I’ve decided to start blogging about my experiences living and working in downtown L.A., so I’ve made a separate blog for that purpose.  At this point I’m thinking about keeping both.  We’ll see how it works out.  Technically I could have just changed the byline to this blog and continued this blog with my new purpose, but I didn’t do that.

Oh, by the way I’m going to Vegas a couple of days this week and then after that to Fayetteville, NC.. so there will be more travel stories to come!

Oh, if you want to check out the new blog, it’s L.A. Law(oft).

Okay, okay, there weren’t any lions or tigers involved in my night last night, but there were definitely a lot of clowns.  French clowns.  That’s right folks, last night I went to my first Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza, down at the Santa Monica Pier!  I’ve only heard good things about Cirque du Soleil, and I definitely wasn’t let down.  One thing to note though is that it’s a very intimate setting, so you don’t have to pay for the most expensive seats.  Every seat in the house is a good seat.

The acrobatics were INSANE.  At a couple of points I felt like I might vomit out of fear for the acrobats involved.  (For example, there is a part that involves spinning rings high up in the air and at one point one of the guys was running on the outside of the ring, way up in the air, and he started jump roping up there and then his foot got caught.. oh my goodness I almost lost it.  He didn’t though, he got his foot loose and kept on going without missing a beat).

I absolutely loved the show, totally thought it was worth the money, and definitely recommend it!  However, I do have two negatives.  First,   some of the clown parts (where it was just clowns being silly rather than any acrobatics going on) dragged a bit and were a little boring to me.  However, most people were laughing the whole time, and those little comedy breaks are probably necessary to keep the masses from having heart attacks due to watching all the crazy acrobatics!  Second,  I probably would not take my children to see Kooza.   I didn’t see any kids when I was there, and I’m not sure if it was because of the price tag ($60-$130), because of the time of the show I went to (8pm on a school night) or because other people knew it was more of a show for adults than for kids.  It wasn’t super adult themed (a la Zumanity),  but quite a few of the clown scenes had sexual/potty humor.  Granted, kids might not even get it (kind of like I never noticed any of the sexual references in Grease when I was a kid and was shocked when I watched it when I was older!).  And it wasn’t really bad, there were just several times where I thought “wow, if I had kids and brought them to this without knowing what it would be like, I would be a little upset.”  Kind of like when you watch a PG kids movie and there is a cuss word in it.  You expect it to be completely kid friendly and it’s like “whoooah where did that come from?”

Another perk of seeing the show was that it was right down at the pier in Santa Monica.  Despite having lived in the L.A. area for almost 3.5 years now, I had never even been to the pier until a week or two ago.   I drove down early to miss traffic (although whenever the 405 is nearby trouble will ensue, and sure enough I hit traffic on the 10 for miles leading up to the 405 exit, but it was completely clear the moment I passed 405).  Another perk of getting down to the pier early was that there was actually parking available on the pier!  So instead of parking somwhere else and taking a shuttle or walking back up the pier after the show, I got to walk right to my car in about 2 minutes   Plus, the view down there before the show was BEAUTIFUL!  I captured this shot on my iPhone:

Prior to the show I accomplished two tasks.  First, I beat the friend I was meeting by about an hour and my bangs have been driving me CRAZY.  So I googled nearby salons and found one .5 miles away and called to ask if I could come in for a bang trim.  I went to Studio 1452, and I really liked the girl who trimmed my bangs.  We talked hair color for a few minutes too and I’m seriously considering driving down to SM for my next hair appointment and trying her out.  About 15 minutes and $10 later, my bangs were finally out of my eyes again.  Hallelujah!

Second, when my friend arrived we grabbed dinner at Rusty’s Surf Ranch on the pier.   It has mixed reviews on Yelp, but we decided to give it a try because it was so close, and they have a great happy hour.  The decor inside feels a bit like a “hole in the wall” beach cafe kind of place, but it’s very fitting for its location.  I ordered the veggie burger for dinner and it was DELICIOUS.  Veggie burgers at restaurants have been very hit and miss for me so far since I converted to vegetarian, and I’m pretty sure this one was my favorite so far.  I will definitely be going back for more!

