Big Bend 2016

After Christmas this year, we were able to road trip out to West Texas and spend a few days at Big Bend National Park. It was my first time going and I had a lot of fun. I think I keep impressing Jonathan with my ability to eat saltines and pepperoni without complaining and go four days without a shower. Don't worry, I smelled wonderful and am healthy as ever. :)

Hubby planned the entire trip though since camping is his forte. I just willingly went along for the ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

Day One:

We woke up at 5 am and left the campsite at 5:45 am to drive all the way across the park to the other side to catch the sunrise at Santa Elena Canyon. We got there just after 7:30. I think we were close.

Santa Elena Canyon

Balanced Rock

Day Two:

The second day was our most heavily packed day. We set out for a 12 mile hike that hubby had planned. We woke up at 5 or 5:30, drove to the Basin, and then set out for our hike around 7:30 am. We reached the top around 10:50 am and got ready for lunch.

What a scenic view for lunch

After eating lunch and enjoying the view for a good hour or so, we started to go down. We realized we hiked up faster than anticipated so we thought we might add a 3 mile detour into our route and turn it into a 15 mile hike. After all, I had received hiking boots for Christmas as a gift from Jonathan, so why not put them to good use right?

Jonathan: "This jacket isn't very good for pictures."
Cathy: Well it's not the star. My shoes are. *cue pose*
Jonathan: You're awkward.
*2 minutes later*
Jonathan: Oh, that didn't turn out that bad.

Well, we got overly excited, started pushing forward, and then before we knew it, we were scrambling over giant boulders and walking next to a shallow creek of residual water. There was no trail in sight and I was pretty sure we weren't on the trail anymore. After blindly attempting to maneuver ourselves out of the now valley we got ourselves stuck in, we decided to turn around and go back the way we came to relocate the correct trail.

This took about a 10-15 minute detour for us having gotten lost, and I was not a super happy camper at this point. Secretly inside I was pretty set on just hiking the rest of the way down and not adding the extra 3 miles. Well, once we found the actual trail and were set back on it, we shortly came across a fork that connected to the longer trail on the other side of the rim. And walking down it was a young gentleman we had met at lunch named Jeff. So Jeff joined us for our hike the rest of the day. And yes, we did the extra 3 miles to hike to the highest point in the entire park, Emory Peak.

We made it! Not pictured: the steep stairs we had to climb up AND the tower of rocks we had to scramble over to get here.

If we hadn't run into Jeff on the way down, I don't think we would have done the extra 3 miles to this point, nor would we have met a pretty cool guy. We talked for about a good 3-4 hours for the rest of the afternoon hike and got to know each other pretty well for having just met as complete strangers. Actually, he probably knows us better than some of our friends we haven't talked to in 2-3 years or more.


Day Three:

The wind was horrible this day. We had a relaxing day planned and we couldn't even sit outside and relax on a bench because the wind was blowing and dirt/sand was being kicked up. We managed to get in one short hike but then drove home after, leaving a day earlier than anticipated.

People from Mexico row over in canoes and try to sell their wares. This happened all the time back in the day but since 2002 after 9/11, they are trying to limit the illegal crossings. They set them up in little places on hikes near borders in hopes that someone will leave some money and perhaps buy something. They are never physically at the site. 

The wind blew these bamboo to a 45 degree angle. Yes, bamboo is quite plentiful at Big Bend along the Rio Grande!

Across the river is Mexico!

There's a tiny colorful city in the back called Boquillas that you can actually cross over and visit. Had we prepared better, we would have probably remembered to bring our passports. ¡Estudió el español en la escuela secondaria para cuatros años! Pero, mi español is muy mal :( 

After that we headed home shortly, but not before taking a picture with the sign!



I also captured some pictures of desert flora! So unique.


On the car ride back, we exchanged stories about grade school. I think I remember as much in one grade as he remembered in all 12. I definitely remember my sixth grade history teacher who wouldn't let us use the restroom during class, ever, my eighth grade science teacher who swiped my agenda out of my hand one day in class to read what I had written without my permission, and the eleventh grade history teacher who played with my hair one day in class. I'm sure looking back these were not their brightest teacher moments, but I definitely have not forgotten.

This was a really great way to end the year. I can't imagine camping with anyone else or hiking 15 miles in one day with anyone else. Here's to more memories and explorations to come in the future :)

Happy New Year!

Stiff Peaks

We might've just had the strangest weather for a Texas winter. This morning was on the warmer side, potentially shorts and t-shirt weather for some, and now, merely 6:50pm, it is 30 degrees and dropping. After going out and running errands during the early afternoon hours, we came home and prepared to bunker down for the cold winter night it was going to be. Tomorrow's temperature around 7am is projected to be about 20 degrees with winds estimated at 17 mph. That means after the windchill, the "feels like" temperature will be drastically low. Now, that's my kind of weather. If you've known me at least 4 years, you will know that I walked on ice for six months of the year living in a city nicknamed the "Ice City."

