Snackage & Nappage!

I'm a Dietitian. That's a fancy word for a Nutritionist with a college degree and credentials! I state this fact only to illustrate how strong traditions are. You see this picture of my nephew Philip's girlfriend Jessica plopping chocolate icing on a piece of cake? Well, she's following the lead of this Dietitian!

My family loves to joke that if I ever get too full of myself, they'll invite the athletes I counsel to Louisiana to see the "other" side of their Nutritionist! I was raised on southern fried and gravies. My grandma cooked with lard and I've blown out pig intestines with a straw to make sausage. It's where I came from. But after 5 years of higher learning and another 5 years in the performance nutrition field, I'm constantly at odds with my upbringing. Both of my grandmothers lived well into their 80s and had diets that I would advise clients/athletes against. It's only fair to say, however, that they both did physical labor their whole lives which played a huge part in counteracting those diets! Nevertheless, most of my Cajun comfort foods are at odds with the way I eat outside of Louisiana.

Pretty much everyone in my family is a chocoholic. I'm not sure exactly when it started, but my nephews and I used to sneak buckets of chocolate icing from my mom's pantry for a snack! As time went on and my parents let the grandkids get away with all kinds of things their own children were never allowed to do, my mom started buying an extra tub of icing to leave next to the cakes she made so that extra could be added. There's only one rule. . . no double dipping! As you can imagine, this prompts us all to seek out the largest serving spoon that is able to fit into the tub of icing for the coveted first-and-only dip into the tub! It gets more and more ridiculous every year!!

The blog title today is compliments of my niece Julia. The couple of days after Thanksgiving was rainy, so we spent a lot of time inside snacking and taking naps! I'd be big as a house if I did this everyday, but for 2 or 3 days at home for the holidays, it sure is fun! My sister thought that this picture of Julia and I in the recliner was the perfect illustration of two generations of "Deg Legs"!

Our family would never be described as boring. I'm always amused to see how new guests respond to all our rough-housing and bantering. My maternal grandparents were the epitome of jokesters. They set a tradition of cutting-up that endures within our family to this day. Teasing, story-telling and physical antics were, and still are in the repertoire of prompting laughter. This pic of my brother with his son and step-son rough-housing and tickling confirms our belief that a family that plays together stays together!

Another form of great family-bonding is games. If the weather's nice, that means horseshoes, volleyball or football (or shooting guns in the pasture). If it's night or we're confined to the indoors due to inclement weather like we were this holiday, that means board games. With such a wide age range, games like Pictionary or Cranium are perfect for our gang. For the last several years, a highly competitive game of Pictionary between the boys and girls has ruled supreme! Much to the dismay of the males in our family, the girls have once again outwitted (or out-drawn) the guys. Not to be deterred by years of losing, the boys have demanded a rematch over Christmas vacation!

Although this post may seem quite mundane and low-keyed compared to previous posts from far-away lands, this is the stuff I love! It's such a cliche', but there really is no place like home. After a canceled flight from LAX to San Diego and an enjoyable couple of hours hanging out with a WWII vet full of great stories at the airport while waiting stand-by, I'm back on Coronado preparing for the work week ahead. Stay tuned for some new twists in the road. . .

Happy Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving come and gone! I ushered in the day by landing in New Orleans just around midnight. My mom has been cooking up a storm for days, so I went to bed with smells of the feast to come. After a cup of coffee and a quick run, I was surrounded by family and food for the rest of the day!

As you can see in this picture, the "kids" are all getting big. I have 3 nephews and a niece ranging in ages from 20 to 5 years old. In the dark and white striped shirt on the left of the photo is Andy who is 20 and somewhere around 6 feet tall and the tall lanky guy on the right is his brother Philip who is 16 and about to 6'3". I'm not sure how tall Julia is (at the end of the table) at 10 years old, but she definitely has the family trademark long lean legs. Although I've taken to pronouncing my last name as "day-gull" over the years for ease of understanding, here in Louisiana it's pronounced "deg". Folks always comment when they see an offspring of the Daigle clan that it's obvious that the kid belongs to our family because they have "deg legs"!!!

