 5 am. She wishes she could sleep longer but her body just is set to a 5 am wake up. I got up around 7 am, and found her asleep on the sofa on the deck. It made me happy to see her so relaxed that she could just enjoy the cool air at dawn, and then fall back to sleep.
Thankful that the temperature had dropped almost thirty degrees overnight, I got busy making bagels and lox for breakfast. Gail had never had that before; I made it for her to justify my having ONLY capers in my refrigerator when we first moved in to our house. She thought it was hysterical...Jill moves, and the only item that she couldn't do without was a big bottle of capers!
I tried to explain my need for them; this time I demonstrated it.
Happily Gail liked cream cheese with lox on bagels with capers too!
Whew!
We took our time eating, watching various birds coming and going from the feeder and just chatting about whatever came to our minds.

Another big day was ahead of us; this was the leisurely beginning to non-stop fun.
A bit before ten we left to drive downtown (a fifteen minute trip) to go to the Farmer's Market.

We got a parking place right across the street from the park and the market!

Seriously unbelievable.
But that's just the sort of thing that happens when I am with Gail. We call it being blessed.

The three of us waded into the crowds.

Everyone brings their dogs to the market. There is a fenced dog park within the park, so the dogs have their weekend fun too.

Do you like this sweet old dog's bow? It is a bag for picking up what needs picking up, if you catch my drift.

Who would have thought such an item could be made into a doggie fashion statement?

Many people ride bikes to the market, for fitness, ecological reasons and to avoid having to find parking.
A corner of the park fills up with bikes, a valet service keeps an eye on your ride.

But why stop at just having a bike valet? Hauling around produce while you shop is no fun; use the veggie valet to tend your purchases while you shop. No more lugging bushels of peas and heads of lettuce while you push your way through the crowds!

It didn't take long to realize that we probably could have gotten there earlier before the crowds and just eaten breakfast at the market....

Along with produce and crafts there are folks providing open air concerts. This musician has a piano on wheels...

So he can ride his bike to the grounds while pulling his instrument behind him. How enterprising!

The peonies are at their peak in SLC.

Lots of flowers are blooming...and so tempting to the eye.

The perfect arrangement for the 4th of the July could be easily found.

Overhead the trees were creating their own bouquets.

The time at the Farmer's Market was especially sweet for Gail and me.
When I first moved to SLC and knew no one in town, I went to the market and called Gail.
We talked as I walked, and I took pictures to send to her of what I saw.
This time she finally got to see it in person.
I wish we could have spent a few hours prowling the arts and crafts area, sampling all the delicious fruits, veggies, cheeses, breads, jams etc etc.

But we had an appointment for facials at 11 am!

Another "first" for Gail. When I was planning our activities before she came, she said she wouldn't mind having one, but it was OK if we didn't fit that into the day.

I went ahead and scheduled it.

We went in to the treatment rooms with our student skin care technicians for:
A face steaming.
A facial massage
A deep cleaning cream
Hot towel wraps
Rose petal toners, papaya enzyme peel, geranium rose oil aromatherapy while getting a foot massage

Shoulder massage

A couple of more hot towels

All while relining on the most comfortable bed, with soft music playing.
When I met Gail afterwards she was practically floating.
"The foot massage" she sighed. "I had no idea..."
(We later looked up where she can get similar treatments in Colorado Springs. Oh yeah...it is an addictive experience getting a facial!)

Next we hit the road again. A quick stop for Mexican food to eat on the way, we drove north.

The sky became the topic of conversations. The bluest blue and fields of clouds were such a treat after the rather colorless sky the day before when the wind and the heat was so high.

Seeing a rainbow circle around the sun was totally unexpected. All three of us gaped at it through the open sunroof of the car.

(I was trying not to point my camera at the sun, but I guess I did anyway. It seems to be functioning fine, thank goodness!)

I did look it up later: It is called a 22 degree halo, not a rainbow. Interesting, huh?

That's one of the things about hanging out with Gail: We always seem to happen upon unusual things of nature.

At our destination: The Great Salt Lake.
You can see the thin line cutting across the water that is the causeway that we drove over from land to the Antelope Island which (of course) is surrounded by lake.

The white sand is mostly salt.

A funny thing about the Great Salt Lake: from the air you can see the edges which are rather marshy and dry into various colors. I have seen every color of the rainbow in the water around the lake.
Gail told me that she definitely wanted to swim in the lake while she was visiting.As she flew in and saw all the colors, she started wondering if it was such a good idea. "It looked icky" she said.
We assured her that where we would be swimming would be a deeper part of the lake.

