A Weekend of Brunches

Ah, what a lovely, lovely weekend we have had... Rob had FIVE DAYS OFF because of some scheduling details at his office and oh, what a luxury that was! The 80-hour work week has been a regular in our household off and on for the better part of a decade so this new life with Rob in a real doctor job instead of med school or residency or fellowship is a revelation.

And isn't brunch a good way to enjoy a holiday weekend? I love brunch, as well as its less-fancy cousin, restaurant breakfast, and the even less-fancy cousin, a whole hot breakfast cooked at home. On Friday, we made migas and French press coffee and were all lazy about the house. Also on Friday, after about 18 months of using baking soda and apple cider vinegar instead of shampoo and conditioner for my hair (with breaks for travel and moving), I got some of the vinegar in my eyes for the first time. Ow ow ow ow ow ow... I recommend avoiding this.

On Saturday, we had planned a day trip to central Utah, including our first stop for brunch at Communal in Provo. Provo, for the unfamiliar, is the town where BYU is and is sort of an LDS social/cultural center. I would never have guessed that it is also home to a really fantastic restaurant using lots of local, seasonal food but oh my goodness, it was so wonderful. Definitely worth the drive.





After that, we continued south toward Uinta National Forest, planning to drive Nebo Loop from north to south. Supposedly it is about a 90-minute drive if you go straight through and there are places to stop along the way for a little walking and/or light hiking. Sadly, when we were about 15 minutes in, we discovered that the road was closed, all gated and chained off by the Park Service or Forest Rangers or whoever does that kind of thing. The entire road is closed for the winter and it turns out that it is still too early to get really up on Mt. Nebo this year. We have had an especially heavy year for snow (there were 10 inches of fresh powder up at the ski resorts yesterday, although most of them are closed now) and there is all kinds of concern about flooding and mud from the snowmelt around here. It turns out that part of the road we were planning on driving was damaged up further from such issues. It also turns out you can look up these kinds of things on the internet, which I now know to do before we plan such an outing again. It didn't really occur to me that on Memorial Day weekend trails and road and whatnot might still be inaccessible. The more you know.

Fortunately, there was a trail accessible from the open part of the road so we did a tiny bit of a hike. It was lovely to be out amongst the trees and open air and nature and all.

On Sunday, we had yet more brunch, this time just Robert and me. A brunch date! Hooray! We went to the Wild Grape Bistro, which was very good indeed. I have been having intense sugar cravings (thanks, pregnancy!) so I had this brioche French toast that was all slathered in lemon curd and blueberries and OHMYGOSH I want some more right now instead of whatever virtuous breakfast I just ate.  Sigh... Too bad the weekend of brunches must end.