And it takes a lot of food to feed this tall family! Although I had moved up to the adult table at some point in my life (probably back when I was married), it's been quite some time now that I've been assigned back to the kids' table. From the smiles on our faces, you can see that I don't mind one bit sitting at the kids' table with Julia! Our family is filled with story-tellers and jokesters, so meals are always a lively event. I don't know if it's the jovial energy expended while dining that makes us all so tired or the overindulgence prompted by the day, but we always end up reclining in some capacity shortly thereafter! Usually everyone is sprawled across sofas and on the floor in the living room, but the weather was so beautiful today (mid-70s!) that we moved the rest-fest under the carport to enjoy the breeze and visit.

It seemed like we were just finished digesting when it was time to move on to the next house on the itinerary for Thanksgiving supper. After more visiting and eating at Dean's house with his family, we're back at my parents' house and hanging out for the evening. What a great, leisurely day filled with love & laughter!

I hope that everyone's day was as peaceful and filled with family as mine was and that it's not hard to think of things for which to be thankful. My brother returns tomorrow from Texas with the rest of his family so I'm sure I'll have more to post about over the next few days before I return to the West Coast on Sunday.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Aunt Karen & Aunt Jemima

This morning started off just like every other morning for me, early morning wake-up followed by a workout. Unlike other days however, I had visitors out on the beach during my run. Monica & Philip got up shortly after me and headed out the door to walk along the beach. I added a few more minutes to my route to catch up and join them for sea shell hunting. They were totally fascinated with the sand dollars still alive and leaving tracks on the beach. Even though they were diligent about only picking up the ones already dead, they still came back to my apt. with 1/3 of a grocery bag full! They soon discovered that mornings on the beach are never dull; they found themselves in the midst of a BUDS candidate class formation run and stumbled upon this really cool sand sculpture of two mermaids.

We arrived back at my apt. with growling stomachs and ready for breakfast. Every summer for the last several years, Philip and Andy have come out to my house, wherever I'm living at the time, for a week each of vacation. One of the very first times Philip vacationed at my house, I fixed him Aunt Jemima pancakes laden with fresh blueberries. For some reason, he thought that was the coolest thing he had ever had and it has become a tradition for him and I. So, being a woman who takes her auntly duties quite seriously, I always have fresh blueberries in the house and Aunt Jemima pancake mix for Philip when he comes to visit. As you can see from the picture, we were so hungry I didn't even get a shower in after my run before I started cooking breakfast! A new tradition was formed however- scrubbing the walls after pancakes! I had put so many plump, juicy blueberries in the batter that when Monica put a fork into her pancake, a blueberry exploded on my kitchen wall! Scrub as she might, my wall still has blue streaks near the table. Philip laughed all morning over this one!

Since the beach was still a little hazy, we decided to leave the rental car parked for the day and took the ferry across into San Diego to walk around a bit. We ended up at the Fisherman's Village for fish tacos and pulled-pork sandwiches for lunch. There are a ton of cool shops along the waterfront, so we strolled along and ended up listened to a South American band that happened to be playing on a little stage. I love the sound of wooden flutes and it just seemed to fit our moods for the day. We stumbled across an eclectic hammock shop where Philip and I tried out a great hammock swing. It was so comfy I started contemplating if my landlord would allow eye-bolts out of the ceiling in my living room in order to hang it in my apt! Monica finally managed to coax us out of the swing and back onto the ferry to Coronado.

The haze had finally cleared, so Monica & I donned bikinis and headed out to the beach to catch some late afternoon rays. We both fell asleep to the sound of waves breaking and seagulls flying overhead. Our very relaxing day ended with another great meal on Coronado followed by gelato at what has become Philip's favorite place on the island!

We're hoping that tomorrow will bring a hazeless day so we can drive up the coast and check out the beach towns along Hwy 101 north.

Family in town!

By the time Monica & Philip's delayed flight finally landed last night I had already had a full on day. I met up with a Navy buddy from my first squadron that I hadn't seen in 15 years and one of his friends and we rode for almost 8 hours! It was HOT out, upper 90s for the whole day. Although they kept jokingly referring to me as the princess of the group, the title was transferred to the guys as they kept whining about the heat! Although sweating buckets and sticky from so much sunscreen, I was perfectly content riding in a tank top (yep, I've got quite the mish-mash tan going on from the last week!) and soaking in the sun. I stayed true to my mantra- I'd rather sweat than freeze any day!

