In September we went out to Utah to visit Mrs. Nivose's parents. The drive from Fort Collins takes most of the day. We headed north out of Colorado and across Wyoming. Wyoming is empty, but it is fairly pretty. We stopped at Little America along the way which seems to be a usual thing for her family. We had some soft serve ice cream and looked at the stuff they sell to tourists. There's not a lot else along the road, though we did also stop at the Lincoln Highway monument. Which claims to be the only monument to him along his namesake highway. It's a giant Lincoln head on a tall stone tower. Plus info center and bathrooms (in a separate building, not in the head).
Click here to see a few more pictures from the trip.
We stopped for lunch in one of the Highway towns and ate at a fairly unusual place. The sign said "eat at the Historic Blake House". I don't know who the Blakes were, but this was clearly a converted mansion. And mostly it served food you'd expect. Burgers, steak, chicken parm, etc. But all of the appetizers were asian standards. Spring rolls, wontons, potstickers, etc.
Mostly the drive was uneventful. We were listening to an audiobook of Wyoming stories, but it wasn't great.
Utah itself was sunny. Warm, but cool for the season. The grass hoppers were huge and Mrs. Nivose's parents have praying mantises in their yards. The bug zoo did not have a mantis this year, but we decided to not take any from the yard as there didn't seem to be so many.
The highlight of the trip might be the cowboy shooting. Mrs. Nivose's parents have a hobby of dressing up and going to shoot meets with replica fire arms. Here's a video of Mrs. Nivose firing the Cowboy rifle. In it you can also see her Dad dressed up a little.
There are more on our Youtube page.
Also, I got to shoot some skeet, which I really enjoy, though I am not very good at it.
While we were in Utah we also went to see The Voodoo Organist as he/they were playing a few towns over. It was a good set, but being in a Utah bar was a little weird. We chatted a bit after the show and picked up some CDs we didn't have yet.
On the way home we stopped again in Wyoming for lunch. Bypassing the fastfood Hawaian BBQ for a place that looked promising, but didn't pan out all that great. It was called Tetakawi which they claim means goat nipples or something.
In all it was a good trip, but my butt hurt from the car ride. And this time I took an extra day off so I didn't have to work the day after getting back. I do suggest that to any of you planning trips.
-Mr. Nivose
Mrs. Nivose says: We took a trip to Utah in August, right before school started up again, to see my mom and dad and their two cats. Somehow, we didn't manage to take any pictures of the cats, or of all the nothing we saw across Wyoming.
One of the days there, we went to the shooting range to try cowboy shooting. I was surprised by how close we stood to the targets. That made it really easy to hit them. We all took turns shooting pistols and a rifle, and we can all hit what we're aiming for (most of the time)! One of the ideas of cowboy shooting is to see how fast you can hit the targets in the right order. Dad and Mr. Nivose also shot at some clay birds. I think they had a good time doing that, but I hope I never have to depend on eating wild duck. Mr. Nivose looks right with a shotgun and should probably get one someday for all those clay birds (and zombies) he wants to shoot.
We also took a drive out to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, which is exactly what it sounds like it is. We saw these baby birds, but I don't remember what they are. (Mom, do you?)
There were pelicans, egrets, herons, ducks and other birds that I can't remember now. The water was a little low in some parts, so there weren't as many birds as there could have been. It wasn't migration season either. We did get to see some cool birds, though. I think I like the swallows the best.
Mr. Nivose and I took a side trip down to Ogden one night to see the Voodoo Organist play a show. He was surprised to see us there, instead of in Denver. He played a good show and it was nice to catch up with him a little.
Other than that, we poked around the mountain in mom and dad's backyard a bit. We were looking for cool desert bugs, but we really only found big grasshoppers and a spider or two. We tried to lure a big spider out of its web with a grasshopper, but had no success. We all played some lawn darts and board games and watched movies- just your general hanging out. It was a good visit, all in all.
For anyone driving across Wyoming on I-80: The Blake House in Rawlins was a decent place to eat. The menu items were a little unexpected- a mix of American and Asian food. The place we ate in Rock Springs was not awesome at all, but I don't quite remember the name. Tetikawa or something like that.
-Mrs. Nivose
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