My Loganberry Clingy and I went to visit my best friend from High School who moved to Prescott from Vermont.  Big move!!  She loves it.  It is a great town with lots of shops and a thriving heartbeat of classy big city culture alongside noisy cowboy and biker bars. 

The first thing we did was go to the Grand Canyon.  It was a quick 2-hour drive north through gorgeous Northern Arizona forests.  Upon arrival at the Canyon, we were able to hop on a shuttle and get to the rim right away. Even though I’d seen photos all my life,  I wasn’t prepared for the real thing – a fantastic sight!!  It took our breath away. 

 Then we hopped on the shuttle again and toured around to the 9 different view spots around the south rim.  Every stop had beauty galore.  Along the way, a storm rolled into the canyon and we caught a glimpse of rain in the background.  That was a big weather show compliments of mom nature. 

 Another spot was along a long curving walk out to the edge.  Along the way, we found a wonderful deadwood tree that caught the interest of my Clingy. 

Then we saw some perfectly white rocks that made the most gorgeous backdrop to show off my beautifully aging Loganberry Clingy.  

Here’s a shot of Clingy at one of the old telescopes available to tourists for getting a close up look at the canyon. It was pouring down rain at this stop.  The canyon almost disappeared. 

The next day, we drove to Sedona to gawk at the stunning red sandstone formations known as the Red Rocks of Sedona.  This is a great shopping town.  The exclusive Enchantment Resort carries 49 Square Miles bags. If you ever have a chance to visit, you can shop for 49 while you are there.  We stopped for photos near some cool cactus plants and found a perfect spot for a Clingy shot.

Then just to be sure we had a great record of the Clingy in Sedona, we caught her in front of some red rocks. 

On my last day, we visited Jerome.  A long-ago copper mining town that was a virtual ghost town for many years until the 50 artistic people who lived there decided to build it back up.  It is set on a steep mountain side and is full of great little shops and art galleries.  The town dates back to 1899 and was once a notorious wild west town.  Here is my pretty little clingy at the post office.

and another shot of an old building that had never been restored.  

Thanks so much for sending in a post about your Clingy Adventure, Mary! We love the photos and it looked like you had a ton of fun! 

This weekend we decided to road trip to Lake Geneva, WI. Clingy is a spontaneous gal and is always game for a last minute adventure. This past week was sweltering hot here in Chicago. Temperatures were in the upper 90s and the humidity made it feel as hot as 100 degrees!!

Lake Geneva is a quaint, small town filled with shops and restaurants. It is 90 minutes from Chicago but, feels like a world away from the Windy City. It’s the perfect summer town to enjoy the outdoors.

We began our day with breakfast at Simple. It is a bright and sunny place that is always crowded. It has a fun, whimsical feel and creates delicious food using locally grown ingredients. The bright yellow walls and green chairs were very cheerful ! I ordered the Simple Breakfast Sandwich-eggs, roasted red peppers, caramelized onion, overnight roasted tomatoes, baby spinach, mozzarella cheese, tomato basil mayo on toasted panini bread. Enough said!!

Now that we were fueled up, it was time to check out the Stand-Up Paddle Board Competition. This event filled the town with a great vibe! Clingy was particularly excited to watch the athletes. It reminded Clingy of all the water-loving paddleboarding folks in San Francisco. Paddle boarding is a hot new craze here in the mid-west. I was told it is easy to learn and a great core workout. I think I’ll add it to my summer bucket list! Clingy was starstruck when we saw Vanina Walsh. She is a talented 15 year old paddle boarder/surfer from Hawaii that was in Lake Geneva to promote the event. Check out her website: www.vaninawalsh.com.

For the true Lake Geneva experience, we needed to get on the water! This gave us the beautiful views of the lakeside mansions that can only be viewed by boat. The other option is a walking path which allows walkers to literally walk through the yards of private homes. It is a little over 21 miles around the entire lake. Clingy and I were feeling lazy so a boat ride was the perfect answer!

After the boat ride it was time to relax with a beer from the New Glarus Brewing Company. It is a local favorite that we can’t purchase in Illinois. So it’s always fun to have a Spotted Cow when we are in WI. This is a relatively new company (1993) and was founded by Deborah Carey. She is the first woman in the United States to found and operate a brewery…way to go Deborah!! We usually bring a 12 pack home and keep it for an impromptu barbecue. Our guest feel like they hit the jackpot when they pull out a Fat Squirrel from the cooler!!

Lake Geneva is a beautiful place, and it looks best when the sun goes down. I’m a sucker for a sunset and it’s such a calming way to wrap up a lovely day. Clingy and I experienced the ”pink moment” in Lake Geneva. It was pure magic! OK…maybe not the real thing but pretty darn close. Check it out!

I bet you are wondering what a “pink moment” is all about, right? In the small town of Ojai, CA the “pink moment” occurs at sunset when the fading sunlight creates a vibrant shade of pink over the Topa Topa Bluffs. Ojai is one of the few towns in the world to experience the pink moment. Next time you see a spectacular pink glow, I urge you to take the time to stop and enjoy the natural beauty.

Cynthia (Chicago)

We took a trip today up to Lake Sonoma for some jet skiing (or technically, wave runner-ing!).  But we needed lunch on our way up and stopped at the wonderful “adult Disneyland” the Francis Ford Coppola Winery.  FFC built this location a few years back and he spared no expense.  Everything is top notch.  Its not cheap, but a great destination.  He built a fabulous pool with “Cabines” which are large closets that you can store your posessions.  Rental of a Cabine buys you 4 lounge chairs, wine tasting and pool time.  The nice thing is that once all of the Cabines are rented, no one else can go to the pool, so they control the body count. No hunting for a lounge chair at a busy pool.

The location is beautiful and surrounded by vineyards.  You can eat on the patio near the pool or you can go to the higher end restaurant, Rustic.  Again, this place is pricey and the food is good, but not necessarily worth the money.  But if you add in the location, very well trained servers, the view and the quality of your surroundings, its worth a visit.  The staff is very well trained (especially for being in such a remote area) and the view is breathtaking.  And when you are done with lunch or dinner, you can walk around the wine tasting/gift shop/museum area that houses memorabilia from many of FFC’s movies, along with items from Sophia’s as well.  You may be thinking…”Ok, but this sounds tacky”…but its not.  Well done, tasteful, yet awe inspiring.  And this shopper can ALWAYS find something great to purchase.

After lunch we headed the last 10-15 minutes up to Lake Sonoma.  This is not a well known lake and we always go on Friday to avoid the weekend crowds.  Lots of people camp here.  Its a beautiful lake surrounded by rolling hills and redwoods.  Also great birdwatching if you like that sort of thing. I saw a bald eagle on my first visit and really enjoyed the antics of a flock of small black/white/red woodpeckers on a recent visit.  I don’t have any proper photos of the lake (or with Clingy) but that is because its not practical to pull the iPhone out when one is bobbing on a Sea Doo.  Nor is it safe when one is traveling at 55 MPH! :)

We drove home and finished our day with a yummy caesar salad using the romaine from our garden and some refreshing drinks.

Looking forward to seeing what adventures Saturday holds!

Happy weekend everyone!

Marianne (Clingy Marin County, CA)