Finally, around 9:30 pm I navigated the rental car through the maze of San Diego airport and picked up the two wayward Cajuns! Although I'm quite content not owning a car, it does come in handy to have four wheels when you have more than one guest in town. Plus, Philip had already stated he didn't want to ride on the back! At 16 years old, he's already 6'3" so he would've looked pretty funny riding two-up anyway (I'm refraining from using the slang term for someone riding on the passenger seat since this is a family-friendly blog!).

We started off the morning driving up to Point Loma, but it quickly became apparent that today was not a good day to stay on the coast. The warm weather we've been experiencing here in southern California mixed with the characteristically cold Pacific water and produced thick fog that reduced visibility to less than 10 miles. No worries, we switched to Plan B and headed south-east towards desert.

After tooling around in the desert heat for the morning, we headed back towards the coast thinking that the fog would've burned off by early afternoon. That wasn't the case as we found ourselves surrounded once again in thick condensation hanging in the air. To Philip's relief, the closer we got to the ocean the cooler it got. What it is with guys and their aversion to heat?! Without bright sunshine beckoning us to the beach, we decided to tour the town of Coronado. As you can see from these pics, dessert crepes were on the afternoon agenda. So for those of you who have emailed to inform me that I've been slacking on food pics, here you go!

Philip opted out, but Monica and I attended the Coronado concert in the park where the San Diego Marine Corp band played tonight. We all ended the day with supper at a great little Mexican restaurant with a stop off at the local gelato shop on the walk home. Not sure what tomorrow will bring, the weather will decide which direction we head.

Mom & Dad out West (Part I)

After living in Colorado for four years, we finally got my dad out here for a visit! My mom came out in 2004 and helped me with some painting in my house when I first bought it, but she hadn't seen it since I moved all my stuff in. It's nice to know that they can visualize what I'm talking about when I describe something about my job or house now. They were impressed with my little house, but the pergola was the highlight! We sat out on the swing and had breakfast out there in the mornings. Dave, I think you might have more business for pergola building!

After breakfast, I brought them to the Olympic Training Center so they could see where I work. It's always fun to show off such a fun work complex! Sometimes it's a little weird to work at a place where tour buses are parked with hundreds of people taking tours though!

We had a full-0n Western couple of days. We visited an old ghost town (Ghost Town Wild West Museum) that had some nicely preserved stage coaches and cowboy-era country stores, saloons, barbershops and banks. We also toured the Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs. I hadn't been there before, but it had lots of cool memorabilia of the Pikes Peak region, including relics from the iconic, though now defunct Michelle's chocolate and ice cream shop.

One part of our Western experience was dinner at the Craftwood Inn their first night in town. In this picture is the wild game platter we sampled as a meal. Clockwise starting at 9:00 is sauteed loin of ostrich, pistachio pesto ravioli, grilled elk, braised venison, seared antelope, wild game quesadilla, and grilled bison. I don't think I have eaten as much meat in the whole last year as I did at that dinner! It was all quite tasty though, and you couldn't beat the ambiance and views that we had as we dined on the outside patio.

Mom & Dad out West (Part II)

This saloon picture of us shows how much my daddy loves me! First off, he's not one for having his picture taken at all. On top of that, he's a no-nonsense man. Putting on a cowboy hat wasn't a big deal, but putting on the sheriff shirt and badge and holding the gun is a whole other story! He knew how much Mom and I wanted to do the picture, and how much his grandkids would get an absolute kick out of seeing him this way, so he relented. I think this is my new favorite picture of me and my parents!! It symbolizes a memorable day and quality time spent together. Thanks so much Daddy, I know you did this for me and Mom and it's REALLY appreciated.



A trip to Colorado Springs just isn't complete without a trip through the Garden of the Gods. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating and you can't see Pikes Peak behind the clouds. The weather was uncharacteristically humid and rainy. Figures that after my constant complaining of the dry environment out here that the air felt more similar to South Louisiana than an arid mountain region the whole time my parents were here!



