49 States (No Pictures)

At the beginning of this year I set out to visit the 13 states I had never seen. It all started with a Facebook Quiz about "How many US States have you visited?" I took the quiz and discovered I was only missing 12. So in February I began my journey, I even visted Washington DC.

I'm getting ahead of myself though. I started this journey a long time ago and I didn't even know it. I have always enjoyed traveling. I like to explore. So getting in the last 12 states wasn't really a huge challenge. Although, it was expensive.

Alabama- Visited in childhood. My parents drove through to Florida one year and stopped in Birmingham. I do not remember any of this.
Alaska- Once I visited in the summer, once I visited in the winter. Both times I was almost gored by moose. It's hard to remember they are wild animals when there are as many of them running around as there are squirrels.
Arizona- The first time I visited Arizona I was 14. My friend Kristy went with me. It was hot. I got dehydrated and had bloody noses all over the place. My aunt in Scottsdale made me soak in the bath tub and made me drink many many glasses of water.
Arkansas- Went to the home office. The entire state smelled like fresh cut grass. If you pronounce the state name wrong intentionally in public, you can be given a fine. Just a warning.
California- Went to LA for Randy's show premiere. Ate at Katana.
Colorado- I have been trapped in the Denver airport many many times.
Connecticut- I went here once when I was 22 to buy beer. I was staying in Rhode Island and at the time Rhode Island did not sell beer on Sundays. Beer is important when you are 22 and on vacation.
Delaware- Drove in to visit a Gun Powder museum and mansion. For such a small state with so many trees there is a lot of traffic.
D.C.- Drove to it in February 2015. The weather was amazing and I stayed at a lovely boutique hotel. Went running in Georgetown.
Georgia- Drove through on the way back from Florida with my mom and sister and her friend. It was the worst vacation I ever had.
Florida- Held an alligator and large snakes. One time Randy planned a vacation without me to Disney, I couldn't go because of work. He scheduled it on our first anniversery of marriage. He felt bad, so he booked me a flight and I saw Disney in one day. 23 hours of Florida.
Hawaii- I have not gone here yet.
Idaho- Lovely to drive through. lava trails, mountains, plains, interesting weather and nice people. Speed limits are high. Everyone eats pie.
Iowa-Drove here while visiting for a wedding.
Illinois- Chicago. Pizza. Sears Tower. Museums.
Indiana- New Buffalo Food Festival. Oh wait, that's not a thing, it's something I made up to hang out with my friends in South Bend when I was 16.  It was a good day.
Kansas- Went to a wedding.
Kentucky- Drove through on way to Florida. I was five and thought I was in England because, "they talk funny here". I actually said that.
Louisiana- Went to New Orleans. Drank Hand Grenade. Thought it was gross.
Maine- beautiful, ate lobster. Slept in Acadia. Ate wild rice and climbed to the top a a giant hill everyone said was a mountain and saw a thousand tiny little islands off the coast. All the sea shells were purple and it was like heaven.
Maryland- Nice little mountains.
Massachusetts- Went to Boston. Learned about Paul Revere. Stayed next to the Neccos factory.
Michigan- I live here, it's nice. Winter sucks.
Minnesota- went to Minneapolis/St. Paul drank beer.
Mississippi- Ate BBQ watched a TV get filmed. Had dinner with Neil and Brian. Made new friends.
Missouri- Went to St. Louis. Saw Arch. Had awesome hotel right on the river.
Montana- Drove through entire state. Stopped to see some caves. Spent the night surrounded by casinos.
Nebraska- Drove around here at that same wedding. It was in this corner.
North Dakota- Drove here to get out of Montana
North Carolina- Rented a car Drove to S. Carolina. Drove back. Canceled trip to Mayberry.
New Hampshire- Drove through on way to Maine. Bought antiques. No sales tax.
New Jersey- Landed in Newark, walked to the Marriott across a field to my hotel. I'm pretty sure this wasn't super safe.
New Mexico- I lived here and went to school and saw a Korn concert in Albuquerque.
New York- Drank blueberry beer at the Waldorf and talked to crazy people on the subway (also wasn't super safe). Oh yeah and took a boat tour and ate pizza.
Nevada- Las Vegas like a hundred times with different zip lines.
Oklahoma- Drove through and saw all the storm damage from tornado's that swept through in 1999. Entire stores demolished. It was frightening.
Oregon-Went on an Ariel cable car. Saw a waterfall. Saw some vineyards and drank some flights of wine. Learned about the show Dexter.
Ohio- I lived here once. I'm not THAT ashamed of it.
Pennsylvania- Speed limits suck. Really really slow, like 55 MPH everywhere.
Rhode Island- Found beach glass. Ate more wild rice, saw where Jackie O. grew up. Got drunk and sat at the steps of the Capitol building.
South Dakota- Mt. Rushmore, bronze presidents. Wall Drug, bought black hills gold, and saw the bad lands.
South Carolina- Ate pizza. Talked to gas station attendant. Bought lottery ticket. Went home.
Tennessee- Drove through on way to Florida. Stopped in Chattanooga.
Texas- Drove through the top of it on my way out of New Mexico. Discovered it really is big sky country. Also, was able to go to El Paso one night and see the boarder of Mexico from a mountain. I remember thinking it was strange how the lights lined up and it was another country.
Utah- Toured the capital, went to the Great Salt smelly lake.
Virgina- Drove through it and around it. Went to Arlington National Cemetery.
Vermont- was enchanted by the lovely green hills (they called them mountains) and flowing maple syrup.
Washington State- Seattle. Layover.
W. Virgina- Drove into it. Took a selfie at a rest stop.
Wisconsin- Ate cheese that was not squeaky. Was almost attacked by ostrich.
Wyoming- Drove to devils' tower. Thought about what it must be to climb it. Went back to South Dakota.

