short and steep

We had a leisurely Sunday morning, sleeping in as long as the dog would let us (which isn't that long, actually) and then going out for breakfast at the Cottonwood Heights Cafe (two eggs over medium with bacon and white toast for me and an Athenian omelet with sourdough toast for H).  Then, to kick off the summer hiking season, we picked a new hike, the Lambs Canyon Trail.  Lambs Canyon has some options to it: you can do an out-and-back from the Millcreek side, an out-and-back from the Park City side or leave a shuttle car at either Millcreek or Lambs Canyon trailhead and hike up and over the saddle.  Since the shuttle car option involved an awful lot of driving, and the Millcreek trailhead would involve an additional 1.5 miles of road walking, we opted to drive up Parley's Canyon to the Lambs Canyon trailhead.

Some sort of wild clematis, maybe?

About 1.5 miles up the road from the I-80 exit there's a small parking area and a pit toilet.  No dogs are allowed in Lambs Canyon as it's a protected watershed; indeed, we followed a nice little creek for much of the way.  The trail was a forgiving surface of packed dirt, not at all rocky, and big trees shaded us nearly the whole way up to the saddle between Lambs and Millcreek.  Although there were still pockets of snow and some lingering winter-kill, wildflowers were starting to poke through.  We were lucky enough to meet a new Utah critter too: the rubber boa, which is an 18" inch long, completely harmless and very shy boa constrictor, pale tan/gray with no markings and a blunted tail.  It let us get close and take pictures before sliding under a log.

We thought it was a great big worm at first

It was just over two miles to the saddle, making for a short-ish hike (just over two hours with pauses for photo opportunities and viewing at the top), but the steepness of the trail made it a work-out: 1,518 feet of elevation gain.  Since it was the first hike of the season, I could quickly feel my legs and lungs protesting a little.  The views from the saddle go all around: Gobblers Knob and Mt. Raymond to the south, Grandeur Peak and the Salt Lake valley to the west, the Uintas to the north/northeast.

Nice soft surface to walk on (no rocks!)

Back at the car we of course had some PBRs, sitting in the warm sunshine and watching the comings and goings of folks around us.  The parking area had been nearly empty when we started up the trail but was completely full by the time we got back - folks out and about, enjoying the nice holiday weekend.

Apres self-portrait

the start of the weekend

Hooray for long weekends!  Friday night we cruised on over to the Cotton Bottom for burgers and beer and ended up chatting with a family who'd just gotten back to the city after a camping trip in the Bryce / Capitol Reef / Escanlante / San Rafael Swell area.  The father was celebrating his 70th birthday with his two adult kids; his daughter, who'd gone to school at the U, was now a dance professor at an upstate New York college near where H grew up.  They'd had a great trip and were fun to talk with, especially since they gave us some recommendations on a couple of slot canyons to check out in Escalante.  Stacy, the on-duty bartender (who is one of the nicest bartenders around) chimed in with some camping/fishing suggestions near Orangeville and Electric Lake, two places we'd never even heard of before.

On Saturday we just puttered around during the day. H went for a road ride and came back reporting really windy conditions - one gust almost stopped him as he was riding downhill from Little Cottonwood Canyon; - while I did some yard work and took a walk up the Little Cottonwood Canyon trail.  There were tons of songbirds, especially down at the start of the trail, and lots of folks out walking, trail-running and MTBing.  I don't think I'll ever attempt that trail on my MTB: it's sandy and rocky and there are no flat spots.

Blue skies above Little Cottonwood Canyon

Saturday night we headed over to Rio Tinto stadium to watch Real Salt Lake play the Chicago Fire.  We had similar seats to last time - east side, upper section, near midfield - which gave us a great view of the field.  RSL should have won as Chicago has not been doing that well, but at least they didn't lose.  Our boys finally put one in the back of the net with about twelve minutes left in the game, then Chicago answered with a goal shortly thereafter and the clock ran out before RSL could score again.  I think RSL needs to be better about switching fields and moving the ball down the field - they seem to do an awful lot of short lateral and back passes in the midfield which doesn't tend to get them anywhere.  (But what do I know?  It's been decades since I played any soccer!)

