Miscellaneous summer stuff

Part 3 of Summer 2011 Coverage

Early in the summer, Mike and I went to Boulder, Colorado for the day. It's a beautiful place, with the University of Colorado campus, downtown shopping, an amazing independent bookstore, and a great farmer's market. Here are a few pictures:

Tulips downtown

Flowers at the farmer's market

Mike at the Dushanbe Teahouse, where we ate lunch

On a different note altogether, one of my library classrooms got new laptops (yay!) and white boards. I'm very pleased and excited to teach there this fall:

For the first time since moving to Laramie, Mike and I were in town for Independence Day. Laramie has a huge celebration called "Freedom has a Birthday." Here's a picture of the main musical stage:

Freedom has a Birthday was really fun -- there were four stages in Washington Park. Also, free ice cream from the Freemasons and lemonade from the Democrats. (I heard the Republicans were giving away watermelon, but didn't run into their booth.)

Mike's mom visited us this summer, and we had a great time introducing her to Laramie. We went up to Vedauwoo for a walk around and to the Snowy Mountains. It was mid-July, but the Snowies still had tons of snow that shut down our attempts to go on a hike! On our way down from the Snowies we stopped for pizza at the Bear Tree Tavern and noticed this sign for the restrooms. It made us giggle.

Diana Gabaldon, author of the Outlander series of books, visited Laramie for a lecture and a reading. I went with my friend Kennedy and met the author. I'm reading the series now, and it's pretty entertaining. Her books include time travel, romance, and historical fiction, set (at first) in the Scottish Highlands.

Me, Kennedy, and Diana Gabaldon

Finally, a few food highlights from the summer. Mike and I have a share in Community Supported Agriculture, and every week we receive a box of vegetables and fruits from a farm in northern Colorado.

Here's a zucchini quiche, right before I popped it into the oven. It was delicious!

Pad thai, made with lots of the vegetables from our CSA share

This raspberry freezer jam does not represent produce from our CSA, but is actually made from Mink Creek raspberries given to us by my mom. It was my first-ever time making jam, and it's totally delicious.