thanks giving

Sometimes it is the everyday things to be thankful for.

another sunrise

rain

And Major agrees. This year he is thankful for new green grass. And carrots. And mandarins. And apples. (He had to share this bounty. For that he did not seem very thankful...)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the big, and little, thanks in your life.

Friday the 13th

There is no better day to banish riding demons than Friday the 13th.

I asked C and her horse Friday (how appropriate!) to come riding with me at Cronan ranch. Completely unintentionally it was Friday the 13th. Completely intentionally it was to take C back to the scene of our worst misadventure and to have a completely uneventful adventure. (Read our misadventure here, or in summary: both horses bolted when pterodactyls, I mean paragliders, appeared. C fell and was hurt, it was really scary.)

Uneventful adventure mission accomplished!  Beautiful blue skies, sparkly water, non-dusty trails, pretty  views and mostly behaved horses. And no scary pterodactyls in sight! Sometimes a nice, boring ride is just what you need. 

stolen moments

Weekday ride. After work. Following the dwindling sun. Found it on a hill, and watched it sink. Riding home in the gathering dark was worth it.

chasing fall colors

On our home trails, there aren't the epic fall colors that some other riders get to see every year. We have a few trees that change, but most are evergreen pine and oak, we're only able to find a few colorful elements out there, some a bit unusual.

red toyon along the trail

green oaks hugging

black, burned trail

pink fire retardant

blue suspicious dumpsters

black-and-white annoyed at the shenanigans of one unnamed bay

bay on a good hair day

But I wanted to see some color myself, so my SO and I took a hike to Marlette Lake in Nevada. The only time I'd been to the lake was my ill-fated Tahoe Rim endurance ride, where we were pulled at the lake. But this hike was great. There are two parallel trails, one more for bike riders, the other for hikers, which was more scenic. And I found all the colors I was looking for, and more.

golden thistle

aspen says what?

glorious trees, and beaver-felled trunks along the shore

blue Marlette scene

Relaxing alongside the lake, a furry shape swam by, a beaver! How fun! Following it along the shore, he was on a mision. He clambered out of the water, into a stand of trees. Rustling and crashing ensued, as he finished chopping down another aspen. More rustling sounds, then he emerged dragging his selcted stick, crossed the beach, and dove into the water, swimming down to reinforce his home. It was the best nature show ever!

dragging my stick

got my best stick here

poser

now I have a bigger stick!

So I got my fall color fix, did a great hike, and saw an unusual creature. Chasing fall colors is a good adventure.

C aspen?

the yellow road

water meets trees

rock stacks in Lake Tahoe

detour: Seattle

Sometimes it is fun to just be a tourist…and a fan. I have loved the Seattle Seahawks since my pre-teen self fell in unrequited crush over a bleach blond linebacker named Brian Bosworth. I did not have good taste then, and he didn't last long, but stuck with "my" team through thick and thin (mostly thin).

But I had never seen the team play IN Seattle. I'd been harrassed by 49er fans in San Francisco, and yelled at televisions every Sunday, but I wanted to see them live. Plus, Seattle is a cool place to visit!

view from the ferry

So I dragged the SO on a very fun vacation. We were tourists, and did all the tourist stuff. Because know what? Often the tourist stuff is fun and/or cool, especially because most of us can't take weeks of vacation go see the tiny little haunts the locals love (though we did some of that too).

We walked everywhere: Seattle is an amazingly walkable city with lots of food and beer (and coffee) options on every corner. Between sight seeing, we just wandered: old parks, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, historic buildings, waterfront locales. And I have a million photos, but I'll stick with the mostly tourist stuff, because it is highly photogenic!

Calder sculpture and Seattle icon

this totally reminds me of TARS from the movie "Interstellar"

Chihuly's (a glass artist) amazing garden

ceiling in Chihuly museum

because who can resist crazy yellow glass art and the Space Needle?!

Frank Gehry designed EMP museum

Anyone name this cool character from the science fiction exhibit? Look in your historical documents…

heard of this? the disgustingly awesome gum wall. I left a piece there on my first visit in about 1985…

touristy, too crowded, smelled like fish…

We did take some time to take the road less traveled, literally, out to Discovery Park, where on a beautiful weekday we saw a total of about five people. It was odd to be on Puget Sound, so far inland from what I've always thought of as ocean, without the big waves, though the delicious smell of ocean still hung in the air.

beautiful hiking trails

lunch in the sand, by a lighthouse, on the Sound.…

a view from the Space Needle at night

Oh, and the game…oh so awesome to be surrounded by 69,000 screaming fans of your team! (There might have been a few opposing team fans, I didn't notice). The highs, the lows, the yelling and despair (they lost, but it was still awesome), I wanted to immediately find more tickets and go again! It'll have to wait for another year, but I'll be back…

the biggest crowd yet at Century Link Field

Quarterback Wilson at practice

a goal-line drive

the Seattle Seahawk's fan motto

sunset over distant peaks

see you again Seattle, in any weather…

major halloween fun

Major is feeling great, and was totally excited to be my Halloween prop. 

I think he's gotten used to it: odd costumes, weird fabric, occasional ridiculousness. 

But this time was serious. It was the apocalypse, and Mad Mad needed a horse. Specifically Imperator Furiosa, the bad ass truck driver from the new Mad Max Fury Road, needed a horse to get her across the desert. 

Major was up to the task. 

As long as the apocalypse has alfalfa, I think he'll be ok.