day 3: on to goblin valley

Sunday morning found us leisurely attending to breakfast around 8 a.m. - french toast, sausage and hot chocolate/coffee (I think I have finally found a decent instant coffee) in partial sunshine and 40 F.  As we ate and cleaned up, we realized that we weren't that far from Goblin Valley State Park, about 35 miles as the crow flies.  This of course translates into over 70 highway miles but we thought we'd give it a go anyway: we didn't have any plans otherwise.  After packing up camp, we headed east on Hwy. 24 through the national park to Hanksville, following the river through a dramatic moonscape of grey/white rock very different from the omnipresent southern Utah red rock.  At Hanksville (a mere bump in the road with a year-round population of about 220 people), 24 turned to the north, crossing a wide, flat valley punctuated by massive buttes.  Goblin Valley SP is out there in the middle of nowhere, nestled underneath some of those buttes, a small state park with some of the most bizarre geologic features we've ever seen.

Butte looming above GVSP

The main feature of the park is the valley of goblins, thousands of Entrada sandstone hoodoos filling a mudflat.  There are a number of hiking trails in the park, ranging from simple strolls to rugged scrambling through rocky canyons; since we didn't want to get back to SLC too late, we opted for a 3-mile round trip meander through Entrada Canyon.  It's a funny "canyon," really more like a winding ditch with thirty-foot mud walls, with sandstone goblins peeking out through the eroding mud.  The flowers in there were sparse and beautiful and it was quite disconcerting to not see where we were going or what direction we were facing.  When there's flash flooding, it probably fills impressively, but we figured we'd be okay since although we could see rain all around us - in the Henry Mountains, in the La Salles, out over the San Rafael Swell - we had a clear patch above the state park.

The desert in bloom

After our little hike, we went down to wander among the goblins.  It's just such a strange, beautiful place.  We've heard that for folks who camp overnight at the park's campground, playing hide-and-seek and flashlight tag among the goblins is a popular nighttime activity.  We've also heard that there's a real push from conservation groups to disallow people from going down among the goblins, to try to preserve them from man-caused damage.  That's probably a good idea ... but I'm still glad we got the opportunity to get down in there.

The goblins of Goblin Valley

Seeing how we were only fifty miles from Green River, we detoured there for a late lunch of burgers and beer at Ray's Tavern.  (If you'd told us on Friday that we'd be at Ray's on Sunday, we wouldn't have believed you.)  The joint was jumping with locals, MTBers, caravaners, bikers and rafting folks; the burgers and fries were just as tasty as we remembered.  We were back on the road to Salt Lake City by 4 p.m., rain heavy in the mountains all around us.  It wasn't the weekend we thought we were going to have - which would have been warmer weather, camping in CRNP and more hiking - but it was a great exploration of a new area all the same.  We're eager to go back and discover more.

This sphinx-like formation was about ten feet tall

day 2 at capitol reef

We were up around 8 a.m. Saturday morning and had a leisurely breakfast of bagels, sausage and scrambled eggs (leisurely because we ate each breakfast item one at a time because otherwise stuff would have gotten ice cold whilst the other items were cooking), then headed back down to Capitol Reef National Park.  We took a quick drive through the Fruita campground and were quite pleased that we were camping up in the national forest instead since the park campsites were tiny and crowded.  We checked in at the visitors' center to see about hiking; unfortunately the weather was iffy with on-and-off clouds, lots of wind and the possibility of rain and thunderstorms - not the best weather for slot canyons or ridge hikes.  In addition, one nearby hike that I had been interested in doing - Rim Overlook to the Navajo Knobs - was closed due to "dangerous rockfall."  Rats.

Capitol Gorge road

One thing that we could do was the park's scenic drive, including the long dirt road to Capitol Gorge.  The parking lot there was full so we couldn't get out and hike there (this was becoming the day's theme), so we drove down the Pleasant Creek dirt road for a ways, admiring the cliffs looming overhead.  Late in the afternoon, we did manage to get a short hike in, just out and back in Cohab Canyon, and on our way out of the park we stopped at the Goosenecks overlook to gaze down at Sulfur Creek 800 feet below.