I have learned a lot about each state in my travels. Like about Blueberries in Maine. Or beach glass in Rhode Island. Or lava trails in Idaho. Each state and each place has a lot to teach. Going to the state capitols in nice too because you can learn about their histories.

I am hoping to go to Hawaii next year if I can save enough money for it. Anybody know how to get there cheap?

Pumpkin Carving

This blog assumes no responsibility for anyone who chooses to carve a pumpkin with a chainsaw, in fact it is advised that you do not carve pumpkins with chainsaws. It can be unsafe. 


I love the fall. It's my favorite time of year. The leaves, the colors, the cider, donuts, pumpkins. Yes, pumpkins and the talent it takes to make them amazing.

Pumpkin carving isn't always just carving pumpkins. It's so much more than that, it's about spending time with your family. Randy had the fabulous idea last year to carve a pumpkin with a chain saw. This meant that we had to get very very large pumpkins for carving. I do not recommend people using chainsaws to carve pumpkins. Randy is able to do this because he is a trained professional who has been using chainsaws for years. If you are not a trained professional do not do this.

First we had to buy a giant pumpkin. The pumpkin had to be large enough to carve it with the chainsaw. Randy practically had to wear a hazmat suit while doing this because the pumpkins shoot seeds and debris everywhere.

I did some carving of my own, but on a much smaller scale. I used a regular pumpkin carving kit and regular pumpkins. I was not about to use a chainsaw.

Randy made a giant mess when he did it.

I used the regular cheap pumpkin carving kits that you can buy at the store. My pumpkins did not turn out too bad either.



Here's the video on youtube:


https://youtu.be/E2D3_BpIGik

Great Potato Marathon, Half Marathon, 10k and 5k

I love fun runs. Ever since that first color run I did three years ago I love them. There is so much excitement and energy at these races. Anyway, this one is Famous. With a Capital F.  The pick up packet was my favorite one ever, it comes in a potato bag. The race is put on by the YMCA and the Idaho Potato Commission, it has been around for 37 years. There was probably about 2,000 people in attendance.

What I found particularly cool about it is after completing your race, they hand out baked potatoes. You get a baked potato and there is all sorts of green onion, chili, sour cream, cheese, butter and its delicious. Well for me, I only ran a 5k, I don't know how I'd feel after a 10k or a half marathon. 

The  path for the race was wonderful, there was very little of the 5k that was actually on a road. The organizers did a very good job carving a path that was within the many parks around Boise. Most of the race was right along the river bed. 

They also have a mascot in Boise, Spuddy Buddy. It is a potato. It was not a terrifying fur costume. It was more like a friendly bald potato. There was also a beer walking around. 

It was all in all a wonderful experience and a great way to end my trip. My very long long road trip throughout the amazing states of Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Idaho was a great place to finish, it was beautiful and I would love to come back and visit someday. I will be sad to give the Acadia back tomorrow, that car was wonderful. 

Idaho

Idaho was not a disappointment. I always kind of wanted to visit it, probably because of its shape. It seems like the kind of place someone drew up when they were drunk, or maybe its left over pieces that the other states didn't want.