That’s all for now.  My cruel body has me up earlier than I wanted to be, so I’m going to go for a walk.  I want to join a gym, but next week I’m going to Vegas for a couple of days with some girlfriends, and then the day after I get back flying to North Carolina for about a week, so I’m going to wait to sign up until I get back.

Speaking of walking-  I’ve figured out that my walking experiences in downtown L.A. are much more enjoyable with earbuds in (with or without music).  Everyone thinks I’m listening to music, so nobody bothers me.  I like it that way.  Another thing about walking… I don’t mention being tall on here very much,  but sometimes walking alone is very frustrating because I notice people gawking at me a lot more when I don’t have a friend walking with me that I’m talking to.  It’s so frustrating.  It’s like, yes, I know that I am ridiculously tall for a woman, but leave me alone already!   I do really love being tall, but sometimes (probably similar to a celebrity) I really wish I could go out in disguise.

Yesterday I met a friend on the Westside to get dinner and see a screening for the movie “All Good Things.”  Apparently we were the very first people to see the finished movie, so that’s pretty cool.  It’s a love story/murder mystery based on a true story from New York.  I really liked it actually (despite the fact that I’m usually not a fan of unhappy endings), and look forward to seeing it once it comes out to see what they changed, if anything.  (There is one very unnecessary scene with full frontal nudity of Kirsten Dunst, I hope they get rid of that but they probably won’t.. ohhh publicity.)

We planned our meet up time based on when I could miss traffic on the 10.  But shocker of all shockers, there was an accident on the 405 that jammed traffic on the 10.  Soooooo glad that I don’t have to drive in L.A. on a daily basis!   As I was driving back home later, all of a sudden it really hit me that I *live in downtown* now.  I was leaving the west side, where I used to live, to drive *downtown*, where I live now.  Crazy!   And even though I’ve been here for around 3 weeks now, it just really hit me for the first time that I live here.  This is my loft, my place that I come home to.  Crazy!

On another note, I have had the urge to paint for awhile.  I’ve only painted once before… in my art class in high school and despite numerous attempts I could not figure out how to paint a human face.  So somewhere out there I have a painting of a grandpa with his grandaughter on his lap and a nice background, but they have no faces.  And not in a cool “I did it on purpose” way, but in a very obvious “this chick couldn’t figure out how to paint a face” way.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting a painting of trees for awhile, and then I was in Crate & Barrel with my friend Juliana one day and they had this really cool print of trees for $500.   She said it was her favorite painting and I thought “I bet I could paint this myself, and it would be a lot cheaper than $500!”  Well, a couple of days ago I was sitting at home working on a photo book for a friend, and I decided to google nearby art supply stores.  As it turned out, there is one pretty close to my place (as it also turned out, although it wasn’t too far it was definitely in the ‘wrong part of town’ for me, and it is unlikely that I will venture back there anytime soon).   I bought a canvas for $9, two colors of acrylic paint (black and yellow), and two paintbrushes.  I’ve worked on it a couple of hours a day for the past several days and today I finished:

It didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted, because I don’t know anything about brushes and I bought the wrong brushes (and ended up using 2 makeup brushes for the trees), but I like how it turned out nonetheless    Also, that picture you can barely see on the shelf below is a picture of me meeting Margaret Thatcher.  A candid shot of her making a joke about my height.  I love that photo!

Along with taking up painting, I’ve also taken up cooking Vegan meals.   For the record, I have never been much of a cook.  Prior to the last few weeks, I’ve only cooked actual meals a couple of times in my life.  Really sad, I know   But since I’ve been living alone and finally have my own kitchen I’ve been learning how to cook things.  Tonight I made brown rice with avocado slices and vegan chicken and a little sauce.   It was yummy.  I definitely ate more than a reasonable portion.