Self portrait on the Pleasant Creek road

Back at our campsite, it was not quite so windy with the temperature hovering in the mid 50s.  Still, a campfire was imperative and we bought more firewood from the campground host so we could keep it going  through the evening.  Because of the wind, we couldn't really sit by the campfire and so we stood by it instead, shuffling around to stay out of the blowing smoke.  Dinner was fettuccine alfredo with chicken and broccoli.  It sprinkled on us briefly and there was a tiny (30-second) hail shower but it did seem warmer and not as windy as Friday night.  Despite some new arrivals at the campground, the night was very quiet - eerily quiet, in fact, in the middle of the night with no wind, no traffic, no birds, no RV generators.  It's been a while since we were in the middle of that much quiet.

Pretty scenic for a scenic drive

camping: capitol reef national park

Utah has five national parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, Zion and Capitol Reef - and we thought we should check another one of them out, now that hiking and camping season is upon us.  Capitol Reef is the least busy of the bunch so we set our sights there.  We'd been thinking of going two weekends ago but the weather forecast for that part of the state wasn't so good; when we readjusted for this past weekend, the forecast started strong (sunny and low 70s) and then deteriorated a bit (partly cloudy, chance of rain, mid-60s), but we decided to go anyway - we'd already made kennel reservations for B.

Singletree #21

The plan was to drive down in the morning to get there before noon, as it's only a 3.5 hour drive from Salt Lake City.  Once we got past Provo there was very little traffic and we enjoyed the farmland scenery of the Juab Valley.  Tiny Torrey is the gateway to Capitol Reef National Park: it's very cute, with outfitters, funky shops, a couple of bars/restaurants and cabins for rent.  Moab must have looked like that before it got discovered.  When we arrived at CRNP at 12 p.m., we were surprised to find that the campground was full.  I immediately started to fret about where we were going to stay, but H talked to one of the rangers who told us that there were two or three campgrounds about 22 miles away (11 miles back to Torrey then another 11 miles down Hwy. 12) in Dixie National Forest.  We headed up there and turned in at the first one we found, Singletree Campground.

It turned out to be a great campground.  There are 33 sites for either RVs or tents, with flush toilets but no showers or electrical hook-ups.  We got a good campsite ($10/night) with lots of big trees and lots of room between us and the next sites.  The campground host was a riot, a little old guy from Louisiana with a thick accent and firewood for sale.  We paid for two nights and started to set up camp and watched the weather.  The campground was up at about 8,300 feet elevation so it was pretty chilly: high 50s and windy, with the clouds moving in and out, but mostly in.  We did get rained on a little and had to sit it out in the truck for about an hour, but nothing got really wet.

Dinner-time

We took a walk around the campground which, if there hadn't been so many clouds, would have had a view out over CRNP, and found lots of deer sign (but no actual deer).  H built a fire and we made dinner - steak, onions and peppers over couscous - and ate, huddled up to the campfire as the temperature dropped and the wind rose.  The cloud cover broke after dark and the moon and stars were lovely, but the chill and the wind drove us into the tent before we could do too much star-gazing.  Despite the wind and the rain, the tent held up just fine; it was a little cold, however, since the low ended up around 38 F and our tent is mostly mesh panels covered by a rain fly.  I wore two pairs of wool socks to bed and managed to stay mostly warm, a trick I learned last fall in the Uintas.  We fell asleep listening to the wind and looking forward to exploring the park.

A chilly evening to read

break in the action

Sorry for the slight lull: we went camping for the weekend down to Capitol Reef National Park and I'm just getting my thoughts organized to post about our trip.  Stay tuned - and in the meantime, enjoy the southern Utah scenery:

Cliffs along the Pleasant Creek Road

dry enough to ride

Sunday was beautiful - sunny and mid 80s in the valley - and so we got right up to enjoy it.  First off, we headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon for breakfast at the Silver Fork Lodge, getting there just a little after 8 a.m. so as not to get caught in the Mother's Day rush.  We opted to eat inside, since the temperature up there was 52 in the sun, and enjoyed our chile verde omelet (H) and oatmeal with strawberries, bananas and walnuts (me) very much.  By the time we were done, the lounge/waiting area was packed with folks waiting for a table.

We went back home and got our MTB gear together, H checking over our bikes after their long winter in the basement, then headed to Park City and the Round Valley trails.  Whether because of the lovely weather or the fact that it was Mother's Day, those trails were as busy as we've ever seen them with lots of folks out enjoying them, including a number of families with little kids.  The trails were perfectly dry, dusty even in spots, and there had been some improvements made over the winter, including the addition of a bike repair station.

