A Much Needed Rayya Sunshine

We all walk our separate ways I don't know why. I hope we meet again, somewhere some day (Bouncing Souls "The Something Special") 

Rayya (unintentionally and unknowingly) cleansed the demons that had been brought into the lives of  Michael and me by Bat Shit Crazy Becky.  As another online friend, Ray managed to remind us that she and all the other friends we've met online are fun, funny and a pleasure to spend time with.  Oh, and they're all also decidedly drama free.

We spent the entirety of the week from July 23 to August 1 with her, and had a stellar time! Friday night they met me at Cheers after my Swingin' Utters show.

Ray in my Swingin Utters Shirt

Saturday, I had the most brutal hangover I have ever ever suffered in all my years of drinking.  So I whined about it, starting the second my eyes opened, and kept at it through our drive to lunch (we ate at Blue Plate Diner), and all of our wait for a table/coffee/water. I finally stopped when I couldn't whine anymore because I was continually drinking water and coffee.  I was a joy to be with (sarcasm!), which is probably why Ray & Mike look like they want to strangle me in the photo below (which I took to try to distract me from feeling shitty--it didn't work in case you were wondering).

Ray & Mike @ Blue Plate

Fortunately, after ingesting a carafe of water and coffee each, along with a delectable Black Bean Vegetarian Burrito, I finally felt human again and we went and bought fireworks to play with to celebrate Pioneer Day. (The pioneers lit fireworks and drank when they got to Salt Lake Valley, right? So it was more than appropriate we follow in that tradition. Right? Sorry Mormon family/friends--I'm just teasing!)  While lighting our fireworks, Ray accidentally threw one of the spinners into the gutter of the parking lot we were using for our pyrotechnics. Said gutter was hosting a pine needle gathering, which instantly ignited.  I was laughing too hard to do anything at all (except document it, of course), but fortunately Mike acted (relatively) quickly and put it out for us.

Documentation

Most of the fireworks we bought were kinda lame, but the Zombie one was awesome.  As was Rayya's Zombie impersonation that lasted the whole time she held, lit, and watched the firework in action.  We also went to an open lot on 1st Ave that affords a beautiful, unimpeded view of the valley to watch the real fireworks.

Zombie Rayya

Watching fireworks from 1st Ave

Shortly after settling down to watch, the sprinklers turned on, forcing a hasty departure by those of us caught in the line of fire. We finished off the night with Uno Attack which Rayya won every single round of, the wench.

Sunday, we went to the Zoo where we saw adorable baby elephant Zuri try desperately to eat some chunks of ice that the zookeepers had put in there for her and her mother.  She would get sooooo close, and then she'd drop it right before she got it in her mouth.  This went on for over ten minutes. A large crowd gathered to watch and cheer her on and, finally, she succeeded! I photographed the entire ordeal, but all the photos were severely overexposed, so I cannot share with you just how cute it was.

We also witnessed one of the funnier things I've ever seen an animal do in person.  We happened upon a pair of monkeys at grooming time.  The groomer was convinced that the left nipple of the groomee was a foreign object, in need of removal. So the groomer just kept pulling and pulling at it, trying to get it off of the groomee until the groomee had enough, turned over and put his arm protectively over his (presumably torn) nipple. Hahaha.

We also went to the bird show, which I've never done, and ended up sitting in the wrong (or maybe the right?) spot.  Every single bird flew within a millimeter of Rayya's, Mike's or my head.  It was crazy.  Obviously they weren't going to fly into us, but, without fail, we ducked like idiots every single time.

As we wandered around, a lot of the animals were asleep or hiding in the shade because it was so hot, but fortunately one of the tiger cubs (who admittedly doesn't look much like a cub anymore) was having fun playing in the water.

Pretty kitty

We then went to eat and play games with the fam (which was really fun) before returning to Mike's to play Elixir.  We called it early (read 2am) since we were going on a hike in the morning.

Monday morning, we gathered all our gear and drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to hike to Dog Lake.  It was a stunningly beautiful day, and a lovely hike which ended in a really anticlimatic destination.

Me & Ray Pre Hike

Also, we almost killed Mike, who had to stop every few yards to rest and who single handedly drank 90% of the water in the two Camelbaks we had.