Idaho is a beautiful state, full of trees, mountains, rivers. Even when driving though it there are lots of things to see.  When I got to it I had just driven through Yellowstone National Park. I was still reeling from all the pine trees and snow covered mountains. It was lovely. There was a river winding around it and I followed it. I stopped and took pictures in a few places and I saw some deer, but this is not Idaho, this was still part of Montana and a tiny corner of Wyoming. Idaho was a lot different. The land sort of parted and there was mountains and a lot less trees. I was lucky with the weather, it got sunny and rained just a little here and there. The mountains were amazing, snow topped and I noticed every couple of miles there were historical landmarks. They were cute little pull offs that had metal and wooden placards describing the events that occurred in the area. Most of them were Native American spots, places were small battles occurred or where settlers traded. They are valuable parts of history. 

This drive was long. I had been going for about five hours when I arrived in Idaho. I was a little bit nervous because there was flooding in the area I was supposed to be arriving in, but there really wasn't, it was just wet. Some random lightening would go off in the distance, then it would disappear as my miles increased. 

One place which caught my eye in Idaho was the Lava Trail. It was a rest stop. The name was Hells half acre.  Seeing the land scape change in front of my eyes while I was driving made me know this place was something special. There is lava very close to the surface of the earth in Idaho. Geologists study this. The lava trail is where lava poured through fissures in the earth and cooled. Now different kind of plants and animals live there. They've adapted.  I was surprised to see cactus, I didn't know it grew this far north. 

J

Randy showed up in Boise my first day to surprise me and watch me run in the Famous Potato Marathon`s 5k. This is going to be a blog all by itself. We went to the capitol and took pictures, then wandered around downtown. It is a very busy little place. 

The rotunda in the capitol was beautiful. There was a wooden statue of George Washington carved out of Idaho wood. 

Great Salt Lake and Utah in General

One of the states on my list was Utah. I was not real excited about it, but it turns out I was wrong. I always did want to see the Great Salt Lake, so I did put that on my list. It always seemed mezmerizing to have a giant salty lake in the middle of no-where. How did it get there? Plus, the pictures of it always seemed amazing.  It was pretty anti-climatic, some it may have been the weather, it was over cast and windy. Strangely enough, it did make excellent pictures. Sometimes when I see an amazing place I know my camera isn't going to capture it right, this place is the opposite. It was perfect. Extremely photogenic. The colors were just mute enough and the difference in them was distinct enough, it worked. Being there in person though, it seemed depressing. 

My questions were answered: the lake has several rivers that empty into it and none that go out. Therefore, the only way the water leaves is by evaporation. Of course this leaves behind enourmous amounts of salt and minerals. There are no fish in the lake, only algae and brine shrimp, it makes the lake a greenish color. Also, on the beach I saw a lot of foam, I'm not sure why. It wasn't really that exciting.  Unless you like taking pictures, then its like Disneyland. One last thing about it, the smell. It smells really, well, ...not good. It actually burned my eyes a little the air was so salty. The smell of dead fish was in the air, but it did not make any sense.... there is no fish. 

My cousin Courtney lives in a city near Salt Lake City and I had only met her on Facebook, so I was lucky enough to have her reach out to me. She took me up into the mountains and I got to see a place called Rock Canyon. She lives near Lake Utah, a fresh water lake, it was visible from these mountains. Also we went to Bridal Veil Falls, a really beautiful double waterfall. There used to be a cable car traveling up the mountain. It looked like it would be scary. 

We then had lunch at the Sundance Grill. This is home to the Sundance Film festival. I had no idea there were so many movies filmed in Utah. I found that out at the capital building in Salt Lake. There were posters from every film shot in Utah. There were a lot. 

Mostly the city was beautiful. There were a lot of Homeless people wandering around and the public transportation wasn't that great. One thing that caught my eye was a busy intersection had these orange flags on both sides, when crossing you carry them with you for greater visibility and leave them on the other side. I've attached a video link to my Facebook account. Its a public video so it should be visible. 

https://www.facebook.com/elizabetsy.finch/media_set?set=vb.100000080108905&type=2

To watch future live videos I am on Periscope now at user name: Elizabetsy_ 

Montana

Montana. To me the name conjures up images of horses, Cowboys, and snow covered mountains. I didn't see any Cowboys yet, but I did see a lot of cows, horses, and mountains. The little hills and peaks I've seen in Eastern Montana reminded me of the Appalachians, but with flat spaces in between.

Before I get too far ahead of myself let me explain this trip. At the beginning of this year I set out to finish visiting the 48 connected US states. I took one of those Facebook quizzes and discovered I was only 12 states away from visiting all the states. (Hawaii is going to be my last one, because its so expensive.) I was never really interested in this before, but this Facebook quiz frustrated me with all the states I hadn't seen. My friend Keri also inspired me a lot too, she's been trying to get them all as well, that's where I got the idea to take a selfie at the state sign.  It seems kind of impressive, after all, we are a pretty big country so seeing all fifty states seems pretty cool. 

