Rollercoasters! Cedar Point!

I took the day off yesterday and went to Cedar Point and had an awesome time.  Stayed at the resort to get an hour early entry pass, then once the park opened to the public, the lines stayed really short or were non-existent.  I waited 20 min at most for Millenium Force and maybe 30 minutes for Top Thrill Dragster.  The rest of the rides were pretty much walk up and ride.

All of this resulted in 17 rollercoaster rides for the day.  Click the links to get ride info or watch point of view videos:

• Millennium Force (X5)
• Maverick
• Mine Ride
• Blue Streak
• Wicked Twister (x3)
• Corkscrew
• Raptor (x2)
• Gemini
• Mean Streak
• Top Thrill Dragster

I also rode Skyhawk – not really a rollercoaster but really fun!

What a great day at Cedar Point!

Rocky Mountain National Park

Anyone who knows me just a little bit knows that when I take a vacation, I always go to the mountains!  This summer’s vacation was to Rocky Mountain National Park.  We rented a cute little cabin in Estes Park, CO right on the edge of the park.  A very cozy place to retire to every night!  This post is very photo intensive, but only contains a small percentage of the pictures I took.  This place is so beautiful…

Saturday:

We arrived at the Denver Aiport around 9:30 am, rented our car and headed to Estes Park.  We went to the Boulder Farmers Market and got some yummy coffee and some of the most delicous, juicy peaches I’ve ever tasted.  IMO, peaches are one of the BEST things about summer!

While in Boulder, I just had to stop at the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory.  I’m a long time fan of their herbal teas, with my favorite being Sleepytime, Peppermint, and Chamomile teas.  I would’ve loved to taken pictures of the tour, but photos were prohibited.  One thing that really struck me about this place was how delicious it smelled!  All of those yummy herbs.  I think the highlight of the tour for me was the “Mint Room.”  They have to keep the bulk bags of spearmint and peppermint in a separate room to keep them from infiltrating all of the other herbs!   The mintyness of this room was so strong that it made your eyes water….  The other favorite part was the free tea tasting and the gift shop!

We found our rental, bought park passes and hiking books, then took a quick twilight drive.

Sunday:

We planned a hike to Emerald Lake, which is a path that passes Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. This was our first views of the park…. blown away by the beauty! Really…. I just love mountains! We were lucky as we managed to catch up with a guided hike with a park ranger which was actually really interesting and informative.  This hike was 3.8 miles.

Nymph Lake

View from the Trail

Dream Lake

Emerald Lake

The wind at Emerald Lake was painfully cold, but the view was amazing!

Later in the afternoon, we took a drive on Old Fall River Road-

View of the road and Estes Park Valley

Mountain Peaks

Monday:

Monday’s hike was Mill’s Lake.  This was a 5 mile trail that passes through aspen trees, Alberta Falls, through a high canyon and finally solid rock that finally leads to the lake.  This trail was really rocky in places, making for tough footing and a lot of extra energy expended by stepping around and over all of the rocks… totally worth it though!

Beginning of the Trail

Alberta Falls

Mills Lake

Tuesday:

We (I) needed a little bit of a break from hiking, so we chose this day to do some driving! Our primary destination was Winter Park Colorado, where we tried out their alpine slide (FUN!), rode the chairlift to the top and walked around a bit.

There were tons of mountain bikers around…

We also drove by Breckenridge, turned around in Vail, then hit Georgetown where we had a yummy yummy dinner at the Euro Grill. Highly recommended, especially if you’re into Schnitzels.

Wednesday:

The hike of the day was the Ute Trail. The trailhead is off Trail River Road:

This hike was above the treeline and afforded some wonderful mountain views. We also saw lots of these little critters:

Marmots

Nifty Rock Formations

View

Thursday:

We saw tons of Elk on this trip (along with marmots, mountain goats, rabbits, moose, mule deer and big horn sheep, lots of different birds and chipmunks and squirrels), but this is the best wildlife shot we got. I snapped this on the way to Thursday’s hike – The Crater.

