Tuesday on a Wednesday

Tuesday on a Wednesday, Thursday on a Tuesday, too!

Well, I really try to post every Tuesday and Thursday, but guess what?!  Just ain't happening this week.

Seems like there are too many moving parts for me to keep up with.

Last week I spent the entire week trying to get ahold of the car dealer to check on the Hummer. (If you missed what happened, click here.) Finally I gave  up and on Friday morning I picked that baby up and took it to a different auto body shop. And a good thing I did. While the dealer gave me a quickie estimate of $950 to get the Hummer repaired, I somehow knew that was a rush quote and NOT accurate. Boy! Was I right!   Final estimate to put it back together is closer to $4000. Bunny spun that baby hard.

The H3 Brand New (to us)

Cursed? or just unlucky? 

Since Bunny and I had been sharing a car all week-and I didn't get a rental until two days ago-we decided to head to Denver for the weekend. She got to see her friend boy and I got to go to Target. I really miss my Target shopping. Wal Mart just does not do it for me like Target does. A million thanks to my friend Diana for lending us her house. Would have been more fun if she had been there too, but civilization was nice, never the less. 

And now I have a rental, and the Hummer should be put back together in about ten days. That poor Hummer has had some trials. (Click here, here and here to read about the Hummer adventures. And why our insurance agency will probably cancel us.)

But while we have been dealing with crazy cars, beautiful Colorado has decided to get with the program and have Fall! 

A trip to Lake City took me past stands of aspen. Somehow I had always heard about how gorgeous the aspen are when they change colors but never had experienced their beauty. 

Wow! They glowed. Sparkled. Appeared lit from within.

I actually pulled the car over three times just to take pictures.

Ok, so it isn't New England with all the lovely colors- but this was amazing in its own way.

A whole mountain of aspen trees. 

Stunning.

And then we also had snow on the mountains!! Love waking up and seeing my Twin Sisters wearing snow caps. And driving into town, the 14ers are also dusted. So gorgeous and amazing.

It was so overcast and rainy that it is a bit hard to see- 

but there is snow up there!

BUT.

Snow on the ground (and on the roads) can wait. A long while. Please. Maybe December. That would work. 

I'll see you next week. 

Follow Up Friday: Smells like Teen Spirit?

Follow Up Friday:Smells like Teen Spirit?

O dear.

Yesterday's post had to do with No. 36: Find a Signature Scent.

Then this morning, thanks to the blog Life in the Boomer Lane, I was alerted to a study in the American Journal of Political Science.   The official title is "Assortive Mating Ideology Could Operate through Olfactory Clues".   (Huh?)

Basically a study was done that exposed people to the body odor of either "strong conservatives" or  "strong liberals".  People tended to love the smell of those that had the same political ideologies. And they were leery of those whose political beliefs did not jibe with their own.

Apparently this is not such a groundbreaking study after all.

Way back when:

Bizarre matchmaking: The article from a 1924 edition of Science and Invention magazine recommends smelling your partner's scent via a hosepipe attached to a capsule they are inside. If the smell isn't 'too objectionable', you're a perfect match!

So by choosing Ce Soir ou Jamais as my perfume, am I attracting someone like minded? Repelling people whom I might otherwise have a great deal in common? Attracting political crazies? Maybe this perfume has something to do with my recent neighborly interactions?

I may be meddling with biology here!  Consider the consequences. 

That perfume I wore back in the 80s? Is that why I am married to the person that I am married to? 

Yikes! I don't even remember what perfume I wore. I no longer wear it because I no longer like it. What are the implications? 

Could we alter someone's opinion of us just by switching fragrances? 

Maybe I should give up a signature perfume and find an assortment that I can wear depending on the occasion. 

What would a right wing conservative perfume be? 

And the "let's go smoke a few then tie dye some t shirts" perfume? 

Wonder what cologne Hitler wore? Ahh...according to this, he refused to wear cologne. Was that so his true political ideas could shine through? 

My mind is boggled. 

No. 36: Find a Signature Fragrance or Two

No. 36: Find a Signature Fragrance


Wow! This one was hard.

But I think I have it nailed.

I wrote about my reasons why I wanted a signature fragrance here.

It's about power as much as smelling lovely.


I tried a few for a while. Some I liked enough to hang onto the idea of at least.

