Some assorted photos from the road

Beautiful Sunset on Olympic Peninsula coast

Glacier National park

St. Mary's looking at Glacier National Park

Montana field, approaching the mountains... moment of happiness happened here

Chantarelle mushrooms harvested on Olympic Peninsula... made me love mushrooms!

(North) Vancouver BC

After Port Townsend I took Spencer to SeaTac airport then drove up to Vancouver BC. I was again given the 5th degree when crossing the border because I have a car full of my life, a USB on my keys with my resume on it (he asked!). I went up to visit my friends from church camp, luckily Aimee was off for the summer from her work in schools, and Scott was off because he didn't start his job for another week. I came up on Friday so I'd also be able to hang out with Kalan who works during the week.

I wish I could remember the name of this lake we went to... but this is what it looks like around Vancouver... fucking beautiful.

I did a bunch of Canadian things, we went to De Detuch for Dutch style pancakes (ok, that's that not Canadian... but it was delicious!), went to a beautiful lake just outside of North Vancouver, wandered Granville Island, got gelato at La Casa Gelato, went to my first hockey game, and tried my hand at 5-in bowling.


La Casa Gelato, my brother's awesome suggestion, is just East of the Vancouver Chinatown. They have so many flavors it's hard to choose. I ended up going to Billberry (on top... still no idea what it is but it was so yumm!) and a chocolate creme de menthe gelato. They were both delicious. I also tried a balsalmic gelato... this was less successful. Really, I couldn't eat the whole tiny spoonful. One lick, then tossed it. The basil gelato, however, was quite tasty but seemed more like a small taste during a 7 course chef's table dinner kind of thing.

On Tuesday my buddy Scott was free all day so he and Aimee and I had "Tourist Tuesday"! Scott kept commenting on how much more touristy Aimee was, but that's because she kept taking pictures :) We started with breakfast in Deep Cove then went on a hike to a great view

If I was feeling like being on my computer more I'd combine those images... but use your imagination

We also went to Granville Island which I don't have many pictures of but we wandered the market, I got a whole bunch of cherries and Scott got raspberries... all of which were delicious (omg I love berries! That's been one of the best things about being back in the PNW). We also did a little shopping, I got some shoes, went to Scott's yacht club for drinks and a sick view:

Have I mentioned how beautiful it is in Vancouver?

Then we needed a break before we went out longer so we went by Scott's place to chill for a bit and catch the sunset. We then met up with Kalan and Duke in Gastown (downtown) Vancvouer for drinks. Scott told me about a giant Jenga but there was some event going on in the bar so we didn't get to do that.


Tourist Tuesday was awesome :) I'd been to Vancouver a few times before but usually just for a weekend and never with friends with cars who could show me around! I would love to go back for another long visit.

Now the order of events is a little hazy, I realize it wasn't that long ago but hey, we did a lot! Kalan had his last hockey game of the season so we went to that and Duke happened to be there too. Kalan's team won and I'm not gonna say it's because we were there but I'm not gonna say it wasn't because we weren't there... :)


I also went to the Capilano Suspension Bridge with Erika, Aimee and Denise. So I'm not that comfortable with heights... all these ladies I was with were walking without holding on and shaking the bridge and looking over the edge holy jeebus that made me nervous! We also did the treetop adventure (looks a bit like the Ewok village out of Star Wars) and the Cliff Walk. If you ever plan to go I highly recommend going with a BC resident. It was not cheap (even with my "student" discount) but BC residents can get a year long membership for the same as one admission ticket, and they can bring a guest who gets 10% (or was it 15%?) off, even a student admission! So that saved me about $5 right there. I decided it would be worth it once, next time I go we'll visit Lynn Canyon- has a suspension bridge too and is free, but it's not as high or long. Although, with my discomfort with heights maybe that's not such a big deal!



I'd been wanting to paint since I was driving through North Dakota and Montana so Aimee and I decided to have a craft day in which we painted. I painted this chicken (the image I got out of an article in National Geographic back at church camp that I highly recommend reading).



We went 5-pin glow bowling. The website said they were open until 10, we got there at 8:45 and they were closing at 9! Yikes! But we got in one game (and he let us stay until about 9:10). Five-pin bowling is strange... the ball is small and the pins are spaced out pretty well so that it is hard to knock over more pins just by hitting one pin. The scoring system was bizarre too... I didn't understand it (but I think Aimee won legit-ly :P)



When I left Canada I passed a warning sign by the border "You are about to enter a high medical cost area, proceed with caution" or something like that... then I headed to our beach house in Lincoln City, OR. I was in Beaverton around 5:30 so I called up my dad and invited myself for dinner. After dinner I continued the 2 more hours to meet my brother and his wife at the beach. That was a long day of driving! (For those of you on the East Coast... it's about 3 hours from Vancouver BC to Seattle and another 3.5 hours from Seattle to Portland, then from Portland to Lincoln City is about 2 hours).

