Wyoming Animals

We went to Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks. We also spent a few days in Jackson, Wyoming, where we went on some float trips on the Snake River.

American Bison were everywhere in both parks. They like to make dust burrows to sleep in. Some of these are right by the road.

Bison traffic jam. It was fun for the kids to get this close in the safety of the car.

Baby bison, a/k/a Red Dog.

This big guy likes to hang around the Old Faithful complex, along with two females with babies. We stayed in the Snow Lodge and got a surprise. None of the hotels have air conditioning and it was really hot. I mean hot.


Black bear. We went on a sightseeing tour in an old 1930s tour bus. It's nice to go with a guide who can show you where the animals are.


This is an immature bald eagle. We saw it on our Snake River float trip. It's mother or father was in the background, but I wasn't fast enough to get a photo of them together. It was on the log eating a fish that the parent caught for it.

Ground squirrel, Jackson square.

We saw quite a few other animals, some of which dh got a photo of. He has a better camera, so I'll try to put up some of them if he ever downloads them. He took some photos of elk, closeups of the bear and the bald eagle. We also saw a marmot, which is a large rodent-like animal, beavers, a coyote, a fox, weasels, chipmunks, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, osprey, hawks, etc. The kids wanted to see a moose and a wolf, but not this time.

It was a great trip. Both kids are sick now, so we have to get over that. School starts in two weeks and I can't believe our summer is almost over. Dd goes to Sea World camp next week, and I need to plan and have her birthday party before school starts. I am glad to be home and have all the trips behind me for now.

The Promised Food Post

The first set of photos is from Rome.

We ate gelato every day in Rome. I didn't order dessert at the restaurants, but dd typically did. She had tiramisu, cheesecake, and chocolate cake. Sorry, I didn't snap any photos, they were gone too quickly for that.

Sorry this is blurry, but it made me laugh was I was walking by and I was trying not to disturb the diners with my picture taking. We had bad luck with the food in Rome. The restaurants recommended in the guidebook were nonexistent, or unfindable, or something. We ended up eating a lot of bad tourist food. The best meal was the first night we got there, in the hotel restaurant.

This is gnocchi with a tomato, mozzarella and basil sauce, and it was pretty good. They charged me an extra 2 Euros for the dish because the gnocchi was fresh. ???

Veal scallopine that dh had. He didn't comment either way.

Spaghetti carbonara. The pasta dishes are supposed to be a first course, between the appetizer and the main course, but I always ordered mine as a main course. I don't see how anyone can eat 4 or 5 courses. . .

These photos are from Barcelona. They seem to use a lot of olives there, so dd wasn't a fan. I loved it.

Caprese salad. They give you bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar to put on it. Yum.

This was an appetizer from a tapas place in Barcelona. It had fish and olives on the bread. Tasty, but a bit strong.


Bread with tomato juice and olive oil with a dish of olives on the side. A very popular appetizer.

The Iberian ham is a big deal here. I had some at the hotel restaurant, along with some fruit (pineapple and kiwi), just fabulous. This at the Boqueria market again.

Bad photo, but the best meal I had in Spain. Chicken with apples at a restaurant with the menu in Catalan. Dd is taking Spanish and I wanted her to help me with the menus, but neither of us could figure this one out. The nice waiter translated. She ate a wonderful cheesecake here for dessert. Oh, and we had Tortilla Espana, which is potatoes and onions cooked like an omelet in scrambled eggs. Very delicious.

This is a pizza dd had at a really touristy stand in Barcelona. She liked it just fine.

I had this paella at the same place, and it was just plain bad. Okay, I was starving and I ate most of it anyway, but this was definitely my worst meal in Barcelona. Wish I had time to seek out a better place to have this dish.

So, that's the overview. I really didn't take the time to research the restaurant situation, we played it by ear, so we ended up with a few not so great meals. Maybe another time when I'm not focused on the sightseeing I can focus more on food.

