An Idaho Roadtrip and my Birthday

Last Friday, I celebrated #41.  Originally, we were supposed to fly to Mexico a vacation on my birthday :(.   But since that couldn't happen, we decide to take a road trip to the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho.  We chose Idaho because 1.It was open (most hotels are still not in California) and 2. we could drive there and 3. we haven't been there, and thought it would be a good hiking destination.

We celebrated my birthed a little bit early before leaving, with my dad.   We had a nice dinner, and of course, my favorite buttercream cake with sprinkles.

Early Friday morning, my dad headed back to Chicago and we got on the road to Boise.  Boise is a 10 hour drive from San Francisco, and we made it in one day.   We spent the first night along the greenbelt in Boise which is a lovely green space along the Boise River.   We had a meal in a restaurant (gasp!) which was a real treat.  Downtown Boise was super cute, with lots of boutiques and  restaurants.

Unfortunately the next am, we woke up to heavy rain and thunder.   Our plans to go whitewater rafting were out the door, and there was little to do inside, so we decided to leave a day early for the mountains.   Three hours later we were in Sun Valley, which as the name suggests was actually sunny (though a bit cold).   We spent three nights in Sun Valley, which is a cute town.   We had two nice days of hiking there, though one our our hikes (to Kane Lake) was truncated by a snowstorm.   The third day, the rain started again.   Sigh.

Our second destination was the small town of Stanley in the Sawtooth Mountains.   Stanley is about an hour north of Sun Valley and and absolutely beautiful small town.  Unfortunately the rain continued on our first day there, so we decided to go to some hot springs (there are tons of hot springs   in Idaho,  who knew!)

Luckily, on our last two days in Staley the bad weather cleared, and we enjoyed the spectacular mountains.  We took 2 great hikes.   We also had some surprisingly great food in Stanley, including the best fried chicken we have ever eaten at the Stanley Supper Club.  Ethan also did some fishing and kayaking.

 

On Friday, we headed back west, stopping briefly in Boise for a bite before heading to Winnemucca for the night.   We got back home on Saturday afternoon.

Overall a nice trip, at least we were able to salvage something for the week.   The weather could have been better, but so it goes.  At least we got away.

Dad braves the plane

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Dad bought a house out her that closed at the beginning of May.   However due to the CoVid-19 situation, he was reluctant to travel.   This past week, he decided that things had calmed down enough to make the trip.  

He got a cheap flight (that went though Seattle).  Luckily his flights were both pretty empty.  He did wear a mask the entire time.

Here's a pic from dinner on Friday--our restaurants are still not open so we did take-out pizza at the park!

Since he's been here he has been spending a lot of time at the new house, getting it ready for move in.   Obviously a bit of a daunting task--he has been in his house in Park Ridge for 33 years!  We are super excited about having him out here with us!

Hike in Armstrong Redwoods

Jason and I were both off for the long weekend.   Though we obviously wanted to get out of town, we are still under shelter in place across most of California, so we stayed put.

A few of our state parks did open their parking lots this past week, so we took advantage and headed up to Armstrong Redwoods State Park.   This park is a lesser-known version of Muir Woods--but it is equally beautiful.   It is located outside of Guerneville, on the Russian River.  We went there years ago, but haven't been back since.   So with the long weekend, it was a good excuse to go check it out.

The park was as beautiful as I remembered.   We took a 6.5 mile loop long the ridge (east ridge trail to the pool ridge trail).   It was lovely, and shaded most of the way, and we stopped for a picnic lunch.   We also saw a lot of wildlife--the highlight was a pileated woodpecker--such a cool bird.   Also a deer, a snake and multiple lizards.

We stopped for take out pizza in Petaluma on the way home and bought it to a nearby park for a picnic, and then went to Lala's creamery for some ice cream.   Overall, not a bad way to spend the day.

Mother's Day, Quarantine Style, and some Cherries

Last Sunday was Mother's day.   We usually have a brunch at our place, but with the quarantine, that didn't work out so well.   Eileen and Gary did drive down in the afternoon, and we sat 6 feet apart outside.   It was Eileen's first Mother's Day without her Mom, so she was feeling a bit sad about that, and the fact that she couldn't even give us a hug.  At least the weather was nice enough to sit comfortably outside.   Apparently it was snowing in Milwaukee!

Today, we drove out to the east bay to do some cherry picking.   The farms are open as "essential businesses", albeit with face masks required.   We got about 10 pounds of cherries and some blackberries too.   Gave us something to do at least.

  


    

Tonight I made a pie out of some of the berries.   Unfortunately I tried a new crust recipe and it didn't turn out as flaky as usual, but the filling was delicious.

Stairwell Project

So one advantage of sheltering in place is we have time to do things we have been putting off doing.   One such project has been decorating our walls.  Though we have lived in our home for almost 8 years (!), we have a lot of blank walls.  

Our first project has been the stairwell.   I looked at Pinterest for some inspiration, and then bought frames to go up the stairwell.   We carefully planned, measured and hung each frame in line with the staircase (harder than it looked!)

The next step was fun--we went though hundreds of old pictures to pick out some favorites to put in the frames and ordered prints.

The pictures finally all arrived, and Wow, our stairwell looks great!

I want to tackle the dining room next.....

Dad buys a house!

We are so exited to say that my dad has bought a house here in Marin.   He just closed this past week!   If you can imagine, it has been a bit of a tumultuous time....

He found the house when he was out here in March.   He had been looking at places all winter, but this one he fell in love with right away.   He put in a bid, and amazingly, got the home (9 bids were placed, and it was on the market for a week!).  I don't have any personal pictures, but here are some from when it was on the market.

As you can see it is really beautiful!   It is located in Mill Valley, only about 10 minutes from us.   So exciting!!!

Then, of course, CoVid happened.   He was not sure what to do, with the crazy stock market and uncertain financial times.   He did negotiate a slight price drop and prolonged his escrow time, but decided to go through with it.

We are so happy that he did.   Now the fun part, time to decorate!   We hope he can make it out here soon to enjoy the space!   Look at the view form the porch.   Beautiful!

A family weekend

We actually had a nice weekend with our family back up to 4 members.   On Friday night we took a bike ride to a nearby pizza place, where we got takeout and sat at a park across the street to enjoy.   It was actually such a nice setting we wondered why we hadn't thought of doing that before the quarantine.

We devoted Saturday mostly to cooking--Jason smoked ribs, and I made cornbread and a strawberry rhubarb pie to go with them.   3000 calories of deliciousness.

Today, we took a 7 mile hike nearby.   It was a beautiful day, and nice to do all as a family.

So, actually a pretty nice weekend, all things considered!