We ended the day at a chuckwagon dinner. The Flying W Ranch is an actual working mountain cattle ranch at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Knowing how much my dad loves Country & Western music as well as cowboy movies, I figured he and Mom would enjoy a cowboy style chuckwagon dinner and show. Unfortunately, we weren't able to explore the "old town" very much because of the rain, but we did manage to explore a little and see how the biscuits were made in dutch ovens covered with hot coals.



The dinner itself was meant to represent food the cowboys ate back at the ranch and out on the range back in the Old West glory days. We had surprisingly tender and tasty steaks, homemade biscuits (yummmmm), baked beans, applesauce, a baked potato and spice cake. All of this was served on a tin plate! Dinner was followed by a performance by the Flying W Wranglers. This group has been in existence for over 50 years and are quite entertaining. The harmonizing was impressive, the jokes a bit corny but funny, and the fiddle playing unbelievable!



One of the funnest parts of the whole evening was the group of 4-5 couples from the Denver area seated at our table. They have been friends for 20+ years and call themselves the "Cruisers." Every other month, they rotate couples to host an adventure. The rules are that it can't cost more than $50 per person and can't be more than 2 hours away. The other couples get hints, but don't know what they will be doing until the day of the adventure. Their adventures over the years have included white water rafting, target shooting at a gun range, horseback riding, visiting a dairy farm, and just about every other adventure you can think of doing in Colorado. It was great to see these folks truly enjoying their retirements!



My dad left on Sunday and Mom stayed until Tuesday. Mom and I enjoyed a great day of just hanging out and working on our family cookbook. She brought a bunch of old family photos and recipes she's collected from our extended family and we began a project that's been a goal of our family for quite a few years now. We're very excited at the progress we made, but most of all thoroughly enjoyed our day of sharing photos and family stories. Our family is rich with traditions, I'm so glad its goint to be preserved for future generations.



Not sure what adventures await me next, but I'll keep yall posted!

Adam's Mountain Cafe'

For Philip's last night here, we decided to go to Manitou Springs for dinner and for Philip to look for a dream catcher. We set out looking for a small cafe' at which I had eaten a few years ago called Adam's Mountain Cafe'. At first we couldn't find it and then I remembered hearing on the radio once that it had moved. Philip was purchasing his dream catcher as I asked the cashier about the new location for Adam's. As luck would have it, it was right behind the store and arcade!






I can't even begin to describe how great the food was here! This first picture is of our half-eaten appetizer, Crostini with figs and pears. It looked so good that we dug right in and forgot that I had my camera with me! This dish was house baked herb crackers (but they were soft, the way I like them!), accompanied by roasted figs (although I think they were actually dried figs), braised spinach, caramelized onions, Colorado goat cheese, candied pecans, fresh pears and grated Romano cheese.

For the main entree, Philip ordered smoked salmon fettuccine. This was the third time during his week stay at my house that Philip had salmon! I love salmon too, but I'm not crazy about anything smoked. Anyway, here's the description: house smoked salmon tossed with fresh fettuccine in a light dill and dry vermouth cream sauce finished with fresh thyme, capers and asiago cheese.



I had soup and salad. I know this implies that I was eating light, but don't be fooled! The soup was a cup of Cuban black bean soup with a dollop of sour cream on top. The salad (last pic) was a fresh pear and pecan salad: organic mixed greens tossed lightly with candied pecans, fresh pears, Colorado goat cheese and dressed with an apple brandy vinaigrette. This salad, the black bean soup and Philip's salmon fettuccine were served with sunflower wheat rolls.


This meal was great, but do you know what the best part of it was? I discovered that Philip is a foodie too!! He wasn't intimidated in the least by foods he had never eaten and was actually delighted with the strange new combinations of taste and texture. I'm so excited that he has an adventurous palate like me! I definitely see some food excursions in our future!


At noon today, Philip flew away from his last vacation here in Colorado (with me anyway!). He said good-bye to a naked Pikes Peak (no snow right now!) and to my VW Fox! My transfer date to our training center in Chula Vista, CA (just south of San Diego) has been set for November 1. Unfortunately, I'll still have to go through a couple of snow falls before I move on, but I won't have to go through another full-fledged winter!

