Rocky Mountain, HIGH

Emerald Lake

Jack rabbit

tired Wiz

Game Boy and Collar up by Alberta Falls

snow fed waterfall into Emerald Lake

just pretty

Emerald Lake

panhandling chipmunk

another small waterfall

all of the boys

Nymph Lake

Just a few pictures from hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a nice, cool day (unlike how it is here, right now) and we were able to do quite a bit of hiking. We saw Bear Lake, Nymph Lake, Dream Lake, and Emerald Lake. Then we hiked to Alberta Falls.

The chipmunks are very tame. The jackrabbits not so much.

In Which We Eat Lunch

at the geographical center of the continental United States.

No, really. We took US 36 (not the interstate) and I saw a sign that said the geographical center of the continental US was only 4 miles off of our route. It was lunch time anyway, so off we went.

I hoped there would be some place to eat our lunch there.
First, there's the monument:There is also a chapel, which was locked, and had all the windows broken out of it. It is a strange place for a chapel.
There is also a picnic shelter. We found that we had company for lunch.He came down and stood next to us once he found out we had crackers and watermelon. He was a really big rooster.
There was also an abandoned/closed hotel, just short distance away from the picnic shelter. If you've read Neil Gaiman's American Gods, you might recognize the setting from the book.
Personally, while his theory on why there isn't much tourism around the area is more fun, I think it's more likely because of this:
That would be everything around the monument. There are fields, a farmhouse, and a friendly rooster. Don't get me wrong, feeding the rooster was fun, but I don't think it's much basis for tourism.

After lunch, we were back on the road, Wiz and I were in our first thunderstorm/rainstorm in a LONG time (Game Boy and the Collar were in one at camp), and we watched a dust storm pick up while we drove into Denver.

And now, all four of us can say that not only have we been to the geographical center of the continental United States, we fed a rooster there.

Happy 40th Anniversary!

Today was my parents' 40th anniversary and their party, which all 6 of us attended. All of the cousins were there, too. It was very nice.

February Lady Sweater, in July

Since I finished a couple of things for other people or charity (see mittens and afghan square), I thought I should finish my sweater. It only needed the sleeves. I put it down at the end of May. For some reason I didn't finish it.

On Friday I picked it up and knit one of the sleeves. I picked up the stitches for the second sleeve on Saturday (Saturday was a very busy day. I didn't have much time, but at least I was able to get started). I finished the sweater on Sunday. Monday was blocking, and yesterday, Wiz and I took a few pictures.

This is the picture Wiz took.

Pattern: february lady sweater, by Pamela Wynne.
Yarn: Patternworks Sunapee (55% cotton, 45% Silk, 153 yards per ball) (I used about 6 balls)
Size: L
Needles: Size 7 for the body, Size 8 dpns for the sleeves
Buttons were given to me by my friend Linda.

Easy to knit, and I think I'll wear it a lot. I used bigger needles for the sleeves, mostly because I wanted a looser fit. It will be something I can dress up or down, and it will look good over long fitted sleeves or over short or sleeveless shirts. I am thinking about knitting something similar in wool so I'll have a warmer sweater.

The Garden

It's been a very difficult week around here.

The good:

• Game Boy took a class in computer animation. He wants to make a cartoon of his own. Game Boy and I played tennis together.
• I was able to get in one bike ride this week (31.87 miles).
• I made it to knitting the second week in a row.

The hard:
Game Boy and the Collar are going to camp next week, so we're working on getting all of that ready.
The week after that, we're leaving for Kansas City (6 days of driving during the round trip).
The Collar had two funerals this week.

I'm posting pictures from the garden.

Sage and cilantroRosemary and some greens

One of the roses

Another rose

The rosebush, which has even more roses on it now.

Time for a change

I still haven't blogged about going to the beach (pictures are very grey) or going to the TriCities Dustdevils game. I haven't blogged about what I'm knitting lately, either. So I'll do that.

First, I finished my afghan square. I made a mistake on it (well, two--I misread two charts) by missing a cable crossing. Two of the knitters at knitting group said that I could fix it. I finally tackled it on Sunday. I crossed my fingers, hid in my bedroom, turned on NatGeo to learn about national parks, and dropped the four stitches down. Then I painstakingly crossed the cable, did all the rest of the stitches, crossed the second cable in the column, and finished the square. It is done, I am pleased, and it doesn't look too bad.Last week, I started another pair of mittens. This pair is NHM#5. I knitted them for the Wiz, on size 2.5 needles. Yarn is Heirloom Baby Wool 4 ply. It's machine washable, which is good for something that I make Wiz.

Here is the palm of the white mitten. I'm getting better at figuring out the tumb join.Both mittens, one palm up.
Wiz, showing off the new mittens. (He's wearing his clone trooper helmet. I don't know why.)
I have also started two pairs of socks. One pair is just a plain stockinette sock that I've finished the leg on one and am 2/3 of the way finished with the other leg. There's also a pair of socks that I'm knitting for me that has a nice yellow color in it for while I'm watching TdF. I'll show them later, when they are more than a cuff. Oh, and there's secret knitting, but that's boring for you.

I'm riding a little bit, but not as much. The boys are home, but soon Game Boy will be able to keep an eye on his brother so I can ride. July is just not a good time for cycling this year. I did get to go yesterday (almost 32 miles, go me), and I might go tonight. It does keep me sane.

To the Temperate Rainforest

I know, I'm just posting pictures and captions. When the pictures are as good as they are, why do anything else?

On Wednesday, we visited Hoh Rainforest. (We also visited the beach, but that's another post.)
It was surreal--not only because of the landscape--but because Game Boy kept requesting his picture taken. Weird, I know. We wound up breaking into groups. The Collar and The Wiz, the BBFs, and GB and I. It was good to have a chance to listen to GB. When his brother is around, I don't really get to have a conversation with him. Wiz is not exactly patient or quiet. Both boys had theories on Bigfoot and tree octopi. It was quite entertaining, and hysterically funny.The Hoh River (which apparently has a different channel each year due to melt) toward Storm King Mountain (I think, but don't take my word for it).

A tunnel between the fallen trees.It's a rainforest, so here are rain drops on a fern.This tree looks like it could swallow them whole. (Game Boy was having a blast, Wiz did NOT like all the rain.)

The roots of a tree that are above the ground now because the nurse tree is mostly gone. With the 5 foot GB for a bit of perspective.
The dark shape behind the boys is a fallen tree.
Streams
Sky and huge trees.
Big, big tree trunk. It's diameter is about the same as Wiz's height. (He's a bit small, but still...)
Supposedly the biggest tree in the forest, with The Collar showing exactly how big it is. (I say supposedly because as a scientist, I'm pretty certain that they have not measured every tree there. Even if they did, they'd have to measure every month or so to see if one grew more. Yes, I'm pedantic.)

Tomorrow, the beach!

From the beach to the alpine meadow

Tuesday afternoon, we went to Hurricane Ridge. Here we saw glaciers and mountains:The boys learned the joys of playing on snow in June.

We saw more mule deer (one buck even).We hiked and we learned things.And we saw both the sound and the strait from the mountains. And on Wednesday, we went to the rainforest, via sparkly vampireland.