Redwood Curtain

Maz and went to visit CD and Catherine in Eureka, CA in mid-September. The weather outside was chilly and damp, but it was always sunny inside 225 Spruce Street and Shelby the Prius!

Catherine and CD are wonderful hosts and the gatherings are always filled with delicious vittles and great music.

As we boarded our flight to Arcata at SFO, a Humboldt Hippie appears! Let the vacation begin!




Disguised at Arcata-Eureka Airport.



Cat and I did a little pickling with their farm cukes.




A stop at the beach.



The boys became a little groce-phobic at Safeway, which was quickly thwarted with a game of parking lot frisbee.



Scott re-emerged-yay!



Catherine wishes to be BIG.


A visit to the Arcata Farmer's Market- I was drooling over everything! Including these beautiful dahlias and purple cauliflower.






We attempted a plane ride in CD's new Piper Cherokee, but the weather did not cooperate. Instead there was a quick trip across the tarmack to gas up.





After a minor hiccup at the airport, we were gifted some extra time for a tour of the HSU Gravitational Research Lab.


Complete with action figures.

Coming Soon...

I just heard the forecast for SNOW this evening! This is very exciting for this little ski town. Off to unearth my mittens!

Filler

There's been lots of fun stuff going on, so I'm a little behind on blog posts. To tide y'all over, I am fully embracing my new persona of 'Krazee Kat Lady'- here's proof!

'Retting in Red Lodge, Montana

A couple weeks ago, some girlfriends road tripped to RedLodge, MT to celebrate our friend Anna's upcoming wedding.

Linsey skillfully co-piloted us over Beartooth Pass- a totally insane mountain pass in Montana (and I think partially Wyoming?) September 5th saw spindrift and winter driving conditions! It was extremely beautiful at the top with view of several ranges.



Red Lodge is a great town with lots of restaurants (translation=more than Driggs) and little shops to duck in and out of. Thanks to Linsey's family for letting us stay in their beautiful house in downtown Red Lodge.



Congratulations to Anna, who is getting ready for a fun day on October 4th!

813 Paiute

Thanks for playing! 3 of you guessed right that our new address is 813 Paiute.

Here's the latest from the job site:

Front of the house with future front porch, specially designed to watch the world go by. Front door faces to the left (East towards the Tetons.)


Back of the house and backyard. The missing wall will be a small nook area with windows.



Upstairs bedroom with the UBER tall ceiling. This room will also have a loft accessible by ladder for monkeys like me. This might be my office, but if it's too cool, we will save it for Lucy, Cole and Chase!



Front from across the street. A shiny driftboat is missing from the garage- much to Mazzy's dismay!



West side of the house, looking at master bed, bath and living room windows. The uneven part of the roof is a clerestory with windows. Or, if you are Alex Ambroult, it's a sawtooth.



Or if you live in Idaho, this is Sawtooth:



I see the confusion. Back to work!

Master bedroom- more uber ceiling! This is the MBD window and the 'hopper' window.



Kitchen. Slider door to the right (south).



Front hallway area. The second roof peak is the Loft Room.



Thus ends today's tour. Tomorrow we 'snap out' the rooms. For those of you not married to, dating or offspring of a building industry professional, this means the contractor draws out the rooms on the floor and we make sure they are all the right size and feel. I am going to need some power tools soon to match all this new vocabulary.

Absorb

Jay and I roadtripped to Idaho Falls (IF) for some wood floor and tile research. We learned many things:

I.F. Home Depot=Ghetto.

Pathfinder is still running. Famously.


Idaho is amazing when it rains.

Crazy Cat Lady

I'm not a pet person. I'm getting to be known in the valley as 'Erica, the one who hates dogs' and I did not make my college roommate's lives easy when they decided to get 2 cats in our first rental.

Meet Lefty!


I planned to get a cat when we moved, but after I met this heartbreaker at the Jackson Animal Adoption Center, I couldn't sleep for 3 days!

Maz approves.

Update

Our contractor is quite industrious! Take a look at what's been happening on Paiute Street.

Pop the Prosecco! Progress on Paiute St.

After a year plus of looking like this:





Our lot now looks like this:



Basements and neighbors and streets- oh my!

Pickin' and Grinnin'

Another great music festival at Targhee- Bluegrass!



Maz and I especially enjoyed Darrell Scott, who also played an acoustic set at Music on Main last Thursday. I got a CD signed for Maz as a special treat.





Playing here with Darol Anger:



Sam Bush is also an amazing performer, though the 'bluegrass' tag is questionable. Maz and I are not really sure how to file his music! I remembered how incredible his show was last year, but I had forgotten how they launch into a mandolin soaked version of Led Zeppelin's 'Whole Lotta Love'. The crowd goes WILD.





Besides the Zep homage, probably the best part is when most of the performers of the weekend all get on stage together and crank out some serious tunes.









Maz works the room:



"I really dig the new AutoCAD GIS modeling layer. It rocks."



"Are you ready to huck some serious air off Das Boat this year?"




"Bluegrass is my friend!"

And possibly the most bizarre scene seen at Bluegrass- 2 Teton Valley 20-somethings hauling a loveseat right through the entry gate. These guys are serious about listening and lounging.

Pickles Place

A trip through Arco, Idaho is not complete without a stop at Pickles Place. Home of the Atomic Burger!

Heard at Pickle's Place: "Our specialty is fried pickles!"

Seen on the wall at Pickle's Place: Butte High School Cheerleaders.

Out of Valley Experience

Jay and I have almost agreed that Idaho is the coolest state we've ever lived in (Colorado is a worthy rival). The scenery is amazing, the mountain ranges never-ending, the people are genuine and keep it clean and gorgeous. You can't snooze on a road trip in Idaho, no matter how late your friends keep you up- there is too much to look at.

After behaving ourselves at Music on Main on Thursday, we started out early toward Stanley, ID for the backpacking trip to Saddleback Lakes. Stanley is nestled in the Sawtooth Range and is 10 times smaller than Driggs. CD and Cat were patiently waiting for us at the library, which was a small house, teeming with laptoppers and had a full kitchen right smack out in the main part of the library. Weird.

Off to Redfish Lake! We took a shuttle boat to the other end of the lake to start the 4 mile hike.



Saddleback Lakes is also home to Elephant Head, a popular rock climbing area.





Maz and CD did some fishing and caught plenty of brookies.







We did lots of lounging, laughing and stargazing. The night sky was so dark and the stars so bright we almost needed sunglasses! Constellations kept popping out every second in between satellites and shooting stars.





The best hiking partners:



Ready for a swim!