San Pedro and Going Home

This is part 4 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

The delay in finishing up this travelogue has more to do with me wanting to forget the worst part of our Belize trip than simple procrastination. In fact, it was such a sad leg that we realized on our way out that we hadn't taken any photos on Ambergris Caye! And that is a shame since it really is beautiful, despite all the development due to tourism.

On day 6 we woke up very early in the morning in order to catch the early bus to Belize City. Ian happily gave us a ride to the bus stop even though the sun had not yet risen. Hickatee and its hosts Ian and Kate were the highlight of our Belize trip. We will definitely return and would urge any other travelers in southern Belize to visit them as well (a perfect rating with 80 reviews says a lot!).

The bus ride to Belize City was better than our other buses since this time we were lucky to grab a seat on a charter-style bus, not the regular school bus style we were used to. It was a good thing too, since the bus ride was very long.

Finally arriving in Belize City at the bus terminal, we stopped at our favorite food shack and shared a light lunch of chicken and rice made in the Belizean way. We then continued our walk out to the docks, only about 1/2 to 1 mile away from the terminal. Arriving there, we paid for our tickets and waited to board. The sea was beautiful on the way out to San Pedro and about an hour later we disembarked the ferry and rode a cab out to Pedro's Inn. Pedro's Inn is really a hostel with a bar on the ground level. We didn’t mind staying in a hostel since it was inexpensive and we planned on spending very little time there. Our agenda was full and we couldn't wait to get started!

Since it was too late to do any snorkeling, we decided to have a walk about town. After we returned we ordered a pizza at Pedro's Inn. Soon after, however, my gut started protesting (if not the pizza, then something else). I quickly realized a horrible case of TRAVELER'S DIARRHEA. We only had a few days on San Pedro and I was to be shackled to the toilet for the entirety of it. Talk about terrible timing!

I feel so bad for Julie who was forced to share my fate - at least the fate of being confined to our tiny two-bed box that was our room. Julie, I promise we will return! I have to make up for denying her the opportunity to snorkel in such a beautiful turquoise sea.

As we were getting a taxi to leave Pedro's Inn I noticed a worker at the hostel cleaning out a pipe to the septic tank. Later, I recalled small signs (which I ignored in my abject misery) around the bathroom warning not to flush the toilet paper. I will definitely tip the guys at the hostel well when we return! I can’t help but laugh however at the mental image of the poor guy cursing in his Belizean accent at the septic tank trying to unclog it.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We rode the ferry back to Belize City, caught a taxi to the airport, faced a profoundly irate airport worker, flew home, and went to sleep.

This trip was wonderful – it was (relatively) cheap and we had MUCH more fun than if we had bummed around a resort. In the famous words of General Douglas MacArthur,

[WE] SHALL RETURN!

PS- Side note from Julie- please ignore the ill-fitting background on my blog. It is under construction... :)

Vacation...

...was good.

Just what the doctor ordered.

At least, they would have if I was seeing a doctor.

Stay tuned for pictures.

Up

Bradford and I saw "Up" on Saturday night. It is probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. Not only was it entertaining but I was amazed at the skill of the animation. Incredible!

I cried a little and laughed a lot. One of the best parts of the whole thing was that it wasn't overly predictable. Which I loved. Its probably more of an adult movie than a kids movie in that the humor would probably be lost on most kids, but I definitely recommend seeing it!

We watched it in 3D. This is us in our cool glasses.

Kenya Kookies!

The other day I was perusing the isles of our local grocery store, Maceys, looking for some ingredients to some dishes I'm wanting to try out, and around the foreign foods section I saw it. Right there in all its glory. Marias cookies! When I was in Kenya, Aimee and I would hop into town every now and then, and we always had to wait FOREVER for the matatu (a bus/van type form of transportation) to leave back to our village. So, while we were waiting, there were a bunch of vendors walking around with their wares selling them to the tired passengers and Aimee and I always bought a package of cookies/crackers called Marias. And we loved them. They taste like animal crackers and were a welcome treat to our hungry bellies there in Machakos town waiting on the matatus.

The packaging is completely different from what it was in Kenya but the cookies were the same beloved morsels of goodness. I was so excited that I'd stumbled upon them! I couldn't believe it. I did a double take, snatched up a package of them and blurted out something along the lines of, "Holy heck I LOVE these!" The guy in the aisle next to me made a weird face and then slowly started inching away from me... OK, I was a mite exuberant. Simple things excite me...

