About 20 minutes from the Sand Dunes National Park in the San Luis Valley, sits a UFO observatory deck. There have been 111 UFO sightings since the official UFO observation deck has been installed and there are references to UFO sightings in the area as far back as the 1600s. I certainly don’t think we are the only beings in the universe – but it’s always interested me that the little green dudes love desert areas in CO and NM. You’ll remember our trip to Roswell last year – the dude is a huge alien fan so we naturally had to stop here.
The owner was a very nice gal and explained to us all the interesting things about the property and some unusual activity and notable sightings. If anything they had one of the best views of the mountains in all of the valley. No wonder the green men love it there.
amazing view from the observatory deckthe vortex garden where people leave trinkets for energy (the dude is eating gator jerky – no respect for the vortex)babes and aliens – no big deal. the dude and his people.
A few weeks ago the dude and I took a trip to visit my Grandma down in the ‘land of enchantment’ – New Mexico! I have such fond memories of New Mexico (tons and tons of summers there as a child) and it felt so good going back with a clear and sound mind to experience all the things I know as a child I took for granted. I would move down there in a heartbeat too.
It was so great to get to spend time with my Grandma – she is like her own sweatshop with the amount of quilts she produces! But, she is such an inspiring and strong woman. She beat terminal ovarian cancer and now has 15 years in remission! She has blossomed in her own community, even after the death of my grandfather 10 years ago. Plus I LOVE being able to talk to her about crafts, life, and living a happy sober life (this lady has never even been to a bar!).
Since she lives very close to Carlsbad Caverns, the dude had never been to the caves and well… that’s what you do when you visit Artesia, NM! 😉
Here’s some pictures of our cave exploration.
this crazed handsome lunatic is about to go spelunking! the entrance – can you imagine ‘discovering’ this and thinking ‘gee i guess i’ll head on down!’ CRAZY. cave parts. that crazed spelunker is actually pretty handsome. 😉 i swear i was having a good time. the whale’s teeth. creeepy. some kind of a lochness monster in the cave made of minerals. nature is insane. me and this giant creepy rock skeleton finger. amazing detail of the stalactites green lake room
Here’s a look at my first time flying with my dad in his experimental RV6A. I was so impressed at his ability to make it look so easy to fly. We took off from Boulder Airport and flew around the hogbacks, along the mountain range and over the university. It was amazing to say the least. My dad rules!
While in Denver, I had a chance to check out an exhibit that everyone has been talking about – the Chihuly glass art exhibit at the Denver Botanical Gardens. It was so amazing. *i had shorts on – even though it looks like I’m missing my pants.
Sorry for the super huge delay/hiatus here on GFK. I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful trip in Thailand. If you haven’t seen, I was able to upload my photos often onto my Flickr account which you can access on the lower right sidebar. I think maybe I’ll talk in more detail about certain things, but honestly I think some of my favorite photos will highlight my best vacation moments. I just want to stress that my little sister was just a wonderful host/tour guide/honorary Thai. We have already agreed on future travels together because we just had such a blast traveling. Sister-win!
I think I’ll do some bullets about general descriptors too:
Shopping – EPIC. I mean Thailand is right next to China, so the amount of ‘stuff’ to buy is just unreal. I ended up with a real leather Tokidoki purse, tons of Hello Kitty merch, a “LV” wallet, loads of awesome tees, some fun knickknacks/trinkets. We went to two giant nice malls. I’m not kidding like 8 stories of shops. We also went to a more ‘bazaar’ shopping place called JJ Market that was phenomenal. That was where I got my “LV” wallet for 450 Thai Baht (around $12).
Food – NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. Obviously Thai food is delectable. However, the whole choosing what to eat made this kind of hard. See – when you think of Thailand as ‘street-food’ wealthy, you must also acknowledge that a lot of that street food is not being how shall I say….. used/rotated out/disposed of. My sister lived in a more ‘residential’ Thai neighborhood (no tourists AT ALL) and I noticed after a few days that the food was not moving. Raw chicken/beef/mystery meat just sat there day after day. MMMMMMMMMM NO. Now at the Krabi Beach Resort the Thai lady could cook some EPIC food. I was obsessed with a chicken, pepper, onion, and cashew dish (drool). Other than dishes like that I ate yogurt from 7/11 and loads and loads of coffee and candy. We did get food poisoning on Thanksgiving from a ‘boil your own’ meal place. I guess we did not boil the wontons right? (BERRRF) Plus the eggs were ‘gamey’ or funky all the time. It was interesting and unfortunately I did not acquire a taste for the funk egg.
