Stella is not a good car traveler. She almost always gets sick, and we’ve tried a million ways to combat her queasiness. Our failed methods include providing fun toys, opening the windows, letting her sit in our flat trunk area, letting her exit the car before we navigate winding parking garages, and giving her anti-stress chews and anti-nausea pills. We braced ourselves for a 7+ hour drive to North Carolina with layers and layers of towels.
Two pukes and many miles later, we arrived. Stella could not have been happier to jump out of the car and take off chasing bunnies through the woods. Fortunately, she didn’t catch one! Stella is a true mountain dog and loves navigating rough terrain. We took her for a much calmer walk around a lake filled with lily pads, just before the rain rolled in. Once it started raining, it didn’t stop.
The rain makes Stella squint, so she enjoyed recuperating from her forest adventures inside. It was a very cozy weekend.
After our rejuvenating days in the cold, misty air, we loaded Stella back into the car for our roadtrip North. But when the rain starts up in the mountains, fog isn’t far behind. It’s very pretty to look out at the fog from a safe place, but driving along winding roads in it is treacherous and requires concentration.
Unfortunately, it is hard to focus on the road when we are bombarded with ridiculously-named streets like Possum Hollow Road. That is one place where I wouldn’t want to take shelter from a storm! The weather cleared up once we got out of the mountains, and we could return our attention to Miss Stella. Chasing bunnies through the woods must be very good for her, because she made it all the way home without giving in to her car sickness.
I’ve shared my method for cold-brewing iced coffee with you before, but let’s do it again, this time with better pictures and better coffee! My sister brought back a bag of delicious, sense-tickling coffee beans from Costa Rica. Their powerful smell perfumes the air, begging us to indulge. In order to combat DC’s oppressive heatwave, I’ve been grinding these coffee beans before bed, brewing them overnight, and pouring the dark elixir over ice to keep my spirits high during my morning jaunt to work.
To make 4 servings of iced coffee, find your favorite coffee beans, and grind 1 cup of them in a coffee grinder. If you’re making this coffee from pre-ground beans, use about 2/3 cup of coffee grounds.
Once the beans have been pulverized into a coarse powder, inhale that fresh coffee aroma. Then, transfer the coffee grounds to a french press (my preferred vessel) or another kind of jar or container. Add approximately 3 cups of cold water, and stir or shake to submerge the coffee grounds. Leave the container at room temperature overnight.
In the morning, press the plunger on your french press, or, if you are using a different type of container, pour the iced coffee through a strainer to filter out the coffee grounds. Fill a glass with ice, pour over the coffee (add milk or sugar to taste) and then enjoy! I hope this iced coffee fortifies you against the summer heat!
Aside from these elephant beauties, David and I didn’t get to see much of supposedly-quaint Chiang Mai. David was sick for the first half of our visit, and I was sick for the second half. Fortunately, our day with the elephants arrived in the eye of our food poisoning storm, and we couldn’t have been luckier to enjoy such a unique experience. Unfortunately, we missed out on furniture hunting, the night markets, and my much-anticipated cooking class (but no fear! I found another one later).
We have deduced that our hotel restaurant was the food poisoning culprit, despite its deliciousness. David’s sickness kicked off with a gorgeous English tea overlooking the river. All of the snacks and sandwiches were excellent, especially this creamy bacon and spinach quiche with a sweet-tart tomato jam. I loved the color contrast of the tomato on the blue dishes. Inspiration galore! My food poisoning picked up a few days later with succulent Vietnamese beef and a perfectly-grilled chicken. Is nothing safe anymore?!
But enough of our misery and on to the elephants! Taking care of an elephant for a day is really hard work. All of the brushing and washing and feeding made my muscles sore for a week. But riding the elephants is a whole different story- my thighs were sore for two weeks just from holding on! The elephants were intimidating at first because they are huge, and I didn’t want to be trampled or whacked. But the elephants were very gentle and intelligent. They understood commands and could do things like lie down, spray water with their trunks, help riders mount and unmount (see that foot?!), walk, and open their mouths.
I learned a ton of different ways to assess an elephant’s health and behavior, but the most surprising thing I learned is that elephants only really care about two things: eating and scratching themselves. Elephants eat a truly outrageous amount of food, and it takes them forever to walk any distance because they are constantly hunting for snacks. I can’t really fault them for that. Elephants also get really irritated by the million flies and mosquitos that pester them all day long. They swing their trunks and flick their tails to keep the bugs off of them. They rub themselves against trees and cliffs to scratch the areas they can’t reach. And the professional elephant trainers, while they have a real bond with their elephants, spend most of their time swatting insects. It’s exhausting!
Lunch was a nice way to relax between elephant treks. The food was abundant- crispy fried chicken legs, a bunch of different kinds of sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves, lots of fruit, and some cakey desserts. After lunch, we were instructed to feed much of the leftovers to the elephants (except for the meat and the fruit that was not picked locally, because “it might have chemicals”).
There were quite a few baby elephants frolicking around too. They were nuts. One of the babies was just a few months old, and it did not know what to do with itself. It ran around like a chicken without its head, stepping on people’s feet and trying to snatch as much food as it could. But the baby wasn’t very coordinated, and it smeared banana all over its face. David and I were sitting on a bench, and the baby came over to search for food. When it didn’t find any, it turned around and sat on David’s lap. I have never seen such a crazy sight!
By popular demand, here is the video of the elephant sitting on David’s lap 🙂
For those of you who have been to Chiang Mai and didn’t have to spend your stay recuperating in bed, what did we miss? Is it worth a return visit?
