The River of No Return

Jason is not a camper, something that was made clear to me early on in our relationship. Considering the world from which I came, I'm not really an outdoorsman either, but last summer's reintroduction to camping and fishing left me with a desire to go fishing or hiking or (gasp!) camping in a tent that hasn't gone away.

Getting ready to fly in to Indian Creek on the smokejumpers' plane!

Forest Service boat in the whitewater

Jason fly fishing off the raft

So I was quick to get excited about the opportunity to do a five-day rafting trip down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River with my boss this summer. It took Jason, who got to come with me this year, a little longer to warm up to the idea--the thought of spending five days in the wilderness on the "River of No Return" left him a bit trepidatious.

Heading into the canyon

Through the rapids

Native American pictographs on the cliffs

Happily, we both thought it was amazing. We spent a week with the Forest Service learning about the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness area, forest fires, invasive species, and, efforts to recover salmon. Perhaps your first question, like Jason's is "What is wilderness?" Here's the short version--it is an area that Congress determines should be left "untrammeled by man," which means there are no roads, no cell reception, and no motors, mechanized equipment, or chainsaws. This is "leave no trace" camping at its finest...complete with carrying your toilet (affectionately known as "the groover") out with you!

In the Impassible Canyon

Actually, this was camping at its finest, period. The Forest Service partnered with Adventure Guides outfitters, who definitely know what they are doing when it comes to a multi-day raft trip. They set up our tents for us (immediately eliminating one of the things Jason dislikes about camping), hauled our stuff for us, and cooked us amazing breakfasts and dinners every night.

Our amazing guides/cooks/tent builders

Camping on the beach at Otter Bar

They also did a bang-up job navigating the river. Each day the rapids got better and better until, on the last day, we hit rapids that rank 4 on the scale of 1-6 (6 being unnavigable). While I spent most of my time on the boat working with the agency and outfitters, Jason, who turned 31 with a fly rod in hand, became a pretty darn good fly fisherman, improving his cast immensely and catching a number of trout, even in the muddy water. Even I caught a couple of fish with the new rod Casey made me--dispelling once and for all my (very un-Johnson-like) belief that you can't actually catch fish with a fly rod!

Actually catching a fish on a fly rod!

Classic Idaho Picture (slightly better than the groover...)

We also got to do a little hiking--my favorite hike was a scary boulder scramble up to some great Native American pictographs and a waterfall. Most of the trip was cool and rainy (we had some wild thunder-and-lightening shows from underneath the dome of our tent each night!), but on the hiking day the sun came out and warmed us up, so standing underneath the waterfall as the wind blew the water back and forth was pretty awesome. Plus, Jason had his first dip into a natural hot springs.

Cooling down in the waterfall

Fisherman and the Waterfall

I wish that our pictures could do justice to the beauty of the Middle Fork--especially the Impassable Canyon, which made up our last two days. Jason and I were looking at the pictures on the way home, and he said, "It just doesn't capture the grandeur of the place." So true. It was almost enough to make us think about going and buying a cheap tent, learning to cook in a dutch oven, and spending a night or two at the campground in suburban Fairfax County. Almost.

Un autre soir en Provence

We had not even stepped on the US-bound plane after our idyllic week in Provence before we were planning how to go back. And since plane tickets aren't cheap, we would have to find a way to visit Provence without leaving Arlington.


Solution: an evening of Provencial food and drink, French music, and boules under twinkle lights in the yard. We started to scribble possible menus on our drink napkins on the plane. Goat cheese and olives? Absolutely. Cote du Rhone reds and whites? We'd scour the stores. Planning was underway.

Of course, it took us a while to find a date where we and a few friends were available, so we didn't actually get around to this party until last weekend--and it's a good thing. The weekend before was over 100 outside, and the thought of spending time anywhere but our cool basement was almost unbearable. But the day of the party was absolutely, unbelievably perfect. And, to top it all off, Trader Joe's was stocked with bunches of lavender! I brought it home, and our whole house smelled like the market at Lourmarin.


The menu:
Herbed goat cheese and baguettes
Olives marinated in herbs de Provence
Tapenade
Cherries
Grilled chicken with herbs de Provence
Eggplant, zucchini, and tomato tian
Fruit salad with mint sugar
Foccacia bread
Plum tart or chocolate hazelnut tart for dessert


I have a thing for twinkle lights (see wedding, Christmas, college dorm room), and I think the party was just my excuse to put lights up in the trees by our garden. I usually bemoan the fact that we are missing a back yard, but with twinkle lights and folding chairs, we suddenly had a little fairyland. Between the food and the story telling and the amazingly perfect weather, we suddenly found ourselves still sitting around laughing at 11:30! Such a fun, fun party. And such a wonderful way to share our trip with our friends!

