Drive to Idaho, Please

Eli has been waiting for weeks for our trip to Idaho. Every morning he would wake up and tell me "Idaho in June. Idaho for Fourth of July." But this morning he woke up and told me, "Drive to Idaho, please." The drive up was hot, hot, hot, but went smoothly despite the fires burning along I15 through Utah.

North of St. George we saw the black scorched hillsides left by the previous day's fire. We didn't see any flames though till we hit Scipio. The whole valley around Salt Lake was smoggier than downtown LA.

Happy Birthday, Carlean!

Three P's

Purple-dyed roving that Aunt Pat dyed in an exhaust bath:

Peachick rescued from orphanhood, which Abi named "Peepin" (Pippin) and desperately wants to adopt for her very own:

Projects: The first picture is Sheri (Courtney) holding her first mead brewing experiment! She helped me bottle up my current batch as I walked her through starting a batch for herself.

The second project pic is tile I picked out for redoing the bath. Since the bathroom is already mostly white (and black) I just went with that color theme. The diamond below is what I would like to have running just above the tub as a row of accent tile.

Summer Solstice

For solstice, I made a dessert of baked apples. I peeled and cored the apples, toasted and finely ground almonds and mixed it with an equal amound of minced candied orange peel, and a tsp. each of powdered and fresh grated ginger, cinnamon, rice flour and melted butter for the filling.

Then I made a basic pie crust but substituted 1/2 cup of rice flour in, wrapped them up and put a dallop of butter on top. They baked at 350F for about 40 minutes. The pastry held up nicely, not soggy at all. The candied orange peel was the last from my Pentathalon entry that were the specially prepared batch involving extra soakings, boilings, and eggwhites along with sugar. It was a phenomenal result, very much worth all the effort. Now I will just have to go buy a bunch more oranges and make an even bigger batch next time.

Carlean had made some steak for dinner, and we set the table in the treehouse complete with crystal and candles.

By the time we finished dinner, it was nearly dark (it looks very dark in the picture below) and the lights that Uncle Bear had strung illuminated the treehouse as fancifully as any elfin house in Rivendell.

Cali Visit, Part IV

On Tuesday, we headed down to the La Brea Tar Pits. Yes, Abi is still wearing her Mad Hatter hat from DisneyLand...

And, on the last evening, Joan joined us and we had a dinner al fresco featuring the salmon in puff-pastry dish that Aunt Pat makes for Arboritum nights. We got so much packed into under a week... Now they are going to need a vacation to recover from this vacation!

Cali Visit, Part III

The sub-title for this post is "The Good, the Bad, and the Wacky." It started when the boys wanted to go clubbing. One problem with that: there are aparently so few bars that alow under 21's in, that they go out of business. So instead we headed for Hollywood to cruise the boulevard and people-watch. An amazing number of costumed tourist-swindlers were out. We got a picture with Gene Simmons and a shot of Chuck Norris' star to remember the spirit of the evening. :)

 The next silliness occurred at the big dinner out at Tori Yen. Not only was there a plague of frog sighting, but then we found we had been served Luke Sushi.

The next day at DisneyLand, the boys decided to look at some commemorative hats at the Mad Hatter shop. That's when Jamaica Man, Goofy and Captain Jack Sparrow appeared.

We had a great day at DisneyLand. Eli got to go on lots of fast rides with Shaun, Luke, Matt, Uncle Bear and Abi. Mom and I hung out did Pirates of the Carribean a few more times. We also did some of the classics all together, including Jungle Book Cruise and Haunted Mansion.

We got a reservation for an early dinner at the Blue Bayou. The food was delish, and way more than any of us could eat. Not yet ready to plunge back out into the heat, we took one more ride on the Pirates.

Then we headed over to Pirate Island (Tom Sawyer's Island) where the kids got to climb on stuff some more...

 
We took a spin through Autopia...

And then, unfortunately, we didn't time our exit quite well enough. We got caught in the light parade and fireworks show at 8:30 and barely avoided a total meltdown with Eli. In any event, it was still a fun day!

Cali Visit, Part II

On Sunday we went to the Getty Villa in Malibu and then the Getty Center overlooking LA.

It was a good day for photo opps.

 

And eventually it was too warm to hang around in the gardens, so we headed inside to look at exhibits. Aunt Pat, Carlean, Uncle Bear and Mom also got to sit in on a lecture on Horses in Art.

And then the kids climbed on things...