finishing up july

when the bean booked their plane ticket to singapore, they’d overlooked a very important calendar entry: jin from BTS’ los angeles stop on his post-military world tour.  oops.  

but i promised to take lots of videos and pictures and ended up bringing along the bean’s bestie’s little sister.  i know that sounds random, but she’s a huge fan and a super sweet kid and it was fun to spend an evening with her as she fangirled over jin.

the hub and i took advantage of our kid-free time and headed out for a road trip.  he’d been invited by his dad to join him and his brother and a friend to do a little fishing, and while i’m definitely not into the fishing part i do love a good road trip.  once he’d convinced me that i wouldn’t be horning in on a boys’ trip (which i kinda figured anyway because i know his dad pretty well), i was all in.  we packed up the truck, dropped the dogs off at their favorite doggy hotel and hit the road.

we blew right past vegas:

and settled in for a few miles before making our next turn.

because i’m 12:

we spent the first night of our road trip in park city.  

the next morning, we got up and crossed another state line:

and drove through a scary rainstorm.

we arrived at the house and met up with FIL, brother wan and FIL’s friend.  the house was pretty nice, and when i went out into the back yard i spotted some wildlife across the river.

while the guys went out and fished, i enjoyed lots of solo time at the house - i’d packed lots of supplies to try out a bunch of fun new crochet patterns and cranked out a few pieces:

and OMG - while surfing the channels on roku tv, i discovered a channel that plays episodes of general hospital 24/7.  it was a few years behind, but it was really fun to revisit old storylines and see characters who’d disappeared from the canvas.

i did join the guys for one of their evening fishing sessions, although i stayed in the truck to avoid getting eaten by mosquitoes.  it was fun to get out of the house for a little while though, and see views like this:

oh, also!  did you know that there’s such a thing as a portable espresso machine?  i’d ordered it just before the trip and packed it along with the supplies i needed, and surprised the hub with a cup of his favorite morning beverage on our first morning.  he was pretty excited not to have to settle for a k-cup or drive ten minutes to get to the nearest coffee shop.

and before we knew it, it was time to pack it up and start making our way back home.  we hugged everyone goodbye and hit the road.

we stopped for lunch once we crossed into utah and even managed to find one of those dirty soda shops open for me to try.

i cranked out one more plushie (plus a couple of cute accessories), and then we crossed into nevada.

this time, we did stop in vegas and checked into the crockford at resorts world, which is the most luxurious of the three hotels there.  the hub was able to score a comped room based on his previous visits, and it was really nice.  

we headed to the bar just a few feet away from our room to do some pregaming before making our way to the sphere.  i’d managed to sweet talk him into taking me to see the backstreet boys during their limited time summer residency, and i was so excited:

the show was just as awesome as i’d been reading online, although the hub wasn’t as enthused.  the huge monitors that surrounded us with projections coordinated with the concert made him a little queasy, although he’d been forewarned by the plethora of folks who reported motion sickness issues via social media over the last couple of months.  instead, he’d duck out and grab  more drinks and snacks, or pick up a sweatshirt at the merch table, or chat up the event staffers who were more than happy to share stories with him.

bagelmania is always a required stop for breakfast before starting the 3-hour drive home.

and back home, i tackled one more little crochet project.  this pattern comes in two sizes, so i decided to try out the mini version first.  look how cute:

and i was only home for a day or two before i headed out to glendale for my annual solo trip to the general hospital fan club weekend.

more on that coming up!  most of you won’t care, but that’s okay.

keep on truckee-in'

after that first successful fishing day in bishop, we moved on to the next stop - truckee.  i'd never been there before, but the ILs had contemplated moving here, even putting in an offer on a house or two.  our hotel was just a few minutes beyond the super cute-looking downtown area.

after checking in and getting settled, we headed back to town to check it out.  we were too late in the day to catch most of the stores, but it was nice to stretch our legs and stroll down the street.

quite a historic little town, truckee is.  back in the 1800s, folks who wanted to get to california from the east had to get through donner pass, a few miles away.  and that area is named after a crew of emigrants who got stuck here during a particularly rough winter.  a bunch of them, uh...ended up resorting to cannibalism to survive.  blergh.

the next morning, we repeated the routine - guys left early, we lingered and then met up with them when we were damn well good and ready to.  this time, there were no boats - it was a day for fly fishing.  after grilling the hub ad nauseum the night before about the differences between this and what we'd done on the boat, i decided that fly fishing was best left to those who had the $$$ wader pants.  i was curious about what was so addictive about this, but after sitting in a chair on the shore watching them fling their baited lines back and forth, i was bored stiff and stretched out in the bed of the pickup.

the bean, on the other hand, was having a great time.  she was flinging rocks into the fast-moving river as fast as she could, which was probably scaring the shit outta what few fish might've been in there.  and as a result, i don't think anybody caught a damn thing.  but they didn't really care, since she was so happy and excited to be there.  and i gotta say, it was beautiful up there - clean and cool, with crystal clear water.

MIL, who as it turns out isn't a huge fan of fly fishing either, spent a good chunk of time playing with the bean.  they rolled their pants up and shucked off their shoes and waded through the river hand in hand.  and what was i doing while all this was going on?  well, i was still curled up in the truck enjoying the breeze and, uh...catching up on "general hospital" via the free ABC player app on my trusty iPhone.  it was mighty relaxing.  shut up.

after a while, the bean and her grandma tired of their riverside escapades and we decided it was time to split up.  the guys were still raring to go with their fishing poles, and so while the bean conked out in her seat, MIL dropped me off in town to shop while she drove around for some exploring of her own.

alas, the shops that had enticed me so from the outside fell a bit short of my expectations.  still, i had a great time wandering in and out of them.  and although i was armed with a wad of cash the hub had stuck in my pocket, all i ended up with was this, from the surprisingly well-stocked kitchen store:

yes, it's an attachment for my mixer that'll come in handy when i need to make umpteen batches of sugar cookie dough and other deliciousness.  it's a paddle with a rubber spatula-like scraper that'll save me SO much time in the coming weeks.  i'd been eyeing this thing on amazon for awhile, and since it was right in front of me (and the very last one in the size i needed), i went for it.  oh, and i also stopped in the sweet shop for a treat.

later that evening, the bean managed to talk me and her daddy into taking her to the pool.  well, i might've let him handle her in the chilly ass pool while i scurried over to the hot tub to soak my tired muscles.  muahahahahahaha.  but swimming didn't last too long, and not even because the water made the hub's teeth chatter.  it came to an abrupt halt when the bean looked over at one point and spied this next to her:

that little speck in the water, my friends, is a frog.  a very fast-moving frog, and when she realized it was coming within inches of her the bean let out the loudest, longest, most petrified scream i've ever heard come out of her mouth.  i was torn between falling all over myself with laughter and sympathy for her moment of fright.  but her daddy was right there to pull her out of there and wrap a sandpapery towel around her, and that was that.

a couple of real nature girls, me and the bean are.  oh yeah.