What makes them even better is that they were only 50 cents. It can't get much better than that.

Punta Gorda

This is part 3 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

Day 4: We woke up early, packed together all our things, and left the cabana at about 7:00 for the bus station. We were running a little late, and at the terminal we discovered that we had missed the express bus to Punta Gorda. We checked the schedule and saw the next one would be in an hour. We took the time to get some breakfast which ended up being a pretty poor excuse for a burrito. I still don't know what it was made of but it looked and tasted a lot like something that had been eaten already... The one good thing about it was that it ended up being the only gross thing we ate on our trip... thank goodness. We also still had a jug full of the saril that we bought from Betty but upon opening it we found that it was already in the early stages of fermentation. Bradford wanted to keep it, the stinker, but I convinced him to throw it away. One less thing to lug around and no drunken Bradfords to contend with (I kid)!

Before we got onto our bus we saw our friends the missionaries again, talked for a bit, and then we were off. The drive down to Punta Gorda was gorgeous. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I was reminded a little bit of Kenya again when we kept stopping and stuffing more and more people onto the recycled school bus. Bradford and I took a video before it got too full to move our elbows.

Punta Gorda is a quaint coastal town and the last 15 minutes or so of our drive was right on the shoreline. It was gorgeous! We were the last ones to get off of the bus and our driver was kind enough to go beyond the normal route and drop us off as close as he could to our destination (Hickatee Cottages).

He let us off at the end of a dirt road on the edge of town with directions the rest of the way. Bradford and I quickly learned, however, that when given directions in Belize they're only good for a little way, then you have to stop and ask for more. After about 4 miles of walking (in the hot sun with ALL of our bags mind you... yes I whined a little...) and three installments of directions from friendly natives (one of whom was the only of two people we met on our whole trip that didn't speak English), we arrived to the refreshing, rainforesty acreage that was Hickatee. I was never happier.

Hickatee is a wonderful retreat that has multitudes of plant and animal species, nature walks ranging from 15-90 minutes through natural rainforest, three darling cottages, a "dipping pool", a lodge, Oscar the cat, and a very hospitable British couple. When we arrived we walked up the gravel path to the seemingly deserted main lodge. We wandered a bit, trying to figure out what to do when a fellow guest who had been laying by the pool came and told us that our hosts had just laid down for a nap but that he was sure they wouldn't mind checking us in first. I tried to stop him from doing said waking, but to no avail. Kate soon greeted us in her charming way and very warmly introduced us to Hickatee, our cabin, and Oscar. We soon released Kate back to her nap and we immediately took turns in the shower to cleanse ourselves of the day's bus ride and "walk". Afterward, I explored our little cottage and was instantly smitten. Our cottage is their "deluxe cottage". It used to be Kate and Ian's home until they moved closer to the lodge. Needless to say, the ONLY reason we stayed in the deluxe cottage was because Kate cut us a screaming deal. I adore Kate. Without her our whole Belize trip may not have worked out as well as it did. She was my pen pal during the planning stages of our trip and proved herself as a priceless resource of information.

Anyway, our cottage: it had a glorious bathroom with a very nice shower, a nice sitting room, a back patio, a front porch with a hammock, and a bedroom. It had tons of windows, the most beautiful wood floors I have ever seen (seriously, I wanted to ship them home with me) made from native trees, a large luxurious bathroom (did I say that already?), and comfy furniture. I wanted to take up permanent residence. We had a few hours to relax and snooze a little before we recruited Ian to drive us into town for dinner (it was Valentine's Day so we decided to go out instead of staying in and having Kate cook us something).

He dropped us off at a restaurant that was complete with chairs made from logs, a stage set up for a live reggae band, and little geckos singing and scuttling on the walls. I loved it. We got there at about 7:00 and there was no one there but us. We wanted to stay until 11:00 when the music started but we were so tired from the day that we decided to just call it a night. We walked to the main part of town and grabbed some ice cream from a little grocery store. After we finished we found a friendly cab driver to take us back to Hickatee. At night there's a generator that runs for a few hours so Bradford and I picked out a movie from our cottage's little library and watched a movie until the generator turned off. Then, we set up the hammock on the porch for Bradford to sleep in and I snuggled into the wonderful queen sized bed and fell into a blissful sleep.