Chicago

Yesterday, I finally got to take the car to the autobody shop, I got a quote for the damage to the back door (it's all going to need to be replaced; I noticed yesterday also that the bike rack did also break, but only a tiny bit). They said with going through insurance it will take about a week and a half. Since the insurance company is in Canada I have no idea how long it will actually take for this to go through. So now I'm going to wait until I get to MN and my brother said I should get a few quotes. We'll see what my options are when I'm in rural Minnesota! Then the AT OIL TEMP light has been staying on longer than usual when I startup the car so I wanted to get that checked out but neither of the local mechanic shops had time for me til Tuesday.

So, with car stuff out of the way for the day it was time for the inaugural bike ride on Minty Fresh! Borrowing the Frank Lloyd Wright architecture map from my cousin I headed North to the Frank Lloyd Wright district. I saw some neat buildings and stopped in the FLW home and studio to refill my water bottle (I'd already done that tour when I was here for a day a year ago).

Wright awesomeness, so lucky to be staying in Oak Park, surrounded by Wright buildings!

This one is not a Wright but I love love love this kind of shingle detailing! It's like the bottom of the ocean.

After my excursion bike ride, I came back to the house to chill for a bit then I met my childhood friend Marissa and her Husband at Wrigley Field for a Cubs game! Prior to this game I'd been to one baseball game (the Mets, high up over left field) and never really cared for baseball. Wrigley totally changed that! I'm not like a super fan or anything now but it was fun! I attribute a lot of my enjoyment to my company and the manual scoreboard that I thought (and still think!) is awesome! I think it also helped that in our seats we could see the whole field well and the field is smaller than Citifield, it felt more intimate.

Eric's finger, Marissa and me...It's not a ballgame til you have a beer in your hand!
Awesome old-school scoreboard

The cubs won, 0:1 which was sweet because apparently they hadn't won in like 11 games. I had just posted to facebook that I wish they'd hurry up and score so I could go home... 4 minutes later, they did! You're welcome :P The guy, Darwin Barney, who slid into home plate went to the same high school as me (and I think graduated in my brother's year) which was also kind of cool to have a little hometown pride while in Chicago! To get home I walked up one L stop to the north so I'd have a seat. Brilliant plan (kudos to Marissa) cause I got a seat where I could read my National Geographic book on the National Parks (the West is calling!).



Today I don't know what it was but I was super exhausted and had trouble getting up. When I finally did get up I took the car to the shop to look at the AT OIL TEMP light that's been turning on when I start the car then I took Minty Fresh on the L and went for a bike ride by the water in downtown Chicago. I'm so jealous of this city and the beaches and paths right in the center of the city. I biked and drew and took some pictures then headed back in order to avoid have to come back after rush hour. (No bikes allowed on the L between 7-9am and 4-6pm), which also allowed me to pick up my car from the mechanic.

The waterfront marina downtown and my sketch of the marina, the note in the sketch says "Clearly I haven't drawn anything in a while, I mean... it came out Purple!"

I'd dropped my car at Russo's, the neighborhood and he said it was $100 for the diagnostic but if it turned out I just needed the fluids changed he's waive the diagnostic fee. Well he coudlnt' find anything wrong with the car, he drove it around, poked around and even called his transmission buddies and still nothing wrong. So when I came back to get my car, he didn't charge me anything! For his awesome customer service and help (and understanding of my road-trip-car-paranoia) I picked up a gift card for the Hole in the Wall custard shop I will drop by tomorrow on my way to the L as a thank you for his awesome customer service. So far I have been quite happy with the customer service in Chicago!
Keep it up, Chicago!

This is a chocolate dipped custard cone... it melted all over my hand and was super delicious. I <3 custard! If you find yourself in Oak Park go to Hole in the Wall Custard & Cones on Oak Park Ave right by the Oak Park-Blue L stop!

My goal for tomorrow was to leave the house by 10:30, and now it looks like it's supposed to rain and Marty and I just got back from the biggest hardware store ever (with the worst signage ever) to get materials for me to remodel her little mudroom into more kitchen storage space. So stay tuned for another Handy-Kaydee project! Hopefully I'll get to hang out with Marissa and Eric once more before they fly out on Friday morning too, so busy!

