Marvelous May

It wasn't that exciting of a week. I suppose the most interesting parts were the usual trail runs.

I was off on Memorial Day, so I did my default summer run up North Canyon to Rudy's Flat, just seven miles. I love that place, but I go there so much there was nothing too unique.

Miner's lettuce, according to my plant app

We had a cookout at my sister's house, and the rest of the day was not that exciting or that Memorial Day-esque. I did watch What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, which originally aired on Memorial Day, but I only rate it 4/10.

My mom and my grandma had gone to my grandpa's grave to put some decorations on it. Since the cemetery is right by my work, my mom told me I could pick up the decorations so they can reuse them next year (it seems so wasteful just to use them once!). When I got there, all the decorations had blown over anyway.

These days, when I go into the office, I'm digging through old office files to see what we need to keep before we move into our new offices. By "keep," I mean things that we transfer over to State Archives. I found a really interesting folder devoted to a 1978 initiative where Pizza Hut collaborated with the Utah State Historical Society (today our name doesn't include "State") to produce glasses with historic homes on them.

In the evening I ran Wild Rose, which is lovely at this time of year.

Do you like the spider on this sego lily?

Tufted evening primrose

But I didn't go running on Wednesday because I was reviewing Bush's Baked Beans (see below), and I didn't feel up to a run after that.

Thursday I ran to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail via Tunnel Springs Park. Part of this trail has a lovely spot where at this time of year, there's usually lots of Palmer's penstemon, which looks amazing and smells amazing. In the last few weeks, I had seen a few flowers in bloom, but they hadn't peaked. I was disappointed to go this week and find none at all. Either they peaked earlier than usual and I missed them, or it was a bad year for them (which is what I suspect).

This is even prettier with Palmer's penstemon in bloom

May is the best month for this trail, because it doesn't have a lot of fall colors

Friday I had an elders quorum activity, which included a three-mile hike in Mueller Park, which is literally a walk in the park for me.

Saturday morning was rainy, and I avoid running in the rain when I can. After the rain cleared up, even though it was mid-afternoon, it was still a cool and partly cloudy day. I went to Mueller Park past the gate. At the Kenney Creek Trailhead, you can take a right to the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, then up the Hornet Trail. These trails have more tapertip onions than anywhere else I've seen.

The Hornet Trail connects to the Maple Glow Trail, which used to be called Maple Syrup. As I ran up this trail, the trees seemed to be framing the glowing mountainside.

Maple Glow connects to Peregrine, which I love! This route passes Precambrian boulders and outcrops, crosses a bridge, and passes more Precambrian outcrops, all surrounded by shady trees. But it's more than two miles to get to the start of the Peregrine portion. 

At five miles, it reaches the Mueller Park Trail, about two-thirds of a mile above Elephant Rock. I headed down the trail, but instead of staying on Mueller all the way down, I took the Bonneville Shoreline Trail down.

Giant mushroom!

This ended up being 9.3 miles, and while I had been on every portion of this trail before, I hadn't done this exact loop. I was glad to have an excuse not to do a thirteen- or fourteen-mile run, and I'm glad nine miles is relatively easy for me. Trail running is the most wonderful hobby, because I get to see nature, then come home and feel less guilty about eating a lot.

***

Speaking of eating a lot, here's this week's RWB Roundup!

On Wednesday, I received a box of Bush's Baked Beans Summer Flavors, which I had ordered a week earlier. This box only cost $5.25 plus shipping, which is a great price for large cans of beans, along with branded can sleeve and can opener! I submitted a formal review to The Impulsive Buy, which will probably go up this week.

First up is Bush's Best Apple Pie Baked Beans. They have a mild apple flavor and spices; it smells like Thanksgiving. These are less satisfying than original Bush's. They're kind of bland. 5/10.

Next is Bush's Best Dill Pickle Baked Beans. Like the apple pie flavor, these have no meat, yet somehow the pickle flavoring makes it seem more robust. I like these! They really taste like pickle, but they're still beans. 7/10.

And last is the weird one: Bush's Best Rocket Pop Baked Beans. The other two flavors are available in Walmart stores, but this one is only available online. It smells strongly of candy, which is not what you want from baked beans. I thought it tasted more like cough drops than a rocket pop. 3/10.

Birthday Cake Cheerios have little red and blue sprinkles. It's a pretty boring cereal. Not bad, just boring. 7/10. 

Pure Kick Ice Pop Hydrate is an electrolyte drink. I've noticed that a new trend is these electrolyte sticks that require at least 16 ounces of water. Most glasses don't fit that much! And I'd rather not put electrolytes in a bottle. Even so, I liked this drink, but I get conflicting information about whether aspartame is OK. 7/10.

I got this Taffy Shop America mix at the Museum of Utah store, which is open now, even though the museum doesn't open to the public until June 27. I had never had this Utah brand before. The flavors of this mix are Bohemian Rasp-o-berry, Vanilla Cone-y (Island), Bluebaffy Taffy, and Red, White, & Chew (cherry, lime, blue raspberry). These remind me more of the taffy that is made in the East, rather than our Utah staples of Sweet's and Taffy Town. I find this brand to be less flavorful than our usual Utah brands. 6/10.

I love Target's seasonal trail mixes, which are more decadent than ordinary trail mix. Since ice cream is a Fourth of July food, I wanted to get Favorite Day Loaded Ice Cream Sundae Trail Mix. It has peanuts, pretzels, M&Ms, cookie dough bites, peanut butter cups, cookies and cream bites, and coated waffle cone pieces. Most of it doesn't really strike me as very ice cream-y, but it's still an enjoyable mix. 7/10.

I got free samples of SALTT (pronounced "salty") electrolytes after my triathlon, and I quite enjoyed it. So I decided to order the SALTT Red White & Bam Electrolyte Drink Mix. I feel bad, because I accidentally ordered a subscription, which I cancelled, but I still got the subscription price for this mix. I didn't like this as much as the other flavors I tried. As the name suggests, these taste saltier than usual electrolytes. 6/10.

I don't really like hard candies, but I still wanted to try Dum Dums Red, White & Blue Mix, so I was glad I found a bag of 80 instead of 250. The flavors are cherry, birthday cake, and blu [sic] raspberry. They're what you expect from Dum Dums. I like that the birthday cake wrappers are red, white, and blue. 6/10.

Kroger stores (Smith's in Utah) are selling special All American products this summer. Here is Kroger Seventh Inning Swirl Ice Cream, which is inspired by Cracker Jack, with caramel swirl and peanuts. It's supposed to be flavored like caramel popcorn, but I don't get any popcorn flavor, and I'm glad it doesn't actually have popcorn in it, because that sounds weird. I really like the caramel and peanuts. 7/10.

And it goes with Kroger Sweet as Cherry Pie Ice Cream, which has cherry pie filling and pie crust pieces. I really enjoy this! It surprises me that there are so many Fourth of July apple pie things, because cherries are actually in season at the Fourth of July. (They're just not in the expressions "As American as apple pie" or "Mom and apple pie.") 8/10.

This Pilsbury Apple Pie Cookie Dough said to bake it for fifteen to twenty minutes. I did twenty minutes, and they were overcooked, not burned but close. My family seemed to enjoy them; I just thought they were kind of bland and dry. Maybe they'd be better if they were cooked less time. 5/10.

I still have lots of products on my radar that I want to find and feature here, so stay tuned for coming weeks!