Back to the Royal Gorge Bridge

I finally dropped off and picked up the pictures from the disposable camera I bought and used at the Royal Gorge Bridge when my batteries went dead in my digital camera. Wow, it seems so archaic now to have to drive somewhere to pick up pictures! Actually, I didn't get any prints made, I just got the film transferred to digital since I make digital books instead of putting pictures into a photo album these days.

If you you shoot digital and never seem to get the pictures off your computer after you download them or you are using a regular photo processing service to make your digital books, you HAVE to check out this site. It's called Blurb.com. I've done several books through this website and it is awesome! There are lots of different photo and text layouts to chose from. You can also design your own cover with pictures on it. I may have already mentioned this site in a previous post, but I'm too lazy to peruse my own blog site to check! Besides, even if I have, it's worth mentioning again!!

I won't say a whole lot about the Royal Gorge Bridge park since I do know that I did a post on it in last summer when my brother was here with my niece and nephew. Philip and I had walked across the bridge and checked it out from the other side. We stopped several times to look down at the Arkansas River more than 1000 feet below us between the wooden planks of the bridge. As you can see from this picture, the weather was closing in on us! We scurried back across the bridge and made this the last sightseeing stop of the day.

Vail

We ascended to a little over 8000 ft when we reached the town of Vail. It just so happened that there was a great farmer's market going on! We strolled along the main street and took in the art, crafts and of course, food!! The farmer's market runs from June until September and helps keep folks coming up to the mountains in the summer time. Vail is mostly known as a ski resort, but it's even more beautiful in the summer months (at least in my warm-weather loving opinion!).




I couldn't help but wish my mom were with us as we walked past all the plants and flowers along the street. These flowers dripping from this lamp post are just like the ones in my mom's flower bed along the side of their house. Vail is certainly a well-manicured town. Don't worry mom, I still like your yard better!

I think the farmer's market was half food/ half crafts vendors. Ironically, there were only 2 or 3 fresh produce stands, the rest were mostly prepared foods and wares. There was a selection of food to satisfy just about any taste- brats, pickles (even pickled okra!), cheeses (goat cheese, mmmmmm), wines, preserves, Alaskan salmon, Colorado meats, breads, oils, pesto and pasta. The pasta in this picture is an Italian Pesto Blend from the Pappardelle's pasta stand. It's a mixture of sun-dried tomato, garlic parsley, basil & cracked pepper pastas. Philip and I had some for dinner Monday night with just a little olive oil on it and it was pretty tasty! If I would've been prepared and had a cooler with some ice in it, I would've brought back some of the chocolate ravioli and goat cheeses!!


We made up for our inability to bring perishables back to the Springs with us by devouring a few sweet and savory crepes while we were there! This picture is of the one Robyn ate- brie cheese and strawberries! Philip had the Vermont which was a crepe folded into thirds and then maple syrup and whipped cream inserted into the middle with powdered sugar sprinkled all over! I went with something more hearty and on the savory side with the Country crepe. It had a HUGE slab of brie cheese, fresh spinach with sauteed onions and garlic. YUMMMMMMMY!



With our bellies full and having just caught the edge of a rain shower, we hopped in the car and headed back south towards the Springs. We opted for the less scenic interstate route for the return home thinking that it would be quicker. Not so much! We inched our way along the interstate for more than an hour before we could pick up speed and make progress home. We never could figure out where all the traffic was coming from or what the hold up was. We got home at a decent hour feeling pretty satisfied about our fun weekend of sightseeing together. Monday came and it was off to work. Philip has been a huge help to Robyn in the Performance Technology area this week. I can't believe Philip's vacation is almost over and he'll be heading back to Louisiana Friday.

On Saturday, I will be driving sag wagon for a couple of friends who will be doing the Triple Bypass; a bike ride over three mountain passes. I'll be sure to have fresh batteries this time as I follow the riders providing support. I love summer-time!!!!