As we drove across the causeway, she commented that it looked so pretty out there.

We rolled down the windows so she could get a whiff of the land side shoreline decaying plant/shrimp/gull population odor. She started to worry again about what we had gotten her into!

(By the time we arrived at the island, the smell was gone, and she was game to go swimming again.)

I suggested we drive about the island before we swam to see what there might be to see. Twice before Bernie and I have visited the island but each time we headed straight for swimming; this time we would do a bit of exploring first.

When we spotted people hiking up a small mountain area, we pulled over (B. and I in sandals) and decided to go hiking too.

It really was an easy trail.

If you stepped off the trail, you stirred up a cloud of small grasshoppers about a half inch long.

They blended into the ground perfectly; you had to really look to see them after then landed again.

I had no problem spotting a whip tailed lizard who clearly had been snacking happily on those delicious grasshoppers. Look at that fat tummy on that happy lizard!

Bernie had no trouble at all capturing it. He said that this was only the second whiptail that he had ever caught. Gail moved right in to get a good look at the reptile as well. Earlier in the week she had sent me a picture of herself holding a beheaded rattlesnake that had been killed next to her car at work. She is not a squeamish type of person at all!

Don't you love those long nails?

A kiss for luck, and the lizard was soon on its way again.
(No, Bernie didn't actually lip lock the thing. We used to call our cats "lizard lips" when they would bring home lizards; Bernie knew what I would have been calling him if he did kiss it!)

The short hike was TOTALLY worth it.

Bernie and I have been to the tip of Baja, and both agreed that the rocky edges reminded us of the Mexican coastline.

There were a few other people around the area; we all took turns taking pictures of each others in the various scenic places.
Isn't it nice that people are still willing to do that now days?

All three of us were born and raised in San Diego. We kept exclaiming how if this was a place in Southern California it would have been crawling with tourists.

The sky, the rocks, the water...in every direction was another beautiful scene.

When the Mormon pioneers arrived in Salt Lake, they saw the shining lake from afar.

Their leader, Brigham Young, famously sayed "This is the place!"
Of course anyone seeing the view would say the same thing...and be quite chagrined to later learn that water is incredibly salty.The lake has no outlet; it is the remaining body of water from when the area was a great sea from Idaho down to Arizona, eons and eons ago.

Bernie looked for natural bonsai slowly growing in cracks

One young man had found a perfect perch to enjoy the view and think for a bit. He graciously offered it to me as I came by, but I declined; I was still too busy exploring and taking pictures of every scene.

The clouds: they just kept forming and re-forming beautifully overhead.

Eventually we walked back down the trail, somewhat regretfully. I do know that the peak gets snow in the winter time; I will be back for more picture taking next winter for sure!


Don't you love natural plant groupings that look like they were planned?
(Well, they were, of course...by the Master Gardener!)


Even the individual rocks scattered about had natural embellishments to delight our eyes


I had never wanted to go camping on Antelope Island after hearing stories of insects that seem determined to have people for dinner. But on a day when the temperature was a perfect 82 degrees with a nice steady breeze, I was willing to re-consider the idea.

I think I could have just sat and stared at the water for hours!

Back on the road we saw Antelope Island's namesake.

Just a dot in the meadow...

Thank goodness for zoom features on cameras!

One beachy cove on the island had showers and changing rooms. We got into our swimsuits and hiked down to the water's edge. It is a steep walk through deep sand, then on to harder sand with tiny reddish plants managing to grow in the brine soaked soil.

It is a little ways to get to the water....

Then you walk and walk and walk in the water and it never seems to get deeper than waist level.

The best thing to do is just flop on your back.

The salty water won't let you sink; you bob like a cork on the surface.

Gail was quite pleased; she said she always sinks and can't usually float at all!

The three of us floated in the warm water, enjoying the clouds overhead, paddling together to touch feet, and joke about the tiny brine shrimp (also known as "sea monkeys") that tickled our legs from time to time.
If anyone ever feels that they really need to relax: may I suggest bobbing in the Great Salt Lake?
You may already have experienced how good an epson salt soak feels. Imagine how it would feel to swim in salt, relaxing your body until you feel limp and happy.