From Portland, ME to Burlington, VT

On Sunday, I went to church at the First Unitarian Church in Portland. The topic was "Heart in Place", a very relevant topic to me in my search for a new place to call home. The woman speaking spoke of places that feel like home sometimes a place you visit repeatedly and sometimes a place you have visited once. Being in Vermont again today, in Burlington, is making me realize how at home I feel in Vermont. Either in the hills of rural southern Vermont or in the town of Burlington. I love it here! The talk also reminded me of how I felt when I went to Amsterdam the first time, like I was home. I also felt that way about Brooklyn the first time I got out of the G train stop at Clinton-Washington. I did Brooklyn, maybe Vermont is next and then Amsterdam?

So on Sunday afternoon my friend Ashley flew to Maine to join me for part of my trip. Our first stop was to go to Duck Fat for what had been claimed at "the best fries". They were perfect fries- the ones that were long anyway. my complaint was that there were too many shorties! They also have an interesting selection of dipping sauces, we tried three: Truffle ketchup, sweet & spicy mustard and horseradish mayo. They were served in a paper cone, as is the fashion for Belgian fries (I'm pretty sure...).

Duck Fat fries and dipping sauces in Portland, Maine

After Duck Fat we stopped for ice cream at Beals, a local favorite that wasn't too crowded at first then the line went out the door. The ice cream was all right, the serving sizes generous :) After saying goodbye to Allison, my lovely host who I know from Oregon and hadn't seen in more than 10 years! we headed to Cape Elizabeth to go to the popular Lobster Shack. It was the epitome of the Maine experience. Rocky coast, park benches next to the water, long line, lots of Jersey license plates :P We got a clam cake and a lobster roll to split. I can now say I've had lobster, for sure (I wasn't 100% sure before) and it was ok... I think it needed some butter! (That dollop on top is mayo.)

The Lobster Shack Cape Elizabeth, Maine

After we had our Maine seafood experience, we headed to Burlington. We left at about 8pm, oops! The drive was about 5 hours and we pretty much drove straight through and fell asleep the moment we arrived at Ashley's friends' place.

We woke up this morning around 7:30, and slowly woke up enough by 8:30 to realize were were massively hungry (and Ashley was in desperate need of coffee) so we headed out to a place suggested by our hosts, only to find they weren't open! The next place was also closed so we ended up walking south into downtown and put our names on the 1 hour wait list for Penny Cluse Café. While we waited we wandered down the pedestrian mall of Church street and stopped at Bluebird Coffee Shop, a small freestanding building on Church Street. This guy knew his coffee, and Ashley was impressed enough to trust him to make her coffee. After our coffee we wandered back to the restaurant and finally ate. It was delicious and totally worth the wait! After we ate and walked around a bit we headed back to our hosts' place where the packaging of baked goods was in progress! Feeling that it would have been rude to just sit there and watch as Abby packaged her gluten-free (and super tasty) baked goods, we offered to help. I can now add a little bakery experience, for From the Ground Up Bakery, (though just packaging) to my list of experiences gained on this trip!

Freshly baked and beautifully packaged gluten-free English muffins

After all the items were packaged, labeled and placed in their respective bins for delivery we began to ponder dinner. We all headed over to City Market where I was drooling over the large bulk section and bought lots of food to fill my cooler and have snacks for the trip. We also bought some veggies to grill! We came back home, prepped the veggies then headed to Leddy Park and grilled up a wholelotta veggies. We also had some lentils and quinoa with us which made for a delicious meal. Mmm fire! After we left the park, where the water was so high that the wide swath of beach that is normally there was completely obscured by water, we headed to The Intervale.

(Hard to see but these signs are talking about the beach... that isn't there at the moment!)

The Intervale is a really interesting place and I don't want to botch the history of it by trying to explain it so I will just give you a link... The Intervale!

Now we are winding down to spend the night in Burlington and tomorrow we will head to Montreal, a mere 2 hours away from Burlington!

No rapture? No problem!

I just spent a wonderful weekend with friends who came up from Brooklyn. Friday I made vegan-gluten-free- mac and cheese (the same one I made down in DE) and it was still super delicious!

Saturday after sleeping in a bit, we went for a walk down the rail trail to our friend's place a mile down the road on Saturday and were treated to amazing gooey gluten free brownies and fresh watermelon. We came back to Farm #1 and had a rapture party, including a turkey dinner (that was raised by my hosts last fall... and was so delicious!). Lots of drinks (Dan makes amazing cocktails that have spoiled us for drinks at bars!), lots of amazing food and lovely people. The wonderful thing about starting a party around 4 is that people with kids can leave early and the rest of us who remain can spend the evening playing boardgames!

