I grabbed this snap of the Weather Widget earlier this morning. Since that moment it’s climbed up to a toasty 15° on its way to our high of 27° today.

BN and I decided a few days ago that this is our coldest winter in Eugene, and therefore our coldest ever, California natives that we are.

OMG IT’S FREAKISHLY COLD!!! The only way I’m warm is if I lie perfectly still in bed under our down comforter, with Mr. Furnace beside me.

It’s exciting, but 43° and cloudy never looked more appealing. We just have measly little wall registers in our apartment and so we don’t have the ability to actually make it “warm” in here. Now I’m off to make another cup of tea and put on another sweater. Catch ya later!

July 28th, 2009 (10:50 pm)

July 29th, 2009 (4:10 pm)

we like to call him "mr. cheeks"

On Thursday I had afternoon tea with Baby K and his parents. We checked out a new coffee shop in town, Vero, which is in an old victorian house-turned-shop. It’s very upscale in feel, with real furniture and a variety of rich color on its elegant-dining-room style alcoves’ walls. I got iced chai (it was hot and muggy despite the gray) and it was excellent… but I forgot to scope out their hot tea selection as the top criteria of it being a good BN study / KT sketching venue.

K is 3 months old now and was only giving serious looks while were sipping our drinks outside. It started to sprinkle so we went inside. T and S barely had time to finish their panini before K decided he was ready to eat NOW and we came back to my apartment so mommy could feed him. After that he graced us with flirty-baby smiles. You know how some babies are astonishingly cute? He’s one of those.

The wind had picked up so as to be noticeably gale-ish.

Our Mac’s Weather Widget is not the most reliable device. (Not it’s fault… AccuWeather is the culprit.) When we see the lightning symbol it’s usually wishful thinking.

But tonight I heard thunder rumbling and the folks out on the softball field were squealing on the way to their cars to get out of the Weather With A Capital W! I ran out onto our front balcony just in time to see the brightest, hugest, PINKEST lightning bolt I’ve ever seen. It faded into a trail of sparks. Totally awesome!!!

I was standing out there in hopes of catching a few more (and I did) and I was thinking about memories of past thunder-and-lightning storms. I haven’t really experienced that many, not having lived in stormy lands… One summer I visited my cousins in Tennessee and witnessed a few of their summer storms. One time we witnessed a real hum-dinger from our front porch in SJ. But the ones that I remember most clearly don’t involve lightning – but thunder most intense – in Yosemite Valley, huddled in my dome tent with my sister and listening to giant metal trash cans being thrown off of Glacier Point and echoing through the valley. Very alarming, but very cool.

On Sunday morning we woke up to another change in the weather – it was getting cloudy again and the wind was blowing hard – we had to be careful not to let the tent blow away when we were dismantling it.

We won the water game! We packed 3 Nalgenes for the hike out, drank a 4th, and poured out a 5th as a drink offering to thank our household trees. My pack was blessedly light, and very colorful, decorated with strings of empty bottles.

The hike out of the back country was quick and uneventful. We practically jogged along the trail with our light packs. The stone figurines stood at attention to send us on our way. Goodbye, Canyonlands!

Even just driving through Utah is so scenic – we saw more red rocks, yellow rocks, and aquamarine sand.

We drove through a dust storm. Tumbleweeds!

Then we drove through a snow storm. The snow was so dry that it didn’t even stick to the windshield. The only time BN had to turn on the wipers was when passing cars kicked up spray. We had to keep the heat on full-blast to prevent the window from fogging up, so my memory of this drive was sweating away as I gazed at the snowy landscape outside.

We made it to Salt Lake City for dinner. (Thaifoon gets our 2 thumbs up.) Our impression was that SLC is being hit hard by the economic downturn. I’ve never seen so many recently-closed businesses and commercial “for-rent” signs in an urban center.

The plan was to drive a few towns north and find a motel for the night. But soon after we got on the freeway, it started to snow really hard. Snow on an 8-lane expressway is scarier than snow on a mountain road! It quickly became obvious we needed to get off the road. Providentially, the very next exit had a Comfort Inn just over the fence – we glanced anxiously at a car that had skidded to one side of the exit and BN cautiously maneuvered into the motel parking lot. BN was a long time in the lobby but he came out and said, we got a place!

Ahhh, hot shower and clean bed. We could keep an eye on the road conditions right from our room window, and I for one didn’t lose any sleep wondering whether we’d be snowed in the next morning. I sleep like a log, pretty much anywhere.

After breakfast (free waffles – score! and leftover fried rice) we got on the road and there were no problems with snow or traffic. Yay.

Sorry, Idaho – no pictures of you. We’re a little spoiled by Utah’s over-the-top scenic beauty…

Can you tell we’re back in Oregon? All those shades of gray. A lovely drive through scenic Columbia River Gorge. There’s Mount Hood, in the distance at the center of the picture.

We made good time through Oregon as we were eager to get home and also wanted to see Multnomah Falls before dark. It’s clearly visible from the freeway, but we stopped to get a better look.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse of our trip to Utah. It was an unforgettable week-and-a-half. Definitely our most exciting Spring Break ever!

We are enjoying our west-facing view.

It SNOWED. A good couple of inches. What month is it again? oh, yeah… April. April-stinkin-20th!

I just checked the Weather Widget. It’s supposed to get up to the high 50’s later this week. Oh, goody.

One week ago today it was in the 80’s here in Eugene. As I write this, what is falling from the sky includes a few flakes of snow. I’m just sayin.’