We walked back to shower up, passing families in beach gear and Japanese tourist with pressed slacks and shirts. So few people on such a pretty beach.
(I would be less than honest to mention that there are a lot of sand flies near the water's edge. They fly away as you approach and settle back down with each step you take. So, no, sitting at the water's edge would not be such a dreamy experience for long. You either sit in the water or a bit up higher on the drier sand if you wish to linger on the beach. )



Bernie pointed out a lizard's trail in the sand by the parking lot. How cute that the foot tracks are in the form of tiny hearts on the line created by the lizard's tail.

Whether one looked down to see tracks or up to see clouds or off into the distance, every view made me lift my camera up once again and want to share it with others.


As the water sparkled like if diamonds were strewn about, I was so glad that this time I wouldn't be telling Gail about it.


This time we would share the memory together, like we share so many memories of visits over the years. While I wish we lived closer to each other, I find that each time we manage to get together, God seems to scheme to give us exceptional experiences that make unforgettable memories for us to share. We both are in awe of the times together that we have been given over the years.

On the way home, we all discovered that we had missed places when we had showered. The slightly gritty sensation in our ears and on our earlobes...well...we laughed as we showed each other the salt that our fingers wiped off salt that had formed where the showers had not hit.

We stopped for milk shakes and sweet potato fries with fry sauce (one of the signature foods of Utah), just enough to tide us over until we got home and I could make dinner.


At least that was the plan...until we sat down on the deck for a moment...



As it turned out, we both decided we would rather sleep than eat!

To be continued....

BGF Gail Comes to SLC part 1

Happy Independence Day everyone!
I am celebrating big time this year; my BGFF Gail has come to visit!

Gail lives in Colorado Springs. We don't get to hang out together much, which is sad for two people who have been friends for over 30 years. She came out a month after we moved into our house to help me out as I was losing it with all the remodeling and everything.

That was a year and a half ago.

She hadn't gotten to see SLC except over that very snowy Feb. weekend, when the house was in total remodeling wreak stage.

A chance to get together now for FUN...over the Independence Day weekend...I think that's more like it!

I picked her up at the airport at 10:30 am on Friday. It was HOT (97 degrees at one point) and very windy, but we didn't let those details slow us down.

First stop was to the Salt Palace to hear the wind powered music going full bore. (Too hard to explain...if you visit you will get to see it first hand)

Then we went to Temple Square. The flowers were lovely, the wind was crazy. We got lunch at the Lion's Pantry (Brigham Young's original pantry/kitchen) and talked up a storm for about an hour.

Next stop: The Utah State capitol. Gail posed nicely with Abraham Lincoln's bust.

I acted up with some military leader...I don't remember exactly who he was.

Gail was blown away by all the marble, beauty of the building, and the fact that just recently the whole building had been lifted up and earthquake shock buffers had been installed beneath it.

We stopped so Gail could try bubble tea...and then stopped to smell the roses at OC Tanners.

Her first view of the house: so different than what she saw on her first visit.

Gail has decided to try to spend the 4th of July in different cities each year. I wanted to really celebrate having her here over the holiday and enjoyed doing a little holiday decorating too.

The planters on the deck got patriotic touches.

It was even too hot to sit on the deck! We went inside and downstairs to the coolest part of the house to chat and snooze a bit until Bernie could join us on our next adventure.

The Cactus and Tropical nursery is inside a green house structure that actually was cooler than outside! We ooohed and ahhed over the plants. We agreed that this flower had a belly button!

Gail told me about an enormous pitcher plant that she saw once.

She tried out some hobbit like patio furniture.

Then we went for dinner to Cafe Madrid, a Spanish tapas restaurant. Check out the menu and guess what we ordered.

We sat outside enjoying a few stray breezes

(and B.and I enjoyed some sangria).

Did you guess that I ordered the Sopa de Ajo (cold creamy garlic soup with fresh red grapes)?

Oh man! We all agreed it was the MOST delicious and unexpected taste treat. I am scouring the Internet to try to find a recipe as it is a traditional Spanish dish.

We ordered some other things too...at the end of the visit blogging I will post a link to all the pictures and you can see what else we had.

After that we went home and Gail and I talked and talked until almost dark...9 pm.

Gail had gotten up at 4 am to fly...I had not slept much the night before getting ready and being excited; we were shocked that it was so late and still light outside.

It was time for bed...we had done a lot in the first 12 hours of our visit. A lot more was planned for Saturday!

To be continued....

Last Friday Night Date Night

I've been wanting to go to a sidewalk chalk art show for a really long time. When I saw billboards advertising a Chalk Art Festivals to raise money for kids in Foster Care...w00t!
I put the event at the top of my "things to do" list.

