Ice-cold Coca-Cola...now available from my laundry room for a mere 75 cents.
Cameron getting in as much bonding time as possible with this particular little lady.
New wall art, thanks to the Downtown Alliance.
Lots of naps with Finnegan curled into our laps for hours.
We've been all about treating ourselves to recession-friendly (ahem - unemployment-friendly) adventures this summer, and haven't sacrificed enjoyment one bit despite our miniscule budget. That involves, first and foremost, taking advantage of what's right in front of us, and free: the Twilight Concert Series, various free film screenings throughout the city, the Farmers Market, checking out books from various city & university library systems, skateboarding at Liberty Park. We follow that up with milking our network for all it's worth: my niece had the hookup for $10 passes to Lagoon, so we took full advantage; my mom had free passes to her local rec center, so I went swimming with the whole fam; we can get discounted admission (sometimes free) at botanical gardens, the zoo, the aviary, and a dinosaur park, due to various family members' memberships. We have beds, couches, and floors to sleep on if we want to visit family in Idaho, California, Virginia/D.C. and South Carolina.
And lastly, I never say no to free perks. I got two free passes to the Utah Arts Festival as a thank-you gift for pledging to public radio, which ended up being such a relief because without them, we may have opted out of attending this year.
Us at the arts fest: no pictures adequately capture the fact that we uncannily and unconsciously wore color-coordinated outfits this day.
The best moment of the day: piping hot, fresh-cut french fries combo'd with cold, creamy homemade strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Inspired by a craving that hit me like a ton of bricks and never let go until its desires were fulfilled.
One of our favorite aspects of the festival this year was an exhibit and demonstration of the steamroller techniques of local Saltgrass Printmakers. Check my flickr for the step-by-step making-of photo series of this piece:
A print and its woodcut on display side-by-side in an exhibit (through this Saturday) at the City Library. This particular piece was made by a mom and her two children, I believe.
The most important element to the particular brand of budget summering I'm adopting is the art of the daytrip. The mini adventure. The live-like-a-tourist-in-the-place-you're-a-local approach. As I've mentioned before, Cameron is the world's best partner for these types of things because he brings a childlike sense of wonder to each and every one of our little adventures. And the timing is perfect, since a) they're mostly cheap or free to visit, and b) I'm not sure how much longer I'll be living in this city/state, and I know I would be disappointed if I didn't cross off all the "spots to visit" on the lists I've been keeping. I'll keep them a secret until I've done them, because I have a goal to fill my summer and fall with nothing but traipsing about to each of these destinations, then blogging about it.
I leave you with a photo strip I made from pics of us goofing around with Photo Booth and a hat that really belongs to Cameron, but I like to think is available for me:
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