friday favorites #27: week of july 8, 2016

Happy Friday! Why is it that holiday weeks feel longer than usual? It can't be just me, can it? I only worked Wednesday through Friday, but boy did those days feel long! So I'm thrilled that the weekend has arrived! Here are some of my recent favorite things:

1. 4th of July in Indiana
Spending the 4th in Indiana is becoming a bit of a tradition. Last year, my mom and I went out to see my sister and brother-in-law, and this year, my dad went along, too! We were gone Friday through Tuesday, and, despite some horrible delays due to road construction and bad traffic, we had a wonderful time!

It's never a sure thing that Dad's going anywhere until he's in the car, so I snapped this pic as we left to prove to Val that he was with us.

When we got there, Miss Chloe decided she really liked my bed. She's such a fluff ball, and she's so full of personality. Not very cuddly, that one, but certainly entertaining. She also scared me to death the first night—I saw her leave my room while I was getting ready for bed, so I closed the door. At 3 a.m., she jumped on top of me! Apparently, she snuck back in before I closed the door.

We went blueberry picking! Most of the blueberries weren't ripe yet, so we had to do some searching, but we ended up with 10 pounds for Val.

Dad was very tired after picking blueberries ...

We played lots of Rummy and Golf. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of my perfect Rummy hand. I went out on my first turn, and I was the first player!

We went to a "patriotic" concert in the park at Winona Lake ... only the concert didn't include much patriotic music. The highlight was the Four Seasons medley the band played. (In retrospect, I'm not sure that the concert was even advertised as patriotic—I just made that assumption because the concert took place over the holiday weekend.)

We girls saw Ragtime at the Wagon Wheel. It was phenomenal. Last year, we saw Bye Bye Birdie there, and it was really good, but Ragtime was something special.

It was almost chilly the whole time we were there, and we took advantage of the coolness by taking several walks—at Grace, around Winona Lake, and in Val & Greg's new neighborhood. As we walked, I was totally obsessed with the hostas. Now that I have my own baby hostas, I'm eager to see everyone else's! They seem to be a very popular plant in Val & Greg's neighborhood.

We had to head home on Tuesday, and we made sure to stop at a Chick-fil-A. Oh, how we need one in central Nebraska!

2. Galaxy Quest
I have loved Galaxy Quest ever since I saw it in the theater way back in '99. I've seen it multiple times over the years, but I'd forgotten just how clever the writing is! And, in addition to the at-the-time stars, it has so many now-famous people in it: Corbin Bleu, Enrico Colantoni, Rainn Wilson, Sam Rockwell.

We (and by "we," I mean "everyone but Dad who was sleeping") watched it at Val's, and it was a pure delight from start to finish. If you're in need of a good laugh, check it out on Netflix!

3. 30 for 30 documentaries
I recently discovered that many of ESPN's 30 for 30 documentaries are on Netflix, and now I can't get enough of them! My favorites so far are This Magic Moment, about the rise and fall of the Orlando Magic in the 1990s, Jordan Rides the Bus, about Michael Jordan's foray into minor league baseball, and (obviously, if you know me at all) The Price of Gold, about the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal. Up next: Believeland. We'll see if it can make me stop loathing the Cavs.

(Tangentially related note: I love that Kevin Durant has joined the Warriors. And, while I can understand Thunder fans' disappointment, I don't get why people who aren't Thunder fans are upset, and I don't see how "chasing rings" is a bad thing. If the goal of NBA basketball is to win a championship, why wouldn't you do whatever you can to get there?)

4. The Great British Baking Show
It's back! My mom and I enjoy watching baking competitions together, and The Great British Baking Show is by far our favorite. Season 3 just started (which apparently was season 6 in the UK). It airs on PBS (and on the PBS app), and it's so fun! You can watch episodes here. Just do it!

5. INSPY award winners!

Instead of just one book recommendation today, I'm going to give you a bunch. At the end of last month, the INSPY award winners for 2016 were announced. I was privileged to be one of the Contemporary Romance/Romantic Suspense judges this year, and it was such a great experience. I've read several of the winners (see them all here), and they're great—but the winner I'm most excited about is Sarah Sundin's Through Waters Deep. While I generally prefer contemporary to historical fiction, I can't get enough of Sundin's books, and I'm so excited to see her win this award!

