Sequoia National Forest Trip - Part 1

Mr X and I recently took a trip to Sequoia National Forest in here California. It was great to see another side of California's beauty and allure before we move away. We arrived in the evening just before sunset with all of our brand new snowshoeing gear in tow. We were too excited to wait until the next day so after dinner we clumsily ran off into the black of the forest with our snow shoes strapped on. Thirty minutes later, creeped out a bit by darkness and unfamiliar noises, we arrived back at the lodge. Tramping about through the forest at night wasn't scary enough to prevent us from feeling exhilarated and we were both incredibly excited for the 'real' adventure that awaited us in the morning. Our plan was to hike from our lodge down to General Sherman and then continuing on down to the Giant Forest and then back. All in snowshoes, of course.

Here's Mr X the next morning, all ready to go:

We both started bundled completely up because we thought we'd freeze. As it turns out, snowshoeing really overheats you after you get going. So the coats came off and eventually so did both the hat and gloves. I was totally roasting.

This sign was very misleading - it pointed in the completely opposite direction and it wasted a good half hour of our time with it's trickery. Luckily we weren't in a hurry.

As you can see from the photo below, there was plenty of snow (that's the stop sign in the road). This picture was taken BEFORE the storm hit. I'm sure it was easily covered entirely by the next morning.

About halfway to General Sherman we came across this little structure - it was bathrooms with a bunch of port-a-potties out front.

I was hoping to use the ladies' room but it was locked and there were signs posted asking us to use the port-a-potties.

But that was impossible as the snow was way too high to be able to get the doors open. Oh well. I'm just happy I had The Freshette with me. (Seriously ladies, it's fantastic!)

We finally made it to see the General. The pictures below don't even come close to doing it justice. It is just amazing to see, in person, how massive these giant sequoia trees are. It was truly an awe-inspiring sight.

I have loads more pictures of the rest of our journey to the Giant Forest but this will do for now. I'll post the rest later, along with pictures of how much snow fell after the storm was over.

Two more weekend creations

Here are a few more pictures from my weekend cooking adventure. The first was a refreshing salad made with bell peppers, cucumbers, onions, scallions, parsley and mint. It was coated with a Dijon vinaigrette. I really liked it.

This next one is what you would get if a quiche and a frittata mated. It was quite possibly my favorite thing from the entire weekend, including the desserts. The only thing about it is that it wasn't quick to make. There was the making and chilling of the dough for the crust and the baking of the potatoes separately and then the baking of the crust separately and then throwing it all together and baking it together for an hour. Finally I had to saute the mushrooms separately and then after the hour of baking was finished, I put the Gruyere cheese and the mushrooms on top and put it back in the oven for another few minutes to toast it up to perfection. So even though it was quite labor intensive, it was incredibly delicious and I WILL do it again. If anybody wants the recipe I'd be happy to send it to you, just let me know.

Requested Food Pictures

These pictures are for you Mrs Nye. Let me know what you think. The first one is the apricot tart. It's not very pretty. and I was supposed to glaze it with apricot glaze but I only had cherry glaze on hand so that's why it's darker. It was VERY VERY delicious.

These are obviously coconut macaroons. They were very tasty but not quite up to par with the macaroons from the lovely little French Pastry Shop I so love here so I've got work to do with them.

Sadly, I didn't take any photos of my Summer Berry Brulee that I made. It was my favorite treat from this past week. (Yes, I'm such a pig. And a food nerd.)

Me and Mr X in DC

These are a couple of pictures of me and Mr X at the Air Force Memorial near DC.

DC Family Visit

Last month I went out to DC to visit Mr X (he was out there all month for work) and then some of both of our families. We had the opportunity to do all the touristy things out there so I'll be sure to post pictures of all of that. But in the meantime, here's one of my favorite pictures from the trip: Me and my big brother.

Pickles

Mr X took it upon himself to make homemade pickles yesterday. I'm so excited to try them once they are ready. And I'm so impressed with Mr X.

My Solo Excursions: Strasbourg, France

One morning while visiting Mr X in Germany I rented a car and drove myself across the border to spend some quality time in France. I love France. The only car I could get just happened to be nearly the size of a minivan, which really stinks in Europe where the lanes and the parking spaces are painfully small. But I was just happy that it had a built in GPS system...otherwise I probably would have been too chicken to go. (Without a GPS I am sure I would have gotten hopelessly lost on the way there and ended up calling Mr X from the side of a road who-knows-where sobbing buckets of tears.) Anyway, I made it to Strasbourg quickly and efficiently - too quickly because I ended up getting a speeding ticket. The next challenge was finding parking for my enormous vehicle. I ended up driving like a mad woman, around in circles all over town, seemingly almost always in the wrong direction but eventually I found a good place to park.

I had to cross the Île River via the Ponts-Couverts, located at the end of Petit France (that's the area of Strasbourg located on the Grand Île (the Main Island). Below is a good photo of what it looks like, courtesy of wikipedia.

This is the beginning of Petite France (the rest are my photos):

I wandered around for a couple of hours, perusing the delightful shops and gazing in awe at the quaint architecture and cobblestone streets.

Eventually all that aimless walking made my stomach grumble so I stopped in here for a bite to eat:

I enjoyed a savory flammekueche for my meal, it's a specialty of the region. (I had it once before the last time I visited Strasbourg, but this particular one was much more delicious - I don't know why.)

After my meal, I made my way through Place Kleber and then toward the famous Strasbourg Cathedral in Petite France. Below is just a picture of a well known building adjacent to the cathedral...I'd tell you what it was called but I forgot. Sorry.

This is a clock face on the outside of the cathedral. I'm showing you the picture because later I climbed up one of the towers and saw the inner workings of this clock.

I'm a sucker for stained glass photos and I take pictures of them wherever I go. This is from the inside of the cathedral.

I decided that I needed to burn of some of the macaroons that I munched on earlier that day so I opted to climb the bazillion stairs to the top of the cathedral tower. It took a really long time and I had to stop and catch my breath a few times. (Incidentally the next day my thighs were SO SORE from this climb.) Here are the stairs:

I stopped several times on the way up to rest a bit and of course I snapped pictures like crazy. So here we go - you can tell how far I'm getting up based on the pictures.

The last area before I reached the top was where the inner workings of the clock were. I thought it was very deserving of a photo.

Here's the top of the tower (unfortunately you can't go ALL the way up):

And of course, a view from the top:

PS - I bought so many macaroons in Strasbourg that the shop actually gave me a frequent-macaroon-eater card. After the 7th dozen, I could get a dozen free. I tried to convince Mr X to go back after I left a few times so he could score that free bag but he's not as disgustingly addicted to sugar as me, bless his heart.