Tomorrow night I’m doing something very exciting, which I will post about later!

It’s been awhile! About two weeks ago I moved back to Los Angeles.  I got a loft downtown and I LOVE it!  I’d post pictures here of my place and my view and whatnot, but in the event that I have internet stalkers I don’t want to give away my location    So, if you know me in real life, check my facebook or email me and I’ll send you some pics!

My mom made the drive down with me from Oregon, and we faced the worst fog I’ve ever been in on the way down.  Had I not been white-knuckling the wheel so bad it gave me blisters (no joke) I would have probably thought to take a photo to capture the craziness!  Sadly, no pics   So, after driving 16 hours straight (well, except for the 30 minute power nap in a Denny’s parking lot next to a sewer), we arrived in L.A. and got checked into my new place only to discover (1) the maintenance people had left all their equipment in my place; and (2) a wall that had been a mustard yellow color (which I LOVED) was now painted brown    I was a little bummed, particularly about the wall.  But the manager came up and removed the stuff and my bathroom stuff still looked nice with the brown wall so I just let that part go.

After unloading the stuff in my car, we drove out to Target to get some necessities, and then stopped by my storage unit to get the air bed, some blankets, and the TV to last us until the next day when we’d be moving everything else.  That turned into a NIGHTMARE.   (Keep in mind that I still hadn’t slept at that point after driving through the night and through the worst fog ever).  When I got to the unit, apparently someone had tampered with my lock and it was jammed.  We had to wait nearly 40 minutes in the heat for the property manager to return, and then wait for over an hour while she struggled to drill out the tampered lock.  Ahh!  She couldn’t get it and eventually called her son who came and got the unit unlocked within a couple of minutes.   I bought a new lock (a combination one this time) to protect the rest of my stuff and we were finally able to leave and head back to my place for the night.

The same day we arrived in L.A., my older brother who lives out near San Bernardino came out and spent the night so he could help my mom and I move my storage unit in the next day. It was fun having a little slumber party in my empty loft with him and my mom that night.  We got some subway, watched a movie, and all passed out because we were so tired (him from working and then driving in traffic to get here, us from all of the above).  The moving day went extremely smoothly.  We were a great team!  After we finished I took my mom and Will to the Grove for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (lunch ended up being 4pm due to waiting to go eat and then having a long wait at the restaurant).   Will headed home after the lunch and my mom and I spent the evening unpacking most of my boxes.  Before the night was over I had unpacked all but a couple of boxes, and had looked inside the ones I hadn’t unpacked so I knew where everything was.  It was a very successful moving in day

That was almost 2 weeks ago.  In other news, I have one month left of freedom until I start work.  I’m using that time to get all settled into the new place, and take care of various things I won’t have time to do once I start working.

On a random note, I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this here yet or not… but since about late August I’ve been vegetarian weening toward vegan.  Not eating meat has great environmental, healthful, and ethical* benefits.  So far I like it.  Honestly, I HATE cooking meat anyway, and now that I’m officially completely on my own with nobody else to cook for me, it’s pretty convenient that I’ve weened myself off meat.

Also, I am very excited to be headed to North Carolina in a couple of weeks.   I missed seeing my new niece Carsyn by just a couple of days (just like I missed seeing my new nephew Jackson when he was born by a couple of days.. stubborn babies! ugg!).  So I’m very excited to spend about 5 days with my mom, my brother, and his family coming soon

* As for the ethical benefits, I just want to note here that I do not think it is wrong to eat animals.  However, I do think the way most farms treat animals is very unethical.   Just because it’s ok to eat meat doesn’t mean it’s ok to torture animals.  So, absent me finding nearby ethical farms to get meat from, not eating meat is the next best thing.