But seriously, check out all the winners. You're sure to find something great to add to your TBR pile.

(Fun fact: When I first posted about Through Waters Deep last year, my friend Jennifer commented that the guy on the cover looks like Ryan Reynolds. So now all I can think of is Ryan Reynolds when I look at it!)

If you've made it to the end of this post, bless you! As usual, I'm linking up with Erika, Christina, and Karli. What are some things you've been enjoying this week?

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california through photos

Late Monday night, I got home from a weekend trip with my parents to visit my uncle (my mom's brother). He has had some health issues, and I hadn't seen him since his last trip to Nebraska over Christmas 2013, so it was great to see him again! Here's a glimpse at our trip through photos ...

Friday
We left around 9:30 on Friday morning. Fortunately, we had time built into our schedule, as we encountered an unexpected detour. We still arrived in plenty of time.

On the shuttle to the airport. I forgot to alert Dad that we were taking a picture.

We ran into some of Steph's friends at the airport, and they ended up sitting right behind us on our Southwest flight to Vegas. Please excuse my wild selfie eyes.

As we neared Vegas, I couldn't help but take picture after picture after picture of the topography. So pretty, and these pics don't do it justice.

From my previous visit to the Las Vegas airport, I knew there would be a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, so we had to get hot drinks. I had hot tea, as I wasn't sure how my system would react to coffee after being on the AIP diet for eight weeks.

And then the fun part ... our first celebrity sighting! After boarding the flight from Vegas to Burbank, we got all settled, I turned off my phone (which was dying--my battery has the shortest life), and I looked up to see Nick Carter searching for a place to put his carry on. In case you've been living under a rock (or you weren't a teenage girl in the 90's), Nick Carter is a member of the Backstreet Boys and a current contestant on Dancing with the Stars. His partner, Sharna, was also on the flight. He ended up sitting about three rows behind us. Absolutely no one even let on that they knew who he was, and I played it cool, too ... until we landed and went to baggage claim. Mom noticed a man holding a sign that said "N. Carter" and told me to get a picture. So I did--not of the sign but of N. Carter himself.

Unfortunately, the picture was blurry, and there wasn't time to snap another. But I swear that this is Nick Carter!

Our friends Lee & Jean picked us up at the airport. Our first stop? In-N-Out, where I had my first fries in two months. And one very sorry "protein style" burger.

Saturday
California is beautiful. I know that's general knowledge, but it's different when you're experiencing it for yourself! The weather was so fantastic--and there were practically no bugs! We spent most of our morning relaxing--and I spent a considerable amount of time in Lee & Jean's backyard.

Mom wanted to get a new Facebook cover photo. I think this one will do nicely.

My uncle is very protective of his privacy, so I cropped him out of the photos, but you can see that Mom and I enjoyed being with him! We spent much of the day at the assisted living place where he lives.

Back at Lee & Jean's, we started to watch the Husker game, but then it was supper time, so we went to Souplantation, where I neglected to take any photos. The food was good, though :-)

Glad the game is on ESPN so I can still watch my #Huskers from California! #gbr

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Nov 7, 2015 at 4:25pm PST

After supper, we went to Walmart to get some things for my uncle. I'd been following the game on my phone, and, as we were standing in the checkout, I saw that we were up by one with 17 seconds left. I began obsessively hitting "refresh" on my Twitter feed ... and when I saw that we won, I yelled. In the checkout. The Californians though I was nuts.

Sunday
We went to Lee & Jean's church on Sunday, and it was so nice to finally meet the people who were so helpful when my uncle had his health crisis. It was also, once again, nice outside ... so we walked home from church.

Family selfie walking home from church. #myselfiegameisweak

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Nov 8, 2015 at 11:05am PST

While the others went to pick up my uncle for lunch, Mom and I relaxed in the back yard.

Backyard reading before lunch. Wish I could take this weather home with me! #vacation #amreading #californiaisbeautiful

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Nov 8, 2015 at 12:31pm PST

We had a wonderful time eating (outside!) and visiting with my uncle and Lee & Jean. Then Mom and I spent time with my uncle in his room.

