Where To Now?

The first item on our list today was: don't set an alarm. Kef didn't have to be on a conference call, so the intent was to sleep as long as we're able. Apparently we're only able to sleep until about 7 a.m. We are, however, adept at wasting time. We managed to get ourselves around enough to go find breakfast by about 8:45 or so. Trudy had recommended a place called Wildflower Bread Company, which was in a shopping center with several galleries and shops. Kef really enjoyed her three cheese frittata, and my pancakes were super fluffy. We spent an inordinate amount of time at the breakfast table trying to figure out what "guy from YouTube" Tresia's son dressed up as for Halloween. She said she was too old to “get it” – and so Kef and I also wanted to know if we were too old. I was convinced that he was supposed to be Pyrocynical because of his shirt. And it took a fair bit of sleuthing to come to that conclusion. We were feeling "woke" by the t...

Since Kef had another conference call first thing this morning, I woke myself from a pleasant dream and took my coffee out on the patio for some quiet solitude. Although the pool and road are in the foreground, if you focus "up" you get a nice view of Capitol Butte (aka Thunder Mountain) with a bit of fall foliage thrown in for good measure. As time passed, more people woke up and got to work delivering waffle batter in noisy trucks and blowing fallen leaves into more appropriate piles. The silence over, I gathered my stuff and got ready for another day of stunning views, great food, and even better company. We geared up for hiking and went in search of an early lunch as fuel for the journey. The Coffee Pot Café had piqued our interest, so we sat down to a pages-long menu full of breakfast and lunch fare. My turkey reuben and seasoned curly fries hit the spot for me, and Kef's club was so tall she had to dismantle it to take a bite. We had researched the easiest ...

We woke up early this morning, primarily because we went to bed so early yesterday. Kef had about 4 hours worth of conference calls in the middle of the day, so we went right to breakfast to make sure we were back in time for all of that. We drove south to a restaurant we saw on the way here...  Black Bear Diner. I had a delicious cinnamon roll french toast, plus walked away with a cute coffee mug. Kef had a hearty chicken fried steak with hashbrowns, eggs, and a ginormous buttermilk biscuit. We had a few minutes to spare before Kef needed to be back, so we made our way up to a scenic lookout point near the airport. The view was spectacular... and apparently many tour groups come here. There was a large group that had come in to the Phoenix airport at the same time we did. But they moved on and cleared some space for us to get a view and some photos from a prime location. The parking lot attendant told us we should come back for sunset... our parking pass would still be good. ...

Today, I'm taking a vacation from being on vacation. Kef and I had planned a trip to Sedona back before life was turned upside down. At the time, we were both in Texas, so traveling to Phoenix was going to be cheep and easy. Now that we're both in Albany, it's a little more complicated. We began our day at 4:30 am, getting up and ready to be at the airport for an early flight to Charlotte, the Queen City. I'll look up why it's called that later. I got in the slowest possible line at security, and Kef set off alarm bells in the pre-check line with her super scary Vix vaporub. She started feeling sick yesterday... hopefully the vapors will heal her. What I learned about an early morning at the Albany airport is that the Starbucks employees are in their own little world, and in no rush to be a helpful part of yours. Not that we were in a hurry... but if we had been, the fact that they had to heat our breakfast by rubbing two sticks together... and remake my la...