Now you would think that a one mile hike would be a breeze. We’ve had a chance to acclimate a teeny bit to the elevation… this single mile started at ~10,000 feet elevation had 1000 feet of elevation gain. We started walking through a forest and ended up beyond the treeline. Honestly… I had to stop and gasp for oxygen at least 9-10 times along this hike.

The effort was worth it, as we ended up at one of my favorite views! We were also rewarded by seeing the highly elusive big horn sheep.  I’d post the pic I took if you could see more than little white dots on a cliff…

The Crater

Later on in the day we did a less than a mile hike around Lily Lake:

Lily Lake and Lily Lake Mountain

Friday:

Friday we hiked Beirstadt Lake Trail. We started at the top and after a couple hundred feet of elevation gain, the rest of the hike was all downhill.

Another Rocky Trail!

View from the Downhill Switchbacks

Saturday:

This was our last day and decided to drive to the top of Mount Evans. The road up to the top (~14,000 feet) was narrow, a little crumbly in places and generally scary. The views from the top were nice and we also saw the highest telescope in the world on top.

The rest of the day involved driving back to Denver, stopping at places along the way and flying back to Midway.

A wonderful vacation! I can totally see myself going back here someday.

Celebration of Needlework 2009

Wow.. what a wonderful time I had at Celebration of Needlework!

Thursday morning, Susan and I flew from Chicago to Manchester, met up with Jenny at the airport, then the three of us headed to the hotel.

We dumped our things in our room, had some lunch, then hit the shopping mall.  I just looked and made note of things I liked then did a small amount of purchasing later on…

Jenny and I had a class with Teresa Layman called “Bumbling Bullions.”  Teresa is a wonderful and patient teacher and had samples of bullions that she had added to various pieces of clothing on display – beautiful!.  The majority of the class consisted of practicing bullions with different doodleclothes, needles, and fibers.  Teresa demonstrated the stitch and also helped troubleshoot less-than-perfect stitches and offered guidance and advice to each individual in the class.  I didn’t really get to work on the actual class project, which consisted of small floral and other motifs made with bullions and finished as buttons.  They look like quick stitches and I’m looking forward to working on them. 

Jenny and I met up with Susan and her friend Fran for dinner away from the hotel, then Jenny and I attend the Make It Take It Round Robbin class.   (It turns out that Erin was there too, but we hadn’t met her yet!)  We met with six different designers and received cute little project kits and had some time to talk with the designers about the project (and various other subjects – LOL).  We had the pleasure of meeting with Susan Greening Davis, Cynthia Zittel, Catherine Theron, Louise Henderson, Pam Reed, and Pam’s daughter (who’s name I don’t remember).

Friday was pretty much a free day.  We camped out at a table in the lobby and stitched most of the day and made a trip or two to the mall.  We had people come by who recognized us from blogs, etc and chatted.  Eventually, others from The Wagon started showing up and we all planned to go out for dinner:

 From Left to Right:  Me, Jenny, Carol, Robbin, Susan, and Erin

After dinner, Jenny, Erin, Robbin and I all attended the two Round Robbin sessions and had a really good time!  We got kits from lots of different designers – all who spoke about the design or gave instructions on finishing!  Susan Greening Davis, Lauren Sauer, Eileen Bennet, Jackie du Plessis, Julie Norton, Barbara Jackson, Catherine Strickler, and Marsha Brown.  Saturday morning, we had breakfast, then Susan, Jenny, Erin and I attended our Intermediate Hardanger Techniques class by Julie Norton, where I learned to do the amazing Eidelweiss filling stitch.  It was a really great class!

We had lunch, met up with some other Wagon stitchers, did a litle show and tell, and shopped before Susan, Jenny, and I went back to the airport to head home.

Standing:  Carol, Kate, Robbin, Me, and Erin  Sitting:  Jenny, Susan, and Erin

Overall, I had a wondeful mini-vacation!

Merry Christmas!

I’ve been laid off work this week due to slow business and took the opportunity to go to Oklahoma to visit my parents and my brother’s family.  I left on the 20th and got back Christmas Eve.  After a delayed flight back to O’Hare, DBF and his son picked me up and we went to his mother’s house in Hoffman Estates for their family festvities.  We had a nice time, but didn’t get back home until 3:00 this morning.  Of course, we all slept late, woke up late, exchanged gifts with DBF’s son, then took him to his mother’s house.

