Westward Bound: The First Few Days

As of Saturday afternoon, I am officially out of town.  The schedule this week looks a little something like this: fly into Las Vegas, spend two days there on business, drive to Telluride to meet some of my family members and spend three days there, drive to Moab, spend two days there, and then wend our way home.  Great plan, no?

I'm actually going to skip Las Vegas for now; I'll devote a blog post to that later.  (I have a few thoughts that will take more time to verbalize than I have at the moment.)  For now, we'll stick with the abridged version, which states that I arrived in Telluride last night around 2 AM after a morning spent in meetings followed by a 10-hour drive.  Yes, long day, indeed.

It was worth it all this morning, though, when I awoke at 6:22 AM to the sight of two small faces peering at me, one from each side of the bed.  Oh, it was early all right, but curling up with two precious little people and getting to hear all about their adventures over the last few days was heaven on earth.  I think I actually managed to catch another couple of winks in there, but it wasn't long before the general hum of activity in the house required that I rouse and join it.  In all of my solitary (ish) ramblings over the last year or two, I'd kind of forgotten about the logistics of moving a larger group of people from place to place.  A certain amount of patience and overall mellowness stands a person in very good stead.  (It also helps to really love the people you're with.)  

After much ado, we were finally loaded up and off to breakfast.  Now, being I arrived in the dead of night (having dodged various deer, elk, rats, porcupines, marmots, and bunnies on the road, and having failed to dodge two police officers, ugh), I had absolutely no idea what type of surroundings I had driven into.  (I will say that those last few miles gave me a definite sense of being surrounded by cliffs and sharp, plunging drop-offs, a sense that later proved to be correct.)  It turns out that I had driven into a little U-shaped bowl of a valley, completely surrounded by majestic, snow-capped peaks.  I've never seen the Alps in real life, but this is what I picture.  

Ash has been raving about Baked in Telluride since she was here last year, so, of course, we had to eat there.  My salt bagel with butter was really delicious but gosh, it was salty!  And I had to have chocolate milk to match Annistyn..

Check out the size of those donuts!

After loading up with more water and victuals and dropping my car off with the lady vacuuming a car at the Hertz shed out behind the Telluride airport (small town, folks), we took the jeeps we had rented out for some off-roading.  I don't know if this is something that is hard-wired into the DNA of the male species in general or if it's unique to the males of my family, but something about driving a vehicle with four-wheel-drive into impossibly tight situations replete with mud, snow, fallen trees, creeks, and four-foot-wide roads next to two-mile-deep sheer drop-offs (I am exaggerating only slightly) makes these fellas come ALIVE.  To be honest, it is a lot of fun, except for when they decide to turn around on afore-mentioned four-foot-wide roads next to two-mile-deep sheer drop-offs, at which point I sit in the back seat, gasp for oxygen and try not to audibly express my complete and utter terror.  

The view was so beautiful, though.  And, just as a side note, if a person ever wants to bring an entirely new level of joy and discovery to an experience, bring a seven and four-year-old along.  Seeing the world through their eyes adds an entirely new layer of life and color to everything we do.

We stopped for lunch next to a little brook.  It was so much fun to be able to just relax a bit.  Colton and Isaiah explored a little cave, Annistyn and I tossed some pebbles into the creek, Grandpa built a dam, Colton practiced his slingshot and bow and arrows.  At one point, listening to the stillness, I thought to myself about what a rarity such quiet is in our modern-day world.  Noise and chaos is everywhere, and yet, if you think about it, the world God created in the beginning was one of peace.  I have several friends who often tell me about their inability to focus, their short attention spans.  I thought of them today, contrasted the worlds they live in, with all of their devices and appointments and running here and there, with this hushed and tranquil landscape, and wondered...  How could a short attention span survive here?  What would happen if we were to lose all of the commotion that seems so easily to create a barrier between us and our Maker?  And what must the Lord think of the gulf we've created between how we live and how he created us to live?  One of those things that pass through one's thoughts when one can finally slow down and hear oneself think...

I will confess that, by now, my lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me, but even though I was seeing everything through a haze of exhaustion, I could still absorb that I was in some beautiful country.

