August 29, 2018
Truly, traveling with my darling husband is exactly like traveling with a Toddler! Just as the Lyft driver, sweet Naomi, was pulling into our driveway, Rob discovered a stain on his shirt, so off he went to change.:( And, as usual, Atlanta morning traffic was a disaster, which means our drive to the airport took 76 minutes! Luckily, we had allowed plenty of time for a coffee. During our wait, our gate was changed three times. Hope that's not an omen!
Then, as we approached the Salt Lake City Airport, our plane began ascending instead of descending. The pilot announced that we had a "missed approach" due air traffic control. I'm really starting to hope that this isn't another omen. I could have stayed at the baggage claim all day witnessing the return of families reunited as their Mormon missionary child returned home after two years. It was soooo heartwarming. We quickly picked up our rental car from Enterprise to officially begin our road trip, BUT, I put in the wrong address which brought us to Bountiful, UT instead of Salt Lake City, UT. Fortunately, we only lost about 15 minutes. Smoothly, we checked into our hotel, then dashed off to a local restaurant, Legends, for a quick lunch. Rob napped, while I read, until it was time for a Great Salt Lake Sunset Tour. Before reaching the lake, we stopped to watch antelope play in the grasslands and a variety of birds in the marsh. The state bird of Utah is a sea gull. Who knew? The weather was "Chamber of Commerce" beautiful, and I honestly do not believe that I've ever witness a more spectacular sunset! I actually waded into the lake, and later was amazed to find salt dried on my legs.
Wednesday is sail boat race day, so we enjoyed watching all the beautiful sailboats. Our tour guide explained that the Great Salt Lake is shrinking, and may one day totally disappear. We also learned that Utah became a state in 1896 as the 45th state. We booked our tour through Viator, which I highly recommend! Once back at the hotel, we decided to walk to Starbucks for an evening coffee and oatmeal since we never had dinner. Time for bed because tomorrow is another full day!
August 30, 2018
After a hearty breakfast, we ventured to what the locals call "the traxs" to catch our free, public transportation to Temple Square. One thing we've noticed in SLC is that the place seems deserted! But a local explained that the streets are very wide, and the blocks are very long, so people are more spread out. Seven SLC blocks equals one mile. We arrived at Temple Square with time to spare, so I roamed around the visitors' center while Rob people watched. We had a private tour with two very sweet "LDS Sisters" from the Philippines and Thailand. We learned SOOOO much from these enthusiastic gals. Once again, I would definitely recommend taking the free Temple Square Tour if you visit SLC. After our tour, we went to the noon Mormon Tabernacle Organ recital.
The Tabernacle was constructed by a gentleman who had built bridges previously, but never a building. The acoustics are amazing! Without using a microphone, you can hear a pin drop from the pulpit all the way to the back row, over 176 yards away! The organ recital was incredible! We especially enjoyed hearing, "Oh, Danny Boy" accompanied by a flutist in the balcony. We walked by an optical place, so we dashed in so Rob could have his lens replaced in his sunglasses. While we were touring a lens fell out, but thankfully, a very honest/caring lady picked it up and returned it to Rob. The folks in the optical store repaired his glasses (Toddler time again) with no charge, and we were on our way to lunch. We enjoyed an absolutely divine lunch at The Copper Onion! It is another "Can't Not" place to visit in SLC.
Rob rested while I updated our travel blog. Then we ventured back to the Temple Square area. At 7:00 PM we witnessed a fountain show at the City Creek Mall like none I've ever seen before! In the middle of the water fountain show, flames of fire emerged! This amazing show was designed by the same gentleman who designed the Bellagio Hotel in Los Vegas. We could have stayed there for hours, but it was time to go listen the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse in their gigantic Conference Center while holds over 40,000 people. One thing we definitely learned was how very hard those singers worked. The full orchestra accompanied these very talented singers. What was quite entertaining was the conductor who kept stopping the rehearsal to ridicule the singers! I expected to only hear religious songs, but they actually spent quite some time on Disney's "When You Wish Upon a Star." The rehearsal was two full hours, but we only stayed for one hour because we were hungry. We dined on delicious yakisoba noodles before heading back to our hotel. And another day in wonderful Salt Lake City ended.