We went to breakfast/lunch, then went to see The Curious Case of Benjamon Button, which I really liked!  We didn’t open our gifts to each other until around 4:30 this afternoon. 

While I was in Oklahoma, I only did a tiny bit of stitching, mainly because I wasn’t really into what I was working on, plus the lighting wasn’t the best.  I think I’m going to pull out my  Alpine Seasons and work on that a bit.  I’ve got more time off next week so should be able to get some good stitching in.

A while back,  I sent a note to my friend Susan’s mom, Shelagh, as she’d gotten sick.  When going through the mail this morning, I saw that I’d received a package from her.  She stitched a really pretty pincushion and sent a nice card.  I didn’t expect anything at all, so was really touched by what she wrote and her thoughtfulness:

Since I’m always losing my needles in the couch (between cusions and in the arm, where I usually sick my needles, I’m sure this pincushion will help.

So, I’m off through Sunday, then have to work a couple of days next week.  I’m feeling spoiled by all this extra time off over the holidays…

I hope everyone had a peaceful holiday with friends and family.

Back from Vacation…

I had a wonderful vacation in Portland!  We had beautiful, warm sunny weather early on in the week, and a couple of overcast days later in the week.  Portland has had some very dry weather recently…  combine this with some forest fires, and you end up with some very hazy days.  Fortunatey, the scenery there is so spectacular that even through some haze, it was still very pretty as always.

SATURDAY

We flew to PDX from Midway in Chicago and arrived early in the afternoon.  After lunch at my all time favorite restaurant in the world, Beaches, we found the condo we’d rented downtown.  We were right on the Willamette River, directly across from the Rose Garden Arena, and between the Broadway Bridge and the Steel Bridge. 

Broadway Bridge From The Living Room

We took a nap, having gotten up VERY early, then visited some friends for dinner.

SUNDAY

Whenever I visit Portland, I try to do Sunday brunch at Skamania Lodge. We met one of my friends there and had a wonderful champagne brunch while looking at stunning views of the Columbia River Gorge. My friend went on her way and DBF and I spent the rest of the day in the Gorge looking around. We went to Stevenson and watched windsurfers and kiteboarders, went to Hood River and looked around town, then visited Bonneville Dam.

Bonneville Dam

Bonneville Dam Fish Ladders

From here, we decided to drive along the Historic Columbia River Highway. We stopped at all of the waterfalls along the way, including Horsetail Falls, Oneonta Falls, Multnomah Falls, Wahkeena Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, Latourelle Falls, and finally ended up at Crown Point Vista, which affords amazing views!

Crown Point Vista House

Inside the Vista House

One of the Views of the Gorge from Crown Point

We drove up Larch Mountain Road, took a short hike at the top and had spectactular views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Mt. Adams in Washington, and Mt. Hood. There were a bunch of photographers up there with their tripods awaiting the harvest moonrise behind the mountain.

Mt. Hood from Larch Mountain

MONDAY

Monday was all about the Oregon Coast. We started off in Cannon Beach and drove along the coast highway down to Lincoln City.

Cape Mears

Oceanside Beach at Low Tide

Tidal Pool Life

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning we slept late, hung around Portland all morning, then decided to take a hike on the south side of Mt. St. Helens. We were headed to the Lava Canyon, but found that a road washout would’ve made it a 5 mile walk just to get to the trail head, so we settled for hiking to June Lake (which is really more like a pond).

Trailhead

View of Mt. St. Helens From the Trail

June Lake and June Lake Falls

WEDNESDAY

Wednesday we drove to central Oregon and hiked the Trail of 10 Falls at Silver Falls State Park. This is a deep canyon that you hike into and follow a river around a loop trail and see 10 waterfalls along the way. The trail is fairly easy, the trees are very lush, with lots of moss growing on them, and the falls are gorgeous. The water flow was fairly low due to being so late in the season, but it was still a great hike! There are three falls where the trail actually goes behind the falls – the picture below was taken from one of these falls…

South Falls

Just to give an idea of how deep in the canyon you actually are, here is a pic of DBF looking at one of the falls. I couldn’t get the whole canyon wall into the pic, but it goes about 2.5 times higher than what you see here:

What a wonderful hike…. I go to Silver Falls on every trip I make to Oregon.

