Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Wanderlust Got Me Again...

My friend Meghan and I have been chatting about a trip, especially since I'd like to take a big birthday trip this year. We finally booked it today! This is happening!

The relaxing, beautiful beaches of Albania.


And beautiful Slovenian nature.

And charming Slovenian churches nestled in magical little towns in the Slovenian Alps.

This is going to be so amazing! I'll be departing at the end of August.

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Weekend Down South - Zion National Park

I've lived out West for a number of years and Utah for over a year now, yet I'd never spent time playing in southern Utah. Nathan and I talked about heading down for a weekend, and we planned to go even though no one else wanted to join us in the fun.

We headed down on a Friday afternoon in mid-May. Nathan booked a motel in St George, mostly based on retro charm, but after seeing that one was ranked dead last of all the motels in St George, I vetoed. We found other suitable accommodations.

Started the four hour drive. It's mostly photos from here on out - this place is too gorgeous.



First stop, Coyote Charro for some food. My friend Abe came over to meet us.

Then ice cream at the one place still open.


Saturday morning was quite leisurely.



A little exploration of downtown and some breakfast at Bear Paw.


Nathan lives for thrift shopping and DI. He was super excited about the large one in SG.

And of course, the shoppers in from Colorado City. His stealth photo, not mine...

Finally, off to the park! Zion is super easy to navigate. We parked in the town outside and took the shuttle to the park entrance. I still had a park pass from friends I met in Peru last year, so we were able to use it for free entry. Then we took the shuttle all the way to the end and worked our way back down.

Up towards the Temple of Sinawava. I ran into two people I know from LA on the shuttle, even though I didn't know them well, we recognized each other and stopped to say hello for a bit. I never know who I'm going to run into.


We came down towards Weeping Rock.




Then to the Lodge and over to the Emerald Pools. 












Then we took the bus back down and stopped to watch a film about the park, then we walked the trail back to the entrance as our goodbye to the park. It's just stunning.



Dinner that night was fondue type stuff, where you can cook your steak on a volcano rock that's 700 degrees or something.

 Then a stroll around the temple.

Sunday morning we headed back, planning to stop at another section of the park that's right off the freeway.

This area is smaller, but just as pretty. We opted to not do the five and twelve mile hikes....









Then it was time to come home. Hello, Payson temple!


2023 Recap

Oh, hey there. It's been awhile. I disappeared for a bit. Everyone's doing their 2023 year in review today, and I figured I'd ju...

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