Drive up to Vail

Let's just start off by saying that Sunday was a day of eatin'! We picked Robyn up at her house in our stylin', and rented, Chevy Cobalt (yes, it was fire-engine red!) and proceeded to the Omelet Parlor on Filmore. This meal would be the first of many food stops for the day. We made it a whole two hours down the road before we pulled over at Bongo Billy's in Buena Vista. What a fun little coffee shop! I have stopped here several times before, but it was never as crowded as it was on this trip. Unlike Philip and Robyn, I paced myself at the Omelet Parlor because I knew Bongo Billy's was on our route. OK, I didn't share that information with Philip or Robyn, so it's not their fault that they filled up on huge country breakfasts.

Neither Robyn or Philip are coffee-drinkers, which makes me wonder why I would take them on a road trip! Anyway, they were good sports and didn't mind me making the coffee stop. I'm not just saying this because I really like Paul and Heather, but I've yet to have a coffee better than the one Paul makes me at their coffee shop (Raven's Nest). The coffee was just so-so at Bongo Billy's, but the atmosphere is great. I tried to maintain moderation, but somehow a slice of chocolate ecstasy cake slid into my order of coffee. No worries, I'd have another 2 hours or so before the next food stop- just enough time to build back up an appetite!

As we cruised north, we drove along what's known as the collegiate range. The peaks of this mountain range are named after the Ivy League institutions of the east coast. Mt. Princeton (14,197 ft), Mt. Yale (14,194 ft), and Mt. Harvard (14,420 ft) loomed above us as we paralleled the Arkansas River. Lots of kayakers and rafters as well as fly-fishermen were out enjoying the beautiful day. Although it was in the 90s down in the Springs, Philip & Robyn were quite excited that it stayed in the 70s for most of our trip up the mountains.


As we twisted and curved our way up and down the mountain passes, Robyn was very happy that she had taken her Dramamine for car sickness. She doesn't do so well with continuous motion!! Just to make sure she was OK, we made a few scenic stops along the way. As we rounded a bend in the road, there were a few cars pulled over taking pictures. Not to be the ones to miss out on great photo ops, we pulled over to check it out. This bridge scene is what we saw.


In this environment, it's not hard to find great places to take pictures. Sometimes a rock right off the side of the road will do! You can see the twisting, winding road over our shoulders that we had just driven up. There were a few cars on the road, but not much traffic which is a great thing on a no-passing, two-laned road! We got the occasional slow Sunday driver and logging truck, but other than that it was smooth sailing until the trip home (more on that in the next post!).


Along the scenic route we took, Philip went above 10,000 ft at Tennessee Pass. Philip had never heard of the Continental Divide. Not surprisingly since it doesn't have much bearing on the Gulf Coast. The Continental Divide is the border from which rainwater will either flow towards rivers to the east or towards the Pacific Ocean to the west. Right next to this sign was a memorial to the soldiers of the 101st Mountain Division who had died in WWII. I have a lot of respect for men who were able to not only traverse mountain ranges, but to do it with full combat gear in the dead of winter. Thank goodness the liberation of Europe wasn't dependent on my ability to fight in winter climates!!!!

From here, we were just a hop, skip & a jump from the ski resort town of Vail. I will fill you in on what we saw and ate in Vail in the next post. Stay tuned!

Holy Cross Abbey Winery

After the bug museum, we followed Hwy 115 south to the junction of Hwy 50 to Canon City. On our way to the Royal Gorge bridge, we stopped at the place that produces one of my favorite local tasty beverages- the winery at Holy Cross Abbey. I'm sure I'll never live down the fact that I took my 15-year old nephew to a winery, but it was another one of those places I pass while part of a lengthy motorcycle procession and don't get the chance to stop and check out! I'm not sure how long the historic abbey has been there, but it has a wine making tradition dating back to around 1926.


As if marking the crossroads of the Sangre de Cristo and Rocky Mountain ranges, the church and vineyard provide a stark contrast to the arid environment by which it is surrounded. Although documents establish a history of wine making back in the 1920s, it was only as recent as a couple of years ago that the wine making tradition of the abbey was resurrected here. As a matter of fact, the winery if for sale if anyone is interested!