THURSDAY

Thursday morning, we drove to Scappose Bay Kayacking and rented a couple of kayacks. I didn’t bring my camera because I was concerned about getting it wet. It was a great trip through some very still water. We saw lots of cranes and other wetland birds. The rest of the day was spent around Portland. We drove over the St. Johns Bridge, which is my very favorite bridge:

St. Johns Bridge From the Car

We also visited the Japanese Garden and Rose Garden in Forest Park…

Japanese Garden

Rose Garden

We also went to a wonderful LNS in Beaverton – Acorns and Threads:

Later in the day we went to NW 23rd Street, which is a nice shopping district, looked around and had dinner. A very fun day!

FRIDAY

On our very last full day, we decided to drive up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. It was pretty cloudy so Mt. Hood wasn’t at all visible from Portland. Timberline Lodge is very cool and kind of looks like a castle on the inside with lots of stonework and arched doorways. One of its claims to fame is that there were some scenes from The Shining that were filmed here. We actually spent most of our time inside playing ping pong and table shuffleboard!

Mt. Hood from Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge

On our way back to Portland, we stopped at Beacon Rock and followed the trail a little ways up. We didn’t make it to the top as it started to rain and was getting dark.

SATURDAY

Saturday morning, we walked to the Portland Saturday Market, had breakfast, and drove around downtown Vancouver before catching our flight back home. We got home very very early this morning.

It was a wonderful vacation!

As far as stitching goes, I got about half way through my Autumn House exchange piece. I’ll be working on this until its finished, then getting back to Where Stitchers Gather.

Vacation Tomorrow!

Tomorrow DBF and I are visiting Portland, OR.  I lived there for about 7 years and just love visiting and he has never been.  The forecast looks clear and warm – which will afford plenty of mountainy views.  We have lots of fun stuff planned.

Here’s my latest progress on Victoria Sampler’s Where Sitchers Gather:

The top row of flowers, which are new since my last post, are more specialty stitches. From left to right:

• Eyelet Flower
• Detatched Chain Flower
• Broad Cross Flower
• Satin Stitch Flower
• Apple Blossom Flower
• Woven Spider Web Rose

Very fun to stitch!

My vacation project is an exchange piece for Stitcher Blogger Exchange Board.  The theme is Autumn House and is due for mailing in early October.  Since it is supposed to be a surprise to the recipient, I’m only posting a picture of the floss toss:

The fabric is 28 count lambswool jobelan (from Wilchelt). I love the nice fall floss colors. Its a relatively small piece, and I’m hoping to finish the stitching while traveling, then do the finishing when I get home.  I’ll post a picture when I know that the recipient has received it.

I hope everyone has a great week…  For all affected by Hurricane Ike (including my parents who are just expecting lots of rain) best of luck!

Wonderful Vacation

We got back from our fabulous vacation to upstate NY today.  We were very busy and active, plus spent a lot of time visiting with my parents, who are fun, and the rest of my extended family.  We arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday during a torrential downpour, did some grocery shopping, and settled in at the camp.  I guess I should explain that any cabin or structure in the Adirondack mountains, that is not a primary residence is referred to as “The Camp.”  In our case, “The Camp” refers to a house that we were staying in located on Lake George.

We arrived late on Saturday afternoon in a torrential downpour, did some grocery shopping, and generally settled in at the camp.

SUNDAY

Me, DBF, and my father attempted to summit Roger’s Rock following a path that started behind the camp and using advice from my uncle, who lives next to the camp.  We had a lovely hike, but never quite found the top of the mountain.  After showering and having lunch, DBF and I headed off to Burlington, VT to have a look around.  We visited Church Street, which is a cute little street with lots of shops… 

My favorite shop of all (that’s not me in the pic):

Somehow, I managed to get out of this store with exactly three white chocolate truffles.   Following our look around, I followed the recommendation of a friend to have dinner at American Flatbread- the yummiest flatbread pizza that I’ve ever had.