While my uncle went to supper, Mom and I waited on a bench in the hallway. One cute little lady was so concerned about us because there was a fan on, and surely we were cold. I wasn't at all :-)

Monday

On Monday, it was time to head home. Pretty uneventful, except that we did have another celebrity sighting (though celeb might be pushing it a bit). "It's that guy from Spin City!" I exclaimed to Mom. No, not Michael J. Fox. Richard Kind. So not too exciting, but still fun to spot an actor.

We had a very long layover in Denver, and we ended up eating at McDonald's for lunch--because it was the ONLY fast food we spotted, and no way was Dad going to pay for a sit down meal. But then we found this, and all was right in the world.

Dear Denver Airport: Thank you for having a Coffee Bean. It almost makes up for your woeful lack of fast food options. McDonald's is not my idea of a good lunch. #coffeelover

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Nov 9, 2015 at 12:48pm PST

This time, I took a chance on a latte made with coconut almond milk, and it tasted so good! Also, my body didn't rebel, which I appreciated.

A short flight to Omaha, supper with Blendy, and we headed home. I was greeted by these goobers, who didn't seem too excited to see me at first but have been very clingy in the last two days.

You'd think I'd been gone for a month instead of 3 days. It's good to be missed 😻 #catsofinstagram #Isisthecat #Skaara #Hammond

A photo posted by Becky Ritta (@beckyritta) on Nov 10, 2015 at 5:21pm PST

Overall, it was a fantastic trip, and I'm very grateful that I was able to go along with my parents. Also, I somehow managed to lose a pound--maybe I should disregard my diet more often!

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a spectacular fourth!

I intended to post this yesterday, but then I got a speeding ticket and my day went to pot. Now on to happier things!

My mom and I just returned from a wonderful weekend in Indiana visiting my sister and brother-in-law. Val and Greg live in my college town, and it's always fun to go back, especially when we happen to be there on a Sunday and can go to the church I attended in college (which is also the church they attend).

We set out mid-morning on Thursday ... and it was just about the longest trip ever. From heavy rain to me not feeling well to my mom's shingles (which she came down with the week before), it felt like the trip that would never end! (This picture was obviously taken at the beginning of the trip.)

Finally, though, we made it. And we met this cutie:

Seriously, Miss Chloe is just about the cutest thing ever! Just like her "cousin" Skaara, she loves chasing pink fabric.

We slept in on Friday, and then we wandered around the shops in the Village at Winona for a while. We also hit the local T.J. Maxx, which is a bit, uh, classier than the one in Grand Island ... and there I bought some size 10 pants. Seriously? Size 10??? I haven't been a 10 since junior high! (I'm probably closer to a 12 normally, but the 10 of this particular brand is what fit.)

That evening, we ate at The Boathouse, where I longed to have my favorite dish, the chicken & bacon wrap ... but I was good, stuck to the gluten free thing, and had a cheeseburger with no bun. Then we girls saw Bye Bye Birdie at the Wagon Wheel Theatre. I'd heard all about the Wagon Wheel when I was at Grace, but this was the first show I saw there. It was fantastic! The acting was great, and the show was so fun. Bravo!

Saturday was super relaxing. I read this book for a while, we played Rummy (I lost ... but it wasn't a massacre like it sometimes is), and Greg grilled burgers for supper. Also, Val and Mom conspired to kill me--Val prayed for our meal, and she tacked on a quick "and please help us get good seats for the concert" onto the end. Mom proceeded to mock her, and I couldn't help but laugh ... with a mouthful of water. Basically, I ended up choking--I absolutely could not breathe. I did eventually recover :-)

Then we went down to Winona Lake for the Masterworks Patriotic Pops Concert and fireworks.

Lots of people were already there when we arrived, so we ended up sitting to the side of the orchestra. Val decided that, since we couldn't see very well anyway, we should face the lake, as that's where the fireworks after the concert would be.

So Mom spent the concert like this:

Something about her discomfort at being turned a different direction than everyone else was hilarious to Val and me. And when you think about it, Val's reasoning didn't make any sense, but we all went along with it.