After coming home, I decided to make meringue cookies. I've always liked meringue cookies but not in the same way as I like fried chicken, strawberries or dark chocolate. There's something mysteriously appealing about a meringue that comes more from its texture and less from the flavor. A well made meringue cookie is flaky on the outside, light and airy on the inside, and slowly dissolves in your mouth. I can't really describe the flavor to you besides its sweetness because it's simply egg whites and sugar. Egg whites really don't taste like much and sugar is just sugar.

As I followed the recipe and carefully watched my egg whites turn fluffy through the electric beater, I retold stories of China to Jonathan and how my teammates made meringue cookies for my birthday WITHOUT an electric beater. Unfortunately, I was not there to witness their delirious jokes or the tired arm muscles because they planned everything without my knowing, but I remember their dedication, love, and thoughtfulness in putting together my 22nd birthday.

I am very grateful that we have an electric beater as a gift from our wedding registry to bake meringue cookies. The recipe I followed was from Emeril Lagasse and can be found here. I liked this recipe because it added chocolate chips, which enhances the overall flavor of the cookie, because like I mentioned before, egg whites and sugar really don't taste like much. The difficulty is listed at intermediate, and considering my meringue turned out well (because there were two empty spaces before I managed to remember to take a picture), I think it's safe to say I qualify as an intermediate chef ;).

(I also made the mistake of dropping my meringues larger than the recipe had asked for, so I kind of made up some more baking rules using prior knowledge to get them to bake right, hence why there are 23 and not 40.)

Clearly I am not an engineer or mathematician or physicist. Somehow I managed to put
a prime number of cookies on this baking sheet in the most ambiguously random way possible.

Meringue also don't have to be in the prettiest of formations. The stiff
peaks give it more character than a perfectly piped shape.

With successful meringue cookies in the books, I will now bundle up, crawl into bed, and hide myself in a book for a while. :)

Dont Touch the Instrument

In my previous post, I started talking about hand positions and Phoebe's creative names. If you missed it, you can go back and catch up here.

The second half of the Friends reference involved Phoebe asking Joey not to touch the guitar until she said he was ready. Joey was very appalled at this technique, retorted with yellow pages of other music schools with children happily holding guitars, and walked off.

Phoebe might be surprised to learn that I heard about a piano pedagogy that does not involve touching a piano for the first 8-12 weeks of learning. This guest speaker was invited to speak and introduced us to this method of teaching that he uses.

First, for the first 8-12 weeks, he doesn't ask his students to play the piano at all. Instead, he takes the time to teach them fundamental basics to promote strong sight-reading skills and music theory. I won't go through the details of how he teaches it, but this is what is expected of his students to master in this "non-playing" stage of their learning, (written in teaching objective style sentences).

1. Students will develop finger muscles through exercises.
2. Students are expected to memorize the letter names of the keys on the piano by recognition.
3. Students are expected to memorize the notation for the 22 most common notes on the staff in both treble and bass clef.
4. Students are expected to understand musical rhythms in multiple time signatures.
5. Students will be able to create small "compositions" of their own using the notes and rhythms they've learned.
6. Students will be able to play notes on the piano in proper rhythms using blunt sticks or the eraser ends of pencils in order to produce the sounds for their compositions.

Objective 6 is basically as close as they get to touching a piano in their first 1-2 months of piano learning. In theory, and hypothetically, this is the perfect way to teach anyone how to learn music and master it quickly. Learn the basics and have a good foundation in music. And then you can pretty much learn and teach yourself any piece of music thereafter.

Obviously it's not completely all-encompassing.  There's sharps, flats, key signatures, accidentals, dynamics, musical styles, and a lot more things that need teaching. But once you nail the rhythms and the notes, it gets much simpler after that in terms of the learning curve.

I think all music majors (who of course, know 15 years in advance that they want to pursue music as their career and means of financial security), should start out this way. However, this technique doesn't work for most people. Why? Because the parents of the children learning to play who are paying the teacher want to see results fast. They want to see their child playing music from day 1 if possible. Most people simply want their children to have a grasp of what playing music means. They don't want to raise musicians.

I personally think this is a fabulous technique for learning the piano. However, I don't teach it. Also because I believe students these days need more than musical proficiency further down the road to motivate them. They want to be able to at any given moment, hop on a piano, play something, and impress someone in some capacity.

This teaching technique also involves a lot of parental involvement and discipline in asking the students to memorize the foundations of music. A lot of parents don't have this time or desire to do so. And young kids lose interest faster than ever nowadays.

There's merit somewhere in the proper context for Phoebe's instructions to Joey. And if you watched the entire clip or are familiar with Friends, you'll agree that Joey should not touch musical instruments. :)