Oh, Happy Day!

It is the first day of August recess, and, mmm, it is just glorious. After a busy week last week and a possibly even busier weekend (turns out dinner for twelve is no joke), today all the glories of a perfect August day cascaded down on me. I'm wearing jeans. Traffic was light as a breeze. It is super quiet at work (good for cramming on the thesis), and it will be equally quiet for the next six weeks (six!). And, to top it all off, it's, like, 77 degrees outside. Humid--I was disgustingly sticky after a lunch-hour run--but over all absolutely fantastic.

I really don't know how all of you people with normal jobs continue to survive day after day without the oasis of August recess to look forward to. I really don't. How, for example, did Jason get up today and put a suit on, knowing he will be doing it every day until he retires? I have literally been waiting for this day since January 4th. It might be the number one reason I am about to celebrate my 9th anniversary on the Hill.

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on, so check back for notes on Jason's mom's visit (I swear I posted on that, but I think maybe I got distracted by previous posts on going to the beach), the weekend when the weather was NOT so perfect, and our Provence party on Saturday. But for now, just one word: yay.

Political Sightseeing

We had such a fun time with Jason's mom while she was here--not only did we relax on the beach, but we spent some fun time downtown as well. Lynda had long wanted to go to the Capitol Grille, so, hoping to see a few Members of Congress or Senators, she, Jason, and I enjoyed some good calamari and steak for lunch on Friday. Then she and Jason ventured into the new Capital Visitors Center.

Tasty Lunch at the Cap Grille!

Walking through the Botanical Garden

On Sunday, Jason woke up with a nasty cold, so Lynda and I went to church and then decided to go check out Georgetown Cupcake, the DC shop that stars in the TLC show "DC Cupcakes." Ahem. Us and everyone else--I didn't realize that Georgetown Cupcake is now one of the hottest tourist attractions in an already pretty touristy city. The line was two blocks long! Lynda was on her way to visit a friend outside of Philly, so we decided to save it for next time. I've since discovered that a two block line is actually pretty short--and if people are willing to wait forever in the ridiculously hot middle of summer, I suppose there's no time when we could just walk in! We'll have to plan better ourselves next time...

Beach Day

We talk a good talk about going to the beach (and we definitely have all the gear for it!), so we finally put our talk into action this weekend and headed to Assateague Island State Park in Maryland for a day of sun. This beach trip is not for the faint of heart--it's a 3 hour drive, and getting across the Bay Bridge without major traffic delays requires a 6 am (A! M!) departure. A relaxing day at the beach usually starts off in quite the opposite way.

diving in for the first time...

I'm noticing a trend here...

Jason's mom was in town this weekend, and we also coerced Tiffany, Braden, Deanna, and Jeff into joining us. They all met us at our house at sunrise, and we headed off together. It all felt worth it as we sailed through the toll booth at the bridge and then arrived at the beach at 9:30, long before the crowds. We got our pick of sandy spots and settled in for the day. I know some people love the east coast boardwalk-type beach, but, as a western girl, I'm partial to the more wild, wavy beaches--which is why we love Assateague.



Our day involved swimming in the ocean, long talks with the waves crashing around our toes, and a delightful picnic on the beach. Much more social interaction and laughing than last time (also less sunburnt misery!) By 2:00 we were ready to go, so just as it got hot and miserable we packed up and headed to find something to eat. We were home by 7...and in bed not shortly after that!

a great set-up (umbrella = fabulous purchase for the fair of skin)

cute hats on braden and jason. whatever it takes to get some shade.

Bonus: I am hardly sunburned. All around, success on all counts, and totally worth the ugly early morning!

Produce a' Plenty

It has been far too hot this summer, but finally--FINALLY--this week it started to rain. A lot. I feel like a farmer who really knows how to appreciate a downpour after a drought. Thanks to good rain--and finally getting smart and netting our tomatoes so that the birds couldn't eat them--we finally sliced into our first homegrown tomato tonight. Mmm, mmm good.

The garden is really doing pretty well this year (knock on wood). We go through phases of so many green (and purple!) beans that we have to freeze them, and we've been eating lots and lots of green onions. The carrots are starting to show a little orange skin from below the ground, and there's a cuke about three inches long on the cucumber bushes--and more on the way. Not surprisingly, the only that that doesn't seem to be producing is the zucchini. Why?!?

Still, tomatoes, so worth it. We spent the week fighting over slices of the one big tomato we got in the CSA this past week (as we literally watched birds pecking into the two reddish tomatoes on the plant)--Jason wanted a salad, I wanted a BLT, etc. I told him tonight, as we ate the entire huge tomato for dinner, that I finally feel like we can be frivolous with our tomato eating...there are two or three more beauties just hanging on the plant, waiting for us to get hungry!

