Let the Good Times Roll: Part 1

A few months ago at work we were informed that our summer would be ridiculously short (back to work in July? UNHEARD OF) and so I decided to live it up while I could. And thus began my summer adventures:

1. Happy Anniversary

We made it a whole entire year!! So we celebrated by going camping up in the Tetons. A co-worker informed me that this was not a very romantic choice, to which I responded that we are romantic all the time and needed a break. 

Ralph's sister revealed the top tier of our wedding cake, which she had kept frozen for one whole year. Apparently this is some sort of tradition that I had never heard of during my many years of not celebrating anniversaries. We brought it with us. (Note: it wasn't very good. This wasn't helped by the fact that we put it unsealed into the bear box and ants crawled inside. Oops.)

2. Look familiar?

I'm pretty sure I've taken this picture every time I've gone to Lopez.

We went with Dad and Rusty. That there on the right is Burke's girlfriend, Haruka, who I'm pretty sure we all want to be part of the family....(ahem, Burke...)

Burke and Haruka went kayaking, and she pried a starfish off of a rock and tossed it on to her kayak. The rest of us were in the living room when Burke came in and said, "Umm, Dad, do you know how to get a starfish off a kayak?" It LOVED it there.

Then we went and spent a few days with Mom, where I realized that I'm kind of just like her. I walked in and immediately started coveting her garden (she's growing ARTICHOKES and BROCCOLI, y'all. That garden's legit.), her craft room, her canned goods, you name it. And we cook the same way. Same kinds of meals and love for cooking new things. Like this eggs blackstone I made with Hollandaise sauce.

I heart cooking. And Alice Waters. And my mom for genetically/environmentally/whatever passing on her awesomeness to me.

3. We might have gone to Scotland.

Want to hear a story? We really REALLY wanted to try and hit up Europe this summer. For free. Via standby flights. After a day and a half of trying to just get out of the Salt Lake airport and work our way east - any airport would have been just fine - we finally got to Phoenix, then Philadelphia. And when that plane landed an hour late and we thought we would never make it to the international terminal in 10 minutes for a flight to Manchester, we ran off the plane and realized we were in the international terminal. And right next door to our next gate! As luck would have it, that plane was also late, and we had 20 minutes or so to call our parents and the credit card companies to tell them where were going, make online reservations for a rental car and a hotel for the first night, and revel in the fact that we were finally on a plane somewhere fancy. We had our sights on Scotland because we've both seen a bit of England (we had missed the flight to Glasgow), so we rented a car and drove up through the Lake District (think Jane Austen), spent the night there in a darling little town called Keswick, and then spent a few days in and around Edinburgh and various parts of Scotland.

Summary:

The Lake District was absolutely lovely and looks very much like this wherever you go:

Scotland looks like this:

Edinburgh has a cool castle, a working palace, and old buildings:

Highlights:

Since you can see any touristy pictures I took online with much better quality, I'll spare you. But there were a couple things I snapped a shot of because it made me laugh.

We were hugely sleep deprived. This is dinner in a pub at the end of our first day:

What can I say. Food perks me up.

Much of our driving revolved around getting off the highway so we could see the countryside a bit more. So you end up on windey country roads with a random church or castle here and there, and lovely green hillsides and stone fences, and at one point Ralph suddenly hit the brakes and pulled over.

Me: "Are we stopping for a picture?"

Ralph: "No. I need to brush my teeth."

Right in front of us was a small party that had also pulled over. For tea.

I love tea on the side of the road, but I usually don't have my kettle with me (please find it in the picture).

We went to a Highland Games festival in a little town called Alva. Turns out it was very much like an American carnival, but with those traditional Scottish contests in the middle of the field. This guy was my favorite:

The throwing competitions consisted largely of six or seven burly dudes in t-shirts, kilts, and boots throwing a never-ending pile of different objects:

We joined up for part of a walking tour of Edinburgh so we could hear some of the history of the place, and at one point our Scottish tour guide had to lead us away from a cathedral he was talking about because this bagpiper took up playing right next to us. I thought we were moving because no one could hear him, but the tour guide said he couldn't stand it because the bagpipe was "out of tune." Apparently there is such a thing. (It's sideways, my apologies).

This is one of the better pictures of us.

Sure do like this kid. And his flight benefits. 

Part Two (hilarious Uinta camping/fishing trip + North Carolina) is coming. But I need to go to bed.