Road Trip

At the end of the summer season, it is a family tradition to go on a "road trip". Actually, we just drive 50 miles up to the cabin to close it down for the winter. The participants this year were me and Paul and my brother John and my dad. It is always tricky to decided when to close up the cabin. We don't want to do it too soon and admit that summer if over for another year but then again we don't want to wait too late and get caught by a sudden change in the weather and end up with frozen water pipes and snow covered picnic tables. Since it did snow in the higher mountain areas last weekend and this weekend it is forcasted for a much stronger winter storm, we had to face the facts and "put it to bed for the winter". Following our family motto of "first we work, then we play", that was the work portion.

This was the play portion!

Our cabin is 5 miles outside the town of Oakley, Utah. Oakley is a very small, farming town known for it's world famous Oakley Rodeo held during the 4th of July. But there is a new novelty in town and we have been anxious to give it a try. For the past year we have been watching this diner being renovated and have been anticipating checking it out.

Back in May of 2007 a man named Keith Walker decided to follow his passion and move this authentic 1939 roadside diner all the way from Middletown, Rhode Island out west to Oakley, Utah. Mr. Walker decided to use a play on words for it's name, "Road Island Diner" so as to reflect where it came from - Rhode Island - but also to reflect where it has been relocated to on the "island of a road" here. So far he has spent $1 million rennovating it. He has done an amazing job. It is completely authentic (except for the 2 flat screen TV he added for his 21st century customers). The menu is huge and contains everything you would hope and expect to get at a diner. All the staff are dressed in retro outfits and there are jukeboxes at every booth. There are about 10 or 12 booths and a counter with at least a dozen stools.

It had it's Grand Opening during the Oakley Rodeo this past 4th of July weekend and there were crowds of people lined up waiting to get in. Ever since then, every time we have driven past we have been amazed at the continued popularity and disappointed that the line was still too long for us to stop in. But this time we lucked out. I guess 4 pm on a Wednesday afternoon is a slower time. If you are ever passing by on any of your Road Trips, I highly recommend you stopping in for a real treat and a piece of history!

Another beautiful outdoor day

So, for this week's hike, Kalita and I decided to trek up to Lake Blanche. This week we switched canyons from Millcreek to Big Cottonwood. I actually live all of about 2 miles from the mouth of this canyon and have done so for the past 32 years. This is the first time I have ever made this hike! Seriously, what have I been doing all these years? Oh yeah, working! I'm so glad I retired!

The trailhead is located 4.4 miles up the canyon. This was a longer and, I would say, a more difficult hike than the last 3 hikes we have taken. The trail is a steady uphill climb. In fact, it climbs about 2500 feet in the 3 miles up to the lake. The trail is more narrow and lots more rocky also. But the scenery is every bit as spectacular. The foliage is in various stages of transformation; everything from leaves totally fallen to some leaves just starting to lose their green to lots of shades of yellow and gold since most of the trees here are Aspens. The sky was perfectly blue with not a titch of a cloud anywhere. The temperature was in the high 40s to low 50s, I'm guessing but we were just fine in a couple of long sleeved shirts. We both wore gloves for some of the hike early on but we were mostly kept warm by all the physical exertion.

This past weekend we did get some weather changes which resulted in that "white stuff" there on the highest peaks. I have to admit that the snow looks so pretty as a contrast to the fall colors and the rocky ridges. There were several peaks surrounding the lake. I came home and did a little research and found out that the peaks are: Dromendary at 11,107 feet, Sunrisedeck at 11,275 feet, Monte Cristo at 11,132 feet and Sundial at 10,320. I have no idea which peak is which but they all were very impressive. We made the whole 6 mile trek in about 3 1/2 hours including hanging out at the lake for 20 minutes or so.

I have got my fingers crossed that we can still get in at least one more hike (really, I'm hoping for 3 or 4 but I am trying to take it one week at a time). If you get the chance, get out and enjoy this precious time of year. We only live once!!

Having fun

The reason I haven't blogged very well for the past couple of weeks is all this woman's fault!

Two weeks ago I went to a quilting class taught by this woman, Karen Stone. I have admired her quilts for years and when I got the chance to actually take a class from her, I was thrilled! And she didn't disappoint!

She is known in the quilting world for her New York Beauty quilts; specifically the one in the photo with her. New York Beauty quilt blocks consist of all those spiky points and lots of contrasting patterns and colors in the fabrics. The technique for accomplishing straight, non-chopped-of points is paper foundation piecing. That is where the pattern is drawn on a piece of paper and then you actually sew the fabric right on the paper following the printed lines. It is such a fun technique. Karen brought along with her probably 20 of her most well known quilts and they are even more stunning in real life. I was totally blown away. She has such an artistic take and a creative eye for color and design. She is extremely inspiring yet her class was about the most non-stressful quilting class I have ever taken.

The quilt that she taught is called "The Happy Rick Rack Quilt". Here is a small portion of her quilt. She has done her quilt in kind of retro, vintage, 50's & 60's fabrics. She has embellished each block with rick rack, hence the title. These fabrics are not my favorite but I love the contrast and the combinations and the movement and interest it provides in the overall affect.

So here is what I have put together so far. Each block seems to be taking me about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to put together. I initially had a really hard time deciding what colors I wanted to go with. After visiting MANY quilt shops, I came across that background fabric that has been my "inspiration piece" -- specifically, what I have used to pick all my colors and fabrics to match (or contrast with). If you click on the photo you will get a better look at all the patterns that I have going on. The white circles pinned to many of the blocks are the centers that I am going to wait until I get all the blocks done to choose those fabrics. The original quilt has 32 blocks in it and is a bed size but I think I want to do a wallhanging size so I'm only going to have 18 blocks in my version.

So there you go... that is my excuse for getting nothing none but boy, I'm having a good time!

This week's hike

Stunning!

That is all that I kept saying to myself as I hiked up to Dog Lake in Millcreek Canyon this morning. The foliage is simply stunning!
Last week we hiked up Elbow Fork but the colors hadn't changed that much from the week before. This week there was a big difference. The higher we got, the more vibrant the Aspens were.

My sister-in-law, Kalita and my niece, Konni and their 3 dogs (Ivy, Harley and George) were my hiking companions for today's outing. The weather couldn't have been any more delightful. It was about 50 degrees and you can see from the pictures that the sky was sunny and stunningly blue.
We passed quite a few hikers -- mostly on our way down since we got a relatively early start going uphill.

Most of the trail is a steady uphill terrain with a very few sections that level off for 25 feet or so before heading uphill again. The trail is mostly just dirt and tree roots and some small rocks so it doesn't trip you up very much. It winds through spruce pine trees and douglas firs and aspens. We crossed over two 10 foot-long bridges with a small creek running along alot of the trail. We probably hiked about 4 miles total. The lake was perfectly still with the sky and the clouds and the golden aspens reflecting on the surface... until Kalita's black lab jumped in for her morning workout! Ivy probably spent a good 15 minutes swimming and diving and chasing after sticks that Kalita threw in to the water for her to retreive. I was content to just watch from the shoreline.

I've got my fingers crossed that these precious, perfect fall hiking days are going to continue for a few more weeks. I'm just not ready to admit that shortly everything will turn from green, yellow, orange and red to WHITE!