Day 5: When I woke up I was surprised to see Bradford asleep on the floor in the main room. I found out that he had come in halfway through the night because the hammock was uncomfortable. I think he was scared from the eerie monkey noises or Oscar pouncing on him but he denies it ;). Soon after we woke up, Ian brought us a tray of ginger tea that we took out onto the patio to enjoy in the cool morning air. After tea we dressed and headed to the lodge for breakfast. Kate is an excellent cook and breakfast was quite a treat of fresh fruit, eggs, sausage, bacon, and delicious homemade bread with local jams and honey. We also had the opportunity to chat with the other five guests that were staying there. After breakfast we all went our separate ways. Bradford and I took advantage of the free bike rentals, provided by Kate and Ian, to ride into town and found a spot on a bench by the beach. We sat and enjoyed the beautiful weather and sea breeze. We were soon joined by a native teenager. I think Bradford and I were both holding our breath for a minute, waiting for him to finally ask us for money or something but we were pleasantly surprised to find that he really did just want to visit with us.

After a few hours of enjoying the beach and our new friend's company, we rode around town again and found a shop so we could purchase some delicious hot sauce. I think I ended up with 5 bottles at the end of the trip, plus three for Bradford's dad... Its good stuff. And all different flavors. After we made our purchases we went back to Hickatee and enjoyed a nice sit in the pool and conversation with one of the other guests. We, read, talked, snoozed, and enjoyed being outside until the bugs became too much of an annoyance. We went to the cabin for a nap and then went on one of the nature trails before dinner. We'd wanted to catch a glimpse of all the animals but we started a little later than we'd hoped and we ended up stumbling around in the dark. It was kind of eerie, especially with the occasional spider web in the face, but it was really neat to see and hear the rainforest at night. Once we finally found our way out of the trees we met the rest of the group on the lodge porch for dinner at our respective tables. I had swordfish and a salad and Bradford had soup and chicken. I don't love fish, but Kate can make just about anything taste great. After dinner we had fresh ginger tea and a plate of chocolate made by a local Mayan woman in the Toledo district. She grows all the ingredients herself and the result is some deliciously earthy tasting chocolate that can easily become an addiction... We bought 6 bars to take home with us. It was all they had or else I would've gladly bought more.

After dinner we sat and talked with Ian and Kate about the ways they try to live green and support the local businesses, not the larger resort type places and business that are squelching some of the native charm. Something that I found absolutely fascinating. We also played with Oscar, the orange tabby cat that roams the premises. He has a stick with a toy bug attached by some fishing line and he chased it all over the lodge. It was really entertaining.

After our enjoyable visit with Ian and Kate we went to our lodge to watch another movie and then showered, got our things put together for our early morning departure the next day, and settled in for a few hours of sleep.

Dangriga and Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve

This is part 2 of a 4 part blog about Julie and Bradford’s trip to Belize. Posts 1 and 3 will be written by Julie, while posts 2 and 4 will be written by Bradford.

Day 2: On our first day in Dangriga we decided to take it easy. We slept in our cabana until about 10am. The sound of the surf and the cool breeze made it easy to sleep late. We woke up to Ruthie, our hostess, shouting to us through our window whether we wanted breakfast. We were served a simple breakfast of homemade bread, jam and juice.

After breakfast we got our gear together and took a walk around Dangriga. We headed in the direction of the market hoping to pick up some souvenirs. Walking about town was a fun experience; the streets were full of friendly Garufina, Creole, and Mayan people. We browsed the market and found ripe, inexpensive pineapple and papaya for sale. We continued exploring, walking the quieter roads off of the bustling main street. We walked past a few schools, an LDS church house, and were even offered some “green stuff” which we politely declined. On our way home we waxed hungry so we stopped at a random roadside eatery and ordered the usual: beans, rice, chicken (or fish or beef) with some delicious sauce over all of it. We also drank some saril, a tasty Jamaican tea made from the saril flower and ginger.

Ruthie helped us prepare the pineapple and papaya and we sat in the shade on the beach, reading our books and eating our fruits. It was very relaxing. Ruthie had her son get down some coconuts from the tree and we drank the juice, after which Ruthie then told me how much to tip her son. That was kind of annoying – we ended up avoiding the helpful Belizeans because for the most part when they were helpful they expected a tip. I blame tourists for creating that false economy.

In the evening we ate dinner at Ruthie’s with an Irish couple staying in the next cabana, then went to bed.

Day 3: We woke up early and walked out to the bus terminal to catch a bus heading south. After a short ride (maybe 25 minutes) we arrived at the Mayan Village outside the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve.