Thai peeps – INCREDIBLY NICE. I love Thai people. They are so accommodating and lovely.
Weather – HOT. It was even the ‘nicer’ months, but it was always 90+ degrees and very humid. I wore jeans/yoga pants the entire time and it wasn’t unbearable. I always had a sweaty sheen on me though – it complimented the smell of sunscreen that permeated off my body 24/7.
Sunset in Krabi. Gorgeous.At the Krabi Beach Resort.Iced Coffee – What makes Thailand Work.I LOVE this brand. I’m on a hunt here in the States now.The Grand Palace.Gold Leaf Art work at the Grand Palace.MMMM. Mister Donut.The Bus. Funny because to get on and off is quite the ordeal. You have to make sure you are standing in the street ready to run!Gorgeous Dusk Temple.Ferry ride from one side of river to the other.Aran Bpom and I after my tattoo. He was such a ‘G’.
The only ‘downer’ parts of my trip were about 8 hours of food poisoning (it happened at night so it was not a waste of time), the flight to/from Bangkok – I discovered that I definitely have circulation problems in my ankles/legs which was scary when I think of my age/lifestyle.
The verdict. Thailand is amazing. There is something about it that just immediately hooks you. I will most assuredly get back there at some point.
Over the weekend I went to KNITXMIDWEST in Des Moines, Iowa. It was the most fun weekend I’ve had in a long time and I always have a blast on the weekend so that’s saying it was OFF THE CHARTS FUN. The knit event took place in an adorable little lodge in a state park outside Des Moines. When I walked in on Saturday morning… I LOST IT. First, I finally met Jen at MakexDo – who’ve I have been following on her blog for years. Then I looked around and there were porcelain kittens, and yarn, and crafters, and candy, and pink, and just oh my glob. I kept feeling like I needed to run into the woods and scream ‘I AM THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN ALLLLLL THE LAND!!!!!’
Anyways, I’ll do a few more blogs about the weekend and the awesome awesome awesome knitting friends in Des Moines coming up – here are some pictures that made me barf rainbows. Again a HUGE GIANT KITTEN/RAINBOW BARF/GLITTER FILLED THANK YOU goes to the gals at Hill Vintage and Knits and Jen.
The GHOSTFACE was strong on Day 1.Jen’s cupcakes – HOW ADORABLE.There were A TON of HYPHY knitters/crochetersSugared up and fibered up.Our Hostesses – Jen & the Hill Vintage & Knits gals.The 3 Knitmigas.This cat is my soulmate.DROOL. At Hill Vintage & Knits.My purse was full…. just a leeeetle.Descent into Chicago…
It is Friday! Also I’m so excited because today I get to go to Des Moines to meet up with Lois and my aunt for a knitting weekend! Sayyy whhhhhaaaat? You heard me! A KNITFEST!!!! Anyways, I packed last night (sort of) and am set to be there this evening. YIPEE.
IM SO EXCITED ERRRRMMMEEEEGAWWDI painted my nails and am doing another nail challenge with instagrams : CALIFORNAILS & TNTNAILS887My homegirls got their GIVEAWAY COWLS! Look what great things you win when you read GFK!trying to pack last night…
Well it has been A WHILE since my last post and I wish I had been on a vacation, but really I was busting out the first chapter of my thesis. I even accidentally hit command S at the end of that sentence – that’s how trained I am to save after each thought. Overall I am pleased at how this thesis is coming- I still have more detail I want to add, but sometimes I think it’s just important to get the main idea out there then mull it over and add more later. Anyways I’ve been working on this/lying to myself for the past two weeks so I was so relieved to finally ‘rest’ when I finished my first draft today.
So instead of words words blah blah blah to describe the past few weeks I thought I would show some pictures. A lot has happened and on Wednesday I’ll be leaving for a week to vacation in Chicago and see some doom bands in Baltimore. I cannot wait for this trip – we are road tripping the entire way and I know it might get boring, but I am so excited to spend so much time with my man and see a part of the country I have never seen. I’ll try to update on our trip, but we’ll see maybe I’ll be having too much fun for the internet (is that even possible???).
So without further ado – my last week and one half in photos:
ghostfaceknitter.com 