S.O.B.

Hey kids! Its Rachel Deb's Neighbor and blog nerd from Living Lab.

As you know Deb's south of the border right now busy grinding and roasting chiles and chocolate and hopefully sipping plenty of suero como cola de penguino.

That being said, maybe it would make more sense to do a post on something other than Mexico? Unfortunately however, I love it a liiiittle too much not to take this opportunity to gush about sensory-overload-land. How about a few nuggets from the ridiculousness of dear-to-my-heart Baja? What choice to I have really? Its February after all.

1. Marine Mammals (must listen to this)

2. Cactus Growing Next to Salt Water

3. Fish Tacos
(If a gun were put to my head and someone demanded that I only eat one dish for the rest of my life)

4. Swimming

(deep sigh)

5. The Log From the Sea of Cortez

"The sweet smell of the land blew out to us on a warm wind, a smell of sand, verbena and grass and mangrove. It is so quickly forgotten, this land smell. We know it so well on shore that the nose forgets it, but after a few days at sea the odor memory pattern is lost so that the first land smell strikes a powerful emotional nostalgia, very sharp and strangely dear." John Steinbeck

¡goce de México DEB-BEE! We miss you!

Images : 1. Steve Ryan 2. Mountain Travel Sobek 3. Relate Revolution 4. Unknown 5. Penguin

I'm off like a...

and ready to explore the great American West with no particular itinerary, leaving renovations and wordly stuff behind, bringing sleeping bags, tack and something called a "steri-pen".

That means am leaving Bonbon to her own devices and closing shop for two weeks. But I promise I'll contact you from the road. I'll check for ticks. I'll eat some baked beans over an open campfire.

Goodbye chickadees...but please come back tomorrow and every day after that, because until the 21st (!) there'll be a new surprise left here by some fabulous (and I mean fabulous) people just for you. I hate long goodbyes...so...see ya later lovelies...

We are going here

Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons from here

and here

Glacier here

Blackfeet Reservation from here

Roadtrip from here

Actually these are places we'd like to go. We're going on a roadtrip, flying into Denver and driving with our tent and some gear and hoping we'll sleep somewhere good. And see some beautiful things. And meet some interesting people.

These are places we want to see but who knows where we'll end up. This summer's vacation is about feeling a little free. It will be good after this week's chaos.