CK One- very gender neutral and fresh and summery. Light.
Ralph Lauren's Romance.  I got good reviews on this one. People frequently told me I smelled good.
But after a bit, I tired of it.
I still have a thing for Jean Naté powder in the summer.

But the winner is Annick Goutal's Ce Soir Ou Jamais. It means "Tonight or Never" in French.  Right there, the name is the perfect reason to wear it.  Don't you love the idea? Tonight or never....the possibilities.

Ce Soir ou Jamais

It should have a ribbon and label but I've lost those in use. 

And it's odd. Tea rose based. Not a scent I ever thought I would take to. But I love it. There is something else there, also, but what? I don't know.

I've been wearing it all summer and can see it holding up just as easily in the cold weather. Maybe even better.

But the clincher?  After walking out of the post office one morning, my great mail lady dashed out behind me.
"Nancie, what perfume is that? It reminds me of a day at the beach."

A day at the beach? Sign me up!  
A scent that will make someone run out of a building to inquire about?
Again, sign me up.


I still want to visit the custom perfumer.

But for now. Ce Soir ou Jamais.

Numèro 36 est fait.

Ugh

UGH...

Just going to take a moment here.

I really prefer to keep things happy. 

But this past week has been ...trying.

I have a neighbor that I've never met in five years. Never seen her, never seen any movement at her house, never seen any sign of her. I know she lives in Denver, her house is for sale, I've never seen her. 

So I confess Carlos and I have been cavalier about walking through their property. There are trails and we walk them. 

Unfortunately, Carlos and I surprised  them and Carlos barked and I apologized profusely. We were wrong. Normally I am very respectful of boundaries, but after five years of zero perceived activity...I got bold.
And she and her husband were ...odd, distant, not exactly friendly.

We think he is a sweetie, 

but I do realize he can be intimidating.

Big bark, big mouth.

The next morning there was a knock on the door. The neighbor was there and advised me that I was never to set foot on her property again.  Okay.
Then she said "Of course, I have a loaded gun and if I were to see someone on my porch, JUST as you would, I would get my gun." 

Really? Your VERY first thought if someone is in your yard or at your door is to get a loaded gun? 

Is it just me or is there something the matter with that train of thought?  I assured her that would NEVER be my first thought.
She dismissed that with "Well, you have a dog."

I'm praying it will be another five years before I see her. Also praying her house sells SOON.

(And the Hubs had a great response. While she was standing on MY porch telling me she would greet me with a loaded gun if I were on HER porch, he suggested I should have said "You're right. Hang on. Let me go get my gun." Hindsight.)

 .........

Friday night, Bunny left the house in the baby Hummer to go to town. 

A few minutes later I get a call from the car (thank goodness for the Onstar Satellite phone) and all she said was "you need to come down the street". I can hear someone yelling at her and I kept asking if all was okay and all I get is "I'm okay, come here" and more yelling. I hop in my car, head to the main road and pass a gentleman (using the term loosely) with no shirt on (huh?) and he waves me down. "Is that your daughter in the blue jeep?" Ummm, not exactly....but maybe.   

Then he yells at me about how reckless she was driving and how she almost killed both of them and I was RESPONSIBLE for her and somewhere along there I quit listening because truly, my 16 year old was obviously in some sort of trouble that I didn't know anything about.

Onto the main road, I see the hummer sideways on the side of the road,  Bunny in tears and some stranger pulled over talking to her. Her front tire is flat. All over. The back end of the H3 is in the bushes. There are skid marks in the dirt.

Looks to me like those skid marks start on the far right side of the 

road. Which would make it hard for her to have been the one in the middle.

But I wasn't there. 

I wasn't there. I don't know truly what happened. It's a narrow dirt road with gravel edges. She says he was coming up in the middle of the road, he said she was in the middle. She swerved to miss him, hit the gravel and spun. He stopped long enough to yell at her and then left.  She was very very fortunate. She missed a tree, barely. She didn't flip. She didn't roll down the embankment. The kind stranger offered to move the car for her over to the edge. A car that heavy doesn't handle well when it is driving on the rim.

It was only flat on the bottom.

And the sides, and the top.

And maybe a tiny bit twisted.

As much as I love Onstar, it wouldn't work on our county road.

