The Food.

Vacations are all about food. Who can resist Costco hot dogs? The ultimate lunch selection. Or a slice of greasy pizza.

Ethan's chocolate mouse from Gormandise.
Cupcakes are but one of the many temptations at The Chocolate. And we ate many of them!

Meg's panini.

Aubrey's crepes.

Dinner.

Cakes at The Chocolate.

Jen's Cobb Salad.

Meg's french toast.

We ate so much in Utah.

We started with Gormandise, a post airport tradition, worked our way through

Cafe Trio (wow!),

Cafe Rio, (good and cheap!)

Flour Girls & Dough Boys (really cute and yummy!),

Communal, (will return - best salmon ever!)

Pizzeria 712, (good desserts)

The Chocolate (twice),

Burger Supreme, ( the kids love it)

the restaurant in the Little America hotel,

Arby's at midnight (long story, but a good one),
Chick-fil-A,
Orange Julius,

McDonald's drive thru,

Cafe Sebore (very nice!),
a great Thai place in A.F.
Creamery on 9th ( must have mint brownies),
and a few I've probably left out.

But our best meals were the ones we made together: french toast with every topping imaginable, wonderful sweet and savory crepes, grilled delights by men who have mad skills, lots of ice cream, mountains of corn on the cob, paninis, salads, and so on. I lucky I am to have five children who love to cook.

Family

Here are a few shots from vacation. Most were taken at Bear Lake but not all. Megan, Luke, and Aubrey. The Harrell's making crepes. I told Mike to change shirts but he didn't.

Look - it's actually Ethan - not hiding from the camera!

The Westerns.

Meg and Luke.

The Little Mermaid.

Beach Boys.

My sweet guys.

Summer is a wonderful thing. Almost as wonderful as my family.

Here's to you Grandma!

Both of my grandmothers made awesome jam. My maternal grandmother, simply know as "Granny" to all of us grand kids, made the best blackberry ever picked from locally available berries grown in the wild. She also made some kind of relish called "chow chow" that we ate on pinto beans but I haven't figured out yet exactly what that was. But I digress. As usual. Last summer in her honor I finally made my first batch of blackberry jam. And it was great! This summer Mike and I made a batch and his apartment and it was equally spectacular. And Mike did all the work. Too bad I don't have a photo, you would be so impressed with his "jam skills"!
My paternal grandmother, "Grandma Myers", made wonderful plum jam from the plum tree in her yard that we climbed much against her wishes. Last night I made plum jam for the first time. Next time I will take the time to get rid of the peel, but it still turned out very nice, and not too sweet. There is the boiling fruit. Getting ready to pull out of the hot water bath.

On the counter to set. Very nice. Jam is one of the easiest and most rewarding of all canning processes.

Bring on the biscuits ya'll!

Hiking in Denali - Happy Independance Weekend

While most of the people we know were in crazy Seward for the 4th, we opted for something a little more serene. And I am so glad we did. The weather was a little cool and wet, but we had a great time in Denali National Park. We hiked, slept, ate, talked and played and listened to great music. And some people got caught up on some Lark Rise to Candleford on the portable DVD player.

Savage Creek hike is one of my favorites. The wildlife is so lively and varied. One cute little marmot baby, his whole family was playing nearby. These lovely little shrubs grow wild all over Denali - we buy them for our flower beds in Eagle River. Savage Creek

One of the many little ground squirrels we saw.

Ethan , this train photo is for you!

A moose in Horseshoe Lake, another of our favorite hikes. Also saw amazing beaver dams.

The parents at Horseshoe Lake.

At the lake.

A snowshoe hare on the road to Savage Creek. They are only white in the winter. We also saw many large Ptarmigan, the state bird of Alaska, which also turn white in the winter. What a different place the park becomes with the onset of snow. So they say. I will take their word for it.

Horseshoe Lake

We were lucky to get most of our hiking done before the rain began - we did get a little wet the last 20 mins or so. We love Denali!

Prospector's Pizza and 49 Microbrews!

Yummy pizza at Prospector's Pizza. The other pizza place had 76 micro brews but we settled for only 49. Sorry Ladies. "You can't always get what you wa-ant! " The girls ordered some kind of "chick" pizza. (Translation: no peperoni or red sauce)

Dick ordered something manly and meaty! They were very good - loved the crust - baked at 650 degrees in a brick oven. Highly recommended. Also ate yummy salad - also classified as "chick" food because there was no iceberg lettuce. Only green leafy stuff! Imagine that?

What We Ate at The Salmon Bake!

After dinner in Healy at the Salmon Bake, we noticed this sign on the outside of the restaurant. Amazingly this is exactly what we ordered! Ladessa ordered the Surf and Turf.

Meg went for the halibut tacos. I had them two years ago and they are very good!

Close up of the tacos!

For an appetizer, we ordered the nachos, not knowing they would feed an army!

I just ordered a small salad because I intended to do some grazing off the other plates. Dick ordered the burger which was awesome but I can't find the picture. I will locate it eventually. We recommend this place highly.

The More the Merrier!

I'm going to have to start paying Leisa Firth to blog for me! My blog reminds me of scrambled eggs! Everything is mixed up because I delete photos and then have to get them back and then they are in the wrong order. Oh well. Here goes.

Megan and Ladessa came to visit. We love Ladessa and she is welcome anytime. She is the perfect guest and deserves oodles of credit for putting up with us with such grace and humor! Here's us at Ray's in Seward for dinner. Some rare "rays" of sun appear to be shining. Ice cream at Sweet Darlings on 4th Street.

Sunday dinner at home - The girls wanted to try as many varieties of seafood as they could and we were happy to make their dreams come true!

Megan and Ladessa in downtown Anchorage.

Megan and Ladessa somewhere - I can't remember.

Sunday snack - compliments of the girls. More seafood.

A family photo after church.

We drag all the guests to downtown Anchorage for the festivities: this Saturday included a US Army rock band that was terrific, the Saturday market, and polish dogs from the hot dog stand! 8 am sheep on the Seward Highway - gotta get there early to see them.

Megan and Dick at Exit Glacier.

Megan's frozen toes from standing in the glacier river bed!

And there she is!

Ladessa holding ice flowing from the glacier.

We saw so many fun things! I miss having my kids around!

Next post: So much food, so little time.