Francophile in the West

It has been a hugely busy fall so far, and there are plenty of recent adventures to be shared. Here are some photos and snippets of this lovely autumn in Colorado, Washington, and Illinois: Ben Tyler Trail Owen and I hiked part of this trail in early October. This is one of his family's favorite multi-generation Colorado trails, and it was a gorgeous day to check it out! We missed most of the fall Aspens in their full glory, but it was beautiful to see the Aspen groves in a late state, with some bare trees, some still with mostly full leaves, and others in between. The rainbow of gold in the leaves on the trees and in those covering the trail like natural confetti was just lovely, particularly with the diffused early autumn light.  Our perfect trail - his middle name and my last name. Coincidence?? ;) Hello, you beautiful thing. Maroon Bells, Aspen, CO The following weekend, my roommate, Owen, and I drove out to Aspen for a visit. O had been there before on...

In addition to representing the four chemicals in DNA (Adenine, Guanine, Thymine, and Cytosine), AGTC is the acronym I've adopted for my roommate and my girls' weekend in Chicago at the end of March. :) We certainly took Chicago by storm. What a fantastic trip, and what an amazing city! So much to see and enjoy, so much incredibly delicious food and drink, and such good memories with my awesome roomie!! After a massive snow storm in Denver on Wednesday kept both of us working from home, we were able to make it to the airport on Thursday morning with no issues, and off we went. We arrived in Chicago and cruised into town on the "L" before checking into the fabulous  Freehand Chicago hostel (no joke, this was the best hostel at which either of us had ever stayed, and that's saying something) and then we headed up the street for a 20:00 reservation at Quartino , a bustling local Italian restaurant. Holy cow, the food... Linguini with clams, Porcini and Truffle R...