Barbara's Bachelorette Biking Bonanza

Imagine 9 girls ready for a night on the town... on bikes! Well that's exactly what Barbara's bachelorette party was. Nine of us; Barbara, Stephanee, Maya, Lena, Gretchen, Natalka, Anndrea, Keely and me embarked on a 24 hour escapade (insert Janet Jackson's song here. Maybe a visual would be more enjoyable )
The exciting undertaking started off at Maya's house. Lubrication in the form of yummy cosmopolitans helped us start off our adventure. Barbara had mustered up the resources for audio enjoyment while pushing peddles. A newly acquired Ipod and battery powered speakers belted great tunes while we canvased the streets of Salt Lake. Our brigade traveled through Liberty park and on to Stephanee's magical garden (which happens to be next door to my house). Our thirst was quenched with a wonderful concoction she has named "Gin-mint Fizz". I'm not sure what's in the refreshment, but it's exactly that refreshing especially after the first leg of our bicycling journey. Here I am with Natalka and Anndrea enjoying the garden and our drinks.

Stephanee mixing some bevies

Throughout the day there were many toasts to the lovely Barbara and her upcoming union.

We then went on to visit our friend Won at the Blue Sky market. I'm not sure he was ready for so much estrogen on bikes. He sure does look happy about it though.


After a photo op and stop we were off again. The next stop was a little place called Gilgal Garden. It used to be Salt Lake's Secret Garden and recently became public.

If you haven't been to visit, I suggest you make a stop. It's located at 749 E. 500 S.. There are many interesting sculptures throughout the small park. They even have a website.

A quick stop at the Virgin Mary tree then we were off to a little know pyramid of the Summum religion.

As you can probably tell by the picture... it was a somewhat confusing moment for most of us. "A pyramid? In Salt Lake? What?" Our confusion was quickly cleared after being handed some booklets and Merh.... well kind of. I could probably write a whole other blog on the religion and our initial reaction but I'm not going to. You can check out their website and ask me in person. I might even let you borrow the book they gave us. :D Let's just say it was very appropriate for a Bachelorette party!

The sun was starting to rest behind the mountains so we huffed our way back to Maya's to meet up with Saphu and KT. A delicious vegetarian Costco gourmet spaghetti was prepared for grubbing. Using all our energy biking through town I can definitely say we grubbed on the deliciousness.
Maya has a wonderful house, included with her casa is a hot tub. And what are hot tubs good for? Long soaks after an evening of cycling, of course. It was so nice to rest after such a great adventure. I think Maya, the poor thing, is still trying to clean up the mess that 11 girls can make of a hot tub. Thanks Maya, for your stupendous hostessing!



The next morning we had breakfast and a few of us were up for a Sunday bike excursion. We made a few random yoga attacks while out and about.
We rode to the LDS Temple and Memory Grove. Then it was back to Maya's for lunch and to sadly end Barbara's Bachelorette Biking Bonanza!

I was just telling Barbara that I'm so thankful that Trent bought the red raft. Had he not I would never have met such wonderful ladies to go with on such epic adventures.

A Successful River Adventure

Desolation Canyon is a section of the Green River which is exactly as the name states, desolate. There are no roads, phone service or electricity for miles. The entire trip is 84 miles starting at Sand Wash boat ramp ending at Swayses rapid just north of Green River. To get to there you drive a road used mostly by the oil companies drilling south of Vernal, UT. It's sad seeing the beauty of Utah's backcountries being pillaged for oil. Granted, oil did help us get to the river four hours away from home. One day I hope we will have vehicles that rely on renewable resources, until then we'll cram as many people into each vehicle as possible. Here is a link to more information and history of the river.

We acquired new rubber for floating down the river. The cata-raft set up is a little different and we had to make some changes to our old frame to make it work. The week leading up to our 5 day adventure was nothing but stress. Trent was dedicated to making the frame work for the new tubes. We made a couple trips to the hardware store and a few more to local welding companies. Up until the day before leaving we weren't sure which boat we'd ride, the old bucket boat or the new cataraft. Thanks to the A-team (Letty, Elliott, Otto and Trent) success was achieved. Letty was a huge help in getting the parts to fit together. On top of the frame fiasco Trent was in charge of the food for 15 meals. Feeding 17 people for 5 days is no easy task. There is a certain level of organization needed for such a feat. For the previous river trip KT did an amazing job. She had labeled everything so perfectly and the meals were top notch. Not one to be out done when it comes to food Trent had planned some daring river meals. They ranged from Surf and Turf (London broil and shrimp) to Fajitas.

Otto wondering why I'm stopping him from eating

He had stayed up until four AM one morning cooking delicious ribs that could be warmed and ready to eat. Unfortunately I am not as organized as my dear friend KT so the labeling of food was done in a rush. Saphu was a huge help! Thank you to everyone who offered their help and sorry to anyone I might have been rude to during that stressful time.
Getting on the river was a huge relief. All the stress from the week before seemed to easily shed away... maybe a little too easily. Our dorky selves quickly emerged.

A night around the fire


Letty and his Ladies

Saphu, KT and Anndrea during a game of Uno

There are many more incriminating photos, but if you want to see them you'll have to contact me :)

Now that we're back we are gearing up for a couple more weekend adventures before a month in Peru. Hope your spring and summer are full of many of your own adventures!!

Out of town

Sunny days, good friends, and miles of river are calling us away for the next 5 days. We'll be floating down the Green river through Desolation Canyon. Like most all my river buddies, it's all that's been on my mind these past few days. I can't wait! We'll be back on Wednesday night and will probably be catching up the the "real world" Thursday so please know that I haven't forgotten about you and that if I had cell phone service I would respond to any missed calls. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures to post upon our arrival.
Wishing you the best of weather and a wonderful weekend! -Yosh

Murals

This last weekend I got to paint!! Hooray!! Dannie and Greg are having a baby girl in less than a month and wanted a mural in her nursery. So Dannie's brother, Jeff flew into town from Seattle to help out. His design was awesome! By the time I showed up it was like a huge paint by numbers. Everything was outlined and all I had to do was help fill in the spaces. Here's the "final" product.

I say "final" because it seems like there are always more details that can be added to paintings. Mostly I worked on the kale, radish leaves, peas and asparagus. But it was definitely a good team effort. If you know of anyone who wants a mural, I'd love to paint more of them. Here's one I painted down in Florida a few years ago.

The End...

of the semester. What a great time of year. It seems like many friends start climbing out of their caves for the respite from school. Funny because it's also a time of year when I start thinking about going back for a masters degree. I'll keep thinking about that.

A BIG congratulations goes out to my friends that are graduating!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

Shannon Candice Metzler!



Chris Cartwright!


Paul Fisk!

What an accomplishment! You deserve to celebrate! I know that it's been a work in progress for all of you and that there have been many challenges that you have overcome getting to where you are today. I hate to sound like your mother, but I'm SO proud of you!! It's been a great pleasure having you as friends over the years. Here's to many more! Let's party!!