I drove Bunny home and called Onstar. The neighbor across the way came over and suggested I also call Colorado Highway Patrol, just in case. (This was AFTER he made sure everyone was okay. He had passed the injured car leaving the house, turned around and came back to check on us.) Considering how angry the nasty neighbor was, that sounded like a good idea. 

Heading back to meet the highway patrol, that nasty man was also there. He called in the troopers, too. Another bout of yelling at us, even though I was doing my best to not interact with him . More tears from Bunny. 

And then there were rainbows. Seriously.

When we first arrived at the scene, waiting for Highway Patrol,

the rainbow was just forming.

Then it grew...

And grew. 
Notice the second rainbow that arrived on the left. 

We were intrigued by the fact that the second one was a mirror image of the first. 

I thought they should both be Red,Orange,Yellow,Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet,

but the second one on the left was opposite.

And thank you to scuba lessons for teaching me Roy G. Biv.

Rainbows were followed by the nicest highway patrol trooper ever. 

Nasty neighbor yelled at him, too. Yelling at the law is never a good idea.

Bunny got a ticket for failure to control her vehicle on a mountain road. And a nice explanation of what she did wrong and why she needed to slow down and pay more attention.

Nasty neighbor apparently was advised to come apologize to us. He KIND OF did.

And the trooper said something that made me want to hug him. (I didn't). 

That there is a human element here. She's a young driver, inexperienced and this was a learning moment. Thankfully no one was hurt. No cars made contact. He cited her for the tiniest infraction he could. And assured her if he were called out on another incident on this same road, things would be entirely different. But take our blessings, learn from them and carry on. 

We really needed a bit of kindness at that point.

Grace.

And lest you think we live in a backwoods filled with degenerate hillbillies, strains of banjos playing Deliverance every time the door opens, let me set you straight.

There is the neighbor across the way who has changed our water filter under the cabin when the water disappeared, who plows our drive when it snows and told us how proud he was last year that we made it through the winter. (He admitted to being skeptical that we could handle it.) He is also the one who came back and checked on Bunny when he saw her car on the side of the road and then again Monday morning.

Another neighbor came with her gun the day that Bunny came home to an empty cabin, door standing ajar. I was in town and fairly certain that the wind was the culprit. But Bunny wasn't setting foot inside until someone checked the place so she called the neighbor. That sweet woman came, Glock in hand, and she checked under every bed, in every closet, and even in the basement until Bunny was convinced all was safe.

There is a lovely couple up the hill that sends Christmas cards every year. They stop by and give hugs and check on us every time they come up. They have also offered their yard for Carlos to run in...bless them.

We have fabulous new neighbors on the corner that are always up for an adventure, always have a glass of wine for me and even left flowers on the porch to welcome us back last August. They love Carlos like their own, have spared a dead deer vertebrae from their yard for him to chew on and will always let the big dog in or out if he needs it and I am away.

Sweet flowers to welcome us back.

There's the family that came out onto the road to see why the car was pulled over and then asked if we needed help changing the tire.

And there is the kind stranger who stopped and consoled my 16 year old baby while she was stuck on the side of the road with a popped tire. I didn't get his name even though Saturday morning while I was taking pics of the road he passed by again and stopped, again, asking how she was doing.

All kind, helpful people.

Thank goodness.

Grace. 

A Recipe from the Blue Ribbon Winner

Blue Ribbon Baker, Blackberry Crumb Bar

After hearing her mom had been declared a Blue Ribbon Baker,  Bunny sweetly asked me to make some Blackberry Crumb Bars for her.  She had found a recipe online and sent me a text saying "Can you make these at some point please".   Notice the "please". That's about as sweet as we get around here.

Now baking in my tiny kitchen in the woods can be a challenge. Appliances are limited. Gadgets are even more limited. Heck, space is limited.  The handy dandy hand mixer we have is at least 30 years old. There's a food processor from the consignment store. It has two speeds: on and off.
I also learned to bake at sea level. This kitchen is almost 8000 feet in the air. Concessions need to be made and I am doing my best to learn how to make them. Some things come out, some things don't.

I've written a couple of posts on baking and cooking in our version of a Green Acres kitchen. If you want to read about my little kitchen, click here.  If you want to read about high altitude baking, click here.

