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Here are some of my favorite things about fall. Hope your fall is as enjoyable as mine.

After neglecting my family for the better part of 2 months, we took a much needed, but quick, vacation to Vail, CO. If you’ve never been there before, you’re missing out. As usual, many more pictures are available at my Flickr.

For those of you who did not have the pleasure of knowing J during his short life, you missed out. He was one of a kind, and I’m proud to have called him my friend. J, thanks for the good times. I’m sorry we didn’t see much of each other over the last few years while I was in Ohio, and I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to lunch last month. Thanks for your friendship and example. God speed buddy; love you.

He even signed it.

Noah: hey mom? What do giraffies at the zoo eat in their cages?

Ali: uh, hay and tree leaves

Noah: yeah, and chocolate chip cookies [he always refers to chocolate chips as "chocolate chip cookies"]

Ali: chocolate chip cookies?? No, I don’t think so.

Noah: yeah huh, they are all over the floor in their cages, remember?

*photo credit ucumari

In case you missed it…….nice sunset this evening.

And, nice night with small crowds at Temple Square.

As always, more pics are available at my Flickr.

Well, for those of you who have not heard, I have received (and accepted) a job offer in Salt Lake City with Holland & Hart to join their real estate group. I have some great friends who work there and look forward to joining them. Over the last 5 & 1/2 years, we have come to love Columbus, and I have enjoyed working for SZD, so the change will be bittersweet for us. We are, however, excited to rejoin our family and the topographic beauty of the Salt Lake Valley. If you are one of our Ohio friends, we expect you to visit soon. If you are one of our Utah friends, we look forward to renewing your acquaintance. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to slurp down some Jell-O before I head off to a protest.

* photo courtesy of cinnamonsheep

With Ali and the boys out of town, I used Saturday morning to take a fall drive through the scenic hills of southeastern Ohio. I awoke at 5:00 am–not atypical for such a drive. The nightstand, however, wanted me to stay home.

I cleaned up and looked for a bandaid, but could only find Noah’s “Finding Nemo” bandaids, which I figured the country folk would like–a city slicker driving through the country with a bright orange fish bandaid on his forehead.

I headed out and hit the hills at dawn.

I made it all the way to Athens, drove around Ohio U.’s beautiful campus, and headed for Lake Hope. I wish my iPhone would have told me that the path it chose involved 8 miles of dirt road.

That road was a great choice for a Bimmer/Beamer, and I’m sure the gun-rack laden F150s and spoiler-sporting, off-road Camaros didn’t think twice about it.

I didn’t take that picture, but I wouldn’t be too surprised to see something like that deep in southeastern Ohio.

I made it to Lake Hope, enjoyed the scenery, and headed home.

With the nice weather we were anxious to see the sights of fall, so we decided to head to Granville, an iconic small Ohio town nestled in the hills of eastern Ohio. We rode the rails-to-trails trail from Alexandria to Granville, had lunch at Del Mar (owned by the owners of Club 185 and the fantastic Rossi), and rode back. Nice ride in a beautiful area.

This is a tree at Denison University (can you believe these colors are straight from the camera?)

This is a church at Denison–amazing sky.

This is the trail–very nice in the fall

And this is a barn along the way.

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