Treating Ourselves and Impressing the Kids

We will have mega-visitors during July and August.  Camille and the Eberts will be with us from July 18 to July 28, Jonny and Jenny will drop by from July 26 to July 29, and Lisa and the Flindts will spend two weeks in August with us.  Dave and I spent the weekend of July 13 to 15 getting ready for the much-desired onslaught.  Dave painted the porches.

Gretta fed the roses so they'd be blooming prolifically when our visitors arrived.

Dave carted in the new perennials Gretta chose to brighten the garden.

Gretta canned stewed apricots and apricot jam, to have some gourmet treats for visitors.

We bought apricots for our visitors at the Saturday morning Farmer's Market in Pioneer Park, but we also bought fresh corn and raspberry/lemon curd galettes for ourselves. 

It is always a treat to rummage among the produce stalls, searching for the ripest berries, the smallest new potatoes, and the freshest greens.  We also enjoy discovering new delicacies, such as white asparagus, and chatting with the colorful local farmers.

The Market is full of musicians and other entertainers, such as this man tying balloons into the shapes of animals for visiting children.

The Farmer's Market is also the see and be seen spot for dogs and their owners.  It was tough to pick our favorite "dog of the day."

On the way to our car, we paused to enjoy the colorful South American dancers waiting for the Peruvian festival to open at the Greek Orthodox Church.  Salt Lake City is developing a vibrant ethnic mix!

Chilling in St. George in July

The Utah Shakespeare Festival is fifty years old this summer.  Dave and I have been attending for at least 25 of those years, but it really became a family tradition in the early 1990s, when Michael and Jonny began acting in Shakespeare plays at Lowell Elementary School.  The years that Michael played Thisbe (or was it Pyramus?) in "Midsummer Night's Dream" and Jonny played Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet," the boys were  pushing us to see Shakespeare, rather than the other way around!
They also loved the Feast, where they got to eat with their hands and call their mother a "wench."

The weekend of July 6, 2012, we shared two treats at the Festival--matinees of "Les Miserables" and "To Kill a Mockingbird."  I thought of our Jonny and how much he loves Victor Hugo's masterpiece, as we lost ourselves on Friday afternoon in the music and heroism of "Les Miserables." 

Dave's favorite was "To Kill a Mockingbird," which we saw on Saturday afternoon.  "The book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' must have been powerful, when it was first published in the early 1960s," Dave mused, as he and I remembered the intense and often violent Civil Rights era.  "To Kill a Mockingbird" tells the story of a white lawyer defending a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman in 1935 in the deep South.  The play was both moving and thought-provoking.

We sweetened our play-watching with dinner at two popular Cedar City restaurants.  On Friday, I begged David to give me my fat, salt, and sugar fix at Sonny Boy's Barbecue.  "This is porn food," Dave said under his breath, with both disgust and appreciation, as the server lopped off a huge hunk of prime rib and handed it to me with sides of mac'n'cheese, collard greens, and corn bread.  Dave is used to my sighs of "I shouldn't have done that" as I emerge, licking my lips, from ice cream shops, candy stores, and barbecue joints.

The Garden Restaurant, just a few blocks from the Festival, brings back memories of years past.  We ate salmon, butterfish, green salad with pear/gorgonzola dressing, and apple strudel in the renovated Prairie-style house in which we have shared one good meal after another, for the past 25 years.

We interspersed play-watching and eating with long mornings and evenings at the St. George house. Dave planned our trip to Australia to visit Michael in October, and Gretta read "What Hath God Wrought," an excellent, 800-page history of America from 1815-1848, as well as her usual buffet of magazines.

When we got back to SLC, we treated ourselves to one last restaurant--my favorite, O'Falafel, managed by a Palestinian family in Sugar House.  We ate our hummus and pita bread beneath a huge, hand-painted mural of the people and places of Palestine.

Meet Marlowe

Grant and Jamie Calder visited SLC over the Fourth of July, with their new baby, Marlowe, and her big sister, Lucienne Rose (Lulu).  We celebrated with a potluck dinner at Scott and Jean's house.  "This is as good as take-out!" Scott exclaimed, as Dave and I traipsed in with two crockpots full of chicken tortilla soup and a big salad.  Scott provided the clean house, fresh fruit salad, and pecan pie ala mode.

David and Vanessa joined us for dinner, and we had lots to talk about--Grant's job offers and prospects in California and Washington, D.C.; Vanessa's job with an environmental firm here in SLC; David's position with Leucadia, a venture capitalist; and Jamie's adventures with Marlowe and Lulu.  Elizabeth has just finished an internship with a bank in southern Germany, and Elizabeth and Jean are now touring Hamburg.  And Dave and I, of course, had all sorts of exaggerations about our children to share!

After dinner, Scott showed us his high tech model airplane, which he flew around his living room.  "He doesn't even have a grandson to pretend he's entertaining," David laughed.

Scott is a doting grandpa.  He bought Lulu a pink designer knock-off purse in Hong Kong, which she carries possessively.  "Grandpa, are you coming to my house?"  she asks. 

July 4th

A parade, a hike, and good food shared with family and friends.  That's the recipe for a perfect Fourth of July.  We almost made it.  We had the parade, the hike, and good food. 

We stayed at the cabin for two nights, luxuriating in its coolness and quiet.  Usually, when we are at the cabin on July 4, we visit the Oakley Parade, so small that, not too many years ago, the paraders marched down the parade route and then turned around and marched back.  This year, we tried something new--the Park City parade.

Park City has its own hip, carefree culture, reflected in its parade.  It's small enough, though, so that the police, ambulance, and fire truck ride in the parade.  Park City High School sends a big contingent of cheerleaders and band members. 

There are lots of flags and balloons, and even a tractor two, as in any small town parade.

But there are also cars and floats featuring skiers and snowboarders.

There are middle-aged exotic dancers and motorcycle riders.

There is that distinctive Park City genre, the half-dressed mingler with a drink. 

And there are lots of kids, transfixed.

After the parade, we explored a quaint store in Kamas, "The New West." 

It featured everything western, from levis to saddles to boots to a huge selection of cowboy hats.

For our hike, we chose Fehr Lake, in the Uintahs, and the two Alpine lakes beyond it. 

There were few hikers on the trail, and the lakes were clear and rustic.

We then took our traditional hike around Mirror Lake. 

It was busy with canoes and fishermen, but there were some gorgeous, untouched corners.

We finished the day at Tarahumara, a Mexican restaurant in Midway.

We chose among more than a dozen salsas, as dips for our chips.  We also chose house entrees, seared scallops with passion fruit cilantro sauce and a shrimp/mango/avocado salad.