Then, when it was time for fireworks, we moved--so Mom's discomfort was for nothing!

On Sunday, we went to Christ's Covenant (it's always so great to be back, even though I really don't know anyone there anymore) before heading to Fort Wayne for the afternoon: lunch at Granite City, shopping at Target, and watching Jurassic World.

We had to say goodbye to Greg, Val, and Chloe and head back to real life on Monday. This drive didn't feel quite as long as the first, though. Maybe because we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel, and then we meandered through several stores at the Tanger Outlets in Iowa. Mom even found a deeply discounted dress and ridiculously cheap dress pants (something like $7)! And we had to get coffee and chocolate at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory before getting back on the road. (My selfie skills were not on point ...)

Really, we made great time! And then I came home to this:

It's not pretty; it's a $35 stove I got off a garage sale. It's not my dream stove by any means...but it is a GAS stove. For someone who learned to cook on gas and hasn't had a gas stove since moving out of her parents' house 10 years ago, this is a big deal! My dad, who stayed home to work on a variety of projects, made running a gas line and hooking up the stove one of those projects. Thanks, Dad! It's very much appreciated :-)

Overall, it was a fantastic way to spend the Fourth of July. I just wish the vacation could have lasted longer ...

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a quick trip

At the end of October, my sister Blendy, her friend Janelle, and I made a quick trip to Indiana to see Val. (Well, Janelle went to see her boyfriend, but she saw Val, too.) Once we got home, I hit the ground running with book reviews, homework assignments, and Singing Christmas Tree practices, so I'm just getting around to blogging about it. And since I'm feeling kind of lazy, I'm not even going to write any more—I'll just direct you to my facebook album! So go here to see what we did ...

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pricelining: days 3 & 4

We were without internet access at our last hotel, so I wrote this on Friday but didn't have the opportunity to post until tonight.

For what we did on day three, see Blendy’s blog!

This morning, we got up at 9 and readied ourselves to leave. I booked our hotel—$48 for a room at the Extended Stay America in Copley, Ohio. This was our worst deal yet, as regular price is $70. Also, this is our worst hotel yet, but I’ll get to that later.

After filling the car and driving through Krsipy Kreme, we headed off for Butler, Pennsylvania, the location of the nearest Ross store. Val and I visited Ross in Oregon last summer, and I was looking forward to more great clothing deals. Unfortunately … we never found the store! Google Maps let us down :-(. So we continued on our way to Copley (which is near Akron).

As we pulled up to the hotel, I thought, “Uh, oh.” It just looked, well, not very nice. My hesitation continued as we stepped into the lobby and were greeted by the scent of cigarette smoke. We checked in, headed to the car, and lugged our stuff up to the second floor. We entered our room—and realized it hadn’t been cleaned yet! I called the front desk, and the girl asked us to return for a new room. So we lugged all our stuff downstairs and then back up again. In retrospect, I should have checked out the room before bringing everything in. To top it all off, internet access costs $5—so we decided to pass on that for the night. The room itself isn’t so bad—we have lots more space than we had at the Microtel in Erie—but I’m just pretty unimpressed with the whole experience so far.

We had a double bed ... but I enjoyed sitting in the recliner.

The room had a kitchenette ... it would have been perfect for a longer stay.

Tonight, we got together with my college friend, Holly. Our hotel just happened to be literally two minutes from her apartment! We went our for supper at Swensons, a drive-in restaurant. This was—by far—the highlight of my day! You know how at Sonic the car-hops sometimes wear skates? Well, at Swensons, the car-hops RUN. As in, when they see your lights on (which is how you signal you need help), they run towards your car, full steam ahead. It was absolutely hilarious watching them!

Holly drove us by LeBron James' house.

Holly and me. We hadn't seen each other in six years!

Now we’re back at the hotel. I’m trying to steal the wi-fi signal from the Raddison across the street so we can watch some Veronica Mars, but it’s not working very well. We’ll need to leave for the wedding around 10:30—I’m looking forward to sleeping in!