The reserve is located about 7 miles from the main road and there are taxis that take people up to the reserve, however they are $20 USD ONE WAY. We were on a tight budget so we stubbornly decided to walk. It was a beautiful day, not more than 85 degrees (F) and the road was lined with bushes of big beautiful flowers. We found some “12 o’clock”, the local name for a plant that will fold itself up when touched. And just before reaching the park, we saw a sign that cryptically said “Plane Wreck 500m” so we investigated.

Soon, however, the walk started losing its charm: we were wearing our new Tevas without socks (read: blisters). About halfway up we realized we were doomed, and when we finally made it to the reserve I could barely walk.

We looked at a map with a helpful park guide and decided a tubing trip down the river would do our feet some good. The tubes were only $5 USD for two. We walked the short trip to the entry point, and it was at this moment that I remembered my fear of rivers and lakes. The park guide’s affirmation of snakes in the river didn’t help. I grabbed a big stick and gingerly started floating.

The jungle was beautiful. The birds were singing and the sun was shining and I was on the lookout for snakes. Julie thought it was hilarious that her big strong bad boy was petrified by an unseen terror slithering toward him in the clear, cool water. At one point we made a wrong turn and found ourselves in a smaller river running parallel to the main river, full of branches and scary spiders. Fortunately our little terror tunnel met back up with the main stream.

In order to get out of the river we were supposed to look out for a rope running across the river, grab it, and pull ourselves to shore. After that, we were warned, there are dangerous rapids. When we finally saw the rope we did manage to grab it and start pulling ourselves to shore, however it was at that moment that I saw a spider on my leg. It wasn’t particularly big or scary, but it did take all of my attention to fling it off. When I finally rid myself of the spider, I looked up and saw that I had drifted beyond the rope’s safety! I jumped off my tube, threw my pack to Julie (who barely caught it), and forged my way back up river. I nearly died.

Being out of the river, we decided to leave our tubes on the trail and make the small hike to the waterfall near Ben’s Bluff. The waterfall was cool and dark and made for a great place to relax. We contemplated swimming under the waterfall but eventually we both lost our nerve. It was dark and scary, and I couldn’t help but imagine huge tentacles grabbing me when I got close. Julie was braver than me though, and made a valiant effort.

We relaxed at the falls for a while and even made a friend with an indigenous crab named Crab Cake. We remembered seeing that Ben’s Bluff appeared to be somewhat close to the falls when we looked at the map earlier, so we decided to once again abuse our feet and go to one last place before heading back for the day.

The trail to Ben’s Bluff looked bad to begin with. I thought “Ben’s Bluff… bluff… aren’t bluffs above everything…?” 45 minutes and nearly as many “lets rest here for a minute”s, we made it to the top. What a beautiful view!

The hike down to the park visitors center seemed longer than it was because our feet and legs had reached their limits. Arriving at the visitor center we realized that we did NOT want to hike down to the road to catch our bus. We found another American couple from Colorado who were going down as well so we split the $20 USD cab.

While waiting for the cab we were attacked by small, biting flies. I looked at my legs and saw tiny pools of blood and realized that they were eating me!! This was when we realized that I shouldn’t have convinced Julie to not bring the bug repellant (“ah there’s no bugs in Belize…”).

Arriving at the road we quickly surmised that we missed our bus. We waited, hoping another bus would come, but it started getting quite dark. I remembered the times in the Philippines where my companion and I would hitchhike our way home when it was too late for public transportation, so I ‘nonchalantly’ started poking my thumb in the air. The problem with trying to hitchhike without letting anyone know is that no one knows you’re doing it. So, at the approach of a big tanker truck I blasted my thumb out with such force that he couldn’t do anything BUT stop.

Our friend Hugo was trucking gasoline all over Guatemala (where he was born) and Belize (where he lives). We were so grateful, even though Julie had to sit on my lap and he wasn’t passing by Dangriga directly (we would be dropped off a few miles from Dangriga). We even invited him to dinner (somewhat of a ploy on my part to get him to take us all the way to Dangriga, but mostly because we were so grateful) but he looked at us, shrugged sheepishly, and said “I’m late…”. Next time Hugo, next time!

After he dropped us off at the junction, we found a good spot to hitchhike the remaining distance. After just a minute or so, a couple in a pickup truck stopped and gave us a ride to our cabana in Dangriga. As we rode, we spoke through the window and found out that they were Jehovah's Witnesses from Spain on a mission. Hugo and the JW’s were like angels to us.

