V is for Variety #atozchallenge

Variety is the spice of life right?  One of the most stunning things we encountered while in Spain were the beautiful markets.  As we grow most of our own food, eat fresh while we can, try to store as much as possible, cook with wild abandon and were at the end of Winter at home, these 'merkat's' were complete eye candy.  There was everything from farmers market style groceries, to sushi, tapas, and anything else you could imagine snacking on.

The variety was both intriguing and dizzying.  The best part was we simply sampled our way through, and for at least two of our meals that is exactly what we did!

These meals were as fresh as can be, prepared in their most basic form; olive oil, lemon juice and fresh herbs. We could travel from booth to booth with a glass of wine or beer in hand and simply immerse ourselves in the variety laid before us.  Of course, the meal ended with a bag of hand dipped truffles, what else?

Free Range Hiking (Colorado Chronicles)

I had forgotten how much I adore hiking.  When we lived in Las Vegas, a lifetime ago, we spent many a weekend hiking at Red Rock Canyon or on Mt. Charleston.  Now, ten years later, a hiking mountain vacation was on the agenda.  Not only did it feel oddly familiar, like riding a bike, but I also had a number of flashes back to the past as my muscles remembered the drill.  It felt like I could just glide over the terrain moving rhythmically like a pulse (which was elevated, by the way, in the altitude).  What was even more exhilarating than being back on trails, was how the kids both took to it.

It was hard to keep up with Charles.  This child has to climb everything in sight when we are not on a gorgeous alpine mountainside.  Our cabin was situated in the gully of a boulder surround.  When we kicked the kids outside to explore the first morning, what struck me most was how fearless Sidney was too!  She thrived on made up games, climbing and just being outside (as always).  I now know I can take this farm girl and put her in the mountains and she is still my outdoor girl, regardless of the location.

We were a group of sixteen, eight adults and eight children and these kids had begun to accumulate a multitude of scrapes, scratches, and bruises, which they all seemed to be wearing like a badge of honor.  Something that was hard earned, meant to be compared, and marked their passage through the vacation.  We gave them quite a bit of freedom with their climbing within a few basic guidelines.  They tended to watch out for one another and thrive when their parents gave them the ability to do a little bit of free range hiking.

What a Difference Two Days Makes (Colorado Chronicles)

It's hard to believe that it has already been a week since we left for Colorado.  Last Saturday, after the final garden tour attendees had driven away, we finished packing the car, loaded up, and headed West caravaning with friends.  We cut the sixteen hour trip into two day busy days.  I mentioned how much I love a car trip.  There is something about seeing the country up close, the experience of a slice of life from every area, and with this trip, the wonderful camaraderie of two families in the long hours together, that make even the fatigue of driving feel oh so worth while. 

Our first stop was a family favorite, and a little better than half way to Des Moines, our evenings stopping point.  Iowa 80 is the "Worlds Largest Truck Stop" and it does not disappoint.  The kids could run around and jump in and play in the huge cabs that were in the show room.  This was followed what was  a mediocre supper, but nourishment none the less.  We didn't arrive at our hotel in Des Moines until close to midnight.  We were fortunate to get two of the last three hotel rooms in town what with it being the opening weekend of the State Fair and the little fact that the Straw Pole had just finished hours before.

Now you would think that two advanced degreed, technologically pretty advanced families could figure out how to self check into this hotel whose lobby had now closed.  Well let's call it extreme fatigue that we didn't see the coded lock boxes (that contained our room keys) as we walked in and proceeded to wake up the night manger who explained this simple fact over the phone.  Yet, I couldn't get the darned box open.  I only needed to put in the first three letters of our last name....well that's easy since our last name has all of three letters.  Well after three attempts at my three letters it locked me out for four minutes.  The problem was solved once we determined that they had spelled our name wrong...you know the three letter name.  That four minutes felt more like thirty, but once it finally finished it's absurd countdown, it freed our hostage room keys, so we could finally lay our exhausted heads down. We were only able to pour our half asleep children into their respective beds,after we located sheets for the pull out beds they would be sleeping in and got said beds made!   I did mention slice of life, didn't I?

After long hours, fun chatty stops, a huge downpour, an after dark arrival that had us searching winding mountain dirt roads for our sweet rustic cabin, we ended our trip and began our vacation.  When the light of day once again kissed our world, this is what we saw.  What a difference two days makes!