How I Spent my Summer Vacation - Part 2

After the time in Maine, we came home for a fast couple of weeks, unpacked, and then repacked for our planned long vacation to Utah and Nevada. The original itinerary was 8 nights away from home, the final itinerary, 10 nights away from home. We tacked on an extra night in Las Vegas to see a show that was "dark" on our planned 2 nights there, and then tacked on a night on Charlotte, NC to go to a Comic Con. But, I think I am getting ahead of myself.

Quite a few years ago, we did Bryce Nation Park, North Rim of Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park as a long family vacation. Adam kept asking that we repeat this vacation, but add in Las Vegas for shows. So, we dropped North Rim of Grand Canyon, and made our plans 11 months before the planned trip. We like to stay at the National Park Lodges, and those fill up quickly.

First Stop: Bryce National Park. This is not one of the more well known parks. Most people say, have you been to Arches? No, not been to Arches, but would return to Bryce in a heartbeat. Of all the 3 parks that I've mentioned, our favorite for trails, for view, for less crowds and so forth. Only negative, not many places to eat (choice of Ruby's just outside the park) or the National Park Lodge (good food, a bit pricey).

I had worked hard over the winter to get ready for a hiking trip. Treadmill, bike, zumba, yoga and more. I wanted to build stamina and some muscles. And it worked. We hiked about 5 miles each day and although it was still tough, it wasn't out of my ability. At Bryce you hike down first into the canyon, and then go back up at the end.

Our cabin at Bryce. Complete with resident mice. We stopped at the store to pick up food supplies for picnics and bought a big plastic container to put them into. Last time here we shared our food with the mice. This time, no sharing.

At the edge of the canyon, all ready to go for a hike. It took an extra suitcase for all of our gear.

A Hoodoo

National Park Lodge at Bryce

We saw a lot of deer both at Bryce and at Zion. 

At night we would play card games back at the cabin after sunset. We watched the sunset from the rim of the canyon each night. Very peaceful, very beautiful and typically a bit on the cool side. Then we would go back to our cabin and play card games or read books. No internet access which was awesome. My plans to download pictures and write each night didn't happen either -- too tired from hiking. But what a nice tired.

I forgot how long it takes to upload pictures into blogger. So, I am going to post this part of the trip, and then work on the next park - Zion.

It's Snowing

They say that this will be the snow of the year, worse we've had in a number of years. Do I believe the weather people? Ask me again tomorrow night. At any rate, we are down to almost no one in the office. Think I'll eat a bag of mixed nuts for lunch instead of trying to brave the rain/snow and bad weather.

I got a new camera about a week ago, and took some pictures to post... do you see them? Well, that was my best intentions anyways. It is so cool. I took a picture of Panda in the dark, and the flash made the picture look like there were actually lights on! So, today, I am looking at all the nice white snow on the trees and wondering why my camera isn't in my purse. That was part of my idea - have the camera with me at all times to capture events. But, first I need the case I saw at Best Buy but didn't buy yet. I promise to do better. Really.