I always find it slightly amusing that some of the best alcoholic beverages in the world have been produced by religious institutions! At any rate, the wine tasting room was just a building over from the abbey itself. As you can see from this pic, the vineyard isn't very far from holy ground! The church is actually quite impressive. While touring the gardens, we witnessed an event that was happening all over the world on such a lucky day (7-7-07)- a wedding!


The winery produces several varieties of beverages. I've had their Chardonnay, Merlot and Riesling; all of which are quite nice. I don't profess to be a sommelier, I just drink what seems to enhance the flavor of whatever I happen to be eating. As a foodie, I certainly appreciate anything that brings out the sometimes limited flavor of the dishes I prepare (because I also don't profess to be a chef!). I guess my taste buds aren't too off track since these wines have won several awards:

2004 Merlot & Merlot Reserve
2004 Cabarnet Sauvignon & Cabarnet Sauvignon Reserve
2004 Chardonnay

Since I was already familiar with these wines, there wasn't much need for me to do much tasting! I mostly wanted to check the prices to see if I could get a better deal from the tasting room anyway!

For those of you who know my nephew Philip, you'll appreciate this picture of him standing next to the wooden bear outside the tasting room! I'm not sure what his affinity towards these creatures is, but he is certainly drawn to them!

From the abbey, we continued down Hwy 50 towards the Royal Gorge bridge. We detoured and I drove Philip over a road called Skyline Drive. We ride it every time we go through Canyon City on our Harleys, but it's not for those afraid of heights! The road is on a ridge line with sheer drop-offs on either side of the road. The views are spectacular, but it makes it hard to keep your eyes on the road! I'd love to show yall some pics of the Skyline drive and of the Royal Gorge bridge park, but my digital camera's batteries went dead and the spare rechargeables I brought were also dead! I bought a disposable at the park and snapped a few old-school film pics, but now I'll have to bring them in to get developed. It's hard to believe that in this day and age of instant gratification where we can print our digital pictures immediately that we used to consider 1-hour film processing lightening fast!!!

Bugs. . . and Philip!

Late Friday evening, I picked up my nephew Philip at the Colorado Springs airport. He's here for his week-long vacation in Colorado with his favorite aunt (OK, his only Aunt on this side of the family!). As a student at a private school back in Louisiana, he's required to do so many hours of community service. Since the USOC is a non-profit organization, and he loves sports, it make sense that he'd come hang out with me for a week and do some hours! Actually, this is his third summer of working-vacations!

Last summer when he wasn't helping our Performance Technology Dept. at work, he was helping me shovel rocks out of my back yard! To make it up to him this year, I promised that we'd do no work away from work! Since my VW Fox no longer is able to support long road trips, I rented a little compact car for the weekend and Philip and I did some sightseeing. That huge bug you see in the first picture is actually a replica of a giant Hercules beetle bigger than the VW Fox that marks the turnoff for the May Natural History Museum of the Tropics. Am I the only one who sees the irony of this?! A museum of TROPICAL natural history in Colorado Springs?! The place where you have to spend $200 a month on water to get a glimpse of green on your lawn?! The place where Philip's nose has bled every day because of such low humidity (as did mine the whole first year I lived here)?! The place where I got snowed in by several blizzards this year?! I could go on and on, but I won't go any further!!!

After passing this gigantic bug on several motorcycle rides over the last year, I finally took the time to stop and check it out. Much more acceptable with a 15-year old nephew than with a half-dozen bikers!!! We weren't sure what to expect from a museum that was part of a campground well outside of the city limits, but we ended up being pleasantly surprised with what we saw for the $6 entry fee! What awaited were over 8000 perfectly preserved invertebrates. Lots of beetles, butterflies, moths, stick insects, spiders and even a fruit bat- all clearly labeled and easily viewed.

The museum is part of the collection of James May. Mr. May was born in England in the late 1800s but grew up in Brazil. In 1929, James May and his son John starting touring the country with their exhibit of over 100,000 bugs. The collection found a permanent home in their ranch 9 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. The whole collection isn't on exhibit at one time, but rather makes appearances as the displays are rotated. I asked the lady manning the counter why house the collection in Colorado Springs of all places, and quite off the beaten path at that. She said that the dry, arid environment here makes it a perfect locale for preserving and displaying the collection!

