To Oakley, Chicago, Sudan, and Home Again

Father's Day! They gave out Cadbury chocolate bars to all the dads at Church, as the moms watched hungrily. Dave also relished phone calls from the children he so adores, as well as a couple of very fun gifts. Lisa sent a DVD of "True Grit" for Dave to watch with the Flindt kids at the cabin next week, and Michael gave the second volume of "Letters from a Nut" because Dave couldn't put down the first volume, which Michael gave him a few years ago! Dave read and laughed all evening.

The week was full of trips, real and imagined. The Salt Lake County refugee program sponsored "Around the World in Seven Days." Fifteen SLC and Park City restaurants featured dishes from the homelands of Utah's refugees--Burma, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Iraq, Congo, Sudan. Gretta ate Burmese sea bass soup at the Oasis Cafe for lunchon Friday and then treated Michael to Sudanese meatballs with flatbread for Friday dinner at Cafe Treo. Gretta is on an advisory board for the refugee program and also got to nibble Ethiopian chicken stew, Congolese shrimp with piri piri sauce, and Middle Eastern baklava at an opening night reception. What a treat!

Dave and Gretta enjoyed a Buddy Guy concert at Red Butte Garden on Friday night. Buddy's guitar-playing was amazing. Gretta attended a blues concert in Chicago with Jonny and Jenny last February at the "Buddy Guy Lounge," but the great man was on tour at the time. Both Buddy and his opening act, Mavis Stapley, were pure Windy City blues.

As Dave and Gretta drove home from Red Butte Garden, they caught these views of SLC.

Dave and Gretta spent Saturday at the cabin.

As always, there was work to be done and then good friends to entertain.

The Joneses, Emmers, and Wildes joined us for an evening of laughing and talking, as well as some seriously good food.

Las Vegas with the Ladies

"How much of Las Vegas is enough?" my new friends considered as we toyed with our surf and turf (lobster and filet mignon) and broiled scallops at Aquaknox, a stylish restaurant at the Venetian casino.

"One and a half days, max," said the banker from Washington, D.C. "I can handle two," said the real estate lawyer from Minneapolis. It was the last evening of the spring council meeting of CREW Network, a national organization for women in commercial real estate.

My friend and roommate, Diane, a fellow real estate lawyer from SLC, agreed that we had not only had enough of Las Vegas' glitz, but we were networked out. We had sipped and chatted our way through receptions both Thursday and Friday nights, exchanging business cards with appraisers, brokers, lenders, and developers from Miami to San Diego. We attended a seminar on networking and then practiced our skills at a steak and cheesecake luncheon and the Aquaknox dine-around, as well as the receptions. We also studied Power Point presentations listing the services CREW offers its local chapters, and we spent four hours in small groups defining the "Gold Standard" for CREW chapters (What is a high but realistic goal for attendance at monthly meetings? What percentage of yearly income should be deposited in a reserve fund? How does the ideal chapter provide business leads and excellent professional training for members?) The activities were useful and interesting, but exhausting.

Diane and I made time, during our Vegas adventure, for dinner at a French restaurant and two shows. "Mon Ami Gabi" had great sea bass, "frites" (real French fries), and a waiter who spoke with a heavy French accent.

We were delighted with "Viva Elvis," a Cirque du Soleil production with clips of Elvis' actual performances, as well as live recreations of his songs. There were great Las Vegas-style special effects, such as a huge blue suede shoe rolling across the stage for "Blue Suede Shoes" and a mockup of a prison block for "Jailhouse Rock."

At the end of the show, silky red "Elvis" scarves floated from the rafters, and we plucked them out of the air as souvenirs.

"Le Reve," was more challenging. The acrobatic stunts were amazing, such as divers plunging from trapezes into a tiny pool, doing corkscrews as they fell.

We couldn't quite get our lawyerly minds, though, around the otherworldly theme and characters, as strange as those in "Avatar" or "Star Wars."

I thought of the grim scenes from the movie, "Leaving Las Vegas," with Nicholas Cage, as I dragged myself out of bed at 4 a.m. and sat on the Caesar's Palace front steps, waiting for my shuttle bus to the airport. I watched the late night revelers clear out of the nightclubs and pile into taxis and limos.

Las Vegas was surreal and alluring in the dawn.