The cozy kitchen in the woods.

Just don't plug in a 3 and a 5 at the same time.

(And if you have never watched Green Acres- go find it online.)

But the Crumb Bars got made.  And devoured. They were yummy but we felt they could be improved upon. So more were made. I think we have it right this time.

See for yourself:


Blackberry Crumb Bars

The cast of characters-minus the oatmeal and graham crackers
I forgot to take a picture the second time I made them. 

For the filling:

• 4 cups blackberries (Frozen is ok) 
• ⅓ cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• zest of ½ lemon (No micro plane here in the cabin kitchen, so I used one of those choppers that you slam down with the palm of your hand. Worked ok. Necessity is the mother of invention.)
• pinch of salt

And for the pastry:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup oatmeal  (I chopped it up just to make it a little finer but you don't have to.)
• ¾ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, cold and diced into cubes (Or just melt it. I tried both ways and both ways worked.)
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, well-beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 or 6 graham crackers-crushed

Place rack in center of the oven then preheat to 350 degrees. Coat a 13" x 9" cake pan with cooking spray or line with parchment paper then set aside. (I lined the bottom of the pan with parchment paper/sprayed the edges with Pam.)

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, toss blackberries with sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest until well combined then set aside.  (Frozen blackberries were used- didn't even bother to defrost them.)

Doesn't this look yummy? 

In a separate large mixing bowl, sift together flour, oatmeal, baking powder and salt. Cut the cold butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs, then add ¾ cup granulated sugar and stir until combined. (Since there is no pastry cutter here at Green Acres,the first time I made it I used the ancient hand mixer on low. It worked. The second time I just melted the butter and stirred it all together. That worked too.)

In a small bowl, whisk together the beaten egg and vanilla then add to dry ingredients. Mix until well combined—the mixture will be dry and shaggy-looking. (Shaggy-looking? It was dry. Don't know about Shaggy. And if you decide to melt the butter- it won't look dry. But it will still work.)

 This is with the butter melted. 

It was a lot easier to do than "cutting in cold butter".

An option if you also happen to be lazy. Like me.

Transfer 2/3rds of the pastry mixture to the bottom of the prepared pan then press into an even layer. 
Add an even layer of the crushed graham crackers. (Use about 2/3rds of the graham crackers here, save ⅓ to add to the topping.) 

I find a wine bottle and a plastic baggie the perfect set up 

for crushing crackers. Put the graham crackers in the bag, roll the bottle over.

Feel free to sample the wine after you are done crushing.

Pour blackberry filling—including juices—over the crust then spread into an even layer.

Mix remaining graham cracker crumbs with remaining pastry mixture and crumble evenly over the top of blackberries. 

Ready for the oven.

Bake 40–45 minutes until the top becomes a light golden brown. Remove from oven then allow to cool until crust becomes firm. Serve slightly warm, or at room temperature.

Lightly browned all over at about 46 minutes. 

No adjustments were made for the high altitude and it didn't seem to matter. 

Bunny declared these "Yummy" and requested that they be made with great regularity.

Yum. 

I'm going to a Wine Festival in Lake City this weekend. These can come along with me.  
Of course, I will leave some for Bunny. 

Maybe. 

 (The original recipe was courtesy of the website CherylStyle.com BUT alterations and additions were made.)

A Follow Up to No. 41: Enter Something Into the Fair

A Fair Entry Follow Up (No. 41)


No. 41: Enter something into the County Fair was a rush job.

I just happened to be back in Colorado from Texas for one week- the same week that the Chaffee County Fair was accepting entries for the Open Class Division.  Basically that means anyone can enter a division as long as you are not a 4-H member. And I am not.

Much to my dismay, I fell into the Senior Class. Over age 55. Seriously? I'm not feeling senior-ish. They must be confused.

And because there wasn't a lot of time to plan my entry... I came up with the easiest recipe I could.
Rum Balls.

Rum Balls ready for the fair. 

So easy, that I didn't even snap to the fact that while they were entered into the baking division, the cookies weren't even baked. They were just marinated.

Fortunately the rum must have influenced the judges.

Because I just happened to find the County Fair Results special edition online while reading the local newspaper and LOOK!!!

That's me!!!

It's a miracle. Or a mistake.   My name may be misspelled, but I know it is me.