Barcelona

We made it back from our trip safe and sound. This is me in Gaudi's Parc Guell. I really wanted to see these benches because of an Almodovar movie with Penelope Cruz sitting on them. They looked so intriguing in the movie and the real thing did not disappoint.

The lizard is on the stairs at the entrance to the park. I bought a tiny version of it, about three inches long, as a souvenir for ds.

DD (age 12) and I were in Barcelona on our own and she really wanted to see the zoo. It was a great zoo, very big and well maintained, with lots of animals. There were peacocks running loose, and making their scary sound, which gives the place a lot of atmosphere. We even saw a peahen with tiny chicks.

Dolphins, although we were too late to see the dolphin show. I would rank the Barcelona Zoo on par with the Houston Zoo, much better than the Atlanta Zoo.

This is a Gaudi house and museum that was a block down from the hotel. The mosaics were so gorgeous.

This is the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi cathedral. This building was begun in the 1880s and they're still working on it. You can see the workers in the middle of the church, pouring forms for the decorations while touring the church (and the cranes in the photo). It was amazing, you could see a figure or animal almost every place you looked.

Vegetables in a stall in the Boqueria market, on the main tourist drag called *La Rambla*. This street had lots of stands with rabbits and turtles for sale.

We shopped around in some Juniors or Teens clothing stores and dd bought a couple of tops. I had to snap a picture of these jeans. . . The young girls in Spain are all wearing M. C. Hammer pants. I never thought I would see the day. Some of them were knit capris, but the crotch was down between the knees. You could fit at least a few Depends under these things. . . Every time we saw a pair, I would start humming *U Can't Touch This* much to dd's chagrin.

I'll try to blog the rest of the trip in separate entries over the next couple of days. (A food post is coming for sure.)

Miscellany, Easter, Restaurants, My Sorry Skin

I'm hardening off the seedlings this week, which basically means leaving them outside to acclimate to the weather before you plant them. Dh added compost and tilled the plot last weekend, so I hope to get them in the ground soon. Still seems a little cool to me though. Also, I noticed rabbit droppings in the backyard, so here's hoping the neighborhood hawks step it up and catch the buggers before I plant my garden.

The annual easter bunny cake. Seems like I got his from the Parade Magazine back when I was a teenager and my mom let me make it. I have been making it ever since.

The required eggs. Ds helped me dye them. I made them into devilled eggs and a green pea salad on Monday.

The boys on the fishing boat. I am a wimp who suffers from motion sickness, so I skipped this outing.

We ate so well last week on that trip. We ate at Paula Deen's in Savannah, which was wonderful. The kids had the buffet and declared the mashed potatoes the best in the world. I had crab cakes, which were great, although the fried green tomato appetizer had too much breading and not enough tomato to it.

My favorite of all in Savannah was called Cha Bella, which was advertised as Italian in all the food guides, but actually was a local, organic kind of place. I realized that after I made the reservation and was thinking the kids would hate it, but thankfully they had a flatbread pizza that the youngest would eat and the food itself was out of this world, fresh and wonderful. I had flounder on a stew of vegetables, and the pot liquor it was cooked in was divine.

A neighbor had recommended a home-cooking cafe in St. Simons, The 4th of May, and it did not disappoint. The kids loved the 5 cheese grilled cheese and the desserts. I had a vegetable plate with squash casserole, tomato pie, black eyed peas and macaroni and cheese. The kids stole the mac n cheese from me. We ate there three times and I bought the cookbook!

Okay, so I'm writing down the restaurants for my own purposes, so I can remember them next time, but thought if anyone needed recommendations, here they are.

I have a terrible rash from a sunscreen allergy. My face is peeling and my neck, ears and wrists have hives all over. Seems to be a little bit better, but it's going on a week now and getting old. (Note to idiot self: do not buy Neutrogena sunscreen again. ever. You made this same mistake last year!) Also having some strange cramps in my right thumb (too much knitting and cross stitch?) Hoping that will resolve itself. I dreamt I was hand quilting a small quilt last night, wonder what that means?