More About Michael

On June 4, Michael ran the Provo Canyon Marathon in 3 hours 57 minutes! He was relieved and delighted not only to finish his first marathon, but to run it in less than 4 hours.

It was a beautiful day--bright and sunny, but cool. The race began in a tiny rural town ten miles above Deer Creek Reservoir. Michael described the marathon as one of the most beautiful runs he'd ever taken. There were only 35 runners. The good news--Michael came in fourth! From the finish line, there were stunning views of Mt. Timpanogas.

Michael relaxed in the shade at the end of the race, eating apples and red licorice and trying to get his sore legs to work again.

Usually Michael has plans for the weekend, such as his trip to St. George with friends last week. It was an unusual treat to have Michael join Dave and me for the afternoon and evenng, as he napped and hobbled around painfully, recovering from the marathon. We stopped first at the my law firm's summer party at Washington Terrace, eating spareribs with young people Michael knew who happen to work at DJP or date people who work there. We drove on to the cabin for the night. It was spring in the mountains, with bright yellow daffodils that Grandpa Spendlove planted before he died in 2009.

We finished Saturday with dinner at Gateway Grille in Kanas. It was casual enough for men to wear cowboy hats in their booths, yet sophisticated enough to include chopped fresh herbs arranged artfully around our plates of chicken alfredo and Cajun shrimp and rice.

On Sunday morning, we drove down the canyon, noting how strong the current was in the Weber River...

and how picturesque the old barns were, against the green grass and yellow dandelions.

After Church and Sunday dinner, Dave and Michael relaxed in the basement watching a basketball game with their 3D glasses.

From the Dump to a Baptism

Trips to see "the kids" always include a wide range of adventures. Our trip to Seattle over Memorial Day to see Lisa and her family had a wider range of adventures than most trips. On Saturday morning, we really did try to give Lisa's old pink leather couches to Goodwill, but, after dragging them out of our car and inspecting them, the Goodwill handlers rejected them ("They're torn and they won't sell").

We packed the couches back in our cars, took them to the dump, and dropped them in the landfill.

We went directly from the dump to the baptism of Bryce's friend, Anna Patterson, who just turned 8.

The treats made it a great party!

The adventure started, though, with our drive from Salt Lake City to Seattle. Our rented SUV was packed full of furniture and collectibles which Grandma Calder left for Lisa when she died in 2009.

On the way, we stopped in Burley, Idaho, for a baked Idaho potato supper...

at the Wayside Cafe, next to Stinkers Stores.

It had one of those glass pie bars.

We stopped at Pendleton Woolen Mills in Pendleton, Oregon, for a wool plaid shirt for David (no matter that the tag said it was assembled in China.)

We stopped at a fruit and antiques store in western Washington for aplets, cotlets, fresh fruit, and wasabi peanuts. We checked out some picturesque antique equipment with a great backdrop of the freeway.

The drive had gorgeous views.

In Seattle, on Friday night, the Flindts congregated at that favorite haunt, Rancho Grande, for enchiladas, burritos, and lots of chips.

We headed downtown on Saturday morning after the baptism, with the kids faithfully bringing "reading matter"...

and Spencer driving with his learner's permit.

He could even start and stop on hils with a stick shift! We visited a selection of parks and museums, including a park honoring firefighters...

a police museum...

a lunch break at Pizza Professionals...

and the zoo.

David especially like this hat at the zoo store.

Saturday evening, Kyle and Lisa joined us for Copper River salmon, available only a few weeks per year, at Anthony's overlooking the harbor.

We then toured Kyle's office in the gorgeous, art deco Seattle Tower, built in 1928. Gretta, who took an art deco walking tour with Jonny and Jenny in Chicago this spring, was entranced by the ornate lobby.

On Sunday morning we let the Flindts sleep in and relax from our onslaught. Dave and I wandered through Pike Market.

We bought a bouquet of flowers for Lisa...

and satisfied our craving for Pike Place chowder.

We also visited the huge, fabulous Northwest Folk Life Festival, which Michael K and Spencer also visited with their friends on Memorial Day weekend.

There was even a one-man band.

Our favorite shop sold furry hats and goggles.

We attended Church, devoured a sparerib, fresh corn, and strawberry shortcake dinner (I was too busy cooking to take pictures), and hiked around the Botanical Gardens, admiring the azaleas in full bloom.

And the magnolias smelled so sweet!