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pricelining: day 2

"Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan." While You Were Sleeping

Today certainly didn't turn out the way I planned. First of all, I didn't get up on time ... a fact that Blendy so kindly recorded on her blog. Then I had a few issues reserving our hotel room. Namely, I didn't want to pay what it was going to cost to stay in Canada ... so we changed our plans and booked a room in Erie, Pennsylvania. (A little different than Canada; I know!) Turns out that while we both wanted to see Niagara Falls and say we'd been through Canada, we were okay with staying in the good old USA. We have our room for two nights, and tomorrow we'll just explore the area. We'll definitely go to New York, as I've never been there before, and it's not so far from Erie. Don't know what we'll do there, but I've never been in New York before, so we can't be this close and not go!

Our trip was quite uneventful--which is good! Five hours and one crazy-expensive Ohio toll road later we arrived in Erie. Tonight's price: $50. Regular price: $89. So this deal isn't quite as good as last night's. Also, our room reminds us of a hospital. It's the Pepto-Bismol pink decor.

Unfortunately, we only have one bed.

My favorite part of the room--a window seat!

We decided to order pizza from Papa John's, and on our way there, we saw a discount movie theater that we might hit tomorrow night. Now we're watching Psych, and then we'll plan our day. I'm really glad we won't have to move tomorrow!

Steph enjoys the Papa John's pizza--we can't get it at home.

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pricelining: day 1

Blendy and I are Pricelining our way out East. What that means is we're reserving all our hotels using Priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" feature. Today's deal: $35 for a room at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Regular price: $84.15.

Our trip began at 8 a.m. with a stop at our local coffee shop. It was all smooth sailing until we were about 40 miles from Kalamazoo. Then I glanced down and saw the low tire light was on ... dun, Dun, DUN! (I was going to link to last year's Oregon Trail blogs, as we had tire troubles then, too ... but after rereading all of them, I see that I didn't mention our leaky tire at all! Oh, well ... here's the link, anyway.) We pulled off at a closed rest area and checked the tires. They all seemed fine and had the appropriate amount of pressure, so we continued on our way. I'm very thankful that didn't happen as we were flying through the Chicago area!

After arriving at our hotel, we relaxed, watched a couple episodes of Veronica Mars, and headed to bed--we each had our own queen bed!

Our plan is to head to Canada tomorrow, visit Niagara Falls on Thursday, and end up in Akron, Ohio, on Friday. Then Saturday we'll go to college roommate Jodi's wedding and end up at college roommate Jen's apartment on Saturday night.

Blendy has also been blogging about this trip ... so you should check it out!

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off the oregon trail: thoughts after returning home

• I’m so glad I took Wednesday off—it would have stunk to get home at midnight and then be at work by 8.

• While in Bozeman, we couldn’t use any hair products because Sarah’s sister is allergic to scents. My hair behaved reasonably well, so I thought I might try going without any hair products for the rest of the trip. I changed my mind when we arrived in Cannon Beach and my hair went crazy. Duh! Bozeman’s low humidity is what allowed my hair to behave without artificial help.

• I think Steph and Nate would be perfectly happy to never, ever hear “Don’t Stop Believing” again in their entire lives. It was our unofficial trip song, and I had to belt it out every time I heard it! (Not the original Journey version—which I do enjoy—but the Glee version.)

• Looking back on the trip, it’s so amazing that we were all able to go on it together. What a gift!

• If I ever move to the mountains (Montana???), I’ll need a new car. My baby would never survive!

• I wish Nebraska had good hiking trails. Hiking is fun, but we don’t really have anywhere to hike around here. At least nowhere I'm aware of . . .
  

• Can I get a job reading maps? I think I would really enjoy it.

• It’s surprising how well my sisters did with each other on the trip. I’m not sure that they ever really fought. Surprisingly, Val and I were the ones with the issues on the way home.

• After all the coffee I had on the trip, I’m going to go through some serious caffeine withdrawals as I go back to my regular one caffeinated drink per day routine.

• I forgot to mention the coffee we had in Portland. It came from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and it was some of the best coffee I had on the trip. Look for a massive coffee/restaurant review post in the next few days.