So…. my time in Europe, which was my reason for making this blog… finished nearly a year ago (wow!).  Aside from posting pictures here and on my facebook, I still haven’t got any prints or anything done.   I had planned on making a coffee table photobook of all of my pictures for Christmas presents last year, but an unfortunate tragedy struck and I just couldn’t get it done.   So now, one year later, I am staring at my thousands of pictures feeling incredibly overwhelmed and trying to figure out where to start!  I’m really hoping to have it done for Christmas this year!  If for nothing else, I will have my own place soon and it would be nice to have on my own coffee table

Additionally, I have discovered a way to get photos printed on canvas.  I was at a friend’s house a few weeks ago and she had a great print from Europe hanging over her sofa.  When I asked her about it, she told me it was a picture she had taken and told me where she got it done.  Immediately my wheels started turning.  I would love to get one of my pictures from Ireland printed for Grandpa.  I’ve also been thinking about some of my favorite photos that I’d like to get on canvas for myself, or for gifts for people. 

So basically… I have a lot of work cut out for me.  And in that regard I’ve also been thinking about getting a new camera.   My current camera is a regular point and shoot digital camera (10MP/3X Zoom).   I am surprised by the great photos I’ve been able to take with this camera, but it’s not meeting my needs in two areas:  (1) distant shots; and (2) low light shots.   Whenever I try to take photos under these conditions, I get really frustrated.   I don’t know enough about photography (or spend enough time photographing things) to justify the expense of one of those fancy SLR cameras, but I want something somewhere in between.   Anyone reading this have any suggestions?  Keep in mind that what I’m looking for is something that can take great photos under conditions 1 & 2

For now I’m going to get back to the photobooking, but I still have a few updates from my recent travels I’d like to post… particularly about a restuarant called D Bar in Denver… to come at a later date

So… I just got back last night from a quick trip to Los Angeles.  Hopefully I will finally be able to catch up on a lot of random things.   The trip to L.A. was short, and fun.  I flew into the Long Beach airport which I’d never done before, and I loved it!  It’s a very tiny airport (I think even smaller than Burbank?) and it was so easy and not stressful.

I felt like I was on a bit of a covert operation though.  A friend of mine from law school had graciously invited me to stay with her and her fiance in their new rental house in Long Beach and borrow one of their cars for my trip.  However, due to a bit of planning failure on my part, it turned out I would be arriving while my friend was still out of town for a wedding.  So her and her fiance decided to leave one of their cars parked in one of the long term lots with the keys inside under the mat and the doors unlocked (brave!).  So basically, I flew into an airport I’d never been to, caught the courtesy shuttle to a car I’d never been in, opened the unlocked door, removed the keys and parking ticket from under the mat, and then drove to a house I’d never been in and let myself in.  I was so caught up in the covert operation-ness of it all that as soon as I got inside I sat down my bag and thought “ok, what is the next step??”

For the next step, I decided to use the trusty iPhone to find a place for lunch, and I ended up walking down and discovering the “Belmont Shores” area of Long Beach.  I have a very negative connotation in my mind when I hear “Long Beach”, but Belmont Shores challenged my thinking.  Second street is lined with shops (from boutique style shops to Banana Republic and Gap) and restaurants and the neighborhood streets are lined with those super tall palm trees a la Beverly Hills.   You can see the ocean from certain points on the street which was definitely beautiful.  I found Banana Republic right away.  I think I have some kind of radar! But I managed to not buy anything… I have bought SO MANY new clothes lately, it’s insane.  I need a support group or something.

Anyway, the trip had two purposes- one for an event where I received an award, and since I had to go to L.A. for that anyway, I decided to double the purpose of the trip to find an apartment.   I think I found my future home, at least for the next year!! I’d love to post a picture or two here, but I can’t have my internet stalkers knowing where I live

The award event was a fantastic lunch at a beautiful L.A. hotel.  The plaque they gave me  was so big I had to leave it behind in L.A. because I had no way to get it home on my flight out that afternoon.  I also received a cash prize which was wonderful since I had to pay to fly myself out there.   I feel very honored that my school chose me for the award