We were on such a high after that – what a perfect day! And to top it off, while we were walking to the eatery to grab some dinner we met two LDS missionaries who were assigned in Dangriga. It was fun talking with them about the work in Dangriga and the branch they had there.

After dinner we fell asleep almost immediately to the soothing sound of the surf just 20 feet away.

Time is here

I love the Christmas season. Everything about it just amazing. I don't even mind the cold very much just because its so characteristic of the holiday. Though, we are all scratching our heads out here in Provo, wondering where in the heck they mis-delivered our white fluffy stuff too. I mean, there is only 2 weeks until Christmas and even the ski resorts are sweating it over. I sure hope something happens soon because if I spend $400 on a snowboarding pass I sure expect to get some of that snow to board on. Needless to say, I'm sure I'm not the only one here in UT Valley with crossed fingers. Whodda thought I would ever be hoping for snow? I tease my roommate, Mita, that its all her fault because she keeps praying that it WON'T snow. She is from Fiji and snow and cold are further from her favorite things list than lima beans are from mine.

I want to relish Christmas this year. I don't want it to rush by in a whirlwind and leave me wondering where the time went. There are so many exciting things that happen during this month that its easy for time to fly. I want to make sure that I absorb it and enjoy it. Most of that will be achieved by dressing myself in the spirit of Christmas everday before I set out. I should do that all year long but Christmas is always a good time to reevaluate and rededicate myself to that principle.

Bradford found an article the other day for a fun seasonal celebration. Its a spin on the 12 days of Christmas. Instead of doing 12 days of incremental gift giving, its a 12 DATES of Christmas. So every day, starting 12 days before Christmas, you go on a date and somehow tie in the number of the day before Christmas it is to the date. I thought it was a great idea and we wanted to give it a spin and start a tradition, but we ended up having a bunch of other events scheduled and not enough days to do everything (we would only be able to do our 12 dates on weekends and maybe one other weekday every week because of school and work)... Christmas is a busy time of year I'm realizing... Even though it didn't work out for us this year, I love the idea and I am determined to make it work for next year.

As far as the Christmas festivities go we have already gone to my work's Christmas party (which was dinner at a Mexican restaurant, Joe Vera's, and a show at Comedy Sportz, a local comedy club that I recommend to anyone who appreciates clean, silly, comedy), and a Kurt Bestor concert. I had never heard of Kurt Bestor until someone brought tickets to my work to give us as a thank you. Apparently he is well known in Utah as a Christmas music performer and Bradford knew who he was and liked him so I got four of the tickets and Bradford and I went to hear some great Christmas music with our friends Jarron and Olivia. I really enjoyed it. He's a very talented musician/composer and there were some touching Christmas pieces. Coming up on our checklist of Christmas events is the annual Mo-Tab/Orchestra at temple square Christmas concert. Though nothing can easily top the one with Sissel from two years ago, it should still be great this year. They gave out tickets in a "lottery" for this years concert. You basically just entered a drawing with how many tickets you wanted (up to 4) and what night you preferred them for and then they randomly chose people to get them. I was lucky enought to get four of them. I originally had four for the sunday mini-concert but then my old co-worker switched me for her saturday night ones because she can't go on saturday. Mita and Kimberly (hopefully) are coming with Bradford and me and I'm really lookign forward to it. I'm also going with Kimberly to her work Christmas party which is on Friday at Tucanos. Mmmm... I'm going to be missing out on a good chunk of Bradford's family's Christmas party but I can't pass up Tucanos! Or Kimberly for that matter ;).

Speaking of Bradford's family... Bradford's brother Richard and his family are visiting from Las Vegas this week and the women in the family (ie, sisters, sisters-in-law, girlfriend...) took advantage of the opportunity to go out for a girl's night to Olive Garden and then play games afterward at Bradford's parents'. It was sweet of them to include me, and once the hyperventilating subsided I was able to enjoy their company and conversation. I hope they can say the same of me... Unfortunately, I am shy by nature, believe it or not, and being in a group of just girls (let alone a group of people I don't know particularly well) is extremely intimidating for me, and I wasn't as active a participant as I would have liked. I am perfectly content to be a listener and observe things, but sometimes I'm afraid that people interpret that as me being indifferent and standoffish. Part of me wished Bradford was there to lean on and calm my nerves but I need to get over it already. After two years you wouldn't think it would be an issue to be around his family alone. That's my fault for letting it get to me so much and overthinking and letting anxiety take over... I wish I had a better handle on it. I can only get better, though, can't get much worse. That is my new resolve: to be less self-conscious. In all aspects. Its something that has been on my mind for a while now and I realize that its holding me back from being an honest depiction of myself. Anyway, off that vein...

