Eating and Playing (and Blogging About It)

I guess you’d call it a typical outing. The only difference was we were out-of-state visiting family instead of at home in Montana. 

It was a hot summer day so we headed up, as in up into the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah, for a little meal and a little fun. Tibble Fork Reservoir was the destination. It’s not overly large. In fact, it’s only 22 acres in size but looked much smaller because of the number of paddleboards, rafts, tubes, kayaks, canoes and other water flotation gizmos jammed together on the water.

We looked to avoid most of the mayhem, and the stuffed parking lot, so we kept driving to just beyond the far end of the lake and hiked our way back. A creek that fed the reservoir was over its banks flooding the trail but that only added more flavor to the overall experience. At first, we hopped and skipped our way to try to avoid the streaming water. Then, we just sloshed our way through it.

Once arriving on the far side of the lake, away from almost all of the activity, we spread out a small blanket and plopped down for lunch. It was a store-bought menu but completely tasty – a double helping of wraps, roast beef and cheddar sandwich, fresh pineapple, a bag of Sunchips, and for dessert, a small jar of cookie dough to spoon our way through (which we did).

As we soaked up the scenery, and soaked in the sun, we chatted about the present, the past and the future. We were two weeks shy of our 36^th anniversary. What would the future hold? What would keep us busy? What would we do for fun?

Lori was already fully into her version of retirement mode. It’s not like she just kicks up her feet and takes it easy. Instead, she was gearing up for the release of her first book. Self-Coaching for the Latter-Day Saint Soul. Yes, a published author – something she’d always aspired to be. And she has more ideas for more books to come.

But what about me? I’ll hit the big 6-0 later this year but have no plans to quit working (or playing) anytime soon. Still in decent shape for an old man, I’m still playing organized softball some 45 years after I started playing. Plus, there’s still pick-up basketball, hunting, fishing and lots of other stuff to keep me going. I’m hoping those activities are still a part of my life after retirement, whenever that happens. But what will I do after I quit working? And when my body tells me to slow down? More importantly, what will we do together?

We talked about that as we gazed over the lake. Sure, we’ll visit family and hope to visit some places we’ve not seen before and others we have. But what can we do together? I do like to write and, of course, I like to play. And we like to eat – together. So why not combine those into a joint blog? Maybe people will read it. Maybe they won’t. That’s fine either way.

As we drove down the canyon out of the mountains, the light bulb came on and was shining brightly.

“Yeah, that’s it. We’ll create and share experiences about eating and playing, playing and eating. We can call it ‘Playing With Our Food!’”

Eight months earlier we began a once-a-month dinner double date with friends of ours. We could blog about outings to new places in cities, small Montana towns, diners, dives and Ma and Pa establishments. And when we’re not with them, we can play and eat and write about it.

So, here we are. Let’s play! And let’s eat!