A thousand miles to Yellowstone - the road to halfway - pt 3.

Let's not talk about the clogged up bathroom in our cheap hotel (mamma mia - yuckness), or that we actually had a WHOLE day of driving passing through Salt Lake City, a night in another cheap hotel, an early breakfast talk with a lady from Maine who didn't know where Siena was and, instead, talk about the road that indeed took us to Yellowstone!

Our day started at 10.30, and we took the long way around so that we would see the Grand Teton. But will first mention that we were in Idaho, had crossed the whole of Utah, had already crossed the southern tip of Nevada and was gonna reach Wyoming by the end of the day. Pretty amazing if you ask me!

On our way north we stopped at Idaho Falls, cute little town with cute little shops (to the left I attach not a cute picture of the town, but a cool one, I think!)

There we found this cool antique shop where we almost bought their entire carnival-something-rather glass collection. The furniture was simply wonderful, all from Iowa, I am told. Good old farm houses and their decadent owners, I say.

We also heard the "Yellostone story of the day": a hiker got killed by a mamma bear because he got too close to her cubs and we made a note to ourselves not to go walking around unattended.






Going east for a bit and then north, we reached Grand Teton, wonderful view and a interesting feeling of being really small! Not dispersed, as the huge vastness of American roads make you feel, but a tiny dot on the map, or not even that. You probably can't see us from up those mountains, and I am sorry for that. But I can see you from down here and you, my friend, are grand!

We reached the southern entrance to Yellowstone at 5.25. and we were staying a the north entrance of Mamoth Hot Springs. One tip for fellow travelers, it takes 2 hours of solid drive to cross the park from south to north. Get there earlier than us!

We had a wonderful first run-through of the park and its geysers, but we just needed to arrive to our hotel and rest. That's what we did, because we were, at last, in Yellowstone!

A thousand miles to Yellowstone - a day in Zion - nothing less than the Promised Land. - pt 2

With the whole day to be dedicated to Zion Park, we started our march.

Zion is red and it is incredible! It is a paradise for someone like me, who loves drawing rocks! (something to do with the angles and shadows...don't ask me)

Posting a pic so you keep up with me :)

We took the bus up-road, where we could see it all from the windows! Went all the way to the end of the road and took the easy trail and went all the way to the end of it...not very adventurous, but giving the time we had to spend there we did pretty well!

OMG it is a place never to forget! nature is JUST THERE, you breathe and live it!

On our way out we took a Mt Carmel Highway up the mountains, and as we went up the whole place just opened itself for us, like a real paradise!

The peaks and valleys are fantastic!

This whole place once-upon-a-time was a huge desert (some 200-million years ago), even bigger than Zahara! Through time Calcium carbonate cemented loose grains of sand making hard sandstone.

We stopped at Checkboard Mesa, a peak where the fissures make a pattern that, oh well, looks like a checkboard! The left to right scratches are due to a north to south wind direction while the vertical cracks are a result of weathering, a cycle of freezing and thawing.

Amazing...one of a kind!

On the road we stopped at this place and had ice cream! :)

It had a Far West type of thing (completely fake, of course)...but the only picture worth taking is this one on the left...






Our trip will go on, but we just need a rest for now!

Straight from the oven's mouth!!!

Sooooooo, I thought to alternate posts cuz it ain't a food blog, but it was just so delicious this last creation that I just HAD to post.

Mum made banana heaven! It is a caramel / banana / orange zest (from a friend's garden) / cinamony something banana yummy:

We served it with chocolate ice-cream OR pancakes.

Enjoy!
(oh, for recipes please contact us right away, or we shall forget how we made them)

A thousand miles to Yellowstone - a journey to the beginning

So, we went on a trip...yeah...it was AWESOME - full stop.

I could very well stop there, because awesome describes very well how the trip was, but in reality, it wasn't as much how it was but what happened during this trip that makes so awesome. So...I cannot help it but to illustrate the whole trip to you.

I have split it into two parts, or two main titles. The fist part is a journey to the beginning, the beginning of us. A journey to a place where we can understand where it all started: Yellowstone.

We set off from L.A. on the 6th of July, heading east on I-15.

One of our first stops of the trip was at Peggy Sue diner, where Lele and I had been two years ago on our way to Vegas. Have to say it ain't as cool as I remember, maybe cuz it was packed to its ears with people. oh well...moving on...






This time Vegas was not in our plans...saw some of it from the highway and said our see-you-soons!

Nevada is a wild country, we usually think of it as a land of wild dreams and stuff, but we are in the desert man! We experienced it on the road with a wild wild storm and the beautiful scenery we had just by looking out of the window.







Oh, I got to explain one of our triumphs in this trip: it was a set of rules and a competition that ran between us. (thoroughly recommend it if you are traveling in more than 2 people) The set of rules were:
Rule#1: always say what you want/need.
Rule#2: don't get offended.
Rule#3: see rule #1
The competition was actually instituted the day after, so am going to leave it be for now.

This first night, after some 8 hours of drive, we stopped at St George, and this will be our home for the next 2 nights. The following day is all for Zion.

Introducing people around me. pt 1

Right now, as I have already said in the last post, we are at my parent's house. It is a wonderful place for wonderful people, but I also live in Milan, so that's why I chose to, first: introduce people whom I might talk about and second: subdivide my post in parts, because people around me will change in time and space.

We are a family of creative people, each one of us in our own right:

Gio' Sguario, interior designer, painter, sculpture, teacher.




Stephen Cradock, writer, teacher, singer.






 Lele Lutteri, graphic and apparel designer, painter.









These are the people who rock my world.

So let's start with food, shall we?

We are at mum's and dad's house, and their house is a place where everything is creative and interesting. We are having some fun with food lately, and it all started without us even noticing it (as with many things around here).


Our first food invention, or food improvement, was a hot dog!

We started off by saying: "this is too boring" so we added this wonderful yogurt sauce that mum made for the salad that we just went like "that could work!" then the sausages, grilled zucchini (don't be fooled by the cucumber, they were there only as snacks...)..more sauce, mustard and voila'! WONDERFUL and tasty (everything Organic, I have to say.)
Beer is good alongside it.