Colette does things.

Katie, Robin and I arrived in Truckee, Calif.—a cute little town north of Lake Tahoe—on Tuesday, August 30. We stayed with a few of our friends from Whitefish, and had fun navigating to their house through dirt roads and forests. They live on a main road. Lesson learned: the GPS may not tell you the best route. (More lessons on map reading and GPS use to come later...) Tahoe is a popular area for kids from Whitefish to move to, so we were able to see a handful of our high school friends at this juncture in the road. 

After going out Tuesday night, we decided to take it easy and relax at Kiva Beach for the day. Vincent and Koben are pictured above...note the relaxing. We were amazed at how clean and clear Lake Tahoe was. Robin, Vincent and I tested our swimming skills and swam out to the tall buoy—I was too afraid to climb to the top and jump off, but they made the leap before we headed back to shore. 

(Katie and I relaxing in the sun. Photo courtesy of Robin Cross)

As the sun set we drove to South Lake Tahoe for some mexican food and gambling to complete our experience. We played Sigma Derby at the Montbleu Casino, where we successfully lost $20 in quarters, before driving back to Truckee to catch some Z's. 

Thursday morning we said our goodbye's and left for Yosemite, hopeful that the Labor Day crowds wouldn't have yet taken over the park. We arrived in the early evening, reserved a camping spot and headed out to explore in the last hours of daylight. 

We took a quick walk up one of the trailheads we saw while driving, and stumbled upon this awesome stone bench. Near the bench was a plaque inscribed with a quote from John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club and a man who is commonly referred to as the "Father of the National Park Service." 

It read: "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."

We headed back to our campsite to set up camp and start a fire. Our neighbors brought us brats over for dinner, and warned us that we should heed the park service's warnings and remove all of our food and toiletries from our car and put them into the metal locker provided at our campsite. We were skeptical that the locker was more efficient than the car, and took our chances. As we expected, the car hadn't been torn apart by a bear in the morning a la twinkie commercials. 

I've been back in Montana for nearly a month, so it's time I documented my late-Fall adventure. To preface the next few days of posts, you'll see that many of these photos were taken by Robin Cross (I'll note where they are her photos). We encountered some rough terrain in southern Utah (which you'll hear about later), and my iPhone--which I take most of my pictures on--was destroyed. Fortunately, Robin's camera wasn't, so we didn't lose all of our photos.

After driving from New Hampshire to Missoula with Jason I boarded a plane for San Francisco to meet Robin and her friend Katie on what I hoped would be an eye-opening quest to find out what I wanted to do with my life. I joined the duo for the second half of their trip on August 27. Our destinations: California-Arizona-Utah-Wyoming-Montana. I had high hopes.

Our friend Charley picked me up from the Oakland airport, and I was immediately surprised by how cool the air was compared to the heat of the East Coast and Missoula. We headed to Berkeley, where Charley lives and goes to school, to wait for Robin and Katie to arrive from northern California. In the meantime, Charley showed me around his campus and the city of Berkeley. The college vibe brought up fond memories from the time  I spent in Missoula and Boulder. 

Robin and Katie arrived and we headed to downtown San Francisco to meet up with another of our friends for the night. 

Monday I had a few informational interviews and then we explored San Francisco in more depth, thinking that one or more of us might choose the city as our next place to call home. We rode the famed San Francisco trolley to the ocean, hanging out the sides and high-fiving passengers headed in the opposite direction. 

(Photo by Robin Cross)

Hopping off the cable car, we headed to the Pacific to catch a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge and explore the piers. We checked out the old ships and then walked to Fisherman's Wharf. Salt water, seals and seafood filled our noses as we walked through the vendors and in and out of shops. 

Robin spotted Lids and peeked inside in search of a San Francisco Giants hat for Tyler. To our excitement, the store offered custom embroidery--an opportunity we couldn't pass up. The two 20-something sales associates at the store raised their eyebrows as we described the embroidery we were looking for, took our orders and told us to come back in an hour. We were happy with the result:

(Photo courtesy of Robin Cross)

Jason and I spent the afternoon dog-sitting Stella, his cousin's new 16-week-old labrador puppy. Every time I'm around a well behaved puppy it makes me wish I was less of a nomad and able to have a dog of my own. Shortly thereafter I remember that puppies too grow up and require much more responsibility than I can handle. But a girl can dream.

One of the great things about Whitefish, and the Flathead Valley in general, is the art fairs that come to town. My figure skating days are behind me, meaning I no longer have to slave over a lemonade stand for hours at a time during such events, and can actually enjoy them.

One of my favorite recipes from my childhood is cherry bars. When we lived in Illinois, we used to have sour cherries in our yard, so my mom would make these cherry bars to use them up. After we moved to Montana I begged my mom to make them, but in the Flathead Valley we have only an abundance of sweet cherries. A few days ago my mom's friend Sally asked her if she wanted to go cherry picking, and low and behold the cherries were sour. Michelle and I made these cherry bars this morning, and I've already eaten two. If you've got sour cherries in your neighborhood, I suggest you give this recipe a try!

What you'll need:

2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar 1 cup butter --------

1/2 cup flour 1.5 cups sugar 1 tsp baking powder pinch of salt 2 eggs, beaten 1.5 cups sour cherries 1.5 cups coconut

  Directions:

1. Combine 2 cups of flour and confectioners' sugar, cut in the butter. 

2. Mix well and press into the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

3. Combine 1/2 cup flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and eggs. Mix well.

4. Stir in cherries and coconut. Spread over the top of crust (already baked in the oven for 10 minutes). Bake for an additional 35 minutes and let cool.

Alyssa and I spent part of last weekend in Rollins at her dad and Linda's house. We spent Friday sunning on the pier and took the golf cart on a (frightening) trip across the highway to the meat shop/convenience store. 

On Saturday morning we took Linda's boat to Wild Horse Island, a short ride away, and hiked to the top of one of the hills. 

The island got it's name from the wild horses that roamed there. The American Indians of the past used to hide their horses on the island from their enemies. Today there are five wild horses that live on the island, but they were brought over by boat to keep the history of the island, and its namesake, alive. Unfortunately we didn't spot any wild horses while we were there, but we did get to lay eyes on a few rams.

If there's one decadent decoration I love, it's chandeliers. While they look out of place in most houses—unless of course you live in a castle—I love to see them in hotels or other dressed-up spaces.

I spent the last week in Chicago celebrating my grandfather's life and visiting with my family. While looking for the restaurant at our hotel last Saturday, we wandered into the ballroom at the Hilton. I immediately spotted the chandeliers and had to snap a quick picture before lunch.

One of the most beautiful places I've ever been is Lake Como, Italy. We stayed in Menaggio, but ferried across the lake and spent a day in Varenna. Varenna is known for the hundreds of weddings that take place there each year; we saw two different wedding parties the day we visited. 

I visited Alyssa two summers ago while she was interning at K2 and living on Bainbridge Island. She took the ferry to Seattle everyday, and we rode over to her home away from home one evening. Since then I've often thought ferrying would be an ideal way to commute to work. I imagine most of the people living in the towns surrounding Lake Como don't in fact use ferries to commute to work, but for the sake of novelty we can dream.

  Once off the ferry we walked along the lake on the promenade to the center of town.

I loved the vibrant colors on display on the homes and shops in Varenna.

This cute couple was enjoying a cool dip in the lake as we passed by.