Fall at Home

 Its been the prettiest fall I can remember!  I have loved all the vibrant colors and am taking photos everyday of the changes in the yard.  It is always fun to look back at it during the different seasons.  We were able to do a few yard improvements this year that will make less maintenance in the future.  I still have some things that I need to work on.  Like landscape fabric, mulch, and plants around the pool where the retaining wall went in.  Also I let the weeding go when the wedding planning was happening and I need to reseed the front area that is just a mess right now.  Still I like the changes.  We removed the ugly fire pit and area and now have more grass in the flat area for games.  We used all the boulders from around the yard to make a retaining wall around the pool.  Kinda crazy that the people that built this house spread so many boulders around the yard that we had enough for a retaining wall.  And then pushed the curbing back and planted more grass around the trees to have less "natural vegetation" aka weeds.  We put the trampoline in a back corner and set it in the ground.   I always hated that part of the yard.  And now I love it.

An angry bee stung my face and got stuck in my hair when I was picking plums and now I'm scared of this hive. 

Lots of pansys went to see in my garden beds and are growing again.  Looks messy now but I kinda want to see what they look like in the spring.

Looks like we need to repaint the pergola soon

October 28th the aspens peaked!  So beautiful.

Time Machine

I had the funnest workout ever a few days ago!  I was going to make myself do the Peloton, but instead I strapped on my old rollerblades from 1990 and took to the streets.  Doing the things you loved when you were young might be the secret to life.

I made it to a paved trail near Lone Peak where I saw a guy trying to hide his smile when he saw me.  Haha.  Yeah maybe middle aged moms on rollerblades is a funny thing to witness.  But I had a great time.  Jared was a little nervous when I set out.  But I'm pretty darn good at this.  One of my skates is down to three wheels and maybe I should invest in one of the fancy new kinds.  It was a total blast!

This made me think of all the fun ways to workout outside.  And now I've decided this is the year I get good at skiing.

Anytime Jared hears I'm going rollerblading the look on his face tells me he's thinking about this fun day in Powell and he's worried I'm going to hurt myself.  But I feel pretty good about it.  (My kids made a gif of my backflop lol)  And I didn't actually hurt myself just a little wind knocked out of me.  It was actually pretty hard to climb up to that little ledge and I tried it again and did fine. Tip: keep the arms straight!

I've always loved the sunsets in this little area by the High School

 

Nantucket in October

 We planned our trip to Boston with a couple days to explore the areas nearby before Monet arrived.  We like to plan our trips so that we have a little time in the city, and a little time outside of the city.  I love the food and museums in cities, but I also need nature.  

We had a few options.  Our first choice was leaf peeping in New England, but the leaves were late in the nearby areas so we were choosing between the southern Maine coast or Nantucket Island.  Our neighbor used to live in Massachusetts and recommended it as one of their favorite places to visit.  And we lucked out and got the best 70 degree perfect weather and cheap prices (off season!) and decided to do Maine another trip.  

This was the first trip that we had nothing planned but our flight and rental car.  I'll blame it on being all distracted with wedding planning.  We had done no research until the day before we left and had no hotel reservation until Monet joined us on the weekend.  That was very different for us and a lot of fun! The airport was so close and easy to get into the city and we went to the best restaurant in the North End called Panza.  It was a last minute reservation on Open Table and it was delicious!  Best bruschetta I've ever had.

The next morning we went to the ferries for Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.  We really weren't sure which one we were going to do for sure until we got there and decided on Nantucket.  Its smaller than Martha's Vineyard and you don't need a car.  Although we might have liked a car!  Or a scooter or something.  If you like biking a long way, you wouldn't need it.  During the busier season this kind of last minute planning would have been a huge frustration as you need overnight parking reservations, ferry reservations, etc.  But it worked out fine for us because it was October.

We stayed at the Union Street Inn.  It was a very cute historical place!  There are no big chain hotels in Nantucket.  There are some advantages to the big hotels.  But this was fun for a change.  Tiny tiny bathroom though.

We rode bikes around the city, went to the whaling museum, then headed out to Madaket Beach to watch the sunset.  I loved all the really cute homes!  Such classic architecture.  And the cedar shake shingles on everything I thought would get boring but it wasn't at all.  There are usually some restaurants open out at Madaket but not in the off season.

Taking pictures as you ride by on a cobblestone road is not ideal for photography 

Every house had its name on a little sign!  I want to name my home now!

We saw this sign on the way home and I think it really made Jared wish we could spend a day catching crabs!  The limit is 25 crabs per person!

We went to Straight Wharf for dinner.  It was amazing.  Nantucket has a ton of good options for dinner although it is pricey.  Somehow that is the one thing Jared would most like to spend money on when we are traveling.  Food.

I loved the cute little town.  And especially the small harbor lights at night on the water.  And the fall porches.

Also I've always been a little confused why people like that Vineyard Vines look.  But in Nantucket it totally fits!  And we had such warm weather I needed a t-shirt that would be good for riding a bike all day so we stopped in and its a great tee.  So I guess I get the Vineyard Vines thing now.

I don't know why but I expected people in New England to be different.  They were SO nice.  Like incredibly kind.  

The next day we had a few things suggested to us.  One was this brewery with Lobster rolls and food trucks nearby.  But it requires a vax card and also breweries are obviously not a big draw for us. 

So Jared and I took a shuttle to the other side of the island because I really wanted to see a lighthouse.  The lady at the shuttle place explained that it was just a 15 minute walk from the stop.  So we left our bikes and decided to walk it.  Well, it was actually a 2 mile walk, 4 roundtrip.  Which would have been fine but it was now hot and we had no shade at all and we had to run the 2 miles back from the lighthouse to catch the shuttle again that only comes every hour.

I loved it though!  Even if we had our bikes,  the shuttle can only carry two bikes at a time.  So if someone else also has them, you have to wait another hour.  If we'd known, we would probably just rent a scooter or something.  It was such a great day for me!  Beach views, beautiful old homes and gardens, and a lighthouse!  We had delicious sandwiches from Claudette's sandwich shop next to the shuttle stop.  So I was doing great.  Jared was a little stressed about being stuck there for another hour because of our tight timeline with getting back on the ferry.  I've never seen my husband run so much as he did this trip.  

The Vineyard Vines t-shirt that I actually liked

Anyway, we made friends with the cutest couples with kids from Texas.  And we had more ice cream in town when we made it back!  And headed back to the mainland with a beautiful sunset view of the ocean along the way.  We sat up top on the ferry so we didn't have to keep our masks on.

It was a really fun time and I'm glad I finally got to see Nantucket!  I watched a PBS travel segment on the history awhile back and have been wanting to go ever since.  Its so neat to see all the different parts of the US.  Its such a different vibe than California.  And it was really fun!