In other news, I’m back in Portland for now (key words for now).  If I do get the apartment, they prefer me to move in mid-october which is sooner than I had planned on moving to L.A., but very preferred because living out of suitcases is getting OLD.  Also, when I’ve been in Portland I have been alternating between sleeping on my mom’s love seat (not ideal for a 6′4″ woman), or sharing a bed with my friend Becky at her condo.  I appreciate the hospitality of both my mom and Becky, but I really do miss having my own space.   In the meantime, the only other trip I have coming up is a trip to North Carolina to see my brother, SIL, and my two nieces (including one brand new one!) and nephew.  I’m thinking of buying a new camera before I go so I can get better pictures.   Ideally, something in between my point-and-shoot little digital camera that I have now, and one of the those uber-expensive SLR cameras.  I’m thinking something around $200-$300 with better zoom, etc.  will do

I just got back Wednesday night from my roadtrip to Denver to see my friend Juliana, her husband and their new baby.  It was such a wonderful trip!

The drive was fantastic, although I’ll admit it’s really only something I’d like to do once.  We also had planned to come back a different way to mix it up (go down through the mountain area near salt lake and then cut back up to Wyoming), but the day before we left it suddenly went from upper 70s, sunny, and gorgeous to cold, dark, and snowy/rainy!  So we figured for safety sake we should go back the way we came.    Also, we had contemplated going up on a more northern route through Wyoming and stopping by Yosemite but we ran out of time.   We probably should have left Denver a day sooner so we could do the Yosemite thing, but I just didn’t want to leave!

Anyway, so the point is that we drove the exact same way there and back.  But all was not lost (in terms of any possibility of being bored just seeing the same things again) because on the way back it was light in areas that had been dark on the way there, and in Wyoming there was snow which was BEAUTIFUL! Becky (my roadtrip partner) and I were both taking pictures the whole time, even whichever one of us was driving   So, almost all of my shots were taken while in motion, and most of the time through the windshield or side window glass.  I’m amazed some of them turned out as well as they did given the circumstances!

On the way there, we drove Portland to Nampa, Idaho (about 6 hours) and then stayed the night there before continuing on to Denver (about 13 hours) the next day.   On the way back, we did the same thing (stopped in Nampa).  We also stopped in Hood River where Becky is from (about an hour before getting back to Portland) for a late lunch and a little shopping

All in all, the road trip part of the experience was awesome!  People had told me Wyoming would be boring (scenery-wise) but we LOVED Wyoming!  I have a huge album up on facebook for those of you that are my facebook friends, but for those who are just happening upon my blog, here are a few of the pics from the roadtrip:

Driving in Northern Utah

One of many types of varied terrain in Wyoming

More Wyoming

A little Colorado on the way back...

(Admittedly, I didn’t get a lot of Colorado scenery because it was dark on our way there, and then it was just getting light on our way out.. but it looked a lot like the pics from my last trip to Colorado with rolling hills and mountains off in the distance )

Colorado has some red rocks too (w/ Becky's hand)

Snow in Wyoming

Me using my Giant-Skills to touch the Utah sign

More Utah... I was a big fan

Southern Idaho was mostly brown, flatness.. but also some very lush green crops

The Columbia Gorge (back in Oregon)

I’ll update more later on our time actually in Denver, but for now, I hope you enjoyed the pics I posted from my pictures while flying by at 80MPH skills

I haven’t even caught up yet and I’m off to travel again! Tonight my friend Becky and I are roadtripping to Denver! Get excited for some awesome pics of Wyoming

I get back next Wednesday, and leave for a short trip to L.A. the following Monday. I have been nominated for an awesome award that is law school related so I have to go down to a luncheon to receive it

Finally, after that trip, I will be resting in Oregon for awhile so I can finally catch up here, and finally get on my to do list before work starts (coffee table photo books of my europe photos, childrens book for my niece, crafting a budget, long overdue thank you notes, etc etc)

I flew out of Houston, Texas on August 28th headed to L.A. to help my boyfriend pack up his apartment and move things into my storage unit (he’s letting me use his furniture.. free storage for him, great deal for me!).   On the way, I had a layover at the Oakland Airport.  I’m not really sure if I’ve had a layover there before, but I don’t think so.  Despite never hearing anything particularly good about Oakland (California..), I really liked the airport!  There are beautiful views from the airport windows of the bay and planes coming into land just over the bay and touching down on the runway just beyond the sand.  I LOVED it!

