Summer Vacation, Grand Junction, August 2016
We had such a fun time with my mom and dad over the past week. From catching a frog in the basement (Mommy, according to the kids, "freaked out" when she saw it hopping down the hall) and letting him go in Grammy's garden the next day to rides in Papa's race car to running through sprinklers to playing with the hose to the bike park and Papa fixing bikes to the playground and peaches and ice cream and dancing at the Palisade Peach Festival to water balloons and buckets of water on the lawn to playing in a fort made out of sheets drying on the line to a couple early-morning hikes on the Monument with my mom (and running into a big-horn sheep, so cool...) to a dinner and balloons at Alice's...always so special...
Thanks for having us, Mom and Dad! It's so wonderful spending time with you.
XOXO
Cool things to do in Glenwood Springs, Colorado
Glenwood Springs is such a fun Colorado getaway! I went with my mom over the weekend and what a fun girls trip, especially. If you're thinking of going, here are some cool things you should check out:
Hotel Colorado
Pros:
Oh my gosh what a beautiful old historic hotel. You feel like you're really somewhere special. This place just oozes character. The lobby is beautiful, and relaxing in wooden chairs in the courtyard under the enormous shade trees—or if it's cool by the fire pits—is a must. You can get some good food in the courtyard too, and a drink (alcoholic or not) from the friendly bartender at the pretty outdoor bar. Super friendly staff all around. I love how it feels like a real Colorado destination. And the stuffed animals (bear, moose, etc) in the lobby--I know they bother some people (I'm an animal lover, too)--but they sure lend this place character. Also all the historic photos...love...
Cons:
A little on the pricy side. And the rooms are definitely nice but little details could be updated/made nicer. No A/C which I don't mind, with windows and fans it's very comfortable but my husband doesn't want to stay in the summer...
Yampah Vapor Caves and Spa
Pros:
A really unique experience...like a steam room but it's natural and down underground in caves. It's super hot and you can't stay in long, but there are tubs you can fill with ice-cold water to help you stand the heat a little longer. Also there's a solarium upstairs where you can very comfortably rest between trips to the caves. This is one of my "must dos" every time I come to Glenwood. Oh and their massages are some of the best I've ever had in my whole entire life...HUGELY recommended...
Cons:
This place is VERY clean but if you're scared of germs it might not be the place for you...it's just so moist everywhere...and the water in the tubs is dumped out between people but the tubs are not washed...I don't mind all this at all, and like I said, it's very clean, but I know some people are more germ-phobic than I am. Also, the last 2 times I've gone I've had a headache after, even though I'm drinking tons of water...I do stay in the caves until I can no longer stand it, though...
Downtown Shopping
Book Train and Elizabeth Dean Boutique (e.d.b.) are places I spent a little money this past trip. I'm not a huge shopping person but I do like a little...and there was just enough for an hour or two. The other store I would hugely recommend here is Summit Canyon Mountaineering...a little local business and they do a great job...
Pros:
Book Train had a nice selection of books and a TON of magazines. I almost always get my books at the library so buying a book felt like such a huge treat. e.d.b.--oh my gosh, the displays throughout the stores are divine! Just looking around was so fun. I also found a big blue-and-gold bag I can use for library books, super cute and very reasonably priced...
Cons:
Book Train is a pretty standard book store...
CO Ranch House
Pros:
My husband and I first went here a few months ago and had an absolute feast at the bar. We hadn't eaten all day and the bartender totally set us up with appetizers, entrees, dessert. My mom and I went back on this trip and sat outside on their lovely patio and indulged a little less. The food was fantastic both times, the service super friendly, the decor is amazing, it's got such a great authentic Colorado feel to it...
Cons:
Is it a con that their drinks are really strong? I couldn't drink more than half my yummy margarita the other night...
Iron Mountain Hot Springs
Pros:
This is a fairly new place, and I love the traditional Glenwood Springs Hot Springs, but this was down by the river and felt like it was a little more for grownups, which is a plus when you're out of town taking a break from the kids. There are a dozen or so rock pools all different temperatures and you can look out over the river and it's crowded (or was the summer Saturday night we went), but the people there are super friendly, so...
Cons:
Kind of pricy ($25/person). SUPER crowded on a summer Saturday night...
Hanging Lake
Pros:
This is an iconic Colorado hike and I'd never done it. And wow, it didn't disappoint. It's strenuous but short, and ends at such a magnificent lake...and then there's Sprouting Rock with the waterfall coming out of it...and beautiful little mossy streams and canyon views the whole way up and down...just spectacular...
