Heaven is in Shoshone Forest

I'm coming to you this morning from a 15'x20' cabin that backs up to a mountain just three miles from the Eastern entrance to Yellowstone. I have the front door cracked so I can hear the rushing stream that is no more than 100 feet away. It's amazingly relaxing. No TV, just me, Matt, nature and all of you via this blog, of course. (Hilarious that they have free wifi here. Love it!)

From roadtrip

We'll be rolling out in less than two hours – after breakfast at the lodge – but I must say that this place calls to me. I wish we could stay a night longer. If you're ever out this way, book a night at the Shoshone lodge. It's worth it.

The foodie in me has not been disappointed either. After a relaxing glass of wine last night, I ordered the "Little Grizzly." It's a 10 oz. flat-iron streak with caramelized onions, melted bleu cheese and coated in this wonderful balsamic reduction. My expectations were not high on this steak – I was banking on a mostly tough, hopefully not too dry cut of meat that tasted good due in large part to the toppings. What I found, when I bit into my first morsel, was the best tasting steak I can recall in my nearly 30 years of eating. Words cannot describe. (I assume the source of my meal might have come from around the bend – SOOO delish. Makes me consider moving to Wyoming – all for the beef!

Matt had a steak sandwich which he thoroughly enjoyed as well. We rounded out the meal with a slice of warm blueberry pie, homemade blueberry pie. It was bliss. After dinner we sat on a couple rocking chairs on the porch. Then we went inside to wait for the campfire to be lit. 2.5 hours later, we both woke up from our food and high-altitude induced slumber. The camp fire was long gone. I would not change a thing about last night.

Off to experience Yellowstone! (Apparently, we're sans one critical item for our journey…. Bear spray, yikes!!)


P.S. - the drinking water here is the best I've had in my life (and I consider myself a water aficionado). The source? The top of the mountain we're on, of course!


 

Wine is a Delight

Wine is one of my favorite things. But to be completely honest, I'm a low-class wino. Like many twentysomthings, I've been meaning to take wine-tasting classes for a few years (along with golf lessons, cake-decoration classes and learning a foriegn language at the local community college). Of course, none of these have happened to date.

I may be a cheap wino for life and that's ok with me. One thing's for sure, I'm not going to get any wine class on this road trip. But maybe I can do some regional sampling and describe the flavors and experience in simple terms... Would that be worth reading about?

Transitioning to this video, I'm a communicator by day and I love this video. It's a Flash-based infographic on wine. It's informative, entertaining and strategically clear. In other words, it makes me want to have a glass wine tonight... from my fancy boxed wine. There. I said it. I have $24 boxed wine in my kitchen right now. Why anybody spends $24 for wine in a plastic bag, I have no idea. Will be going back to bottles mostly out of shame.


The Conception of Wine - Infographic from Tiago Cabaco on Vimeo.