Oakland Airport Windows

There are two other things I loved: first, free wifi!  It is always a pleasant surprise to me when I find an airport with free wifi.  I’ll admit it doesn’t actually affect me much anymore, because now with the iphone I can do pretty much anything I need to do without access to a wifi connection.  But for those who are iPhoneless, and even for me when I have an hour to spare and the desire to finally update my blog, free wifi connections are amazing!  (Of course, that blog I wrote ultimately got lost in technical error land… but had that not happened, I would have had a brilliant blog post up thanks to Oakland airport wifi!).

The other thing I loved: The name is suddenly escaping me, but there was a mexican restaurant in the airport, and I’m pretty sure the name started with an “A”.  I got a delicious mesquite grilled chicken salad and a margarita.  It was fantastic! Definitely the best airport food I’ve had!  (Although, that is also because I’ve tended to be a cheapo and always look for the cheapest thing possible to eat during layovers in airports).  I had a long few weeks, and I realized that it would be nice to sit down at an actual restaurant and get something yummy instead of something cheap.  The salad was only $8 or $9 so really not any different than a regular restaurant. Anyway, it was delicious! Go there if you ever have a layover in Oakland!

It’s taking awhile for me to come to the realization that I can actually afford things now.  I grew up poor and I’ve worked my way through college and law school, and so a lot of the time I’m still that penny pinching girl looking for the cheapest option available.  And I have to tell myself, “Michelle… you have money now.  You can afford a yummy salad.  You don’t have to settle for a bagel at starbucks or a bag of pretzels from the newstand.”   I’m still working on finding a balance between acting like I’m still poor vs. just blowing money.

Now on to the real point of this post: the salad above was the last time I had meat.  I’ve been planning to give up meat for awhile, and have steered clear of red meat for a long time.  I’ve been contemplating giving up chicken for awhile but I LOOOOOVE chicken.  Well, I got to L.A. and Alexander had decided to go on a vegan diet for health reasons and I decided it was as good a time as ever to give up meat.  I’m not as hardcore as him yet.  I’m weening myself off dairy but it is really difficult adjusting to not eating meat or dairy when one of the two seems to be in about almost everything.  I’m working on it    It is for the health reasons for me as well.  It’s also really good for the environment to not eat meat.  And, while I don’t think it’s wrong to eat meat, I do think that animals get horribly mistreated in most farming operations and that is wrong.   So, not eating meat = health benefits, environmental benefits, and hopefully fewer animals being tortured.  Sounds like a pretty good deal.   And honestly, I’m two weeks in now and so far I don’t even crave meat at all.  (And I’m finally starting to lose my 3L/Bar Studying weight, which is another awesome benefit!)

The morning after our trip to Acoma, we (Adam, Krissi, and I) packed up the car and headed to Colorado.  Adam’s parents have a cabin up a gravel road near the town of Westcliffe.  The cabin is self-suficient (solar panels for electricity, well water, etc.).  The views are breathtaking, there is plenty to do outdoors around the cabin, and the cabin itself is very cute and quaint.  However, the only downside (which also can be considered an upside) is that there is no phone line, internet, or cell service available.  For someone like me, who is used to being so connected, it always takes a little getting used to, but I like it.  However, it also turned out to be a downside of the trip because Adam’s family wasn’t able to get in touch with us until we went down into the town around 3pm the following day.