Friday, August 31, 2018
After a hearty breakfast, we checked out of our hotel, and began our journey to our next destination, Kanab, Utah. The drive was really easy because there was little traffic and the speed limit was 80! We stopped at the Rocking V Café for a quick lunch before heading over to the hotel to check in. Rich, Rachelle, and Connor beat us by about 30 minutes, and our rooms are close to each other, so all is well. After a short visit, everyone went their separate ways until our meeting time, 7:30 for dinner. The hotel recommended a great place, across the street called Iron Horse.
What a great fine - live music, great bar, and delicious food. It was a fabulous place to reconnect with our Arizona family!
September 1, 2018
This is a day that we'll always remember and cherish! After meeting for breakfast, we gathered into our tour guide's, Caleb Henderson with Kanab Tours, truck to travel to Bryce Canyon. The trip took a little over an hour which gave us time to talk about our day, Bryce Canyon, and Utah in general. We stopped at the Visitor's Center to get a stamp in my National Park Passport, take a quick bathroom break, and purchase a few items, then parked the truck.
After viewing the canyon from the top, Rob opted to spend his time relaxing and reading his Kindle, which proved to be a very wise decision because the terrain was treacherous. As we hiked down, the little pebbles cause several other hikers to slip and fall.
Once down in the bottom of the canyon, we took amazing pictures. Caleb saw one of his friends, also hiking, that he grew up with in Alaska! Small world. The climb back up the canyon was a bit challenging for me, not because my legs were tired, but because I was having difficulty breathing as we climbed back up to elevation 8,300. BUT, I pushed on, only stopping twice, and was quite proud of my accomplishment.
We then drove over to Historic Ruby's Inn for a delicious lunch!
Next on our agenda, quad ATV rides on the sand dunes, woods, and eventually down to Peek A Boo Canyon. Richard was our driver, while Connor rode with Caleb. I can honestly tell you that I was petrified at first, but soon that adrenaline rush kicked in and I loved every thrilling moment. Even Rob said he loved it!
The pictures we took in the canyon look exactly like National Geographic! I am so happy that I switched to my Samsung phone, because the pictures are spectacular! When the ride was completed, we were all covered in sand! I even had sand under my contact lenses! Man, did that shower back at the hotel feel refreshing. Now, we're off to Houston's Grille for dinner.
Dinner at Houston's Grille was okay, not great. The food was decent, the dessert was super, but we could only order beer!!!!!! Oh, well, calories saved, I suppose.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Opening statement - YOU SHOULD PLAN TO ARRIVE AT ZION NATIONAL PARK NO LATER THAN 0800 HOURS! Luckily, I had called the park prior to our trip, and the ranger advised that we arrive as early as possible, because by 0900 hours, the Visitors' Center Parking lot would be full. So, we left our hotel at 0630, arrived at 0745, and had no problem finding a parking space, plus the line at the canyon shuttle bus was only a 15 minute wait. We took the shuttle to the last stop, #9 Temple of Sinawava. The ranger warned everyone before boarding the shuttle that we shouldn't enter The Narrows due to the possibility of flash floods. This seemed a little crazy since it was a sunny day, but he mentioned that it was raining in four areas around us. Okay, we were convinced, but you can't even imagine the nutty folks who entered The Narrows anyway. Along the way, we encountered a very friendly squirrel that we ignored which turned out to be a good thing since squirrels are the most deadly animal in Zion. Apparently, when folks try to feed them, the ungrateful little creatures bite the humans and give them rabies!! We did hike down to where The Narrows begins and back.