We even spotted a beaver dam...

And I could still wonder how the heck those miners got up there...

I did get a nice, long nap in once we got back, which made dinner so much more enjoyable (and probably made me much better company).  We ate at Rustico Restaurante in downtown Telluride.  I will tell you that I have longed for the opportunity to eat truly great Italian food for a very long time, and I have had a very difficult time finding it.  It seems like everybody and their mother claims to serve the best-a spaghetti-a, and to be blunt, nobody ever, ever does.  Tonight, my luck finally changed.  I finally got to experience a taste of Italy, the way I always imagined it.  Adorable, heavily-accented waitstaff with just the sort of manners one would expect to find in the mother country (what is it about real Italian gentlemen, anyway?), the pretty little girl turning cartwheels outside the plate glass windows, and, best of all, a plate of spaghetti capable of inspiring passion.  Simple and light, spaghetti al salta, just tomatoes, garlic, basil and some good olive oil, but the stuff of dreams.  I wouldn't have wanted to doze through it, let's put it that way.  

My American little self got all happy with the lighting and the green glass and bare tables and all...  I can be so easy to impress...

Polenta with mushrooms and Fontina 

Very likely some of the best pizza I've eaten.  The crust was wonderfully blistered and full of flavor.

The spaghetti.  I feel an emotional bond with this spaghetti.

An expert noodle-slurper, right there.

Now that I'm actually awake, I'm starting to pick up on the whole Telluride vibe, and I'm liking it, quite a lot.  An awful lot of bicycles, artists, flowing dresses and vehicles with Thule racks on them...  I imagine I may be elaborating on this a bit more over the next couple of days, but things are looking very, very promising. (As my more conservative friends groan...)

And with that, I leave you, for now.  Until tomorrow, a good night to all.

Catching Up!

Ugh! Long time no write!  To my faithful friends, I am sorry for my lack of new material lately.  Rest assured, though; you would have been bored, much of the past month.  My life has pretty much consisted of learning a new industry during the day (brand new job) and attempting to cram my head full of calculus and physics at night.  Oh, and with a few public speaking assignments, thrown in for good measure.  Yeah, not.  

So prepare for a lengthier-than-normal post, by way of catching up.  (I feel this pent-up chattiness threatening to spill over...)  And, on the bright side, May is travel month!  This last weekend was Atlanta (more on that in a minute...), next weekend is Las Vegas, followed by a few days in Telluride, a couple of days in Moab, Utah, then a nice, long drive home.  I won't be hitting home turf again until Memorial Day, oh the bliss!  So get ready for a whole slew of blog posts coming up...

First off, I have to mention that I finally tried 4 Rivers Smokehouse last weekend.  In all honesty, I probably wouldn't have bothered, had it been left up to me.  I won't lie, if a place is neatly packaged and marketed and franchised; if the menu and decor has been focus-group tested; if my Facebook feed is cluttered with check-ins, I've pretty much lost interest before I even start.  But my dates for the night wanted to eat there, and their company being well worth any shortcomings the menu might present, I readily agreed.  (It was also 4:00 in the afternoon, another benefit of these particular companions.  Well, the male one, anyway...)

To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I spotted burnt ends (a particular preparation well known to Kansas City barbecue lovers in particular) on the menu, and being I've always wanted to try them, I couldn't help but order them.  I enjoyed them quite a lot, along with baked beans (best I've ever eaten), macaroni and cheese (awesome, if you like Kraft), and a stuffed jalapeno (it was really good in theory, but I'm just not used to so much smoke with my peppers).  I would still like to try the real Kansas City ones, but these were pretty good.  My dates got this stack thing, with grits on the bottom, pulled pork, peppers, pickles, and who knows what else; I tried a bite and it was pretty great.  Side note, do NOT order the Spiffy Cola; it is disgusting.  Granted, I am no barbecue expert (for serious barbecue cred, I recommend my friend Caleb's blog, Smoked Pig and Sweet Tea) but, this place was good, far better than I expected, slick packaging notwithstanding.