I landed in Billings and rented a car. Billings looks bumpy. This is the best way I can describe it. Bumpy. All these mounds pretending to be mountains, rolling hills.  I drove to the North Dakota boarder, took a selfie at the sign and drove back to Miles City. This is where I spent my first night. There were a lot of interesting things around me. The landscape, for one, is pretty amazing. There are cows (Yes I've seen cows before) and large rock formations everywhere. The cows wander around the rocks and the rocks look like the ones in old Disney cartoons of the old west. Just piles of odd shaped rock. They are huge and sometimes far off in the distance, the cows, and what appear to occasionally be Buffalo, dot the green and brown countryside. There are fences and grate in the ground at the entrances of the highways, this must be to keep the cows out.

There are dozens of scattered little cities and villages. I drove around one because I was going to stop at the state park and take pictures. It looked like it had a major economic down turn. I walked the streets a little. I didn't feel terribly unsafe, but it was pretty obvious that I did not belong. 

There are dinosaurs and dinosaur museums everywhere. I saw several spots to stop and visit small gift shop type museums. Prairie museums pop up every couple of exits. 

Miles City was loaded with Casinos. There were two on every block and the City Brew Coffee place seemed like an obvious knock off of a Starbucks. This particular coffee house is in many places in Montana. I had a white chocolate mocha and it was very tasty. 

The light shining off the top of the rocks and the large, long stretches of highway gives great viewing of  weather miles away. It was astounding. I drove through a wall of rain, it was incredible knowing it was coming, seeing it ahead of me and driving through to the other side, almost like a tunnel. Billings is loaded with stuff to see, I did not have time to see much, but I did get to visit Pictograph Caves and stop and see some historical points (there are many out here). I stopped in Bozeman to have lunch one day and it was a lovely little city. There are so many lovely little places. 

Alpaca Shaving Day! A visit to Via Verde Farm

I love Alpacas. In a nutshell, Alpacas are like Llamas, Llamas are a lot like Camels, but they are from South America. Peruvians have used them as beasts of burden in the Andes Mountains for a very long time.  I'm not a complete stranger to Alpacas as there was an alpaca farm my family would drive by occasionally when I was a child. After I graduated high school some of my friends and I stopped by to ask the farmer if we could feed them. It was delightful. They pranced around, they had little babies, they were friendly, occasionally spitting and making strange noises. When I got to go to Peru I was lucky enough to book a visit to an Alpaca farm and I learned a lot about them that day. So, needless to say, I love these furry, bouncy, little weirdos.




Fast forward to yesterday. One of my very cool Facebook friends, Natasha, sent me an invite to "Alpaca Spa Day". If you are like me you get tons of Facebook invites to events and rarely notice. This one caught my eye. I immediately checked my schedule and clicked "Going".  Someone on the thread asked if kids were welcome, the reply was "yes", so of course I knew this meant I could bring Randy. He was curious about what this would be like and what we could possibly do at an alpaca farm. When we arrived they had already started. There were these tiny little shrieking noises coming from the barn. Some of the Alpacas were already out in the yard, bouncing around, freshly sheared.

Restrained to protect people and themselves

When we entered they were tied down to the floor and the scene looked pretty graphic. It is completely necessary. They were tied by their feet. Alpacas are very long and skinny when tied up like that, it is for every one's protection. It would be impossible to shear them without doing this and because they are domesticated they really need to be sheared, it gets really hot. While the Alpaca is tied up they check their teeth and trim their nails. So technically it is "Spa Day".

The Alpacas weighed a lot, they can be 150-300 pounds. Some of them were able to be walked out with a harness, some of them were small enough to be carried out. I asked about the babies,  the breeding. They are only bred once a year because the gestation period is about 11 months. They look a lot bigger than they are with all that fur.

The shearing process 

The shearing team was amazing. They worked so quickly and efficiently.  It took about 3 minutes for each of them to get their nails done and be sheared.  The fur is beautiful when it comes off them. It is sent away and made into yarn. Alpaca yarn is so soft.

The farm was amazing. The people who run the farm are so great. This is a family owned farm. Tamara Miller, runs this farm with her family and she was very informative throughout the entire process. She answered our questions and was extremely hospitable. It's amazing to me she opens up her farm every year to let people see this exciting process.   From now on, I will always check my Facebook invites carefully, because this was a great experience I could have easily missed.


This is where we went:

http://www.viaverdefarm.com/

The bags of fiber

After they were shaved

Parasailing

We recently visited the Bahamas. It was nice. Warm. Lots of sun. I was actually horribly sun burnt and I'm still itchy from it. (Pro-tip: Wear lots sunscreen if you are down there) Anyway, one of the excursions on our cruise was Parasailing. I had never been Parasailing and I kind of always wanted to do it, and Randy had done it before so he was on board.