We all rode the shuttle bus back to the Lodge where we got Rob settled with a coffee and his kindle. We then hiked to the Emerald Pool. Along that path, we saw a baby deer, and Richard heard a rockslide. When we looked over to the other side, we could see the cloud of smoke left by the tumbling rocks and boulders. On our hike back to the Lodge we saw a tarantula and cute stripped lizard. Lunch at the Red Rock Grill (at the Lodge) was delicious, plus we had an amazing view. By the time we returned to the Visitors' Center around 1300 hours the line for the shuttle bus snaked back to the parking lot with an approximate two hour wait and absolutely NO available parking! We saw cars parked along the road with "Tow" signs, as well as one with a $700.00 fine! Like I mentioned earlier - ARRIVE EARLY!!!!
Now, we're off to dine at "On the Ridge" to celebrate Rachelle's birthday. After a little confusion, we finally arrived at this gem hidden away, actually in Fredonia, AZ - who knew? Our dinner was fantastic! Rich, Rachelle, and I ordered "cold NY strips" that had been marinated for five days in a fridge. Once cooked, this process created an incredibly delicious crust. You can bet I'll be researching for this recipe! Rob and Connor ordered bison burgers that they raved about. We celebrated Rachelle's birthday with a great brownie with espresso ice cream!
It was the perfect ending to a perfect weekend!
Monday, September 3, 2018
Happy Labor Day! I set my alarm early to get started on laundry, and by the time we all gathered for breakfast, it was almost completed. Sadly, we said our good byes to our AZ family, because they had a six hour drive home. I finished our laundry, we packed for our next destination, and checked out a little before noon for Green River, Utah. Once again, the traffic was extremely light as we drove through places that resembled another planet! River Terrace Inn is a truly gem in the dessert, strategically located on the Green River, with lovely landscape, pool, and gigantic rooms with amazing views. After settling in, we walked next door, but first encountering a wiggly snake, to the Tamarisk Restaurant, another gem! We enjoyed coconut crusted tilapia, and I had a pleasant surprise with delicious local wine, Petroglyph White. Yum! We watched the hummingbirds feed on the many feeders at our hotel before returning to our room for computer time, showers, reading, and bed.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Trip Advisor reviews raved about the breakfast at the River Terrace Inn, but I was skeptical. I mean, breakfast is breakfast, right? WRONG!!! This place offers a "made to order" breakfast with everything imaginable, plus a huge buffet with the most delicious locally grown melons. Little did we know that melons are grown here in Green River! We had planned to explore the town, BUT there was one problem, there is no town! So, I decided to visit the John Wesley Powell River Museum across the street. Very good decision!! The twenty-minute video explained the exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers by John Wesley Powell. If your travels ever bring you near Green River, it is certainly worth the stop.
Next, we ventured over to Arches National Park, and to our pleasant surprise, there was absolutely no traffic. After a quick stop at the Visitors' Center to get my passport stamp, we traveled over to "Delicate Arch" which is so associated with Utah that it is the symbol on their license plate. It was a gorgeous afternoon, so the hike up to "Delicate Arch" was pleasant. From the parking lot to the viewing area, it is only about 1/2 mile with a few steps. We continued through the park, stopping at "Balancing Rock" and "Park Avenue" to a few pictures. Then, it was time to travel over to our next destination, Moab's Adventure Canyon Lands Night Light and Sound Show. I highly recommend the small gift shop here because of the wide variety and reasonably priced merchandise. Dinner before the cruise was delightful, and made even more so by the sweet, young couple we met from Houston. It was a traditional Utah dinner with a lovely salad bar, veggies, BBQ chicken, beef, and pork. Truthfully, I was not expecting anything special for dinner, but figured the evening cruise along the Colorado River would make up for it, but, once again, I was wrong. Just before we boarded our cruise ship, we were treated to a most spectacular rainbow. We could definitely see rain in the distance, and from time to time, a little lightening, but we enjoyed an evening of "Chamber of Commerce" weather. As we traveled along the river, our captain, Dee (a male), narrated interesting facts about the formations and history of the Canyonlands. We enjoyed the slightly religious and patriotic overtones, Quickly the time passed, and the tour concluded. And another perfect day in Utah ended.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Another early wake up time for us because we needed to be at the Moab airport by 8:45 for our flight with Redtail Aviation. Before boarding the plane, we visited with Dave, a delightful employee until our pilot, Michael arrived. We rode on a small four seater with a nice man from PA. In no time we were over Canyonlands viewing the amazing sights. First famous landmark, Island in the Sky, then Horseshoe Canyon, Mesa Arch, the Green River, the Colorado River, and the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. From the area, they appeared to be lovely, loopy ribbons twisting among the canyons and mesas. The Maze and The Needles were amazing! We were ahead of schedule, so Michael flew us over Castle Valley. We even saw the small winery, Castle Creek, where the wine is that is served in most of the local restaurants. Next, we flew over The Arches to many of the places we visited yesterday, such as Delicate Arch, Balancing Rock, Park Avenue, Windows, and Devils Garden. Our tour was over far sooner than we wanted it to be! The aerial perspective was beyond our wildest expectations! A million thanks to Teri and Alan for insisting that we took this tour!