Back on the bikes

We did our regular 19-ish mile loop, H easily cruising up the innumerable switchbacks up Rambler.  I was pretty chicken on the rocks and ruts since it was our first time out for the year BUT I managed to stay upright and on my bike for the whole ride.  As we got on the Silver Quinn trail for the return, we discovered another improvement to the trails: Silver Quinn is now paved!  While this lessened the quaintness of a dirt road ride, it certainly improved our overall speed.  Park City does a wonderful job on their MTB trails - they're really wonderful to ride.

Afterwards we drove up to Deer Valley and enjoyed a couple of PBRs and the view.  I should have reapplied sunscreen after the ride but slight sunburn notwithstanding, it was a great re-entry into mountain-biking for the summer.

there's still a lot of snow up at alta

H and I dusted off the snowshoes Saturday afternoon, heading up to Alta to tromp around for a couple of hours.  As we headed out, a couple of groups of people were skiing out, having skinned up to Devil's Castle for a full morning of skiing.  They reported good conditions and lots of snow.  Down low on the bunnyslopes there was a family on nordic skis and several kids on alpine skis and snowboards were building a kicker.  We weren't the only ones enjoying post-season Alta.

H heading across Patsy Marley

We don't snowshoe very often and it took us a while to get situated: H fussed with his snowshoe straps while I had to zip the legs onto my shorts because every step was throwing snow onto the backs of my legs and down into my boots.  We finally got everything sort out and headed up Patsy Marley, crossing over to Sunnyside and up to Alf's.  We kept going up, under the Cecret chair to the base of the Supreme chair, then continued on, up lower Big Dipper to the bottom of Rock and Roll.  It is truly amazing how these green/blue runs seem so flat when you are going down them on skis ... but they're really steep when you're walking/snowshoeing up them.  After about an hour and a half we headed back down, half-glissading (still on the snowshoes) through the gully that runs past the cabins, and it only took us a half hour to get back down to the truck.

Bottom of Rock and Roll (lots of snow still)

The weather kept holding - blue sky and sunshine with a few passing clouds - so we changed out of our soaking wet boots and socks and perched on the truck's tailgate for a couple of PBRs.  We must have looked like we knew what we were doing because several tourists who'd driven up to take a look at Alta wandered over and started chatting with us, asking about the resort.  Even though we're awkward on snowshoes, it was a very nice afternoon outing, getting us up into the canyon and back on the slopes.

wasatch gardens

Saturday morning, while H went out for a road ride, B and I drove up to the city to check out the Wasatch Community Gardens annual plant sale.  I'd read about it in the paper and was intrigued by the nursery quality plants at big box store prices, plus I was happy to support the WCG.  What I didn't expect was how big and popular this plant sale is.  I had to drive around several times before I finally found parking several blocks away.  As I searched for a spot, I goggled at the hordes of people streaming towards the sale, toting laundry baskets, lugging little red wagons, trundling wheelbarrows.  I was sorely unprepared!

The plant sale was impressive and very well run.  You walked in past a fleet of food and coffee trucks and were handed a seedling tray if you didn't bring a carry container of your own.  They had over 60 (!!) varieties of heirloom tomato seedlings and people were queuing up to peruse the tables.  Scores of volunteers ran back and forth, asking us what kind of tomato we were looking for, explaining the different varieties, fetching seedlings.  Past the tomato section (which was by far the largest) lay the other annual veggies, then the fruits and berries, then the perennial herbs, then seed potatoes and onion sets, with water-wise/native plants and flowers as well.  Everything was clearly marked with colored tags; there were signs everywhere explaining how much each color cost.  After you picked out your plants, the line to check out was long but moved very quickly through the corral.  At the head of the line, the volunteer directed you to another volunteer with a numbered clipboard who noted and totaled all purchases on a slip.  Then you moved to a tent to pay, cash and checks on the left, credit cards on the right, and you were out.  The efficiency of the system was impressive.

For a mere $20. I ended up with three tomato seedlings - Ananas Noire (which will have green/yellow/purple striped fruit), Black Cherry cherry tomatoes, and 1884 (dark pink, good for slicing) - a six-pack of strawberry plants ("Seascape") and a cute little lavender.  I planted everything Sunday afternoon, putting the tomatoes in pots this year (I'm cutting back on my gardens to conserve water/time).  I'm very hopeful about the tomatoes - I like that I picked some funky, unusual heirloom varieties - and hope that they come through for me.