Sunday morning A managed to wrangle us all to get to the Dorset farmer's market around 10am, when it opens. Being at the market when it first opens is great, all the produce is fresh and beautiful, and being in a small town we inevitably ran into like 3 people who we had just seen at the party the night before! After some breakfast, we checked out the Merck Forest & Farmland Center and saw some baby chickens, pigs and lambs.


The baby lambs were my favorite! I would have liked to get in there and pet them but it wasn't set up in a way that invited petting. As we were leaving Merck Forest, we passed their new sugaring house. Our hostess used to work there and told us all about the maple sugaring process. The sugaring house itself was also interesting to look at. As soon as we walked in I was examining the joinery (I miss timberframing!) and it seemed like an odd structure, the ridge beam was very small, the rafters of the roof were resting on post that were smaller than the roof support, there were lap joints on top of the posts, metal connections in the beams and the peak of the roof overlapped. It turns out that the building was not designed by an architect, it was kind of thrown together by someone who kind of knew what they were doing but clearly not enough. Vermont is neat because of it's lack of building codes, but it seems like it should be required for a public building to be signed off on at least by an engineer! There are crazy snow and wind loads up in these beautiful mountains! The building didn't pass inspection and had to be retro fitted, hence the extra supports tied in with metal.


All that talk about maple syrup I couldn't wait to get back to the house and have some :) We came back to the farm and had a lovely dinner prepared by M&A with fixings from the farmer's market. For dessert we had maple marshmallows I'd made Friday... topped with a little maple syrup and crumbled bacon that had been purchased at the morning's market. It was... interesting. The sweetness of the maple and the saltiness of the bacon and the two textures... it was interesting. not bad, but not something I'd eat on a regular basis! No regrets for trying it anyhow :)

Now it is Monday, M&A are getting ready (slowly... long night of gaming last night!) to head back to Brooklyn, then I will get back to work on rebuilding the trailer (which is painted! Now I get to use saws and drills... way more fun than painting!) and building the compost sifter... busy week! Then I'll be off to Portland, ME where I am looking forward to some fabulous restaurants and catching up with a friend from back in the day.

*gasp* Pictures! (finally!)

I finally got new batteries for my camera (it's been sitting unused so long in my mom's garage that it doesn't hold a charge anymore) and took a few snapshots of Farm #1 here in lovely Vermont. dang this place is pretty! I love it here.
There are chickens of all colors, including one white one that likes to hop the fence and last year lived in the bushes most of the summer! Now it hops willy-nilly over the fence when it feels like going for a stroll or coming home to roost. Luckily it hasn't taught the others to hop the fence yet. She doesn't seem to wander far, I've seen her walking around the fence a few times, generally in close proximity to the chicken tractor.
There are a few yaks on Farm #1, supposedly they run really fast but I haven't seen them run yet. I'm not about to try to coax them into doing it :P I saw one of them shke his (her?) tail and it's covered in long black hair. As the sun is coming out today and the weather is supposed to be in the 80s next week I feel bad for these animals that are built for high elevations and winter! I'm sure they didn't mind the long winter :)

Vermont, could you be any purdier?

Lavender is also in bloom. I passed by some yesterday walking down the driveway, the smell was intoxicating. It made me want to crumple a handful and rub it all over my hands and arms! Summer is awesome.


With my camera working, I can also document my projects! Hooray! Here is the trailer refurbishment so far:

Trailer after removing all the wood.

Trailer after first coat of black paint. It takes 24 hours before you can apply the second coat so it looks like I will be finishing the painting tomorrow... no sense in scrubbing off all the black paint on my arms, legs and hands tonight! It's like I'm an AmeriCorps all over again!

My other projects include the roatary compost sieve which I will get started on laying out tomorrow after painting; we picked up materials Tuesday. I kind of like the planning ahead that is required for trips to any kind of shop when you are in a rural area. It forces you to be more efficient with your time and fuel. In the suburbs if you forget something it's just (at least it was for me) a few minutes drive back to the store and I never really thought about the fuel required for those extra trips, or trips for a single item. Another project is to design a yak shelter, I won't have time to build it so they will find someone else to construct it, but it will be good for the yaks to have some shade when the peak of summer arrives. They are pretty much stuck wearing a sweater under a puffy fuzzy jacket with a broken zipper. They sure are cute though :) Time to peel myself from the interwebs and get to reading and, speaking of which, figuring out if I can wait to go to the grocery store til tomorrow when Dan has to go anyway... I have already spend $260 on gas in the last 30 days... It's probably a good idea to wait til tomorrow :D