We drove over to Canyonlands Visitor's Center for my passport stamp and a few more treasures to take home. Once again, the ride was fantastic!
Back in Green River, we decided to have a late lunch at Ray's Tavern, a recommendation from Trip Advisor where I enjoyed a terrific Mahi Mahi entrée.
Now, we're catching up on the blog, email, Facebook and reading before heading back over to Tamarisk for dinner.
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Sad to leave our lovely inn in Utah, but it's time to go explore Wyoming. We're relying on Waze to navigate, and I must admit the roads traveled are gorgeous with beautiful scenery. One of the things we've noticed about Utah is that the rest stops are typically located in lovely lookout areas. We took a quick detour in Provo to visit a Starbucks (not too many in Utah) before continuing on to our next destination, Evanston, WY.
The ride was easy, other than a heavy, but short rain storm so blinding that I could barely see the road. Luckily, we drove out of the rain, and arrived at our Hampton Inn around 3:30. We are definitely in Wyoming. The bathroom hand towels are decked out with wash cloth bandanas. I took advantage of the clean laundry facility to do the last loads of laundry for this road trip. While waiting on the laundry, I worked out at the gym. For dinner we headed over to Lincoln Highway Tavern where I enjoyed shepherd's' pie and Rob had a burger. Back in our room, we relaxed, read, and packed for tomorrow.
Friday, September 7, 2018
After a light breakfast, we headed out around 11:00 to our next destination. However, along the way, we decided to slip over to Idaho for lunch. The ride from highway 89 to 30 was beautiful. We saw bison, cowboys, and also ran over an already dead skunk. For about the next five miles, the car really smelled awful!!! Finally, we reached Montpelier, and Twisted Subs for the VERY best ever homemade pretzels! I had the caramel crunch, OMG, and Rob had traditional pretzel bits with mustard. It was amazing to watch the gal hand make these from fresh dough. We decided to take ours with us because we simply could not eat all of them! The ride into Jackson Hole, Wyoming was gorgeous as we paralleled the Snake River. Our hotel room was a HUGE disappointment, because it felt more like a large closet than a room. Unfortunately, the hotel has no vacancy, so we're stuck, but we'll be posting plenty on Trip Advisor and Booking.com. After a short nap, we walked down Cache Street, passed many restaurants, but finally settled on Hand Fire Pizza where we enjoyed a fabulous Italian sausage pizza, along with a fresh greens salad with homemade dressing. Yum. Now, we're getting ready for tomorrow's big adventure in Yellowstone.