NOOOOO!!!!  DON'T DO IT!!!!

Two of the funnest people I know.  I am a blessed woman.

See?  We made a pretty big dent in that pile of food!  Notice the half-full bottle of Spiffy...

So that was a pretty fun outing.  Then, this last weekend, I was up for a slightly overdue visit with my city-slicker sister in Atlanta.  I drove up Saturday morning, and, once I arrived, Kate and I set out to explore Marietta.  Now, I wouldn't recommend it for just anybody; Marietta has a bit of...grit to it.  But, being the adventurers we are, it was right up our alley.  We dodged the intermittent raindrops (Katie the prepared one had two umbrellas stashed in her purse, of course) along with the trains that seemed to come through every few minutes, and flitted from lunch at Willie Rae's (fried pimento cheese and house-cured pastrami on homemade rolls with coleslaw, homemade pickles and hand-cut fries, all accompanied by jammin' guitar music provided by a snazzy, dreadlock-bedecked gentleman on the corner, who told me I was beautiful, uh huh) to browsing in the plethora of shops that lined the square, to soaking up the unique combination of bluegrass music, orchestra and choir singing we happened upon in the Baptist church on the corner.  

  

  T-Man.  Three shots of espresso, chocolate, macadamia-nut syrup and whipped cream.  Plus, I always wanted to drink a coffee drink with one of those cool swirly thingies on top.

This was a unique experience.  The choral and orchestral music was truly beautiful; so very polished.  Yet, the whole thing made me a little sad.  So many gray hairs and so little youth.  These churches offer such proud tradition, and yet, one gasps for a breath of life. I thank you for the beautiful music and your gracious hospitality, but I'll stick with my heartfelt, close to Jesus, no-holds-barred worship.

Our dinner reservations were at 9:15 (this is what you get for calling to reserve a Saturday night table at a hot restaurant on Saturday afternoon...) so we had time to go and get our nails done.  (I love summer nights.  The long-lasting evening light makes the day seem so much longer and more productive.)  Then it was off to collect Mr. Rocco himself, and dinner.  

I've been wanting to eat at Empire State South for awhile now.  It's one of those places that's creating a bit of a buzz these days among the sort of people whose opinions tend to influence where I want to eat, and so I was extremely excited to try it.  If you check out their menu, you'll notice a predilection for produce, and a definite Southern accent, both of which traits I find very intriguing.  

So here's a rundown of what I ate...

This was absolutely AMAZING.  The dish is called "In Jars", and it's just that.  Five little Mason jars full of yummy things.  Pimento cheese with bacon marmalade (I am DEFINITELY going through a pimento cheese phase...), trout mousse (with a hint of orange: purely delectable), deviled ham, red pea hummus, and house-made pickles, plus a whole pile of toast to be used as carriers.  So you sit and swipe and swallow, and it's all delicious and quite fun.

Tripe Stew.  Yes.  For the uninformed, tripe is cow stomach.  See that bumpy, pale, limp looking stuff?  Yeah, that.  Honestly, it didn't taste that bad, and the texture wasn't horrible once you got it in your mouth, but whooey.  It took a heap of self-control to put that spoon into the mouth...  The hominy and egg and slightly vinegary broth was really good, though!  And anyway, how does one know if one never tries?

Halibut with romanesco (cauliflower flowers), favas, pea puree (I think) and yellow flowers, among other vegetables I can't remember

And another favorite.  Baked cake donuts with pistachio streusel and mint ice cream.  Very worth stuffing oneself for.

Needless to say, between getting up at 5 AM, running all day, and eating oneself into a stupor at 11 PM, we slept very, very well.  It was an incredible luxury to stagger to the bathroom for a drink of water at 7 AM as though it were the middle of the night, then promptly fall back asleep until 9:30.

Kate made me a fabulous breakfast of English Muffin with coconut oil, peanut butter and cherry jam and then she and I hit the Lenox Mall.  It's hard to describe how wonderful it is to have a sister that I can so thoroughly enjoy doing things with.  It's really a treat to have someone in one's life that one can be perfectly at ease with, can spend two days gallivanting around and doing a variety of things with, and never get bored or awkward or run out of things to talk about.  I am very, very blessed to have the family I do.

