• I'm starting off with an original Marijn dinner creation. When given the opportunity to cook meat for others at our house, he goes all out with the splurging of meat and so, on a lucky afternoon, he had the luxury of making pizza lined with bacon.
• We went off to celebrate America's birthday in true western fashion - by heading off to Prescott, Arizona. My grandparents live there (along with thousand of other retirees, I think it's either Arizona or Florida once one becomes the ripe age of retirement) so we thought that it would be an excellent idea to spend some time with them. It wasn't that bad, in fact, I think that we were able to enjoy ourselves.
• We fancied ourselves with a parade that showcased pretty much everyone who lived in the Prescott area. The parade was over two and a half hours. There were lots of horses, flags, veterans and more horses. We could actually only endure forty five minutes of it.
• Old fashion thunderstorms that concludes with a beautiful dual rainbow. California has the luxury of having amazing weather (hot, warm, windy or hot?) so it's been a very long time since I've been able to enjoy a thunderstorm. It made me warm and fuzzy to be in Prescott during monsoon season.
• The monsoons also provides an excuse to go into random stores and discover something new. While in the town of Jerome, the monsoons forced us into a tacky souvenir shop. However one little secret of the souvenir shop was that it held a silent movie theater upstairs. It was a time warp back into the twenties. Rad.
• Cowboys! Yes, they still exist! We went to the World's Oldest Rodeo and watched bull riding, horse steering and whatever else one does at the rodeo. There were a plethora of American flags, cowboy boots, cowboy hats and water-downed beer (Coors, Bud and Miller - those were the only alcoholic choices!) They opened the rodeo in a prayer. That was weird.
• A real working gas station in Skull Valley, Arizona. It's a blast from the past although I didn't live in that past, I'm sure that it's what it looked like back in the fifties.
• We went bike riding through Prescott into Skull Valley. I felt like such an uber biker chick. The only thing that I really didn't like is that you don't have to wear a motorcycle helmet in Arizona. It just doesn't seem safe to me, I would rather gear up head to toe in +100 degree weather (like pictured above) than to not wear a helmet for the sake of being cool and hip.
• Oh the moment of real beer touching my lips was bliss. We spent the whole weekend drinking water downed beer cause that's what one does when in Western world. The moment we entered the airport to fly home, a real bar with real beer was a must. Oh sweet nectar of the gods...