Philip and I marvelled at how vivid the colors were in a lot of the specimens. The bugs were displayed in a very scientific way, just like I had seen in natural museums around the world. Push pins to minimize the damage to fragile wings and legs (there was even a mosquito held up by a pin!) with small handwritten labels identifying each specimen by its lay name, scientific name and where it had been captured. Most of the bugs seemed to be from the Amazon region of South America and from a few islands around the continent. There was one display with an amazingly diverse group of bugs, both crawling and flying kinds. Upon closer examination, we discovered that everything in that case had been collected right outside of a building in Florida!!

After debating whether or not I should include this picture of a tarantula eating a hummingbird, Philip convinced me that my nephew Gavin would think it was cool! So, I leave you with this disturbing sight of wildlife having dinner and hope that the last picture that my niece Julia looks at is the one of the Disney-colored butterfly!

Philip will be here until the end of the week, so stay tuned for more adventures!

Back on the bayou

The day before I left, a couple of friends and colleagues accompanied me to Houma to see something of Louisiana other than just New Orleans. I'm so lucky to have a family that enjoys introducing "outsiders" to our way of living. My dad and brother boiled over 100 pounds of crawfish, crabs and shrimp for Nanna and April to sample! They were both great sports and dug right in. Peelings flying and juice dripping down your arms to the elbows- now that's eatin!

Along with eating boiled seafood, April and Nanna got to see a couple of gators in our back bayou. They didn't understand why I took them in a truck and on a four-wheeler instead of walking until April encountered a big fat snake on the ride back to the front! I think all was forgiven once they got to experience "visiting" Southern style!

I picked up a magazine titled Louisiana Life at the airport that had a cool article about the history of crawfish. I know, I know, I'm such a foodie geek! I love learning about the origins of different foods and some of the history surrounding them. Anyway, I learned that it wasn't until the mid-20th century before crawfish were elevated from a striclty peasant-food only consumed in times of food scarcity to the icon of Cajun food that it is today. This picture was taken along the front bayou at my parents' house and is of a crawfish hole. Here's an excerpt from the article that explains this interesting architecture:

Crawfish are aquatic crustaceans with gills that allow them to live outside water for exteded periods, so long as their gills remain moist. In order to survive [rising and falling water levels], crawfish burrow into the ground in search of moisture and to escape predators. As crawfish excavate their burrows, they bring balls of mud to the surface and build chimneys to protect and seal their homes. Crawfish mate in open water before entering their burrows to wait out the dry season, but females lay their eggs in the burrows and many are hatched there.

Wow, now I feel really bad about kicking over all those chimneys when I was a kid! I hope you enjoyed this food lesson and the other posts on my Louisiana trip. My next scheduled travel is to Milwaukee in a couple of weeks. I don't think there will be time for much besides work, but I'll try to find something interesting from the trip to post about!!!

Family

One of the great past-times while I'm at home is sitting on the swing and visiting. The definition of visiting by ole Mr. Webster "to pay a call on as an act of friendship or courtesy" just doesn't capture the ease in which we converse and laugh while sitting on a swing in the shade! Family news relayed, stories told, recent happenings discussed, memories relived, future dreams shared- now that is the true definition of "visiting". The characters in this visit on the swing is my nephew Andy and his girlfriend Lauren with me and my niece Julia.

Sometimes the swing is too arduous and we're forced to recline in the hammock while visiting! In this picture are my nephews Gavin and Philip hanging out with Philip's girlfriend Jessica. My brother, sister & I gave this hammock to my dad as a father's day gift a while back, but I think he has to fight for time in it!

Every summer, my mom allows a section of grass in her yard to be sacrificed for the kids' pool. I think this is the biggest one my brother has brought home yet! It took two days to fill it with the hose pipe (yeah, we call a "garden hose" a "hose pipe" down here!). The kids swam in it quite a bit, but it never got warm enough for us adults (and I use that term loosly!) to go for a dip.

OK, so you're probably wondering if I actually attended the conference or if I just hung out at my parents' house for the week! I commuted back and forth from Houma to New Orleans during the conference. I'll make the next post about New Orleans just for proof!