Time Spent with the Men in my Life

Just a few weeks ago, this guy celebrated a birthday. And I couldn’t be happier, since he is six weeks younger than me. Let’s just say that those six weeks around this place aren’t always pleasant…it is an awful feeling being the eldest in our home.

To celebrate, we of course took advantage of the free-$10-for-your-birthday deal at three of our local restaurants, all owned by the same people. In a surprising twist, Hubby chose my favorite of the three for our dinner date.

I’ve mentioned Liberty Market before. It is heavenly, especially when enjoyed with good friends. But right across the street is Joe’s Real BBQ. And, since we’re crazy like that, we went there for some takeout after we finished a delicious meal at Liberty.

Hubby thus had wonderful (did I mention free?) barbeque to eat the next day for lunch at work. It just made sense in our brains!

The last restaurant, Joe’s Farm Grill, is a looooooong way from our home. We don’t always get there to utilize the free $10. It doesn’t make sense to spend that much in gas to arrive!

Hubby is somewhat of a burger connoisseur. Meaning, it’s his preferred dish in almost every place that we eat. He makes exceptions in Mexican restaurants but usually gets a burger in every other eating establishment that we try.

This particular evening, he tried Liberty Market’s weekly burger special, which had spinach artichoke dip on top. Let’s just say that, while skeptical when ordering, he grew to greatly love and appreciate this piece of meat on a bun.

And he ate his vegetables!

I opted to get a grilled chicken sandwich, which turned out to be one of the best that I’ve ever had. Although it looked like a fried egg on top, it was just melted cheese covering a yummy chicken breast. Then, it was drizzled with a chipotle sauce before being cooled down a a dollop of guacamole.

Holy smokes. I rather enjoyed this entire evening! Hubby should have birthdays more often!

Hubby was spoiled rotten by my family in presents and lots of calls from his family. Since they usually only talk once a year, he enjoys the calls from his siblings. I love hearing him talk to them, too.

Happy Birthday, Hubby! Thanks for finally becoming as old as me. Other than the creaky old bones and the now-required use of dentures, it isn’t so bad, huh?

Just a few days after celebrating Hubby’s birthday, I got to spend the day with my Dad. Have you met my Dad? I like him.

We started our day with lunch at a place that I’ve been before…The Cornish Pasty Company. It’s fun, British food that has every flavor combination imaginable…stuffed into a pasty and baked.

Other than my father’s excellent company, this was my favorite part of the meal. The oven fries, I must say, were wonderful. And they were completely baked in the oven, which makes them completely calorie-free. They were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Wowsers, these were good. I think it helps that my Dad grew up in Ideeho and thus has a deep admiration for all things potato.

He obviously passed that gene on to me.

In a very un-British move, we ordered two pasties that had nothing to do with Shepherd's Pie or Bubble and Squeak.

This was the Chicken Alfredo Pasty, which was delicious. It was very mild and had yummy sliced chicken breast inside, as well as ham and a healthy amount of Alfredo sauce. I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy it but fell in love after its arrival.

There was a good chance that we were going to enjoy this one.

And I decided to order their Carne Adovado Pasty, which had simmered pork and Hatch chilies. Unfortunately, this was a little too spicy for my wimpy sensitive palette, but my Dad couldn’t get enough. I actually didn’t eat my half entirely, but Dad is a champ and polished it off for me. Isn’t he nice?

“We can’t leave food on the plate,” says he.

I have really enjoyed my Dad being home these past seven months. He had been living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico since 2005. This past winter, he decided to move back to Phoenix to be closer to family.

I’m so glad that he did. It has been really wonderful living in the same city as my Dad, which hasn’t happened since I was four years old. I love spending time with him, and he is a great conversationalist. I see so many traits of mine that I now realize that I got from him.

So, if you think that my house is too clean, now you know who to blame!

After getting our fill of pasties, we went to ICRAPPA to wander around for ideas for Dad’s new apartment. In the process, we saw these cool knives on display.

Did you miss it? Their perfectly-translated sign to keep people safe in their store?

You gotta those the Swedish people!

I love these two men and feel very blessed to have them in my life. When good food is also added to the equation, how can we possibly go wrong?

Bremerton Blackberry Festival with Hubby

After a wonderful flight from home to Bremerton with my Hubby in the back of the airplane for the first time ever, it was time to enjoy some of the local festivities.

I can’t believe that we lucked out to spend our weekend at the Bremerton Blackberry Festival. So much to do and see and eat today! And the whole thing gets to happen with my favorite person by my side.

I knew the day was going to be awesome when we woke up to fog. We don’t exactly get the opportunity to see things like this in Phoenix, so I love when it happens on the road. Doesn’t this just make you want to curl up with a good book? Or some blackberry cobbler?

