Flowers in San Francisco

I recently visited San Francisco on a business trip. New England is entering fall and the summer flowers are dying away. I am always amazed when I go to the Bay Area and see the flowers.

I saw this small planting and really liked the blue flowers.

Sushi in Seattle

Last night, I went to a great sushi place in Bellevue, WA. I Love Sushi is a very authentic sushi restaurant. We tried oysters (see above) and a variety of sashimi.

I like most kinds of raw fish, but I draw the line at fish eggs and sea urchin. The funny thing is that sea urchin is a very expensive sushi, so there is always someone who is willing to eat mine.

Prime Italian Steakhouse

We arrived in Lenox and only had a short time before we needed to be at Tanglewood. I hadn't done any research on places to eat, so we decided to ask at the hotel. My wife found a listing of several places in the lobby and picked one out. The person at the front desk said that they send a lot of people there.

Prime Italian Restaurant is located in historic Lenox and is only a few miles away from Tanglewood. The atmosphere inside seemed more like a place you would find in a major city instead of western Mass. But, our waitress was friendly and helpful. And the food was excellent. I had pasta that was perfectly cooked with a fantastic sauce.

Tanglewood

We went to Tanglewood this weekend. We made the trip out to the Birkshires to see James Taylor perform. He does concerts there every year. But this time as a fundraiser, he performed with Sheryl Crow and Yo Yo Ma. Actually, it was only through a bit of luck that we got tickets. Some friends of ours had a pair of tickets and then found out they couldn't go. They put word out that the tickets were available, and several people wanted them. They decided to randomly pick who would get the tickets, and we were the lucky couple. When we found out, my wife actually screamed with joy.

We hadn't been to a concert in 19 years. This one was worth the wait. Here is a sample of what it was like to see JT and Yo Yo Ma perform together.

Flying W Ranch

While we were in Colorado, we spent some time in Colorado Springs. My wife's father and his wife took us to an authentic cattle ranch for dinner. The Flying W Ranch is located near the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. They serve a Chuck Wagon style dinner and are able to feed over a 1000 people in under 20 minutes. Everyone gets a tin plate with a choice of BBQ Beef or Chicken, cowboy beans (they called them Whistle Berries...), a baked potato, corn bread, apple sauce (chilled to keep one corner of the tin plate cool enough to hold) and a little piece of spice cake.


After dinner the Flying W. Ranglers performed Cowboy Music. We really felt like we were in the West.

Rocky Mountains

For the second half of our vacation, we visited family in Colorado. We took a day and visited Brainard Lake. At 10,000+ feet, I ran out of breath just strolling around the lake.

I brought fishing gear and did some fishing with my dad and son. We had fun but didn't catch anything. While we were there, we saw people walking lamas. I'd never seen a lama close up before.

White Mountains

Here are some final pictures from the New Hampshire part of our vacation. We drove to the top of Cathedral Ledge just outside of Conway. You can park near the top and look out over the White Mountains.

There were a few climbers who were going up the rock face.

The picture below is near Emerald Pool. The sun was shining through the woods, and the water level was higher than normal because of all the rain this year.


And finally, while I was out on the lake (not catching fish), I did see a lot of loons swimming. You really understand the expression "crazy as a loon" when you hear them call to each other.