We walked around the Lake Champlain waterfront and looked around….  We were both really impressed with Burlington – seemed to be a clean, progressive city and also home to the University of Vermont.  I’ve included a picture of the only thing I did not like about Burlington….  some people think gargoyles are cool, I think they are creepy….

MONDAY

We attempted the Rogers Rock path a second time and finally made it to the top!  Amazing views of Lake George!  Totally worth it!

We spent the rest of this day visiting my grandparents. 

TUESDAY

We got up early and headed back to Vermont, this time to Stowe to do a canoe trip.  UMAIK did a great job organizing and it was a nice trip.  After we were out of the water, we had lunch in Stowe, then went on a pretty nifty glider trip from the Stowe Airport.  The pilot did a couple of banked turns and I seriously thought I would get sick, but managed to keep lunch down.  It provided some pretty amazing views of the Green Mountains in Vermont and the Adirondacks in NY, plus the town of Stowe itself.

While in Stowe, we also rented some bikes and rode the Stowe “Rec Path.”  A nice trail also recommended by above mentioned friend.

WEDNESDAY

We decided to go back to Burlington and bike the path that we scoped out earlier in the week.  I have to say that this is the most wonderful bike path I’ve ever experienced… the Island Line Trail.  We had a good bike rental experience from Local Motion (totally non-profit) where we were outfitted with some nice three speed bikes and helmets.  The absolute best part of this path was along a narrow strip of land that consisted only of the bike trail itself.   Beautiful views, awesome trail….  we biked around 21 miles.  We were so hungry when we were finished that we cleaned up and went and had more flatbread pizza….  Highly recommended!

 

The trail:

Mountain and lake views from the trail:

The end of the trail:

THURSDAY

Thursday morning DBF and I got up and hiked to the top of Cook Mountain.  What a tough hike!  There was a sign at the beginning of the trail that said “0.9 miles – 825 feet elevation gain.”  Wow.. short but very very steep with a rocky, rough trail.  The view from the top was another amazing view of Lake George.  Unfortunately it was a hazy day and the pics didn’t turn out very well.  The rest of the day was rainy, so we hung around at the camp and played cards through most of the afternoon with my family.  We play a game called “Pitch” – lots of fun.

FRIDAY

Fourth of July!  We started the morning with yet another hike… this time to Lost Pond.  We picked an easy hike to recover from the long bike ride and tough hike.  It was a short and easy, but very nice hike to a beautiful, pristine pond.

The view:

Check out the water clarity:

We went to the annual parade in Ticonderoga (near Lake George, and my home town), which was quite disappointing and not quite as good as the parades of years past. We went for a boat ride on Lake George with my aunt and had a cookout with my mother’s side of the family.  Dad, DBF and I walked downtown to watch the fireworks. The display was surprisingly good for such a small town and just when it seemed to be building up to the finale, there was an explosion where they were setting off the fireworks! One main explosion sent more explosives into the crowd, where it went off and injured somewhere from 3-5 people. Most injures were minor, but one of the people who was setting off the fireworks was cut and burned and airlifted to a Burlington hospital. Needless to say… at that point, the fireworks were over and no big finale. I’m just glad that more people weren’t hurt. Here’s the news story for anyone interested: WPTZ.com

One of the best things about the vacation was the wonderful view from the camp of Lake George…  we got up every morning and had coffee and breakfast on the porch and watched the lake.  We had lunch and dinners on the porch and entertained visitors there also:

As far as stitching goes… I got very little done. I brought M Designs Letter H and maybe put in about 25 stitches total… I’ll post a progress pic once I have more to show.

Vacation!

I’m leaving tomorrow for a week of vacation.  I’m visiting upstate NY, where my parents and I have rented a camp on Lake George.  So, we’ll be doing lots of outdoor stuff and visiting with my grandparents and other relatives.

Of course, I’ve started a small travel project to take along with me.  I’ll be stitching M Designs Celtic Letter “H”.  I started it last weekend and did a little more last night. I’m using waterlilies on this, and am trying to think about how I want the color changes to flow… I’ve kind of figured out most of what directions I’ll stitch in.  I’m sure I’ll be happy with it regardless as I like the design and the colors I’m using.  Anyway this makes a good travel project as I only have to carry around one skein of floss with me.  I think this will keep me plenty busy.

