Almost Gypsy Soul

When a 6 year old wants "Aunt Jen" to have her Halloween party because it was fun, who is Aunt Jen to say NO? That's right, not allowed. So thanks to Little Boy, we had a 2nd Annual Boos & Brews Costume party. I changed the name a little, but it was essentially the looked like the same party. All those decorations that I bought last year, well they needed dusted off and re-used. I wanted to be Ursula from The Little Mermaid this year so I hopped on my faithful Amazon account to score a sweet deal, only there weren't any. The going price for Ursula costumes....about $120+. um.no. So I thought I'd settle for Ariel. Amazon didn't disappoint there, except my mermaid skirt didn't make it from China before the party so I had to do a little improvising, as in I changed the sheets on my guest bed. And I give you, The Little Mermaid 2016. While she doesn't sing to well, she sure likes those Dirty Hippies, complements of a mountain bike trip to Fruita. ...

Checking in again, halfway there on those 2016 goals. If you missed the story behind those goals, click here and here and here and here when I checked in at the end of each quarter. 1. GET A HOBBY - Let's be honest, I can't really afford many more hobbies. The upside of having a lot of hobbies, there is always room to devote more time and attention to said hobbies (especially since I have several "new" hobbies, less than 3 years old. In 2016 I will: take 3 mountain bike trips Memorial Day mountain biking in Fruita with Tyler, Jennie, Will and Melody Labor Day weekend at WYDAHO Mountain Bike Festival at Grand Targhee Fall mountain biking in Fruita with Tyler, Jennie, Dane, Kelley, Schwan, Stevie Jo, Brent, Jim and Cari  take 2 golf trips Birthday Golf with the Retired Guy at Rolling Green Country Club 3rd Annual Shank-o-poto-mus at Fossil Island  2. DO SOMETHING THAT SCARES YOU - I'm a hermit and I don't like change, yet I ...

Checking in again, halfway there on those 2016 goals. If you missed the story behind those goals, click here and here when I checked in after the first quarter. 1. GET A HOBBY - Let's be honest, I can't really afford many more hobbies. The upside of having a lot of hobbies, there is always room to devote more time and attention to said hobbies (especially since I have several "new" hobbies, less than 3 years old. In 2016 I will: take 3 mountain bike trips Memorial Day mountain biking in Fruita with Tyler, Jennie, Will and Melody Labor Day weekend at WYDAHO Mountain Bike Festival at Grand Targhee  take 2 golf trips Birthday Golf with the Retired Guy at Rolling Green Country Club 3rd Annual Shank-o-poto-mus at Fossil Island  2. DO SOMETHING THAT SCARES YOU - I'm a hermit and I don't like change, yet I love to travel. Leaving the US of A and my understanding of the English language isn't an easy thing for me to do. In 2016 I wil...

I heard this song on the radio the other day and I just love it.

In May, Military Friend and I went on a really big trip to Peru, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. We visited Cusco, Peru , hiked to Machu Picchu , explored Quito, Ecuador and snorkeled the Galapagos Islands . While I took tons of pictures, my favorite part of returning from this trip is the movie that Wyoming Hunter and I made of the South American adventure. Click here , here and here for my packing lists for Machu Picchu and Galapagos Islands as well as what I would have packed differently.

If a large number of pictures is an indicator of how much fun a weekend was then no one should attend WYDAHO bike festival at Grand Targhee. ever. never.ever. But I'll let you in on a little secret, I was having too much fun and I failed to remember to take out my camera....except for that ONE time. Horseshoe Canyon Trail System WYDAHO bike festival is a 4 day festival over Labor Day weekend held at Grand Targhee Ski Area in Alta, WY. The festival is a fundraiser for Teton Valley Trails and Pathways, the organization responsible for building and upkeep of the super awesome trails in Teton Valley. The festival has group rides, skills clinics, raffles, music, drinks, food, giveaways, downhilling, tons of trails, shenanigans (keg pull, strider races, hill climbs, huffy toss) and a whole lotta fun! So get out there enjoy the outdoors and have so much fun that you forget to document it!

One of my goals for 2016 was to get more involved in my community. A new friend from spin class had been bugging me about coming to the mountain bike club meetings for a while and I finally caved. And I'm glad that I did. The Sweetwater Mountain Bike Association (SMBA) is a great bunch of guys and a hidden gem of a trail system in Green River, WY. Wilkins Peak was even voted on the 2016 Best Mountain Bike Trails by Singletracks.com. Trail maintenance on Brent and Mike's Each year the club puts on a Trail Days to introduce people to the Wilkins Peak Trail System and mountain biking. The club, along with sponsors, offers a free pancake breakfast, guided rides on the trail system, night ride and raffles/giveaways. This year we were even able to raffle off a brand new Trek mountain bike with the support of Bike & Trike in Rock Springs. The event was attended by approximately 100 people, the most we've ever had. Trek bike raffle winner Logan (L) with President ...

Quito is a diamond in the rough, a pleasant surprise. I'll be honest after Peru, Inca Trail, Machu Picchu and the Galapagos, I really wasn't overflowing with excitement about Quito. I mean a city is a city right? Wrong. I loved Quito and was left wanting more days in Ecuador! Quito is the capital city, high in the Andes mountains at an elevation of 9,350 feet. Quito is home to approximately 2.7 million people and is known as the cultural capital of Latin America. It's mix of colonial and modern architecture. Its also home to the newest international airport in Latin America. Ecuador is known for its rose exports, which I was very disappointed to not visit a rose farm. A dozen "reject" roses can be bought for a couple of bucks around the city. Other exports include petroleum, bananas, shrimp, coffee, cocoa and fish. The American dollar is the official currency so that was nice! I know how much those are worth! Overlooking Quito from Panecillo Mirador W...

I'm not sure that they call the Galapagos Islands a wonder of the world, but to this girl well, I think I'll refer to them as a wonder of the world. Day 1 was clear full of anticipation. If you don't know what anticipation really feels like google Galapagos Island pictures. Anticipation grew (or turned to anxiety) as we stood in line to board our ship, the Galapagos Legend, and realized that we were the youngest people on our ship.....by 20+ years. Note to self....ask your travel agent the average age of travelers on your ship. I was shocked by the vegetation of the islands....or should I say lack of vegetation. I didn't realize how dry and deserty most of the Galapagos really is. The afternoon we took an introductory dinghy ride to view wildlife in the mangroves on the north shore of Santa Cruz Island. We saw lots of blue footed boobies and other sea birds. A few turtles and stingrays. Galapagos Legend, largest ship in the Galapagos fleet Infamou...

Because I can't pronounce most of the names that I learned nor even begin to retain all the information that I learned on my hike, I'll likely be letting the pictures do the talking for me. The hike to Machu Picchu was amazing, with a capital A! I often found myself thinking that if people don't believe there is a God, then they should come here! And I love our porters, I thought that a lot too! We opted for the 4-day Classic Inca Trail hike. All hikers are required to be guided by a professional company. We chose to hike with Condor Travel and Paul. Paul gave us the advice of not focusing on the destination, but to instead enjoy the journey. He couldn't have been more right.  I can't give a higher recommendation to both Paul and the company. Paul was friendly, knowledgeable, patient, funny and spoke very good English. We followed the same itinerary shown in the picture above, even though yours truly didn't make the picture above....that credit goes to  A...