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas season. Its such an amazing time of year and everyone deserves to feel a glimmer of the Christmas magic!

Long Time

I haven't blogged in a while, for more than a month actually, and I have a whole list of things just begging to be blogged about! I have been training a new receptionist at work and so I haven't had a computer during the day to blog on (not that I blog at work...), but now I have a few spare moments so I am going to record some of the things on my list.

First of all, Bradford and I had a lot of fun with our Fall o'Festivities. We went to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point with his sister and brother-in-law, and had a lot of fun there. The corn maze itself was kind of lame... but the company and food was fun. That same night, before the corn maze, we celebrated our 2-year anniversary. We went to California Pizza Kitchen and Cold Stone. That's where we went on the date we decided to become official. Insert "Awws" here. :)

Bradford's sister, Amanda, also put together a really fun evening for the adults in the family. It was a full on pirate themed murder mystery dinner. Complete with costumes and crazy accents. Bradford was a British Lieutenant and I was an African witch doctor. Because of our budgets I decided I would hone my creative skills and make our costumes myself. For mine I bought some clearanced fabric at the fabric store and made myself a robe and skirt. I probably should have used a pattern but the patterns cost more than my materials did so I decided to just wing it. Surprisingly, it turned out looking ok. The hood was the only part that didn't turn out exactly how I would have liked but I guess that's what I get for not using a pattern. Then I bought a cheap skeleton from a discount store, disassembled him, and strung him into a necklace with a few plastic spiders here and there. I then used a scarf for my head dress. Bradford's costume turned out even better than I'd hoped. He had some BYU men's chorus jackets that the previous tenant had left in his closet so I took one of them to use for his naval officer outfit. I took off the men's chorus badge, sewed some gold trimming across the buttons, and I made the shoulder fringe things with two sponges painted gold and gold trim hot glued around the edges. Then I sewed them onto the shoulder pads in the jacket. I bought a foam sword from Wal-mart for 2 dollars and painted the handle gold (it was blue). Then I sewed a sash out of some red fabric and a ruffly collar thing out of some white fabric. I made his hat out of a dollar store straw hat that I sewed up on the sides and added some gold trim around the edges. Lastly, I used the khaki pants he wore for our Halloween costumes last year (he was Colonel Mustard for a Clue party my friends threw), and I cut them off and added some blue ribbon to the bottoms to tie on the sides. And he wore tights... I tried to find knee-highs but to no avail. He didn't seem to mind them. I'm not sure what that means... ;) Overall I only spent about $40-$50 all together. Here is a picture of us in our costumes my roommate took for us. Doesn't Bradford look dashing?

Another thing on my list of festivities that we did was drive up the canyon to see the leaves. It was such a refreshing afternoon. We grabbed a pizza and headed up for a relaxing drive and some good conversation. We topped off the night with some hot chocolate. Here are a couple pictures we took up at the canyon. It was a little chilly, hence my rudolph nose. And yes, I kiss boys. Well, just one actually.

Bradford and I also went to the pumpkin patch and then carved some jack-o-lanterns. I love going to the pumpkin patch. I don't know why exactly, but I love it. My pumpkin is the sad/scared one. Its supposed to be scared but it looks kinda sad instead. I wanted to do a scared jack-o-lantern because jack-o-lanterns are usually scary, not scared, so I thought it would be some good irony. My pumpkin was particularly fibrous. I had a hard time carving it because the fibers kept peeling away. It was interesting and made the whole pumpkin carving even more challenging. Anyway, we carved them the night before Halloween and then on Halloween we watched a bunch of scary movies and ate a bunch of candy. A few days ago we smashed our pumpkins and took a video of them.

Here is Bradford at the pumpkin patch, cutting the vine to one of the lucky pumpkins that gets to come home with us:

And here are our finished jack-o-lanterns. I wanted to carve the little gourd but that thing was hard as rock. I couldn't have made a single notch in it without at least losing a finger.

Here is a picture of my pumpkin after he had been smashed. Poor thing.