I have done a bit more of the border on Alpine Seasons.  I’m pretty certain that when I finish this section, I’m going to work on the mountain scenery in the upper left hand corner.  I really like doing the geometric borders and I can see that I might burn out on the mountain stuff as it looks like some pretty heavy counting.  I figure the next section of fun border can be my reward for finishing a section of mountains.  I took this approach when I did TW’s English Garden Welcome, except the center part was my reward for all of the confetti and backstitching in the rose border:

Teresa Wentzler’s English Garden Welcome

Anyway, I hope everyone has a good week and a nice holiday weekend….

Celebration…..

Yesterday I mailed in my registration for the Celebration of Needlework in Louisville.  I’ve never been to anything like this, so I’m really looking forward to it.  Susan and I are going to take Friday off work and head down early in the morning.  We’re signed up for an event on Friday night and a class on Saturday afternoon.  The rest of the time will be spent stitching, checking out the market, and hopefully meeting up with other stitchers that we know from online.  I am soooo looking forward to it!

Back of the stitchers pocket…

Victoria Sampler has released the Mystic Needlework Smalls leaflet, which I adore.  That Biscornu is to die for!  I’ve never seen one done with hardanger and I want that to be the first biscornu I attempt.  I also love the stitchers pocket.  I think this will be next on my list of yummies to add to my stash.  This could be the piece that causes my stash storage area to overflow, as its pretty much packed to the brim.

I have a little plastic 3 drawer chest for my stash.  The top drawer is filled with fabric and my watchmaker bead cases, the second drawer is filled with charts and magazines, and the third drawer is where all of my DMC, silks, and other fibers live.  I also have VS accessory packs in that drawer for all of the VS charts on my list of things to stitch.  Additionally, I have a plastic box (which was the original home of ALL of my stash) that now houses all of my q-snaps, hoops, and other various stitching accessories.

I know that this is modest compared to some other stash collections I’ve seen in my lifetime, but I am not a “collector” and only buy things that I fully intend to stitch and usually allow myself to buy any needed materials (fabric, beads, fibers) that I may need for what is already in my stash so that I can start any of them on a whim if the mood strikes me.

I got rid of most of my no-longer-needed stash (previously stitched charts) at the GTG last weekend but had a few things leftover that are free to a good home….Victoria Sampler Green Earth and Crimson Fire leaflets.  Crimson Fire is discontinued, so the link is to my slightly modified version on my webshots page.  If you’re interested in either chart, let me know and I’ll pop it in the mail to you.

Something New and Future Vacation

At my weekend shopping trip, I picked up M Designs Winter Getaway (scroll down designers page to see it).  I was actually searching for a different design and came across this one.  I have an affinity for trees and snowflakes and that design has both.  I also love the little house in the center and the star and moon beads.  I’d love to start it, but have committed to finish the Heirloom Family Tree before I start anything new. 

I am counting down the days until my vacation.  I haven’t had a vacation day since last July when Rich and I went to Alaska (best vacation ever!).  We are meeting my parents and staying at a camp on Lake George in Upstate NY, near my home town.  I haven’t seen my family since last July, so I’m looking forward to it. 

The camp:

and… the view!

Of course, these pictures were taken on a dreary winter day earlier in the year, and the lake appears semi-frozen and doesn’t look very appealing right now, but it’ll be beautiful in July.

I’ve always fantasized about living on a lake, and I love this lake as its the one I grew up on.  Right now, I have a view of a larger-sized, natural pond through the sliding glass doors, and that does the trick for now.  Canadian geese and ducks swim around during the summer and it won’t be long before I have to stop the car for the lines of little goslings and ducklings following their mother to the pond.

Anyway, we have some hiking that we plan to do while on vacation and I’ve been working on the stairmaster for the last couple of months in preparation.  What I really need to be doing is preparing my feet for some long walks, however I hurt my left foot about a month ago and limiting my walking to every day type stuff until the end of April.  Then have two months left to work up to longer walks.