So we shopped our little hearts out, stopping for little but a bit of refreshment (a Salted Caramel cupcake from Sprinkles in my case...) and then we met Andrew for a last dinner before it was time for me to head South.  This time, it was his turn to pick where we ate, and he directed us to Poor Calvin's in Midtown.  First off, I've decided that Midtown is definitely my favorite part of Atlanta.  It has just the quirkiness that I love in a town - a little eclectic, a little gritty, a whole lot fun.  This place was a really unique mix of Asian and American, and it was really good.

I was so tempted to do the Pop Rocks Duck Pate (yes, real Pop Rocks!) but my love of pork belly and Asian buns won out, and I did the sliders, instead.

Lobster Won Tons - the caviar and mango glaze provided a really nice change of pace!

Andrew's Fried Chicken and Lobster Mac.  As in seriously amazing Lobster Mac.  (See what I mean about fusion?)

Oh, it's blurry!  It's also some seriously yum pineapple fried rice.  Just the right amount of crusty.

Katie's Pad Thai.  Pad Thai tends to not look so glamorous on the plate.  Fortunately, it makes up for this shortfall by tasting really good.

Toasted Pound Cake.  Caramelized Bananas.  Caramel Sauce.  Whipped Mascarpone.  Peach Brandy Ice Cream.  Yes.

Some of my favorite people in the world to pal around with, straight up.

And, because I couldn't resist.  The decor was absolutely wonderful.  I wouldn't be opposed to living in a place like this.

Who serves dessert on plates like this?

 

So that's all, folks.  This pretty much wrapped up my Atlanta weekend.  Home I went, and back to my work/school world.  But, yes, Vegas and Colorado, coming up!  Stay tuned!

Pizza on a Sunday

The other Sunday was one of those literally perfect days.  Maybe 72 degrees, and not a cloud in that blue, blue sky.  A few of my family members decided to go out for lunch after church.  My seven-year-old nephew and four-year-old niece and I piled into Grandpa and Grandma's car, and we headed out...  Grandpa took us down the backroads - it was that sort of day.  

We ate at New York Pizza Plus in Alachua.  Now, if I am to be perfectly honest, I will admit that this place had a couple of things not going for it.  I wish I could say things like names and locations didn't affect my judgment, but I won't lie; I do have a few prejudices.  A name like "New York Pizza Plus" reeks of canned, food-service nastiness, and if the name leaves any doubt, a location in a blah, generic strip-mall, complete with nondescript signage, pretty much signs the death warrant.  Oh, and all-you-can-eat buffets for $7.99?  Generally, no thanks, I'll pass.

I was wrong.  For starters, the place is owned by Gaetano and Giacomo.  Get the drift?  The salads alone made my iceberg and Ranch-tortured heart sing.  Chickpeas, bathed in fruity olive oil and fresh garlic and onions... pickled vegetables... pasta salad with just the right amount of "chew" and that actually tasted like something... crisp lettuce salads, bright with citrus and ripe with garlic... I could have stayed there and been completely satisfied.

Then there was the pizza.... and the gnocchi.... and the mussels... and the spaghetti with real meatballs... and the roasted pork.... and those utterly devastating garlic knots....

 Let's just say, after leaving there, we didn't need to eat until at least dinnertime.

Word to the wise, the desserts were not worth the calories.  Otherwise, I can hardly wait to go back.

The best part of the whole thing, though?  That nephew of mine, I don't think he had ever experienced the luxurious responsibility of filling his own plate before.  Oh, how he loved browsing that buffet line... a little of this, and a little of that, and "oh, I need to get some of that apple salad", and a plate full of mussels, then a plate of spaghetti, and then cream puffs, for his aunt and sister and at least one for himself.  Six plates, all told.  And he (supposedly) could have eaten more.  Watching him revel in this new experience was positively heavenly - one of those moments that wakes a person up to what is wonderful and joyous in the world.

One...

Two...

Three...

Four...

Except ye become as little children...  Lord, you were right, once again.