And this is the pumpkin smashing video:

Another thing we did that was on my list of things to do this fall was to buy some fall clothes. Bradford actually came with me believe it or not and didn't get sick of shopping until hours later. I'm so proud of him. ;) We went up to Park City to do our shopping at the outlet mall up there. I love going up to Park City. It always feels like a vacation. It was a lot of fun and we found a lot of stuff for some really good deals. I bought a long light jacket, nine west brand, that was orginally $200 but I got it for $30, and I bought some new black dress pants for work and a black ruffly-ish blouse, brown flats, a silk blouse, and another blouse at the Banana Republic outlet for a steal. Then I got a sweater and a new black cardigan at the Gap outlet and I can't remember what else... maybe that was it. I also got a new umbrella later back in Orem at Target. We went to dinner after our spree and drove back home. It was really a lot of fun. Bradford enjoyed it at least as much as I did too.

All in all, it has been a great month since I last wrote. I anticipate the next month to be just as good. Hopefully though, it won't be that long before I blog again...

A Day Away

Bradford and I took a litte mid-week break yesterday from Provo, and work, and school, etc... Bradford picked me up from work at one o'clock and we headed up to Salt Lake City for the day.

Our first stop was in Sandy for lunch. We had a two for one coupon to Sweet Tomatoes, a soup/salad/pasta buffet. It was so good! I ate way too much, of course, but because the food was all pretty healthy I didn't feel disgusting afterward. I think my favorite things there were the Ginger soup/broth and the itty bitty teeny tiny ice cream cones. Seriously, these things were adorable and held just enough ice cream to top off the meal. I wish I had taken a picture of it... Here's one of Bradford though, enjoying a tasty leafy salad:




After we finished lunch, we headed further North to downtown Salt Lake City. We parked the car and then walked to one of our favorite spots in all of Salt Lake City. Sam Weller's Bookstore. I love that place. We only make it up there a few times a year but we love it every time we come. Its a three story new and used bookstore and they have a collectibles section that has really really old books, rare books, special edition books, and also just really nice copies of books. Bradford and I have been building a small collection of classics. I think we have 25-30 leatherbound or wanna-be leatherbound gold lettered books. I started buying them years ago and more recently have started to buy higher quality ones. At Sam Weller's we can almost always find really nice copies for under 40 dollars. Its a lot of fun. Yesterday I had a hard time choosing just one... I found about ten that I wanted but we ended up just buying The Three Musketeers as well as Anna Karenina. After we made our selections from the collectibles we wandered around the rest of the store and ended up picking up a Tagolog-English Dictionary for Bradford. We made ou purchases, walked back to the car, and then headed off for Hogle Zoo! We were initially planning to see My Fair Lady at the Pioneer Theater Company but we found out that the show for that night was sold out, which we were kinda bummed about, so we decided a trip to the zoo to see some fluffy animals would help cure some of that disappointment :).

We saw all sorts of animals, lots of monkeys, some big cats, lots of birds, elephants, rhinos, a few bears, snakes, and lots of fun litte furry guys too.

The first animal we saw was a bunch of turkeys. Throughout the park there were turkeys and roosters and peacocks just walking around. Bradford was walking up to one of the turkeys and the turkey started to cluck and get kind of agitated and so we decided it was time to go elsewhere... Turkeys make me nervous anyway... one too many bad run-ins earlier in life. Here's Bradford posing with Ms. Turkey:


I also took a picture of one of the roosters for Bradford. He loves chickens/roosters and he got excited when he saw them.

There was an exhibit of a family of monkies (I can't remember what kind of monkey there are...) and they have a 6 week old baby and he was darling. He was jumping all over the place and playing with his mom and dad, running around, tackling clumps of grass... It was very entertaining and we got to be pretty close to them. This is a picture of the baby in one of his calm moments staring at a family member. I think he wanted whatever the big one was playing with in his hand.


There was also an inside monkey exhibit and in one of them there was a bunch of lemurs and one of them came running up to us when we walked up to the glass and he put his hands on the glass, so I did too (don't worry, I didn't tap on the glass) and I thought he was really liking our interaction until the next thing you know he and his cage-mate started screaming and making a really scary sounding yell... I was very glad for the thick glass in between us. Apprently I made some offensive hand gestures in lemur or something.