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on the oregon trail: day 14

We slept in a bit on Tuesday . . . at least until Mom started calling! We hadn’t told her we’d be sleeping in, so she thought calling at 8 would be fine; I think she was a bit confused when I answered my phone with my sleepy voice.

We had coffee at Wild Boar Coffee, just off the Colorado State campus. I really liked my coffee; Val thought hers was good but not great. It was the last coffee we had on our trip.

When Val looked up the Salt Lake City Starbucks, she also looked up a Panera Bread in Denver. Again, she didn’t find directions; she just looked at a map and tried to figure it out. That would have been OK, except that many downtown Denver streets are one-way. Once again, I pulled out the trusty atlas and got us there.

Stephanie had never been to Panera before, so the guy at the counter gave her a free cookie. We enjoyed our wonderful soup and bread and headed off toward Colorado Springs.

Steph loves Panera!

When I started planning this trip, I decided we should definitely visit Focus on the Family. The visitors center was interesting, but the Whit’s End/Odyssey portion was slightly disappointing. It would have been great for an 8-year-old (or for a young family), but we weren’t all that thrilled. Don’t get me wrong—there were lots of interesting things to see—but I had high expectations that weren’t quite met.

After Focus, we went to The Garden of the Gods. Spectacular! We only spent about 45 minutes there, but we could have spent hours!

The formations at The Garden of the Gods were breathtaking!

Steph was wearing a KU shirt yesterday; while we were walking down one of the trails at The Garden of the Gods, we passed two college age guys who started chanting, “Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk! Rock Chalk!” It was hilarious.

We found a Chick-fil-A for supper! We don't have them, so this was a real treat :-)

Finally late in the evening, we crossed into Nebraska! We got Blizzards in North Platte, stopped at one last rest stop, and then drove like mad to get home, arriving at midnight.

At our last rest stop, Val & Steph show their elation at being back in Nebraska.

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on the oregon trail: day 13

Monday morning, we headed off to Salt Lake City. Val had looked up a Starbucks location, but she hadn’t looked up driving directions—she just looked at a map and tried to figure it out. As we approached Salt Lake, I was driving, and she was navigating. I got off on the road she said . . . which turned out to be the right road, just 10 miles or so north of where we wanted to be; however, I spotted a Starbucks in a strip mall, and we were in business. We decided that, rather than taking I-70 to Denver as I wanted to, we would take I-80 through Wyoming and then drop down into Colorado. My car (Uncle Tommy named it “Toad” before we left, but I can’t call it that because I think of it as a girl, and “Toad” is a terrible name for a girl) didn’t like the mountains at all, and we figured 80 would be less mountainous than 70. All this to say, we looked for a hotel in the Fort Collins area. This time, Priceline gave me the option of looking for a 3-1/2 star hotel, so I did, putting in $50 as my price. I didn’t think any hotel would accept it, but The Hilton did. THE HILTON!

After securing out hotel, we made our way to Temple Square. At this point, Val began driving, while I navigated with my trusty atlas. (I adore maps. I could spend hours looking at them, and I understand them, so we decided that perhaps it would be a better plan to have Val drive and me navigate.) Because of the time (it was after noon, and we still had a good eight hours of driving left), we didn’t stop, but we did drive around, and we saw the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle . . . sort of.

The Mormon Temple . . . what we saw of it!

As we were leaving Salt Lake City, my car got really angry. It got very hot, and lights started flashing, and I was honestly afraid something serious was happening. We began driving in the truck lane, very slowly, with the hazards flashing, and we stopped at the next town for lunch and to let my car cool down. We called Dad, and he said to drive in direct in the mountains, which helped immensely.

We stopped at Coco’s in Rawlins for supper—partially because we knew Nate would be jealous! I didn’t say much about Coco’s before because I intended to dedicate a whole post to it, but that didn’t happen, obviously! Coco’s is in the historic Blake house in downtown Rawlins. (I don’t know what makes the house historic; I just know that it is because of the sign out front!) For the past two years, it has been run by an Asian couple; apparently it’s been several different restaurants in the past 20 years. The cuisine is quite varied—sandwiches, steaks, seafood, pastas, and Asian dishes. The first time we went, I had a French dip sandwich, and Monday night I had chicken fried steak. It was phenomenal! The service is excellent, the atmosphere is cool, and the food is wonderful. So if you’re ever driving through Wyoming on I-80, consider a stop at Coco’s!

