Sampling Utah

Since we don't know if we will always be living in Utah, we've been doing our best to explore while we're here (plus it's just a fun way to live. I really think the more you explore the place you live, the more chance you have to find things to fall in love with). Now that we've been here a little over a year, here are a few of the things we've done:

Ate lavender ice cream and sipped lavender lemonade at Lavender Days

Watched the grand champions at the Sheep Dog Festival

Shopped at Swiss Days in Midway

Hiked to Stewart Falls

Raced down the Alpine Slide

Stayed with the Randalls at their cabin in Kamas

Went on a moonlit tramride at Sundance

Hiked to Delicate Arch and spent a weekend in Moab

Admired Christmas Lights and Temple Square

Sledding at Gorgoza Park Sledding Resort in Park City

Saw a touring broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Took a road trip to Las Vegas and stayed in a posh hotel

Covered ourselves with Paint at the Holi Festival

Took two trips to the family cabin at Lake Tahoe (without Larry both times)

Took Creed to the Dinosaur Museum and Children's Park at Thanksgiving Point

Roasted Hot Dogs in Big Cottonwood Canyon

Kite and Balloon Stampede on Antelope Island

Dipped our toes in the Great Salt Lake

Payson Onion Days Festival

Had Ice Cream at The Big Red Barn in Santaquin (and apple cider slush that makes my heart pitter-patter)

9th and 9th Street Festival

Spent many an afternoon using our memberships at the Hogle Zoo and Gateway Children's Museum so we could ride the train and visit the baby giraffe

Toured Red Butte Gardens (and we really recommend their Halloween event for little kids)

Ate fried food at the Utah State Fair (which is nothing like the Ohio State Fair)

Sampled all the raspberry shakes we could while spending the weekend at Bear Lake

Hiked at Zion's National Park

Sampled tons of new restaurants (new to us anyway)

Mazza

Koko Kitchen

Kyoto

Five Guys

Smash Burger

Crown Burger

Rumbi's

Emigration Market

Trio

Pat's Barbecue

Ruth's Diner

Moochie's

Lonestar Taqueria

Rooster

The Soup Kitchen

The Beehive Tea Room

Big City Soup

Tulie Bakery

Mini's Cupcakes

Les Madeleines Bakery

Vinto

Bruges Waffles and Frites

There are still a lot of things I want to see and do so we'll see what we can fit into the next year while we have a newborn. Here are a few things on my list:

Spiral Jetty

Fossil hunting

Homestead Crater

This is the place

Wheeler Farm

Treehouse Museum

Dinner on the Heber Creeper

Weekend at Zions

Camping in Goblin Valley

Shakespeare festival in Cedar City

Trip to yellowstone

Restaurants

Sawadee

Pizzeria 712 in Orem

Communal in Provo

What am I missing? What's on your list?

Creed Takes a Roadtrip to Moab

Larry had the whole weekend off, yes people, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, in a row, and neither of had to teach in church so we had to take advantage of such a momentous occassion and get out of town!  Too bad we don't know anyone around here with a fabulous vacation home.  After a little debate, we opted to head to Moab, because, well, we'd never been there.

We drove down Friday evening and Creed quickly learned the joys of jumping on hotel beds.  

So what did we seen during our vacation?  Well, se saw some wildlife upclose and personal, like this raven (at least I think it's a raven, but it could just be a HUGE crow) (yep, just call me Naturegirl)

And this bluebird

And this deer

And we saw some petroglyphs

Oh, and did I mention some of the most amazing scenery in the world?

We spent our first day at Canyonlands National Park.  A lot of movies have been filmed there and it was easy to see why.  It was incredible.  We started out with a short hike to its most photographed point, The Mesa Arch.

Then it was on to hiking around the rim of the Grand Overlook.

And another hike up to view the Upheaval Dome

Where Creed found a little dome just his size.Before heading home, we stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park to admire the view.  Creed was sleeping so Larry and I took turns staying with him in the car so here's Larry's self portrait to prove he was there.

We watched the sun set and then we headed back to the hotel, and yes, the roads all over Arches and Canyonlands look like this.  In fact you should click on it to get a closer view of how twisty the road is and that still doesn't do it justice.

So on our second day, we went to Arches National Park.  If you're only in Moab for two days, I recommend viewing Arches second, and if you only have one day, Larry and I both would choose Arches over Canyonlands.  There are three sections of Canyonlands, The Island in The Sky (which was the part we visited), The Needles (which I still would like to see, but you have to leave the park and drive pretty far around to another entrance to get there and we just didn't have the time), and the Maze (which you need a special permit to hike through on a ranger guided tour.  It looked amazing, but it wasn't happening with Creed).  Arches is much smaller and doesn't have the grand views of huge canyons, but it was AMAZING!

Both days we consulted with Rangers to plan our hikes and they were all really helpful and full of information about which sites are the most popular and which hikes are the most family friendly.

We started our day with a short hike to see North Window, South Window, and Turret Arches.

When you see the two windows together, they are nicknamed the spectacles. Most of the time Creed preferred to walk instead of being carried so we were sort of slow hikers.  He walked so much and he learned to go up and down stairs without holding on to anything.  It was so cute to see him toddle around and explore.  Of course there was times when it was too dangerous and he had to be carried, which he did not like one bit.  Here he is climbing the stairs to the Turret Arch

Next we drove to the Sand Dune Arch.  We might have skipped this one if the rangers hadn't suggested it, but it was our favorite.  You hike up to these huge slabs or rock sticking out of the ground and slide between two fins.And inside, you find a sand dune.
and an arch.  It's pretty cold in there so it's probably a great place to take a break in the summer.  Creed brought about a pound of sand back to the car in every nook and cranny, but he had so much fun in the sand that it was worth it.
After that we hiked to the Landscape Arch.  The widest spanning arch in the park.  You used to be able to hike up under it, but in 1991 a huge slab fell down from it and they are not sure when the rest of it will collapse.

Of course we were a little tired after all of that hiking, but you can't come so far without seeing the Delicate Arch.  It's on the license plates here and it's what a lot of people think of when they think about Utah so I really wanted to see it in person.  We heard the hike was sort of scary and difficult, but after some reassurance from a ranger, we decided to attempt it at the end of the day.  They tell you to go in the late afternoon when the light it best, but it's also when we were already tired.  Creed began the journey asleep.

The hike is three miles roundtrip, but it goes up 500 ft in elevation.  Most of the hike is on slick rock like this and it can be a little steep, but there are spots where it levels off and you could rest of you needed to.

The last 200 ft are along a ledge with a really steep drop-off (which I didn't capture in this picture).  It's actually wide enough for two people to easily pass each other, but we still saw a few very scared people.

Then you turn the corner and see this!

The hike wasn't as hard as Larry and I thought it was going to be (and that was with the two of us trading off carrying Creed, who slept quite a bit of the way) so I've you've been wanting to try it, you should!

The best part of the trip was just being together as a family for two whole days with no work to do or errands to run.