Finally fall again

It finally felt like fall this week!

Last Sunday, some friends invited me to take a small excursion to Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a fun early-fall road trip.

 There is a plaque devoted to the July 24, 1857, celebration. That was a historic and significant July 24, but I don't know how they can assert it was "the first statewide Pioneer Day celebration." It had been celebrated all over the state in previous years; 1857 wasn't different in that respect. They also celebrated at Silver Lake in 1856. This seems to be a problem when people write histories: they're eager to mark something as the first or the best or the biggest, even if it's not. Guys, it's OK. Something can be important even if it's not the first.

On Monday, after a late-summer/early-fall activity at Cherry Hill, I went to the Smith's in Farmington. Now that the spooky season is upon us, I have to rant about one of my pet peeves: decorative animal skeletons. I don't have a problem with human skeletons; people do fun things with them, posing them in various ways in their yard, and skeletons are creepily fun without being gory. But I don't like the anatomically incorrect dog, cat, and other skeletons that have ears and other things. Dog skulls do not have ears! Cat skulls do not have ears! Spiders have exoskeletons; they do not have bones! And in this image, you can see frog "skeletons" that are really just hollowed-out frogs with white skin. I'm not asking for scientific preciseness (I'm certainly no anatomist), but why can't we have more accurate animal skeletons? They're no less creepy than the cartoony ones. These dumb skeletons are the Halloween equivalent of eight-pointed snowflakes and North Pole penguins, and you know how I feel about those.

I'm taking the GRE this coming Tuesday, so on this past Tuesday, I took my bike to work so I could find the building where I'm taking the test, since work is on the border of the U. I didn't know where I was going, and I found myself by the hospital when it started raining, so I turned back to try another day. That night I made grape crisp. It took almost an hour just to take the grapes off the little stems. Grapes don't make great crisp.

Wednesday was cold and rainy and truly felt like fall. I did wall sits at work to keep warm, and my legs were sore for several days. They sent us home early because of the rain, so I made celery soup.

On Thursday, I biked to the U again and found where I'm going. It was fun to be biking on a college campus again, thinking I'll be a student again next year. That's also terrifying.

Friday was my day off. I picked more grapes so we could make grape juice, just one of the splendors of September.

 Then my family went to the Utah State Fair. I like going to the fair, even though I don't know why. I decided to try one of the turkey legs and felt super trashy eating it. It wasn't that great; it was very gristly and bony. But the worst part was that these yellowjackets kept following me. I might have picked off some extra meat at the end, but I was sick of the gristle and yellowjackets that I threw it away, and I felt unethical doing so. Not going to get one of these again.

The leaves appear to be changing later this year than usual. But I'm fine with prolonging this fantastic season.

***
Now that it's mid-September, pumpkinundation roundup has returned for its fifth year! For those of you new to the blog, every fall I document the fall flavors I encounter. The three big fall flavors are pumpkin, caramel apple, and candy corn, but there are others as well. This week has a lot of caramel apple.

I started the season a little early on Labor Day with this Icy Mountain Caramel Apple Sno Cone. I had it early because that was the one time the Icy Mountain food truck was at work, and it was a super hot day. I wouldn't have had one if they didn't have caramel apple. It was OK; I found the cream a little off putting, and the ice grains were larger than I like. A few days later, one of my coworkers said, "I need to wag my finger at you, because I saw you getting a non-holiday sweet." Oh, but it was holiday, even if it was a little early. 5/10. 

Honey Bunches of Oats Apple Caramel Crunch came out earlier this year, meaning it's not marketed as a fall cereal, even though it totally is. Dried apples are weird, and this cereal had the potential to be gross, but it's not. But it's also not as fantastic as it could be. (I'm still hoping for pumpkin spice Honey Bunches of Oats.) 7/10.

As I was driving home with these Kettle Brand Apple Cider Vinegar Potato Chips, I was thinking about how much I love seasonal flavors. Fifteen years ago, seasonal flavors were limited. What a great time to be alive! These chips really taste like vinegar, but the apple element isn't very strong. 7/10.

I have submitted my official review of Betty Crocker Pumpkin Spice Cake Mug Treats, but it hasn't been posted yet. This is a cake mix you put in a mug, then add water or milk and heat in the microwave. Unfortunately, they're pretty bland and not worth the calories. 5/10.

I keep getting Pumpkin Spice Cheerios (multiple times) every year because they're the best pumpkin cereal out there. 9/10.

I will soon be submitting my review for Hostess Iced Pumpkin CupCakes, which were revamped from their 2015 version. These are easily my favorite Hostess product, with a strong cinnamon flavor. 8/10.

Sometimes I see a product that sounds so weird and bad that I have to try it—hence Palmer Pumpkin Spice Cups. Palmer is a terrible discount candy brand that uses inferior chocolate—that is, when it uses chocolate at all, and not "chocolaty candy." I was pleasantly surprised here. The "mockolate" layer is thin enough that it's not gross, and the filling has a nice flavor. 7/10.

I always take Spiced Pumpkin Pie Clif Bars on my autumn runs up North Canyon. Classic. 8/10.

At the state fair, I got this birthday cake caramel apple, since it's my birth month. It's hard to go wrong with a caramel apple, but I didn't like the white confection and sprinkles. 7/10.

Last November, I got free samples of See's Pumpkin Spice Lollypops, and I still have leftovers. They're OK; they taste like plastic. 5/10.

Also at the fair, I got pumpkin fudge. In other years, I have absolutely loved it; this time around, it was a little too sweet, but still good. 8/10.

Normal Ice Cream is a very hipster ice cream truck in Trolley Square that recently opened up a store with a different menu. This Normal Ice Cream Caramel Apple Composed Cone has green apple–flavored ice cream with a topping and some kind of salt. It was fine but weird, and it wasn't very caramely or appley. 6/10.

The Kind Caramel Almond Pumpkin Spice bars have been out a few years, and this time it was more autumnal than I remembered. 7/10.

But the Kind Apple Cinnamon Spice bar is new. It didn't make enough of an impression on me to really remember how I felt. 7/10?

I had these Trader Joe's Gluten Free Pumpkin Pancakes in the pantry from last year, so I cooked them up this morning. I would have no idea they were gluten free, and I ate three with no syrup! 8/10.

belVita Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Biscuits have been around for a few years, but they have new packaging. I like them better than I remembered. 7/10.