My best guess is that there were only 5 entries into the Rolled Cookie Senior Baking Division. But that's okay. Right there in black and white on the World Wide Web is my (misspelled) name with BLUE for BLUE RIBBON.

Sadly, I believe I have missed my chance to actually retrieve the ribbon and prize money.

And did you see the prize money? $1.50! That would get an iced tea at McDonald's with 42¢ to spare.

O well.

No. 41 is done and won!

No. 35: Part Two: That 40th High School Reunion + a Birthday

No. 35: Part Two: The 40th High School Reunion Pics 

I went to my 40th High School Reunion. But first I reminisced and posted lovely high school photos of some of my friends from 40 years ago. While I was at the party Saturday night, I did my best to get pics of those same people.

Some comparisons....

Curtis in 1974

Curtis

(With Lisa Laird Married Name that I Don't Know) 

and Brown

 And here's Brown in 1974 

with Carol that is no longer with us.

Brown and I talked about how much we wish she were still here. 

So both of these guys are looking pretty good. The hair isn't as long but at least they still have some!!

Right? 

Me with Mary in 1974

Me with Mary now.

I think Mary looks almost exactly the same, just shorter hair. And both of our faces are thinner. 

What's up with that? 

Me with Emily.  

Wish I had gotten a better pic of her. 

I swear she looks better now than then.

Half of Brown, Me, Emily and Kevin, back in the day.

Here's Bobby/Bob and Kevin now. 

They are just as adorable as ever except with, again, shorter hair. 

And Bobby then. We need to know his secret. 

You know, the "never age secret". 

 Sally, Me, Liddy- 1974

Me, Sally, Liddy- 2014

Sorry we are a little blurry- cell phone pics.

I believe we have all gotten blonder. 

Imagine that!

 Tricia then.

Me and Tricia now.

This was about the 7th selfie we tried taking...I had to break out the reading glasses just to see what we were doing. Both of us were pretty close to hysterical.  For some reason we just 

couldn't get it right. Some alcoholic beverages may have been consumed at this point.

Anyway, same smile, same fun person.

Tricia with Martha/Ann

Lynn, Peggy, Martha now Ann, Allison, Anne, Liddy, Me

And in the back middle we have Martha/Ann again, looking not one day older.

Did Robert E. Lee have something really magical in the water fountains? 

And just because- me and Liddy enjoying the night. 

We were good at that then, 

still good at that now.

The guys haven't aged. The girls haven't aged. The years have been good to all of us.

Thank goodness. 

Love them all. So happy I got to visit.

Thanks for indulging my stroll down memory lane.

No. 35 is officially complete.

AND.....

Today is 9/11.   For most that day is a day of remembrance, a sad day when many lives were lost senselessly.
For me it is my middle child's birthday along with my handsome soon-to-be-wed nephew's birthday.
A reminder that while there is evil in the world, there are also reasons to rejoice.
Happy happy birthday Belle and Brian.

Hard to believe that this baby...

 Born with a full head of black hair...

became this baby...

and turned into a natural blonde. 

Life is full of surprises.

No. 35: Go to My 40th High School Reunion

No. 35: 40th High School Reunion: DONE!


O my!!

This one was fun.

Funny, isn't it? I went to my 30th High School Reunion and was overwhelmed by all the people, and everyone seemed so old and unfamiliar.  I stayed about an hour, and actually could not leave soon enough. There were zero photos to even document that I was there.

I'm thanking good ol' social media for making this more manageable.   I've seen pictures of many high school friends on Facebook even if I am not officially "friends" with all of them. That helped the recognition factor considerably.

Our class panoramic photo. 

I looked and looked and could not find myself. 

I know I was there. 

And I would credit this photo but I don't know who took it. Sorry. 

Another help was most of the spouses stayed home unless they actually attended our school at one time. No one was trying to impress anyone; no one was trying to pick anyone up; everyone just seemed to want to visit and catch up.  And most of the spouses realized if they didn't know anyone, it just wouldn't be fun. The spouses that did come banded together and entertained each other. Not having all the extra spouses meant that I didn't have to search faces to see if one was recognizable.

My spouse came but was a good sport and didn't complain once about being abandoned at a table with a few other men he had just met.

The invitation for the night. 

