Vacation, on the Rocks

Before I dazzle you all with a recap of our vacation, here is the update on the babies: Last I heard, they were helping Aunt Karen chase down niece Sara at the Dinoworld in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. Yep, that's right, not even born yet and they already get to go to Disney World. Aunt Karen and Uncle Scott are spoiling the children already! I'm sure they will have big grins on their faces ('cause they can make facial expressions now, you know) when we see them during the ultrasound next Thursday. Countdown to ultrasound: 9 more days! Whoot whoot! Now, our trip. In a word, it was awesome. We did exactly what we wanted to: hike, spend time together and relax. Most of our time was spent in National Parks, except for Thursday afternoon when we got some learnin' done at the Mormon Temple Square and enjoyed some libations at Embassy Suite's happy hour ('cause the two go hand-in-hand, right?). The next day we got up early and headed down to Moab, but we made a stop at Timpanogos Cave, just a little south of SLC. To get to the cave, you have to hike a mile and a half straight up the side of a mountain. I'm not kidding, it was steep. We were rewarded at the top with our own private tour of the cave with Park Ranger Nick. Nick was very nice and was VERY into rocks, and made the stalactites, stalagmites, helictites (you're curious as to what those are, aren't you?) and mineral composition of different colored rocks very interesting. After the tour we hiked back down the mountain and hit the road to Moab.

Three hours later and 4 types of weather (rain, hail, sunshine, followed by a squall) later, we arrived in Moab. First up, Arches National Park. I had visited the park before with a family I hold very dear, and I was eager to share with Keith my memories. We hiked to a few arches, but called it a day when the wind became unbearable. That night our accommodation was a Kabin (yes, with a "k"), at the Moab KOA. I love staying at the KOA! It's like camping without having to sleep on the ground. Great fun. Next day we explored Canyonlands National Park. Just as the name implies, the park has several canyons and also has the Green River running through it. The Green river, ironically, is not green, but is rather a reddish brown. We did a few short hikes and were rewarded with breathtaking vistas. By far my favorite part of the trip was our last day, when we went to Bryce Canyon National Park. I'll admit, during the 5 hour drive there (I thought it was only 3 hours, oops, my mistake) I questioned the decision to include Bryce Canyon in this trip, but it was more than worth the drive. When we got there, we picked the only hike that went down into the canyon, which was the Navaho and Peekaboo Loops combined. The hike was great-challenging at times because of the frequent uphills, but the views of the inside of the canyon were spectacular. Our pictures don't quite do the vistas justice, but we tried. At one point we were surrounded by glowing orangy-red rocks, and 5 minutes later we stood in front of white and red striated sand dunes. It's amazing the diversity of landscape in such a small area. 2.5 hours later we emerged tired, but victiorious (I was very tired towards the end, and decided to make a race out of the last extreme uphill. We passed several loud, LOUD French tourists on the way up the last uphill. HA! I win! They had no clue I was racing them and it might have been a more fair race if I gave them an indication, but whatever, I win! I also beat Keith, despite the fact that I was the one wearing the 35 lb backpack. And no, he didn't know we were racing either. I win! hehe). We headed out of Bryce Canyon feeling very proud of ourselves. That pretty much wraps it up, we headed back the next morning. I should pass on one valuable piece of advice: When in Tropic, Utah -the largest congregation of buildings that can pass for a town near Bryce Canyon- and it's 7:50pm, go ahead and buy any food you think you may need for dinner that night- even if you're not really sure you are hungry. ' Cause if you don't, every store or gas station within reasonable driving distance will shut down at 8PM, and you'll be forced to eat the spicy trail-mix your husband bought at the camping store earlier for dinner. WHY he chose spicy when neither of you likes spicy, I can't...anyways... Just a suggestion.

For you slackers who will not be visiting us at home in the next few months, and therefore will not get to view all 250 pictures we took during the trip, here are a of pics. Enjoy! share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMWjlwzcOGWp I might be adding a few more pictures later this week, so check back in a few days for even more pictures of rocks. Trudi