Duc isn't just for Sundance anymore...we added bobsled watching this year!

Duc comes to Utah ever year to work at the Sundance Film Festival. Every year I pick him up and shuttle him back and forth to Park City and he takes me to see a few films for free in return. This year was a little different, and not just because there wasn't terrifying blizzard conditions any of the days I had to drive him anywhere either. He met a guy who works at the bobsled run. They were practicing for some world championship...qualifying something or other. Who knows, but teams from all over the world were there and we got to just stand around and watch them. Some had pretty intense secret handshakes before pushing off and all of them have monster quads.

It was cool seeing them push off, but we coudln't appriciate how fast they go so we went down to a lower area and holy cow they go fast! (during that walk down I had the most impressive "slip on the ice and catch myself" moment ever)

It was awesome being the only ones there watching when we knew that during the olympics this place would have been a mosh pit. I love these next two photos. It looks like the bobsled just snook up and surprised Duc while we were chatting.

And we we also waited in a bunch of long lines and saw a few films too, but we do that every year...

Willow Heights - Again

I was sitting at home on my day off work, still in my pajamas around noon wondering what to do with myself. I had left over guacamole and birthsecond cake (the day before was my 1 billionth birth second and I had a small party) I looked down at my odd lunch and decided it would taste better in the mountains. So I threw it all into a backpack and headed up the canyon. There were no cars at the Willow Heights trail head so even though I'd been there a couple weeks before, I pulled over and headed up. It was warm and sunny and I enjoyed the animal tracks, the stillness, the fresh air, the aspens, and the snow.

(bluebird skies)

(all mine!)

(I hate hats)

I took some pictures at the lake, then after a mildly terrifying close call, I headed back to the meadow where I found a nice spot looking over the snow and down the canyon. I was right, the guacamole and cake tasted way better up there. I wish I'd brought my book, it was so nice, I could have stayed even longer.

(at the lake...two similar pictures just because I want to. And because taking them almost cost me dearly. Tell me you like them even if you don't please)

(connect the trees) (sort of makes me feel huge)

(lunch time)

(dessert time)

(I love aspen bark) (steep decent)

(long evening shadows)

Lessons Learned the Hard (and really scary) Way

And that's all I'm going to say about that. I don't really want to discuss in detail the heart stopping sounds, the mild terror, or the hasty slushy retreat. I'm sure I will be reliving the experience plenty of times in my future nightmares with worse endings. I've learned my lesson.

Oregon Road Trip

When I was in third grade my teacher, Mrs. Crane...or was is Ms. Crane... used to show her class slides of her vacation to Hawaii. It was kind of cool to learn about volcanoes but also weird to see my teacher in her vacation clothes. When I got older I thought about those slide shows and the fact that perhaps we were the only people she had to show them to and I felt bad for her. Now here I am with a bunch of pictures of my vacation to Oregon from between Christmas and New Years...and no one to really show them to. So please indulge a poor single girl and look at my slide show like I did for my teacher all those years ago, but don't feel bad for me. It may not have been Hawaii, but it was a really nice break from the cold and snow of Utah in the middle of winter and it was a fun little road trip with my parents. I had a hard time narrowing it down and you'll think I didn't do a good job, but believe me I did, I take a lot of pictures. I didn't include any of myself in weird 80's cabana clothes either.

First driving to Oregon through Northern California...

ghost towns moss and mushrooms were on EVERYTHING

geocaching

taking a break for car sickness...and more geocaching

Klamath And finally Oregon....it was raining

Dad at Kissing Rock. I like how the rock really does look like it's kissing

gortex kept me dry for only so long. If only I'd had a full body suit made from it I might have been ok...maybe

A cool trail I ran down for about a mile but sadly didn't get to see the end of. It was a river, sometimes a lake, sometimes a tunnel, and I discovered too late... contaminated with poison oak :(

there was ocean on both sides of me but the trail kept going forward. I followed it as far as I could before my parents called my phone and said I had to come back

sea stacks and waterfalls. These two pictures are next to each other and if I knew how I'd have taken them better and knitted them into a panoramic or something

the only time we got mom out of the car on the first really rainy day. By this point I was soaked to the skin everywhere I may as well have gone in the ocean.

Trail through the dunes to the sea from our hotel room in Gold Beach, Oregon

view from the room...and my parents out taking a walk below

little lighthouse at the hotel

Battle Rock Park...site of a crazy sailor vs. Indian battle with the sailors all stuck out on the point.

up close of the beach at Battle Rock Park

A big driftwood tree with his huge roots was on the beach and there was a nice view through the middle of them

storms out at sea at Cape Blanco. The most western point on the lower continental 48 states. There's still a working lighthouse out at the end.

It was really windy out there...

I think it kinda looks like Ireland

the sun and clouds looked so awesome as we were driving away I yelled at my dad to stop the car and jumped out to take these pictures...they're some of my favorites from the whole trip.

Hiking at Port Orford Heads State Park...geocaching swag

A little cove they used to launch life boats out of in storms...it was pretty cool

All the rain created waterfall everywhere..some big some little. This was a little one in the parking lot at Humbug Mountain State Park

My mom...I'm not sure where I took this but that's Humbug Mountain in the background so it was somewhere along the way

There was a little spot called The Sisters that I wanted to go see for some reason I can't remember, but it was pretty. It hailed on us at least 3 times so I gave up wanting to go down to the water and we just enjoyed the views from halfway.

End of our two days on the Oregon Coast...right before dad got a speeding ticket.

"I know I was speeding...I was just having such a good time...."

Some random beach on the way to the hotel. I took off my shoes and finally went in. It was good

another one of my favorite pictures

Before leaving to drive home dad and I went down to the beach in the morning to find a geocache and collect some rocks

I really love this picture and I'm not sure why

The wreck of the Mary D

Back at Kissing Rock on our way out of town looking for a cache...I got really intimate with that rock with the use of my climbing skills but never found the cache

Like I said, mushrooms were on EVERYTHING. I saw hundreds and never the same kind twice. They even had local wild mushroom in the grocery stores. This one was on top of a fence post along the Oregon Coastal Trail...which by the way I plan to return to someday. It goes from the California border to the Colombia River and just the little bit I saw had me spell bound.

these were in the parking lot

These were in the Redwoods..on some redwoods. (back in California)

We stopped and walked on a few short trails off the road in Redwood National Park where the trails were so soggy it felt like walking through mushy raisin bran. Later drove the entired length of the Avenue of the Giants which I highly reccomend to anyone driving that way.

Well...that's the end of the vacation slide show. Thanks for paying attention. Oregon is great. Thanks mom and dad for taking me. The poison oak on my face wasn't so great, but that wild mushroom napoleon I ate at the fancy restaurant and the cheese we picked up on the way home made up for it as well as all the pretty views and trails. If someone wants to backpack the Oregon Trail with me or anything else like that, just let me know.