Mike Resting in the Shade

At one point Mike even said "Oh, good! I've finally stopped sweating!" As if it was a good thing, and not a sign of heat stroke....After this comment, Rayya and I looked at each other as if to say "How are we supposed to get him off the mountain if he collapses, and how the hell do we get LifeFlight here when we don't have reception to call for help?"  To try to prevent a disaster, we made him sit in the shade for an extended period, and drink what was left of the water we had.  It worked, thank god, and Mike again began to sweat. Profusely. 

Mike Sweating

Finally we got to Dog Lake, which, at worst, is an oversized, muddy, swimming pool and, at best, is a pond. Lake my ass.

A nice older couple took this photo for us

A celebratory(ish) hug

However, we hiked up a little hill and found this view, which made it a little more worth it.

We then went down the canyon a bit and found a picnic site that had a firepit to make our hobo dinners that Mike had been so excited to make, along with a nice little stream that Rayya and I used to rinse off our dusty, dusty feet and legs.  We hung out, drank a couple beers, made smores (with Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. Tasters!) and listened to Dane Cook while we waited for our hobo dinners to cook.

Washing my feet never felt so good

Smores

Mike making his Hobo Dinner

Dinners didn't go so well as Rayya's turned out mostly charred, and mine was only slightly less charred than Ray's. Mike's seemed to be cooked to perfection, though, so at least we weren't 0 for 3. We hurried and ate what we could of our "dinner" since it was just starting to rain, cleaned up "camp" and made it out before it started raining hard. Yay for stellar timing.  Once back to Mike's we showered, then played Elixir and Uno Attack again (which Rayya won. Again. Yes, that is bitterness you're sensing).

Tuesday we were all a little tired of the gogogo routine we'd been doing, so we decided to take it easy by going to the Pie for pizza and beer, followed by games (again, Elixir and Uno Attack. Surprised?)

Cheers, Rayya!

By Wednesday we were recovered enough from Monday's excursion to brave another hike.  So after I got off work, we hiked (if you can call it that) to Donut Falls.  Walking there was cakewalk, which is probably why the trail was an anthill of people (primarily composed of groups of obnoxious teenagers), and also why we ended up waiting in an over-15-minute-queue to get to the waterfall itself.

Even though getting there was easy, the climb up to/down from the cave was a little sketchy. Rayya even helped a couple of little girls get down safely. My hero!

Rayya the Rescuer

It was well worth the sketch factor to see the falls, though; and it turned out to be a perfect counterpart to our Monday hike (easy hike, but beautiful--and cold!--destination).

Looking through the donut (photo courtesy of Mike)

As we were playing Elixir Tuesday night, I was complaining that none of the cards were "fun." Rayya said we should check out a game called Quelf--which was the same idea (making people do bizarre, funny things) but way more fun than Elixir.  So on the way to Donut Falls we stopped and picked it up.  When we got back to Mike's we set up the game and proceeded to laugh our asses off at all the random stuff we had to do (which I don't really want to expand on since I don't want to give away cards, just in case you play the game)

 
Thursday, we went to see the Movie Under the Stars at the State Capitol, which happened to be one of the most awesome 80's movies ever--Goonies.  We walked there from Mikey's, and Mique met us there.  We didn't really watch much of the movie, since Mique was late thanks to construction, and we left early so we could skip the traffic and play some Quelf.

Walking to the movie (Subtitle: What the boobs?!!!)

Mike & Ray waiting for the Movie to start

Mique & Ray at the movie

Quelf

Rayya comforting Mique during a Quelf induced laugh attack

A very bitter Rayya after losing a challenge to Mique

Friday night, Heather and Zeb came over and introduced us to a really fun game called Bootleggers where you play mobsters who are producing and selling whiskey to speakeasies during prohibition.  It was really really fun--but I don't recommend it while drinking, since it does take a fair bit of concentration.  We then moved on to Quelf, which, while awesome, was slightly less so because we started playing really late, and Heather & Zeb aren't the night owls me, Ray & Mike are.

Saturday was Ray's last day in town, so we went back to Blue Plate for breakfast, then to my parent's to play an epic seven-person game of Quelf. It was really fun--but took a bit too long to get through turns, so we weren't able to actually finish with that many people. We finished off the day with some pizza, and took Rayya to the airport.

It was an amazingly fun week, and a great reminder of how happy I am to have met so many stellar people in real life thanks to online games. And I do hope I meet all of them again, some where some day. (Well all but youknowwho) God, I'm a geek :)