Shanghai - Food

So my first post about China will cover food. My Dad will be dying to know what we ate for breakfast and I tried to document a few meals. First is fried rice. Hot dish.

Cucumbers marinated in a chili sauce. A cold dish.

Dumplings, crab and pork. This was a meal at a high-end dumpling restaurant in the Super Brand Mall called Din Tai Fung. They have locations in China, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and in the U.S. (Arcadia, CA). We had some decent Chinese wine here too, *The Great Wall* brand.

Next, a few sights at the supermarket.

Squid and mystery seafood.

I think this is called Ugli fruit. It is a fruit that smells really bad but tastes really good. I found the smell to be similar to sniffing a bottle of kids antibiotic medicine (the pink stuff).

Eels, frogs, turtles. To eat. Not pets. Ugh. . .

I should have taken some more produce photos. We were in a large French-owned store, called Carrefour, where my friend normally shops. It was huge, and very similar to a Walmart or Super Target in the items it carried. I found some fun Chinese craft books there too.

Last, a salad.

With Octopus on it. I made myself try one bite, then picked the rest off. The salad was good otherwise, with warm potatoes in it, and some mystery nuts or beans. This was in a Mediterranean restaurant.

We ate breakfast at the hotel since it was included with our room. Every morning there was a chef cooking omelets to order, congee (rice soup that looked like grits) with pickled vegetables, a salad bar, Chinese dumplings or pork buns, fried rice, a pork dish, a chicken dish, bacon, baked beans (for the Brits I suppose), sausage, ham. There was usually a hot American style dish like French toast or pancakes. Cold items were cereals, fruits, yogurts, pastries, breads, juices and milk. They had coffee and tea, the only item I thought missing was water.

We had such a great time. I'll post again with some general tourist photos, craft stuff, and shopping.

Northeast GA Mountains

The house we rented was on the site of an old grist mill. Here's the dam and waterfall.

There were a lot of pools at the base where the kids splashed around and caught crawfish. The water was so COLD.

That's the old water wheel with the house behind it.

This is dd at the Foxfire Museum. I think this building was called the Dogtrot Cabin.

We did a little bit of hiking and letterboxing. The boys went gem mining and we all went white water rafting in North Carolina. The river was a nice easy one, so my youngest had a great time. He's not old enough or heavy enough for the rougher waters.

There's a vegetable stand on 441 called *Goats on the Roof* and it really had goats on the roof. The kids loved it.

The girls went horseback riding at the Dillard House. (Micki I'm sure that's the place you were thinking of.) We ate lunch there afterwards. It was fantastic country food. The kids loved one of the butternut squash dishes, so I bought a Dillard House cookbook, which has a lot of history and other information about the area.

We didn't have time to make it to Tallullah Falls, which was a bit disappointing. That's a reason to go back.

New York

We had a really fun and busy week.


We found a letterbox in Central Park near this.


At the Natural History Museum. I doubt I could have talked them into this if it weren't for the movie *Night at the Museum.* The dinosaur fossils were amazing. We only covered about half of it, and there were way too many field-tripping school kids in some areas to really enjoy it (enormous spaces with hundreds of echoing voices).

View looking south (I think) from the Empire State Building.

The Naked Cowboy. I couldn't get dd to pose with him (three years ago when she was 8, she was willing, but at 11, it's too embarrassing). Our hotel was right on Times Square.

The piano at FAO Schwartz from the movie *Big*.

We went to see The Lion King and Legally Blonde. I'm not a big show person generally, but the kids really loved it. Thursday was warm and sunny, so we went to the zoo in Central Park.

Tuesday afternoon dh had to work, and we went out to New Jersey to my brother's house, which is being renovated. Hiked down the Passaic River and had a picnic. It was a nice getaway. . .