After the monkeys we saw a cougar that was swatting and biting at bothersome flies, some black bears who were very shy and hiding from spectators, some elephants, two rhinos, soem warthogs that were surprisingly really cute. and then we saw one of the most amazing animals ever. A Red Panda. I wanted one so badly after that. He was darling! If he wasn't a wild and slightly dangerous animal (though he looked as sweet as anything) I really think I might have climbed into his home and snuggled him. He has one of the cutest, sweetest, faces ever. I wanted to get a picture of him but when I went back to get it he was in his inside area and I couldn't get a good picture because of the glass. Next time...

We then saw some giraffes, which made me miss Kenya, and then we saw a tiger. I wanted him to go swimming in his little pond thing but he was too busy pacing back and forth at the top of his hill that he lived on. across from his exhibit there were some lynxs and they were beautiful. One of them was really preoccupied with the pacing tiger. His stare was locked on Mr. Tiger the entire time we watched him. He was even pacing to match the tiger's pace. I think he secretly wants to be a tiger.

My favorite big cat was a leopard. He was taking a nap on some very cozy looking grass and he looked very, very soft. Another furry friend I would have glady cuddled with minus the potential of death. Again, I wish I'd gotten more pictures but I either didn't think of it in time or there was glass that affected the shots.

We also saw a white alligator. He was lounging out on the bank of his pond and I found him very comical, even though he wasn't doing anything but laying there, sprawled out, and relaxing. I kinda liked him. As we walked into his exhibit there was a cave thing you had to walk through and it had a waterfall coming off of it so Bradford and I took a couple pictures in front of it:


We also saw some penguins that were really cute. I think it must have been nap time though because they all looked so sleepy. This one was my favorite, I think he was sleeping standing up (maybe that's normal for penguins... hmm, I'll have to wikipedia that)! I also took a picture of one of his fellow penguins.



We went inside their reptile/desert animal exhibit. Along one wall was all the snakes and bugs and creepy crawlies. On the other wall was birds and fuzzies (like a REALLY cuddly looking prairie dog that I swear was smiling at me...) and things that were less scary to look at. I stuck closer to that side of the exhibit. At one point Bradford had to prepare me for a sight I could hardly stand. Two bunnies! I don't know what it is about bunnies but they are one animal that can get me to squeal like no other... they were very fun to watch. Next to the bunnies was another cute furry friend. A sand cat. He was sleeping in a hollowed out log and poked his head up at us. Very cute.

We saw some very pretty birds, and on our way out of the park we saw this parrot:


He was chriping and kind of cooing, and he seemed shy but also like he wanted us to see him and admire him. It was so cute (boy I'm using that word a lot... I just can't help myself!). He even made a full turn on one of his perches and posed very nicely for us. I liked him a lot.

After we said goodbye the friendly parrot we heard another bird talking. Earlier we had seen a very quiet Macaw parrot and I thought it sounded like it was coming from his location. Sure enough, we made our way over to him and he was more than willing to give us a show. He was such a crack up. He kept doing funny litte tricks like the one I got him doing in this picture:


Ok, so you can't really see what he's doing very well, but he would hook his beak on his cage and then let go with his feet and just hang from his beak, and he'd wiggle his wings back and forth. The harder we laughed the more he did it. It was so neat. Such a smart animal!

And, of course, what Zoo is complete with a giant lion mouth to drink from? Classic.


We left the zoo, and made our way back south to Provo. Then Bradford remembered that there is a Filipino market up this way and he wanted to find it so we could buy some food so I could experience and he could reminicse (he served his mission in the Philippines). It took us a little while to find it (we stopped at a 7/11 to buy slurpees and get directions...) but it was worth it once we did. Bradford was really excited and it was neat to see some of the things he'd told me about. As we were paying, the clerk asked me if Bradford was my brother, haha. I laughed and said that he most definitely wasn't my brother and Bradford said "I wouldn't kiss my sister like I kiss her." The lady said, "Oh, well you guys look alike." It was kinda funny.

We drove back in to Provo and stopped at Maceys to pick up some groceries for Bradford and then we went back to my apartment made some pancit sandwiches (kinda like top ramen noodles on white bread). Bradford used to eat them in the Philippines and he introduced me to them about a month ago and I found myself craving them. We had some peppermint herbal tea as well and then we watched a movie.

It was such a nice day. Such a needed break, too, from all the surrounding monotony. And its always nice to be with Bradford, no matter what we're doing. I know he needed the break too so it was great to get out and do something enjoyable and different.