It was held at the really wonderful Gateway Mall, which is a great place to visit anytime anyway.
I convinced Bernie to make the event our Friday Night Date Night Date.

We arrived shortly after the artists got started. Each artist/group of artists paid a $1,000 entry fee, usually sponsored by a company or some other organization.

Sweet, and not even finished yet.

Doing a chalk drawing on concrete sounded fun to me until I watched the artists for a while. It is not easy to sit on concrete or kneel on concrete for long periods of time.

Some of the artists were blending their chalk work with their fingertips. I wondered how raw their fingers would be by the time their drawings were done.

Yes...artists suffering for their art!

(Naturally we ate. Do Bernie and Jill ever go anywhere together and not stop for something to eat? Noooo! In this case: Crab cake salad. Yum! I guess I was still on a Southern food kick!)

By the time we finished dinner Peter Pan's picture had progressed nicely.

Some of the artwork was so lifelike! Each artist seemed to have their own plan: some started in the middle and worked their way out.

Others worked top to bottom with an artist working on each side.

Most of them were working from a print.

Lots of them drew a grid and filled in each grid to match the grid of the picture they were using.

A few "famous" artists were given larger spaces and had their work chained off. The event lasted two days with judging at the end. It irked me a bit that I wouldn't be able to see the completed art...even though the mall is just 20 minutes from home!

Since we were in the mall...a bit of window shopping was in order.
OK ladies: tell the truth: Is this dress a thumbs up or thumbs down?
My high school home ec. sewing teacher would have had a stroke if I had turned in something like this. Is it possible that sewing has become a lost art and such raw stitching is the best that can be expected now days? Or is this an excellent example of cutting edge (HA! pun intended!) punk/steam punk/indie couture?
(I'm wearing a dress that I sewed as I type this. If I were to take it off and turn it inside out...it could look close to this. Wonder if I should try wearing it like that at work?)

I'm still gritting my teeth to hold back from buying these two framed magazine covers.
I"m thinking the floral hat is a Sally Victor...

Bernie did some shopping too...at the sporting good store.

Yes, it doesn't take much for us to have fun on a Friday night.

Best of all, we were able to support a good cause too.

Be on the look out; there may be a similar fund raiser coming to your area soon!

The only thing constant is change.

Oh boy...would I ever love to look like her!

Cute hat, bright eyes, gloves...

You will never guess where I spied her picture.

Here's a hint....can you guess what this is?

Or how about this?

No?

Oh come on. Try. You are using yours right now.

Here's another hint. Aren't they darling?

I'm loving the fun temple bars designs on glasses now days.

The fun temple bar ones were adorable, but on me, the frames crossed right across my pupils. So I tried on these. No...I just couldn't handle that look either. Plus with my heavy prescription those big lenses would have been quite a burden to carry on my face.

These I loved, but again, they sat so that I was mostly looking through the top of the frames.

Still guessing what those first things were, and where I was?

I thought this poster was quite interesting.

High blood pressure causes eye vessels to become squiggly.

As you could tell from the two pictures of egg yolk looking things, my eye vessels, happily, are nice and straight. My blood pressure is perfectly normal!

I had no idea what my eyes really looked like until they were photographed with a whiz bang new thinga-mah-bob at my eye doctor's office.

Isn't it funny to think that I use my eyes all the time but didn't know what they really looked like?

The brownish spot is where the vision is focused. Isn't it amazing that the brain decodes the way light hits that spot and makes it into images?

Stranger still: the brain is what interprets the stimulus and and allows a person to see. The eyes are not really what makes one see; it is the brain that does that miracle.

Current technology is now allowing blind people to see by using their tongues to receive electric signals based on images like are taken with camera.

One blind guy climbs rock walls just by touching a small electonic wand to his tongue. His brain interprets the stimulus and he can "see" where his next rock or toe hold will be.

He literally sees through his tongue!

Picking out a new pair of glasses is never a fun thing for me. I can't see without my glasses; I now depend on a quick digital photograph of myself to decide if I like how various glasses look on me.

This time I got the pair above; the frame is brown in front and orange in the back.

A little different for me...but hey, I get a new pair every year.

This year...orange for a change.

Why not?

It will be fun.

If I can't look like the dolly in the cute ruffly hat, then I'm just going to go with glasses that are a wee bit different than normal.

And be thankful I don't have to worry about messing up my lipstick in order to see with a tube on my tongue!