ashley and danny do america

my dear dear friend, ashley, is back from 3.5 years in the middle east (syria and israel). she'll be attending columbia university school of social work in the fall. but before she gets down to business she and her boyfriend, danny (an amazing gent she met in israel) are doing a cross country, real american road trip (american meaning it's already involved baseball, hot dogs, and they're on their way to a rodeo as i type this!). 

their first stop was denver (lucky me!).  aren't they the most adorable couple ever? i had so much fun showing them around denver and jp's and my favorite spots. additionally, they are wonderful house guests: game for anything, enthusiastic about life and food, and extremely adventurous -- with a local guide or by themselves (this big mama [me] needed to be picked up in downtown denver when my belly and i had reached our max physical exertion for the day and they kept strolling out and about even finding their own way back to the powerdriver farm).

here's the second of two photos i snapped of the dashleys at dinner at new saigon. see more photos of their time in denver at their totally awesome tumblr,  the dashleys.