But there was lots to do today, so away we went! Hubby and I decided to let it warm up more than the 52-degrees that it was that morning. Yikes!

But today’s high is supposed to be seventy-four. Perfection, in my book.

Early that morning, we heard singing from our hotel room. When we looked outside, we realized that the Navy was singing and running all through downtown.

They had chants going while they maintained perfect timing in their formation. It was pretty impressive, and not just because a bunch of people were willing to run.

Soon it had warmed up enough outside to enjoy the festival! It went from 10:00 AM each day until about 7:00 PM, or whenever the last band finished playing their routine.

And, as you can see, the festival is a pretty popular destination. We even watched crowds of people arriving from the Seattle ferry to enjoy the little town’s biggest annual event.

One of my favorite parts of the morning was the official fly-over. While we enjoyed the Blackberry Festival in town, a miniature air show was taking place seven miles away at the airport.

Since only one of us would have enjoyed that, we stayed in town.

We made the official decision to just eat food all day. There were so many choices, and if we shared we could try even more!

I wonder who’s idea that was?

All day long, we were serenaded by different bands playing on the stage. See the guy in tie dye to the left? He danced all day! By himself! It was awesome.

 

But let’s get to the good stuff…the grub! Of course, he put jalapenos on it. He would put them on everything if he could!

We enjoyed a healthy rendition of chili cheese-covered fries. It was actually way better than I was expecting, since I don’t like usually things like that.

And we washed it down with a homemade Blackberry Soda, which we both decided tasted just like concentrated cough syrup. Not a huge fan, but that might be just us!

We found a nice shady spot on the steps to sit and enjoy our food. It was a great view to get in lots of people-watching. Today wasn’t disappointing at all! Hubby stayed in the shade to save our spot while I made a few runs for different edible items.

I wonder who’s idea that was?

We watched them make this balloon ring in the parking lot this morning from the comfort of our hotel room. You can see our hotel in the background. Isn’t it the perfect location to enjoy all of this?

This was my fault. I was being adventurous in trying things that I normally wouldn’t pick. But this was a big, fat fail. It is a blackberry scone with a glaze, which is what coerced me into buying it. But the scone itself was really dry. We both wished we had more concentrated cough syrup to wash it down.

It was that bad. Wop wop.

All through downtown were things for big kids and little kids to do. This just makes me want to put some sort of climbing wall in our future boys’ bedroom. Wouldn’t that be fun?

There were also ponies to ride. This just made me miss my childhood spent on a horse. Did you know that I wore cowboy boots to school until the sixth grade?

It’s hard to pick a favorite thing from today, but these guys are certainly in the running. It was a family-operated booth called Viking Chips.

These wonderful people made my heart go pitter-pat…because they made fresh-to-order potato chips!

Using a power drill, they spun the potato against a blade to create the curly goodness. Then, into the deep fat fryer they went while we impatiently waited.

And then, hallelujah! Chips sent straight from heaven! They lightly salted them and handed us a giant plate of hot chips. Not too shabby for $4, huh?

I absolutely love this picture of Hubby. He is so dern handsome (and old…today is his birthday)!

Sorry for the sappy moment. Let’s get back to the chips!

They were incredible. We seriously considered getting a second order but didn’t want to be those creepy chip-eating people.

We watched a performer while we ate our chips. He was fun and interacted with the crowd well. He kept bringing people up from the audience to incorporate in his tricks. He clearly saw that we were too busy stuffing our face to be bothered.

He did a trick, and then this audience member had to mimic it, complete with weird sounds! It was funny, and the guest followed along pretty well!

They kept stacking these books and got into some pretty tricky configurations.

I wasn’t paying attention very closely since we still had chips to eat at this point in time.

A little later, we decided to put my Coldstone birthday gift card (thanks, Dad!) to good use. Hubby got a shake, and I got the Founder’s Favorite. We should have gotten smaller versions, since neither one of us finished.

You know that something must be wrong for me to not finish some ice cream!

As the evening wore on, the festival came to a close for the day. It would continue for the next two days over the holiday weekend! But we had more important things to do tomorrow.

I get to show Hubby Seattle!

This was the gorgeous view from our room after things were slowing down at the festival. It’s very tiring eating all day and sitting in the shade.

But there was a lot to do, and we had a wonderful day. It was so much better to explore with Hubby by my side the entire time. I am so lucky that he got to come along.

From Washington to Utah – A Weather Story

After a few days of rest in a hotel over the weekend, and doing some laundry on the second floor with quarters and a tiny box of Tide, I was ready for an early-morning flight to Provo from Bremerton on Monday.

