2.29.2012

National Parks & Recreation: The Challenge + JTree

Map of all U.S. National Parks and Monuments circa 1956
Our goal for the next 30 years: camp in every U.S. National Park.  In the end, we'll be 55 and will have had 58 thrilling adventures. That's 58 indelible experiences in the great outdoors  with breathtaking views, spectacular hikes, campstove cookin', marshmallow roasting, picnic table games, campfire laughs, and searching for the big dipper while laying on our backs and staring into the night sky. It's funny to think that the first of these trips will be spent together with our friends, but, somewhere a long the way we'll start packing up the car with car seats, training wheels, and peanut butter and jelly with the crusts cut off.

Between the two of us, we've visited many of the national parks in California and the north and south west, however the point of this venture is to do it all together. So far, we're able to check Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon, and Joshua Tree off our list. That leaves us with 54 to go!

Here are a few pictures from our latest trip to J-Tree. A group of ten of us went to scramble, boulder, climb, camp, and have one of the best camp fire shin-digs of all time. Oh and for the record: Trader Joe's chai tea latte with a shot of whisky is the best medicine for a cold night. 


2.19.2012

Punch-Drunk Valentine Love


Parker and I aren't big valentine's day celebraters. We never do anything fancy, or officially "celebrate" the Hallmark Holliday, but I do have to admit that it's a nice excuse to something a little out of the ordinary. This year, there wasn't much for out of the ordinary, but the little that there was, was very nice. Parker bought me flowers, and as cliche as it is for a husband to buy his wife flowers on Valentine's Day, it still makes me smile. We made dinner together as usual, but this evening there was a few hints of reds and pinks on the menu.

We made some extraordinary lemonade, or "punch" as I would like to call it for tonight (in efforts to go along with our movie of choice for the evening). I developed a frequent craving for this rosemary and watermelon infused beverage after patronizing a cute little cafe called Lemonade in Pasadena, so I decided to try to make it myself.


The recipe (found here) was quite simple: sugar, water, watermelon, rosemary, lemons. To do it right, I needed over an hour and a half prep to allow enough time for the rosemary to steep and the drink to chill. I didn't plan ahead quite enough to do it that way. I found the recipe while I was at work the day of, so there wasn't a whole lot of time to pick up the ingredients, get home, get cooking, and eat before seven o'clock. I modified the instructions to save some time: adding more rosemary and letting it steep for only 25 minutes...which worked out just fine.

To add a tad more "out of the ordinary" to the evening, I set up a small, rustic table in front of the couch, lit some candles, and set the table with a pair of red ikat bowls and mason jars with red-striped paper straws. We then sat our butts down, stuffed our faces, and snuggled while watching Punch Drunk Love.

Simple, delicious, perfect.