I will absolutely go back to the Wasatch Community Gardens sale next year, and will remember to bring something to carry plants in so I can get more.  It was really fun to see all these people excited about gardening, the plants look healthy and interesting, and the organization is a good cause.

campfire lounging

It was my turn to come up with a place to go for drinks and dinner Friday night and I decided we should try a new place.  Both new to us as well as new to SLC, the Campfire Lounge (837 East 2100 South in Sugarhouse) is the new bar owned by the couple who had the Bay Leaf Cafe downtown.  They weren't getting the foot traffic they wanted at the Bay Leaf, plus were wanting someplace that had more of a neighborhood feel.  The Campfire Lounge was opened (I think) in April and if the Friday night crowd was any indication, they've been welcomed to the neighborhood.

Situated in a small woodframe house, the Campfire Lounge is tiny, although they're putting in a good-sized patio out front that should nearly doubled their seating capacity (at least in the warm weather months).  You walk through a strange little game room to get to the bar proper - and don't forget your ID because you'll get carded regardless of how old you are.  The bar area is dark and cozy, with no more than twenty seats along the bar itself and then maybe five high tables running along the front.  The couple in their mid-50s to our right were filling the internet jukebox with deep cuts from the 1970s and there was a good buzz to the conversations around us.

Normally, the Campfire Lounge has four taps (Bud Lite and three Utah micros) but they're going through some growing pains and only one tap was running: Bohemian's Viennese lager.  I had that ($4/pint) and it was fine, although Bohemian is not my favorite local brewery.  H had a bottled Sam Adams, nearly choked at the price ($5.50/bottle) and thereafter drank PBR smallboys ($2/can).  Their cocktail list is extensive and they have a number of well-priced, funky specialty items, like a Jack Daniels Manhattan ($4.50), the Pink Girly Shot (grapefruit vodka, triple sec, grapefruit juice and lime, $6.50) and the Trailer Park (Stoli and Kool-Aid, $6.00)

They also serve extremely reasonably priced food (they're making their money on the booze, not the vittles) and what we had was great. H went with three pulled pork sliders for $6; you can mix and match your three and the other slider options were beef burgers, sloppy joes, portabello mushroom or fry fish filet.  I had a big bowl of house-made ramen noodles ($4.50) that was delicious and completely unlike the stuff college students eat, with a spicy broth (perked up with some additional Sriracha sauce) and sliced veggies.  It was perhaps a little too heavy with the fresh ginger but super-tasty regardless.  Other excellent sounding items on the menu include S'mores, buckets o' tater tots, Filipino pork eggrolls, the Elvis sandwich (peanut butter, bananas, honey and bacon pan-fried on buttered white bread) and hobo dinners (sirloin, chicken, bratwurst, trout or grilled tofu with vegetables, served in a foil packet).

The service was friendly, the food was great and the ambiance was just what we were looking for.  The Campfire Lounge seem to be off to a good start - if they could just get more of those taps going! - and we'll go back again for sure.

spice

A couple of weekends ago, H suggested that we go out to dinner at Spice Bistro, a new(-ish) Indian restaurant in Holladay (6121 S. Highland Drive).  We love Indian food and have found a couple of pretty good restaurants not too far from our house but we're always eager to try something new.  We got there before 7 p.m. since I was hungry and there were a number of tables already seated and eating.

The restaurant space is absolutely huge: a small bar, big dining room and a spacious, walled courtyard.  We thought it was too chilly yet to sit outside but there were a couple of hardy souls out there, snuggled up under the heaters.  I think the space must have been a nightclub before it was Spice as there's also a dance floor, complete with mirror ball tucked away in the rafters.

The menu is correspondingly large and, unusually for an Indian place, has quite a few "American" items.  We skipped right over those - I'm not ordering fish tacos or pasta alfredo at an Indian restaurant.  The Indian side of the menu tends towards northern Indian cuisine and they have some Nepali stuff too (I was tempted by the momos).  H went with his favorite, chicken vindaloo, while I got a little crazy and ordered the goat curry.  Nobody ever serves goat!  We got an order of naan to mop up the good stuff and each ordered a beer; nothing is on tap but they have Utah microbrews in bottles.  At $5/bottle, it's a little steep.