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Our day began with light sprinkles and clouds, but quickly turned into blue skies with an abundance of sunshine! Our guide, Spencer, from Teton Fly Fishing and Float trips picked up all eight passengers and we were off to explore Yellowstone National Park. Along the way, we stopped for photo ops at Jackson Lake, Yellowstone Entrance, the Continental Divide (elv. 8,262), several gorges, canyons, Snake River, hot springs, geysers galore, and a cute bison by the side of the road. Spencer's cell phone didn't have service the first time he checked on Old Faithful's next eruption, but when he finally had cell service, he realized that we were probably going to miss the eruption. Right as we drove in, Old Faithful was putting on a show, but Spencer wanted us to be there at the viewing sight, so he said we'd come back, and indeed we did. Meanwhile, we went into the Old Faithful Inn for a quick pit stop. It is a lovely old inn with lots of charm and character. Next stop, Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geysers Crater where the water was crystal blue and the steam created a panoramic of the visible spectrum. We took a boardwalk hike out to the mud pots where you could actually hear the bubbles popping! Another fascinating spot was the Clepsydra Geyser. After viewing Old Faithful a second time, we happened to pass by a bison taking a nap. Besides the endless geysers and other hydro-thermal sights, we saw beautiful lodgepole pines, aspens and several waterfalls while in the caldera. Yellowstone is actually a volcano, and we spent the day down in the bottom, as well as riding on top. We stopped for a picnic lunch around two before heading over to the Yellowstone Canyon and absolutely stunning waterfall. As we were exiting the park, we encountered a bison road block/jam as several of these massive beasts decided to cross the road! Our last scenic passage was the 20 mile ride along Yellowstone Lake. Wow! During our ride back to our hotel, we saw plenty of bison!
Tonight we decided to try Italian, and we had a fabulous dinner at Glorietta, which was a three minute walk from our hotel! We shared the calamari (yum) and pasta dish (double yum) and I had a Caesar salad. We splurged and enjoyed gelato for dessert. Another amazing day ends!
Sunday, September 9, 2018
My phone alarm announced that it was 49 degrees outside! But, by the time we finished breakfast, and I left for my walk downtown, it was sunny and warm. It is incredulous how the temperature can fluctuate 30 degrees from day to night! Lucky me, Jackson was having an arts/crafts show, so while Rob rested, I explored. All of the vendors were local and only sold handmade items. What fun!
Time to head out on our tour of the Grand Tetons!
Our tour guide, Jack, picked us up promptly, then we drove over to the Rustic Inn (we originally booked here last year, too bad we didn't rebook with them!) to pick up the other couple for our half day tour of The Grade Tetons. We headed over to Moose Trail where Jack immediately spotted a HUGE moose munching away. We watched him for a while before driving over to Jenny Lake for a few amazing views/photo ops. Next we drove by a group of prong horned antelope containing several does and a very large buck. These antelopes are the second fastest animal on earth, surpassed only by the cheetah. We skirted around Lake Jackson, stopped for a quick break where Rob enjoyed a cappuccino. The scenery was like perpetual postcards! Every one more beautiful than the one before. We saw lots of bison as we headed over to where Ansel Adams took his original picture of Snake River. Naturally, I felt compelled to do the same. Next, we spotted a group of five elk, again, enjoying dinner. Jack took a little detour down Mormon row where we stopped to take pictures of an often photographed barn. Way to quickly, our tour was ending, and we called Uber for a ride to our final dinner in Jackson Hole at the Gun Barrell. We were very grateful for our reservations since the line snaked out into the parking lot! Trip Advisor has recommend the velvet elk tenderloins, which were beyond fabulous! The dessert we ordered, peanut butter ice cream pie, was truly the way to end a fantastic road trip.
Monday, September 10, 2018
After breakfast, we headed off to the Salt Lake City airport, BUT not without some excitement along the way. We were enjoying the gorgeous scenery when a cowboy, on the side of the road, flagged us down. As we slowed to a top, we realized what was happening. Cowboys and sheep dogs were herding thousands of sheep across the road! The noise was like nothing I have ever heard, and the entire episode was almost magical. I will replay that scene over and over again in my mind whenever I think of our road trip.
When we returned the car, the Enterprise guy informed us that we had traveled 1,630 miles! Loved seeing our beautiful country, but now we're ready to return to our home sweet home, especially our family and friends! Until next trip!