Cons:
SUPER crowded. We knew it got crowded in the summer but figured if we got up there by 7:30 AM or so we'd be fine. Wrong. We waited in line for parking for an hour and a half, and then the trail was super crowded, too. But the wait was fine because my mom and I were happy talking, and the crowds...well, that's what happens in the summer. If I came again I would do it spring or fall on a weekday...
In Sum
Glenwood is such a cool, funky, authentic Colorado town. I love it there. If you're thinking about going, do it!
People who've know Glenwood--any "musts" that I should check out next trip?
XOXO
Seattle + a road trip
My dad and I were in Seattle a short while ago, and as part of our trip we visited some places with meaning to him and our family...some I had been to, some not.
Tai Tung
We started at Tai Tung in the International District, which bills itself as the oldest Chinese restaurant in Seattle, and is a place my grandparents introduced my dad to and that he went to in college. We had lunch with my aunt and uncle there...so fun to see them...
University of Washington and the Crew House
At the University of Washington, my dad showed me where he had had many of his classes (including the building below where he'd been on the steps when he heard President Kennedy had been shot), and we spent some time at Conibear Shellhouse where my dad lived and rowed crew. (He wasn't able to row the last years he was in college because of an accident.) He has such great stories about those days...
Seahurst Beach
The next day we went to Seahurst, just south of Seattle, where my dad had grown up right on (actually, more accurately, above) the beach. Beautiful place.
Tahuya
And then out to Tahuya, which is on the Hood Canal and is where my grandparents had a house when I was a girl...I went there every summer and have such fond memories of learning to ride my bike on what I remember as a BIG hill (which in reality is the most gentle slope imaginable) and getting oyster from the beach and raspberries from the bushes by the water's edge, mushrooms and blackberries out of the woods, going for a canoe ride with my grandpa every evening, jumping off the bridge on the way into town, watching the tide come in from the deck surrounded by the petunias my grandmother used to grow, her dressed up next to me with her sweet perfume...it was a magical place...
Hood Canal
We spent some time with a number of my dad's friends from high school and college, which was fun for me as they had stories about my dad that I had never heard...my dad told me lots of stuff too that I hadn't known about while we were on this trip, which was wonderful.
One night we spent in Union on the other side of Hood Canal with his friend Craig, whom he rowed crew with. Craig lives in an amazing house on the water and showed us such hospitality with oysters from the beach and a boat ride to dinner, local strawberries and ice cream for dessert, a beautiful sunset and stars, seals and coffee on the deck the next morning...I loved being there...
Birch Bay
We drove up the Olympic Peninsula, took a ferry, ate fish and chips so many times we couldn't eat them anymore (very memorably at the Shrimp Shack) and ended up in Birch Bay, at the beach house of Marsha and Allan, where I had gone with my grandparents many summers, sleeping up in the loft. Marsha's mom was a bit older than my grandma but they had been fast friends...I remember so well visiting them at this beach house and also their gorgeous home in Vancouver, Canada...was so lovely to see them again...
Everett
And on the way back down to Seattle, my dad and I spent some time in Everett, where he showed me Aunt Clara's house (where my grandmother had grown up and my dad used to come visit as a boy and where Marsha's mom and my grandma met) and where my grandmother had gone to high school, where my dad lived right out of college when he worked at Scott Paper (which is no longer there)...
Thanks, Dad, for such a great trip! Can't wait to do it again!
XOXO
Seattle is changing
I have a long history with Seattle...
My grandparents lived in and around the city almost their whole lives. My Dad grew up there. I visited every year as a child and lived there twice, once right out of college, again about 10 years ago.
...And a great love of the city
It's cool drizzle, gray architecture, green everywhere, fresh damp smell, fish and chips and Rainer cherries and crab with butter, the smell of strong coffee and also urine in the streets, the tattooed baristas and musicians, the noise of the traffic and the lapping of the water...all that's still there but Seattle is also changing...there is this incredible boom going on, building everywhere and huge buildings too, and it's feeling so corporate, so shiny and homogenous, all the new.
Progress...
The small scrappy city I've loved my whole life is disappearing...like the old craftsman-style house my grandparents lived in on Dexter Ave N torn down, an ultra-modern wood and steel duplex now in its place...that's what feels is like happening to the whole city...and it's not a bad thing necessarily, but it's strange to have your memories of a place becoming just that...what was part of me is—not really ceasing to exist—but changing into something different.
Seattle is changing...
XOXO