Tim, Lady A, and 20,000 Screaming Fans

After weeks of scorching heat (just look at our yard), the temperatures finally cooled down just in time for the Tim McGraw and Lady Antebellum concert on Saturday night. My coworkers Kaylyn and MJ and I (Jason wanted no part of this) grabbed our blankets and headed to the big outdoor arena in Northern Virginia and set ourselves up on the grass for what was a really awesome concert.

On the grass with MJ and Kaylyn--check out MJ's gigantic bag of peanut butter M&Ms. Yes.

When we first found out about the concert, we were mainly excited for Lady A--our boss really likes them and made a point of passing their CD around one day so that we all became fans. Seriously, they are really good. I made it through the first draft of my thesis on their second album. So we were really going to the concert for the opening act, and they were awesome.


The thing is, Tim McGraw is really good in concert. In college, Shaanti, Jenny, Alison, Amanda, and I went to the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw concert in Boise--I was definitely a bit Faith fan and basically went for her, but after the concert I scooped up every Tim McGraw album I could find (I seriously lived off of them in Oxford the next semester). He is that good. As the day went on, I got more and more excited for his part of the concert, too. He definitely didn't disappoint.

The big entrance

Just a few people here, huh?

Even the opening-opening act, Love and Theft, was really good. Plus (plussest of plusses), we got hooked up with meet and greet passes and got to shake hands and get our pictures taken with Lady A before the concert. Sweet!

Oh, just us with Lady A.

My favorite parts of the concert were when the 20,000 people sang along with their favorite songs--like this moment when Tim sang "Where the Green Grass Grows." Maybe you don't care to watch videos on concerts we go to. In that case, just consider this one for my benefit, because I will enjoy watching it over and over...

Lastly, I just want to say that Northern Virginia "cowboys" are such a foreign concept to me. Granted, I did see two boys in FFA shirts (rock on). But most people were dressed in short dresses and ankle boots...or not wearing shirts at all. And no one had manure on their shoes. People watching was almost as good as the concert itself...

Fourth of July

For my entire pre-DC life, my family spent the Fourth at the Oregon Coast with all of my mom's family. Unfortunately, I haven't been back since I moved here almost nine years ago (what?!?), and for the rest of my siblings it has been hit and miss. Finally, Mom decided that we were going to make a tradition of going back to Oregon for the Fourth every five years--2010 being the first five-year Bunn family reunion.

We had a great time, totally worth the long (red-eye) flights. It turns out none of our spouses had ever done the Bunn family Fourth, so they were all in for a treat. We did all the usual favorites, like:

Games on the beach:Troy with his shovel

Mason, Cole, and Spencer take off in gunny sacks

Shaanti relives her volleyball glory days

Mason wants to play, too!

Hot dog and s'more roasting:

Casey and Peter, frying up some dogs

The Lap Sit (36 people this year!):


The Annual Talent Show:

Cole clearly follows in Auntie Bunda's footsteps with the famous "spoon from the nose" talent

Chatty Katie

This one was something about bananas, from the people who brought you the bottle dance about 20 years ago...

Observing the chaos

Setting off questionably legal fireworks and lots of sparklers (Dad pulled out his stash of sparklers from ten years ago--they still worked like a charm):

A gleeful--and highly supervised--Mason and Troy with sparklers

Cole's sparkler fun

This was right before our turn to set off sparklers...

This year we did some portrait painting...


...and some whale watching. Unbelievably, there was a baby grey whale right near the surf, and we got to see it spout and flip its tail. Dad thought it was a shark at first--I thought he was going to high tail it for the hills for a second there!

Duh, dum...duh dum...

We had a great time getting together with everyone, and it was especially fun that the boys were old enough to have fun with the sparklers and pop-its (even though Cole jump at the first "bang!" (boy after my own heart) and Mason decided to go ahead and grab the sparkling part of the sparkler...).

It was a long trip for everyone, and on Monday morning we packed into our cars and headed to Portland, texting each other about stopping for Starbucks every 15 minutes or so. When we finally got there, we all had lunch together at the Spaghetti Factory before heading off in our separate directions. Jason and I didn't fly out until late that night, and we had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Krystal, who drove down to pick up Katie for a summer at the mission church where she works (seriously small world, people). Love Krystal. We spent a delightful afternoon at Powell's and then grabbed a red-eye home.

Seriously, don't you wish you'd been there for the Talent Show?!?