Slightly wrinkled from its travels. 

Kind of like all the attendees.

I LOVED seeing all of these faces again.

I must say the women fared better than the men in the looks department for the most part. I thought men were supposed to get more distinguished and the women were supposed to get frumpy. Ha!
That was not so much the case here.
Hair dye probably gets a lot of credit for the disparity. The women dye, the men don't.
Although one person came up to me and said "You are blonde!" and I replied "I've always been blonde." And then I looked at my Senior picture where I was anything but blonde. I was blonde until I was 6 years old....then I picked it up again when I was in my mid twenties. What a surprise to me!
I always thought I was blonde, I had just gotten blonder. Nope.

Anyway, there were highlights and lowlights, as is the case with any evening.

My Favorite Spontaneous Interaction came when one of the former hunky football players who now is a bit more rotund (think of Mr. Krabs from SpongeBob SquarePants for a physique) practically twirled up to me, glanced at my name tag and gleefully announced "I remember you! Do you remember me?". When I replied "Of course", he spun away.  Made my night.

Some of us were shaped like this, some of us weren't.

We all looked darling.

The Most Huh? Moment came from a class member that sidled over, glanced at my name tag, looked at me and said "Nope. I didn't know you." Which was odd, since I know that yes, you did know who I was. Whatever.  I'm filing that under the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" category.

And the Most Mind Blowing Conversation was with a guy from my home room. We weren't ever close friends but we were in the same home room for ever. We chatted and I told him where I was living now and he said "Do you know where Mt. Princeton is?"
Why, yes, I was there last week, soaking in the hot springs as a matter of fact.
"Well, my family owned it from the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s."
 WHAT???  Ninety percent of the people I talk to have no idea where this part of Colorado even is.  When I expressed disbelief, he rattled off a list of little town names that would only be known by a local.
"Tin Cup, Chalk Creek, St. Elmo's, Buena Vista, Nathrop. Do you believe me now?"
I was totally taken aback. Once I got home I had to Google the Mt. Princeton history just to verify and yep, there was his family name. Wow.

Me, last year, at Mt. Princeton Spa. 

And my classmate's family used to own it.

Wow.

But mostly it was just delightful to see all of these people that I had spent a good part of my childhood/teen years with. Friends from Girl Scouts. Girls I had disagreed with. Boys that had dumped me. Boys I had dumped. Didn't matter. Everyone was just happy to see each other.

Thrilled that I went. Can't wait for the 50th .

Annnnnnddddd......
I took pics during the night and will share them on Thursday.
I did my best to get follow up pics of all the peeps that were on last week's Throw Back Thursday post.
Won't that be a fun comparison?!

Follow Up Friday: Waterdog Lake

Follow Up Friday:  Waterdog Lake Hike


Yay! We made it.

Wednesday's hike was MUCH more successful than Sunday's attempt at a hike.

We were prepared.
We had a map. A walking stick with bells. Whistles to call to each other. Snacks. Lots of water.

We found the Trailhead!

This hike was described as "moderate" on one map and "easy" on a website. We were also told it was 1.4 miles to the first lake.

 Please note this is UPHILL.

 Still UPHILL.

 You might think I am posing for a photo but really I am catching my breath.

And still UPHILL.

After an hour and a half of huffing and puffing  hiking we made it to the top.

 Proof- that's the marker for the first lake.

O Man! It was worth it. 

Aren't you impressed? 

I learned how to use my Panoramic mode on my phone.

And...the pedometer showed we had walked 1.9 miles. We must have wobbled a lot; not walked in a straight line. 

We sat and talked and snacked and DRANK lots of water. 

Then we wandered about half way around the lake. 

We did not head up to the second lake as I was not about to go UPHILL one more step.

But apparently we would have been able to see the Continental Divide if we had.

We started at 8600 feet altitude and ended at 11,100.  High enough for me. 

After some scenic photos, we headed back down.

 Me, gasping for air.

 Me and Sue, holding on to each other for support  smiling for the camera.

 Pretty flowers against the CLEAN CLEAR water.

 Some more pretty flowers.

Gorgeous scenery everywhere. 

Downhill took us about 40 minutes. We had to watch our footing or else go sliding down.

All in all we hiked 3.8 miles. 

I came home and took some Advil.

It was a great day.