The food was good and spiced appropriately.  My goat had bones in it and so I had to pick around those, and a little bit of gristle too, but it was tasty enough.  The prices were a little higher than our other two go-to Indian restaurants and the servings were a little smaller, so I'm not sure you really get the most bang for your buck at Spice Bistro.  It would be a great place for summertime al fresco dining, however, out there in the courtyard under the trees.

game time

Last Saturday, as we were driving out of Little Cottonwood Canyon after skiing, H made an excellent suggestion:  should we go to the Real Salt Lake game tonight?  It was a beautiful day and so we decided yes, we should go to the RSL game.  Before going home, we swung by the stadium to pick up tickets, getting seats in on the east side of the stadium, upper level, close to midfield.  Since RSL was playing the L.A. Galaxy there was an additional $5 surcharge to the ticket prices, much like the Yankees/Red Sox games or any other rivalry.  We hurried home, got cleaned up, fed the dog and headed out again.

We parked (for $10) in the South Towne Expo Center lot, a short walk from the Rio Tinto stadium that would have us pointed in the right direction for heading home after the game.  There were people tail-gating (whom we later learned were friends of a Porcupine bartender with whom we are friendly) and hordes of folks streaming towards the game, all decked out in the team's claret and cobalt (red and blue).  We found our seats - which were great, giving a fantastic view of the whole field - and settled in to watch the game.

Opening ceremony

The game, quite frankly, was terrible.  L.A.'s two biggest players, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, whom I was looking forward to seeing play, were both out with injuries.  This was probably for the best, as it turns out, because RSL got spanked even so, the Galaxy scoring two goals in the first fifteen minutes.  And after that, it was pretty much all over.  The crowd lost all its enthusiasm (and that's half the fun of being at a game) and RSL never recovered.  They did better maintaining possession in the second half, and there was an exciting flurry of numerous shots on goal towards the end, but they just couldn't put it in the net.

This Saturday we stayed home and watched the game vs. Vancouver on television.  The RSL boys played much better than last weekend, winning 2-0 and nabbing 3 points for the shut-out in the standings.  They still don't have much of a long game, however, preferring lots of little short passes and not switching fields to open up the game.  I think they rely too heavily on Nick Rimando too: yes, he's a fantastic goalkeeper but they should trust their midfield more to move the ball upfield and not pass back to the keeper so much.

last day at alta, 2012/2013

Sunday was Alta's for-real Closing Day.  Weather-wise, the conditions were fairly similar to the day before but a little warmer, a little breezier and a little cloudier.  Because it was slightly warmer, the snow got grabby much quicker than it had on Saturday; because of the especially sticky snow, we only did one tour of Sugarloaf/Supreme, staying for the rest of the day on the front side (Mambo, Main Street, Sunspot, etc.).

Hanging out at the top of Collins

But Closing Day at Alta isn't about the skiing, really.  It's about the party.  The people-watching was fantastic: feather boas, Afro wigs, tutus, cut-off jeans shorts, ballgowns, Scooby-Doo, the Big Bad Wolf, a plush lizard, vintage one pieces.  H was a little disappointed that there weren't more girls in bikinis (although we did see a couple) while I was most impressed with the guys playing frisbee while skiing.

Last self-portrait of the ski season

Like last year, there was a grill and live music going outside at Watson Shelter.  Like last year, it was super-crowded but the lift line at Collins was mellow and cheerful.  Like last year, the parking lot tail-gating got going early and apparently kept going late - there were at least two live bands playing out there, people dancing, cooking out, drinking beer.

Nice sky over High Rustler

Although my legs were really tired from the heavy snow, I managed to keep skiing until 4 p.m.  The bar at Goldminer's Daughter was closed and we'd forgotten to bring any PBRs with us, so we walked around the parking lot for a bit, listening to the music, before heading home.

So sad!

It was a beautiful weekend to wrap up the 2012/2013 season.  Sure, the snow was below average (by about 50 inches) but H and I managed to beat our total ski days from last year even so: 52 (H) and 44 (me). Alta is such a special place we really do go into a bit of a funk for a few days once it closes.  What's ahead for us now is a ton of laundry and switching over to summer activities.  And yet ... only about 200 days until Opening Day!