Three very satisfied Coco's customers.

We got to Fort Collins around 9:30 p.m., and as we drove through Old Town, we were amazed at how many people were still out and about. The Old Town area looks really cool—it would be fun to explore sometime. Val and Steph had been talking about getting ice cream, so when I checked in at the Hilton, I asked the guy at the front desk where we could find ice cream. He gave me directions to Coldstone and a local place in Old Town; what I hadn’t realized was that Val and Steph really wanted Dairy Queen! I wasn’t about to go back in and ask—I already felt horribly underdressed in my t-shirt and yoga pants. So we drove around for a while without ever finding a Dairy Queen. We did find a Sonic and a McDonald’s, though.

We really did stay here!

The Hilton was amazing. I’m used to Super 8’s and Days Inns—the Hilton was a huge step up! We rode up to our room in a glass elevator. The room itself was awesome. It was decorated beautifully, had a huge TV, a comfy chair, and a nice desk, and overall was just really nice. We definitely enjoyed our stay!

We love our room!

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on the oregon trail: day 12

This was the day we had to say goodbye to both Beth and Nate. We went to Bagels by the Sea for breakfast, and then we waved goodbye to Beth and headed for the Portland airport so Nate could catch his flight back to Nebraska. (He is currently on a mission trip in South Dakota.)

Our last picture all together!

Val let him take her phone so he could call if he ran into any trouble. Just as we were passing the tree farm that so fascinated Nate on our way out, he texted to say he was in Salt Lake City waiting for his plane to Lincoln to take off. A couple hours later, he texted again to tell us he was on the ground in Lincoln. At that point, we were still in Oregon! It truly felt like we would never get out of Oregon . . .

When we got to Boise, we needed to find a wireless connection so that we could use Priceline’s name your own price to find a hotel for the night. We were sure that Boise would have at least one Starbucks, but we didn’t know where to find one, so we began our drive around the city. Val pulled out her computer, and we drove slowly to see where she could pick up wireless. We finally pulled into the parking lot of a Red Lion Hotel and “borrowed” their connection. It was very weak, and we didn’t get very far with Priceline, but we were able to find the address for a Starbucks nearby. When we got there, we discovered the connection was only free if you had a registered Starbucks card that had been used in the past 30 days. I have one, but I haven’t used it in ages—in fact, I don’t think it even has a balance. I was about to add money to it when I saw that there was an option to log on with another wireless service. I suddenly remembered a postcard I got from Qwest a few weeks ago, saying that they were proud to announce they had partnered with thousands of coffee shops around the nation to provide free wireless to their customers. At the time, I thought scoffed because I thought that most coffee shops offered truly free wireless; however, I was very glad for that info on Sunday! I entered my Qwest login info, and we were on our way to finding a Priceline deal. I never would have thought of trying Priceline, but right before we left on the trip, a friend showed me the ins-and-outs of getting a great deal. Anyway, my price was accepted at a Red Lion in Twin Falls, Idaho. We thought that was really funny, considering we’d been using a Red Lion connection earlier!

Our “eat locally” mantra fell by the wayside on our trip home—we didn’t want to take any extra time finding places to eat. We pulled off at some exit between Boise and Twin Falls, and we each went to a different fast food place. I got a spicy chicken sandwich at a Jack in the Box. I went there because we don’t have them in Nebraska, so I wanted to try it out. I need to find out what drink normally comes with a combo meal because I was charged an extra dollar-ish for substituting a Diet Coke. I noticed that coffee comes with the breakfast combos. I was amazed at their menu—burgers, chicken, Asian, and Mexican.

Our hotel, which Priceline called 3-star, was basically a glorified Super 8. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! (And the price I paid was considerably less than I paid for either Super 8 on the way to Oregon.) I just looked up the Red Lion website, and I think that we were in one of the shabbier ones . . . I intended to blog, but instead we watched last week’s episode of The Bachelorette, where we saw Jillian finally come to her senses regarding Wes!

Steph & Val relax in our hotel room.

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