Casablanca and Fireflies

A couple of weekends ago, we joined a bunch of our friends to watch Casablanca on the front lawn at the Wojos' house. So fun. It was the perfect evening--warm but not too warm, sticky with ice cream, and the fireflies flitting through the bushes and across the grass added the perfect touch to the ambiance.

I have to say, it was touch and go for a while, whether we would be able to pull this off, and Jason was beginning to think that a night of croquet and bocce ball might have been a better choice, but in the end, with the help of a LOT of people, it ended up being perfectly delightful.

Have you watched Casablanca recently? It is really one of the best movies ever--and perfect for a group, because both girls and guys (and even the kids who were there) loved it. (And thanks to Tilly for showing up with a camera...and Tiffany for posing!)

CSA, Weeks 3, 4, 5...

We have attempted to use up the following veggies in the past few weeks and are doing a marginally good job so far. For example:

• Squash: usually we just saute or grill it into deliciousness, but Jason stuck it into a frittata last week that was very tasty.
• Scallions: curries, sesame brown rice, ginger chicken, salads, etc. Actually, we have decided to give the Gambills most of the scallions, as we have oodles of them waiting to be picked in our garden. Good thing we like them on everything.
• Lettuce: Jason could eat a salad a day, but I did manage to hold out a leaf or two last week for a BLT. Yum.
• Pak Choy: Stir-fry
• Turnips: roasted with shallots and rosemary. Jason liked, I'm not a huge fan.
• Snow Peas: we have flipped between curry and ginger chicken. Sad that our snow peas in our garden were a flop this year.
• Cucumbers: Greek salad and pasta, and some just for eating.
• Roma Beans: made a tasty appearance in the previously mentioned frittata.
• Cabbage: salads, mostly (though black bean tacos are back on the menu this week).
• Green Garlic: not sure if this was the right thing to do, but we used it as regular garlic in a squash recipe. Tasted good, so hopefully that was the right thing to do???
• Mint: Lemon-mint chicken. Really good and summery.
• Kale: braised with spaghetti.
  

We haven't yet used the...

• Beets: I think we will roast them for a salad. Although, really, roasting things in July seems counterintuitive.
• New Potatoes: We only haven't used these because we've been gone. Can't wait. Wish I'd actually planted potatoes this year instead of just talking about it.

We failed to use the...

• Arugula: I usually really like arugula, but the stuff we got in the CSA is too peppery to be used as salad. We pestoed it and put it in pastas and ate it with chicken, but eventually I just gave away the last bag.
• Cucumber: The last cuke was the victim of vacation this past week--we had good intentions, but they just don't last two weeks in the fridge. I'm a little nervous, as we have about 20 blossoms on our cuke plant in the garden right now...

So far, so good. Our favorite surprise so far has been the pak choy/bok choy. And now I know I don't love turnips. I am hoping tomatoes are right around the corner...

Catching up

We had a weird, volatile June, but now that July is here I think things will begin progressing in more of a normal pattern--hot, busy, summery, and hot again. Because, yes, today is the second day in a row of three digit temperatures. Yesterday, after about an hour of indecision about the best way to a cool dinner, we finally decided that turning on the oven was better than standing outside by the grill. If you haven't had the pleasure of experiencing a sticky DC summer, I'm not sure you can imagine what today's record breaking heat index feels like. Actually, I can't imagine it either, since the air conditioner in our office is so effective that I have the space heater on and am drinking tea while wearing a sweater. Regardless, it's hard to remember what this was like, only a few months ago.

It is recess this week (and the angels are singing), so I have some ambitious plans to:

• reintroduce myself to Jillian Michaels, since I have been a Workout Slacker (capitalization necessary) for over a month now and would like my summer clothes to fit again.
• finish the next draft of my thesis, which has been hanging around like a really annoying click in my car or a headband that is too tight or the fact that I briefly took off my wedding ring last week and STILL HAVEN'T REMEMBERED TO PUT IT BACK ON and it is driving me crazy.
• cook things, like grilled salmon and sauteed squash and purple beans that turn green when you boil them. I love food in the summer, and I kind of want to massacre all the birds who have destroyed our first four (four!) tomatoes of the year. If you see me on the deck with a BB gun in hand, don't judge me.
• read things, like the new Bon Appetit and Provencal cookbooks and maybe something else that is not related to France or food or thesis or Harry Potter (how unexpected!).
  
• catch up on this blog. In the next bit here, you can expect an update on our CSA experience, a few pictures from our outdoor movie adventure, and a report on our recent trip to Oregon for the Fourth. Ambitious but doable, right?

I also intend to, you know, write a set of talking points and a press release and maybe a few constituent letters, so don't think the week is totally going to waste. More to come...