Melissa & Jason in Idaho: July 2011

We have been busy as usual over the past couple weeks. On the 10th we went to Salt Lake to see the Kenny Chesney concert. It was a lot of fun and it was a nice night. Much cooler than all those concerts in Raleigh haha. We stayed the night and drove back to Idaho Falls Sunday. We tried to relax a little and pack for California. We left very early Monday morning for San Francisco. We stayed in Livermore, CA and spent Monday hanging out with Jason's Grandma and visiting a few wineries in the area. Tuesday we spent the day in San Francisco. It was a great day! We rode the Bart into San Fran and then took the cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf. We saw the piers and went on a bay cruise which was fun. We got to see most of the bridge, only the very top was still in fog. Jason got clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl from a street vendor which made him super happy haha. The sourdough was very tasty as usual. We also got to have some Irish coffee at Buena Vista and after we walked around Ghirardelli Square and got some good ice cream. We walked through china town and to north beach for some good Italian food for dinner. Wednesday we went to muir woods to see some redwoods. It was a nice day and we walked a couple miles through the trees. We also stopped by a beach and walked in the very cold pacific ocean for a short time. Then we took the long way back around the top of the bay and met our friend Becca for dinner. She is living in CA for a few months and it was great to see her!! Thursday we drove to Bass Pro Shop since Jason has been feeling deprived because there isn't one in Idaho. We got some new hiking stuff :-) Thursday night I got to meet Jason's aunt, uncle, and cousins. It was a fun and relaxing time. Friday we got ready to head back to Idaho. We made it back early Sat morning and then spent the day helping one of our friends here pack for her move to CA.

We were able to get some more strawberries from our "garden" and I made a strawberry pie yesterday. Our cherries are starting to ripen so we will have to find some good recipes for those. It has been pretty warm here 90s during the day, but its nice that it cools off at night so we can still open the windows.

Not much else has been going on. The kitties are happy we are home for a bit. We will be heading to NY next Thursday. Hope all is well with everyone.

Here are some pictures:

So happy to be at the Kenny concert

Looks like its going to be a good time

Woo hoo Kenny.

The view from where we sat at the concert

Some grapes

Me at one of the wineries in Livermore

more grapes

Jason after a tasting at concannon

union square

the cable car we rode.

two lone sea lions. They migrate this time of year so there weren't too many.

Alcatraz

Windy street we walked to the bottom.

Jason in all his glory with his clam chowder

our Irish coffees. Yum!

our cruise ship

we sat in the very front until it got too windy. We got audio sets for the cruise.

The golden gate in the fog

me trying to hang on to everything. It was very very windy

San Francisco from the water.

China town

Me with a statue in chinatown

our yummy appetizer at dinner

restaurant we ate at in San Fran

before Muir woods we drove over the golden gate bridge and walked halfway across

The beach we stopped at.

Redwoods

He was trying to get in the tree haha

Jason touching the water. I don't know how those people were swimming burrrr

a grass fire we saw driving back from Bass Pro Shop

The one and only Bass Pro Shop.

The weather is starting to feel like summer! My family came a couple weeks ago and brought the warm weather from the east coast with them :-). I was nervous because everyone here kept telling me June was the worst month for rain and cold weather when I told them my family was coming, but it turned out GREAT!! Mom, Dad, Heather and Julie came on Saturday the 18th. We left for Yellowstone on Sunday. It said 70% chance of rain so we packed up all the rain gear ready for a good time. It never rained on us :-) We spent Sunday and Monday touring Yellowstone and then drove down to Teton National Park on Tuesday. We went on a hike to inspiration point which was supposed to be around 4-5miles, however the bridge was closed and we ended up walking closer to 9 miles through an avalanche field and up through snow covered trails. It was a new experience and we all survived haha. On Tuesday night we drove back to Idaho Falls and spent the rest of the week enjoy the 80 degree weather and relaxing. Everyone left on Saturday and then Jason left on Sunday for his ANS conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I spent the week cleaning up the house and getting some more things in order. I have also started playing my flute regularly which has been fun.

Jason had a good time in Florida. He presented on Tuesday and said he got to talk to lots of people. He got to see his adviser from NC State as well. He drove down to Miami one night to see the sights. Jason got back late Thursday night.

This past Saturday we went on a 14 mile hike up to Upper Palisades Lake. It was about an hour drive to the trail head from Idaho Falls. We started off at 9am and it took us 3 hours to get to the lake. There were lots of little snakes on the trail, which frightened me every time. Jason was like stop screaming haha... There was so much run off from all the snow that the river was very fast and full. There were spots where the trail was flooded. We spent an hour at the lake eating lunch and enjoying the view. On the way back we saw a lot of horses on the way up (since it is a horse trail as well) We also saw some people with two pack lamas that was kind of neat. We also saw 3 moose. One male by itself, then a mom with her baby.

Sunday we spent the morning weeding the landscape and mowing the lawn. Our strawberries are getting ripe. I have picked 3 bowls full and make some strawberry shortcake. I'm going to have to find something else to make with them. I didn't think we would have so much, but they keep coming out. We also have a cherry tree that has tons of cherries on it. Once they are ripe we will have to pick them too. It is finally a reality that we own a house. We are enjoying every minute of it. We keep thinking we should have a house warming party but it hasn't happened yet. We will see :-)

For the 4th of July we walked to the parade in the morning. It was a 2 hour parade. Had lots of different things to see. After the parade we went downtown to the greenbelt. They had lots of food and different booths. It was a great day. Sunny and 90 degrees. They had a small car show and we looked at all the old cars. We spent the afternoon and evening at one of my friends house for a bbq and drinks. The fireworks were at the greenbelt and it was a good night, not too windy. It was a good 30 minute show. Overall a great 4th celebration!

This week I am trying to do some projects that I had planned for the summer and get ready for our trip to California next week. We are heading down to Salt Lake this Saturday for the Kenny Chesney concert. Then on Monday we are leaving for California. We are flying to San Francisco and staying with Jason's grandma who lives in Livermore. We are looking forward to taking a little trip together :-)

I will try to do better keeping everyone up-to-date. It seems that once a month I think about updating the blog...I will try to update after California, because then in a week after that I will be heading to NY for 2 weeks :-)!!!

Here are some pictures of the past month.