Anyway… back to the beginning.  The drive was pretty easy.  It was about a 5 hour drive from Albuquerque and we drove into a pretty crazy storm at one point, but overall it was an easy and enjoyable ride.  Oh, and at one point I desperately needed to use the restroom and there wasn’t one for miles and miles and miles.  This was reminiscint of the the last time I was roadtripping through New Mexico (on the way to Houston, TX).   I can’t think of New Mexico now without thinking of desperately needing a restroom with nowhere to stop.  Boys have it so easy

So we arrived in the town around… shoot… I have no idea what time it was.  We unloaded our stuff at the cabin, and drove back down into Westcliffe to get some pizza at a delicious place Adam & Krissi had tried before (I think it was called Pizza Madness?) .  The pizza was extremely delicious.   Also, I had a very awkward encounter with a worker there who essentially told me that being so tall was “hott” after asking about our food, and then he walked away.

From there, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some yummy fresh stuff so we could make our own meals over the next few days.  At that point, we had no idea we’d be leaving so soon.  Oh, and I need to throw this is here to throw it in somewhere… There is a field nearby their cabin with lots of Llamas!  When Krissi pulled over so I could take a picture, they all posed there.  So cute!

When we got back to the cabin, we were planning to put the groceries away and settle down for a fun round or two of Settlers.  However, we made an unfortunate discovery: mouse poop.  As we began to investigate further, we discovered a LOT of mouse poop (in all of the corners, cupboards, in the TOASTER!, oh man… some field mice went CRAZY!).  So, we ended up spending quite awhile cleaning everything up, setting out new poison (sorry mouse lovers), and binning up all the food so the mice wouldn’t have an alternate food source.   The cabin isn’t occupied very often, and they just got it in the winter, so they hadn’t had to worry about the possibility of field mice before.  I think everyone will be very careful with food now and it shouldn’t be a problem.  Krissi was doing most of the work because I’ll admit I was pretty freaked out about reaching in anywhere and having a mouse run over my hand or something.  After we had done all we could in the cleaning department, we did sit down for a game of Settlers although I can’t remember at all who won.   That night, I slept with a light on, and with my iPod playing because I figured the mice probably wouldn’t come out if they thought people were in there and awake.

The morning was much better.  We had some coffee and fruit out on the porch.  The weather was perfect.  Sunny but not too warm, perfect breeze… it reminded me of the scene at the end of Evan Almighty when the family is walking/hiking through that field and a breeze is blowing (random reference, I know).  The point is: it was very calm, and beautiful outside.

The "Cabin"

Later, we got dressed and hiked to the top of Pocahontas Hill, which I had always thought was a nickname Krissi gave it, but apparently is the actual name of the hill.  We thought we’d have cell reception at the top (although that was not our only reason for going), but alas we did not.   We did run into a couple of women hiking together, and at that point, for the first time since we arrived, my “worst case scenario” persona kicked in and I started getting freaked out about the possibility of a complete stranger coming into our cabin.   One of the women mentioned that at one point a few years ago, she and her husband had driven up the road to what is now Adam’s family’s cabin and looked around because it looked unoccupied.  So that was the first time it crossed my mind that someone else might actually come up to the house.   Let’s just say I won’t be staying alone at a cabin with no phone line or cell phone signals any time soon

The Top of Pocahontas Hill

After our hike we decided to head down to the town because we really did need to make a few phone calls and I wanted to try the coffee shop and check out some of the antique shops before they closed.  Last time she was in Colorado, Krissi got an adorable necklace at an antique shop for $3 and I was really hoping to find an adorable necklace of my own.. but no such luck.  While at the coffee shop I logged onto facebook and saw a recent update from Adam’s brother that their grandma was being moved into hospice,  and we all decided to get back to the cabin, repack our things, and drive through the night (about 16 hours?) to Houston so Adam and Krissi could be there for their family.

Wow, I realize it is an awkward way to end a post, but that was the end of my experience in Colorado.  It was really beautiful, and I’d love to go again soon!

Coming soon…. posts about my time in Texas, plus some random airport notes, and then Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Tahoe updates!