When our ship stopped at Coco Cay we met up with the men running the Parasail. The were nice, but they didn't talk much. They started suiting up the first people as soon as the boat was moving. We had already filled out our waiver, but we were given little to no instruction, but how hard could it be, right? We were going to sail in the air at about four hundred feet being dragged by a boat. No problem, right?

The boat was moving and we went up two by two. The first couple sat on the head of the boat with the wind blowing into the parachute behind them. They had on life vests (for flotation if they fell into the sea) and harnesses attached to a bar. The boat sped up and they slowly lifted from the boat. It looked like fun.


Randy and I finally went after three other people went up and down safely. It was moving very quickly despite the lack of information being given to us. We were attached to the bar and before I knew it, the wind was lifting us off the boat and into the air. It was an interesting feeling dangling in the air that high and being able to see the reefs and clear blue water below.

The entire flight lasted about 5 minutes. It was a little boring at times, because you are literally just hanging there. I wanted to cut us loose and float off, but that probably would have been a bad idea.

We made a video. It was an excursion during our trip on the Royal Caribbean cruise and I highly recommend it for anyone, the lack of instruction isn't that big of a deal. Really it's just up and down, you stand when you land, don't try to do any flips or tricks while you are up there, and enjoy the ride.

Ice Magic: Ice sculpting in Lake Lousie

The reason we went to Alberta Canada is Randy was chosen as a judge in an ice sculpting contest in Canada. The contest consisted of 10 competitors from all over the world. There were competitors from Thailand, Russia, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Philippines, and New Zealand.  The diversity of the competitors was pretty awesome.

To be chosen for the competition the sculptors must submit a drawing of what they wish to create then a committee picks ten of them. Each of them is a team of two and they have 34 hours to create their piece. They go from 8am to 10pm for two days, then 8am to 2pm the last day.





The sculptors were all given a location based on a drawing the first night. Each location has exactly the same amounts of ice blocks, scaffolding, and tables. The water they use, as a way of fusing the pieces they cut, is taken from the lake.

These are long cold days. The temperature went between 18-30 degrees Fahrenheit.  In the middle of these three days there is additional judging event, the contestants get one block of ice and one hour to construct them into what ever they choose. Only one from the team can participate in this and there is also a people's choice award.

The weather is pretty good here though, there has been new snow just about everyday. It really does look like a snow globe, it's picturesque. 

The competitors all have a picture of the ice they intend to make outside of their ice area. So as the days go by people viewing can see what the ice is intended to look like. 

The winners of the competition:

First Place: Chris Foltz and Victor Dagan (USA and Philippines) 

Second Place: Chan Kitburi and Kla Kitburi (Thailand and USA)

Third Place tie: Dean Murray and Michael Stoddart  (USA)

Third Place Tie: (Siberia)

This is where we were:

http://www.banfflakelouise.com/Area-Events/Festivals/Winter/SnowDays/Ice-Magic-Festival

One block, one hour.... Ice competition

During our time at the ice sculpting competition in Lake Louise there was one hour set aside for brief competition within the competition during the second day. Basically, the sculptors are given one block of ice and one hour in which they can make anything they want. One person from the two person team attends. It was a fascinating display to watch. I'm pretty lucky because I see people carve ice all the time, but I've never seen it done on a competitive level. The new "twist" this year was that they judges did not know who made the ice sculptures. They did blind judging on them.  So all ten contestants had an area designated for them and they began sculpting for one hour. I stayed outside to watch and even made a video. Randy and the two other judges were sequestered inside at the bar. Upon completion of the sculptures, they came out and inspected them. All of the competitors went inside to wait. (I went inside too because it was so very very cold outside, I really don't know how the sculptors can stand being in the cold that long.)

This competition was held at Lake Louise Inn, which was very close to the Fairmount where the 3 day competition was being held. 

It never ceases to amaze me how tall an ice sculptor can make a block of ice. Of course ice is always melting and getting smaller, but it's almost like magic how they make it grow. Also, the artistry involved blows my mind, I can barely color in the lines, much less create a spectacular work of art.  They cut the pieces and fuse them together making one block of ice appear like many blocks of ice. 

Basically, I'm just going to post pictures in this particular blog and you can see for yourself the amazing things people can make out of ice and given they only had an hour, it's pretty incredible. 

 The finished pieces are below.

This was the winner and it also won the people's choice award

This came in 2nd

This was 3rd 

This one was one of my favorites, basically a close 4th.