The first weekend of January, this sleepy guy and I road-tripped down to Salt Lake City. We ventured to Spanish Fork to visit his entertaining and quite-likable family, and even got to sit in on the CTR 6 class Sunday.
From there we wandered north, where we visited the BYU-goers and my incredibly-hospitable family fed us a delicious dinner despite us showing up without warning. A trip through the canyon took us to Park City. An old friend wined and dined us at a cozy little restaurant where I discovered my new favorite cups (Adorable!). My generous family let us crash in their basement for the night.
After a terrifying drive from Boise to Idaho Falls and some anxiety about whether my flight would actually make it out of the blizzard, I landed in "warm" LA and immediately headed to the beach. After about a half hour of running around in my summer clothes, I realized everyone else nearby had on winter coats and I put on a jacket to avoid looking blatantly tourist-y.
I was once again reunited with a great old friend, who led me up a beautiful hike with a beautiful view, where I tried out the panorama feature of my phone and watched the sun set over the ocean.
After three wonderful days in the sun and some bad traffic, a plane deposited me back in Idaho Falls, where it was so cold the kids all got a snow day.
The Dream Team met me in Idaho Falls, where we spent two days learning about nickel-alloys and creep tests at INL. A hotel front desk man made me hot chocolate and we tested the distance from which the car's remote-start will work. Despite there being so much to see and do in good ol' IF, we eventually hopped back in our Boise State vehicle and ended up back in Boise, with just enough time to fit in some more work before school starts next week.
What a fun couple weeks! How lucky I am to get have such great friends and great adventures.
-A