This started our second week straight of being on the road. By this Saturday, I would finally be able to see Hubby and rest in my own bed.

But we have lots of fun things to cover before that, so let’s get started!

I didn’t have a harbor view this time from the Fairfield Inn in Bremerton, but I could see the Naval shipyard in the distance. This place is so busy and keeps the town afloat.

As you can see from the overcast layer, the weather was so cool. I love low clouds. It occasionally sprinkled little drops of rain on us, too, and I love that. I just don’t get weather like this at home.

Especially in July…

Good morning, Gladys! Let’s go flying! We are scheduled to be wheels-up at 7:00 AM, but our passengers got stuck waiting at a drawbridge about ten miles from the airport. They arrived just twenty minutes late.

Which gave me time to take pictures of Gladys next to her Citation boyfriend underneath the beautiful cloudy skies. This is read-in-bed-with-hot-chocolate weather, but I’m glad that flying is my second choice today.

After our passengers arrived, we loaded bags and were on our way! Hello, Rain!

And soon we were above the clouds and the rain and flying towards a beautiful sunrise.

Just to prove what a rocket this girl is, we were doing 250 knots in our climb out of Bremerton and still climbing at over 5,000 Feet Per Minute! Isn’t that incredible?!

Man, I love this airplane.

We flew over lots of cloudy areas on our way to sunny Provo. No tailwind to speak of, again, but we were on the ground just a few short hours later.

We flew right past Boise and Twin Falls on our way to the Ogden VOR before our turn south to Provo.

This track keeps us out of the way of arriving and departing traffic out of Salt Lake International.

For some reason, parts of the Great Salt Lake look purple this time of year. I don’t know what is happening chemically to give such a color, and I also don’t know why my camera couldn’t pick up on how bright the purple was. You’re just going to have to believe me that this giant salty lake was purple this morning.

I was surprised at how low the lake was. I know it’s been hot, and that they had a very dry winter. I think everywhere in the country had a mild winter!

It’s not always possible to see the salt deposits this prominently, but the lake was very low as we flew over at 13,000 feet. Salt Lake’s elevation is around 4,500 feet.

Another picture of the Great Salt Lake. Did you know that I got my Private Pilot License in Salt Lake? Ummmmm, a long time ago.

This is a picture of the Garfield Smoke Stack, which was a checkpoint that we flew over when coming back into SLC airspace after flying in the Tooele practice area.

Can you see that tiny white stack in the distance?

We flew right over Salt Lake Number Two Airport. I think it even has a new, official name now, but I always knew it as #2. Amazingly, I’ve never landed here.

This is the famous Kennecott Copper Mine. It is located on the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley. We went here for a field trip in school, and it was fascinating! They have dump trucks with wheels the size of three tall men! Just incredible!

Now we are coming to the Point of the Mountain in between the Salt Lake Valley and Utah Valley where Provo, Orem, and the Utah Lake reside. Just to the left of us were hang gliders on the mountain. I’m always worried that they will crash on the freeway and be killed.

There are many reasons why I don’t hang glide…and being killed on a freeway is just one of them.

Flying over Utah Lake was beautiful. Since it was so early, the bumps from the heat were still in bed. The entire flight was nice and smooth. Just how we like it!

I love the clouds in this picture! My home town is about twenty miles south of here.

Cleared to land on Runway One-Three. I watched for traffic in the pattern, since this is a very busy training airport for the Utah Valley University's flight program. I’m just glad that Provo has a control tower.

Here are some of UVU’s Katanas now, in fact!

For my fourteenth birthday, sixteen years ago today, my Mom got me an aviation day camp at what was then Utah Valley State College. I spent a day in ground school and then got to come back for a half-hour flight in a Katana. It was one of the coolest experiences of my life and just confirmed in my brain that I wanted to be a pilot!

Thanks, Mom!

It was a long taxi to the ramp. Or maybe it just seemed long since I had family waiting for me at the FBO?

This is my Mom and little brother Kip, who came all the way from Nephi to visit me for my short stop in Provo. Don’t they look good next to Gladys?

Actually, everything looks good next to Gladys.

Kippy and me, posing like the ganstas that we are.

Mama and Kippy before we head to lunch.

Speaking of lunch, I discovered that neither my Mama or Kip had ever eaten at P.F. Changs, one of my favorite lunch destinations. So that is where we headed during the short stay in Provo!

Kip got the honey-seared chicken. I approved. Isn’t he a cute kid? He will turn fourteen this fall.

And my Mama enjoyed some spicy chicken stuff. It was spicy, so I ignored the real name. It was a treat to grab lunch with some of my favorite people in the world.

And it was also nice to get out of the rain to enjoy perfect weather in Provo.

The day has just begun, though. We still have another flight to come!