Archives - February 2020

Apparently at the beginning of February 2020, I was doing lots of furniture shopping, trying to find more pieces for my house. No one needs to see all those photos, but there are lots of them. No one needs to see all the cat photos either, but too bad. 

Miriam is my sweet lap snuggler. 

We got a big snowstorm in early February. Trapped at home before we knew we'd be trapped at home for other reasons. 

But I'm fine if I've got garlic bread and soup. 

Sure, I can't breathe very well, but it's fine. 

2020 - my front room looked like this, 8 months after moving in. 

2021 - it looks like this now, actually fit to have someone visit and sit in those chairs. Except they can't right now. Boo. 

I cleaned out some boxes and found all my beginning piano books from roughly 1989. I'm sure tons of you out there also had this book. Classic!

These neighbors decorate for every holiday and I love it. 

Attempted a night out with some friends at the Gateway to try out their new food court situation. It was absolutely packed with huge lines for any food. We mostly bailed and I spent a good part of the night by a firepit. 

I discovered Vertex! A new game from the NYT, and eventually I signed up to pay for games because I needed a daily distraction from the world. A year later, I still play it daily. 

Did quite catch my car hitting 200k miles, but close enough. A year later, I've only driven 4000 miles more. A year of sitting. 

Not the greatest photo, but Jacinda and I caught Sarah McLachlan at her Salt Lake stop, and it was all my 90s dreams come true! Can't believe I'd never seen her before. She was better than I'd imagined. And this was probably my last concert? 

President's Day weekend holiday overlapped with Anthony's birthday, so last minute-ish we decided to fly to Phoenix for a long weekend. AZ in February will forever be my favorite. Rental cars at the airport are notoriously expensive (mostly due to taxes at the airport location) so we booked the cheapest option, because everything else was unreasonable. We landed at 10pm, got to the rental building (via bus) at 10:45pm or so, and faced a 2-hour line. No thanks. Luckily Shannon bailed us out, and we decided to mess with the car in the morning. 

The next morning, on Anthony's actual birthday, we found an off-airport rental car and got up early to drive north. Memorable story - we picked up the car in Phoenix, and Anthony wanted a coffee for the road. We searched on Google Maps, saw a spot literally next door, but we couldn't see it due to a fence, and we had to make all left turns to get there. Little did we realize, that the name Bikiki Beans actually means all the girls are in bikinis. We pulled around the drive through, and these poor girls are outside in February in tiny suits! Happy birthday to Anthony. I tried to not die laughing while I ordered. 

We drove north, first to Tuzigoot National Monument. There are well preserved ruins from hundreds and hundreds of years ago. With your ticket you can also go to Montezuma's Castle (in another location), but we skipped it this time. I hear it's cool. 

Then we headed over to Jerome, an old mining town. There are lots of things to do here, including ghost tours and art, and despite all my time in AZ, I'd never been before. Anthony was into it for the mining, but also because of Maynard James Keenan. 

We had lunch in town, then headed to Gold King Mine ghost town just outside Jerome. 

We stayed with Shannon and Bandit for a couple nights. Bandit has slowly become a good boy. 

Sunday morning we left early again to get down to Tucson and Saguaro National Park. I didn't realize it's split into an east and west part, and we went west. 

Perfect weather - we meandered and walked trails as we felt like. 

We drove to Coolidge for dinner and to stay the night with my grandparents. Grandma always makes a Mexican food feast!

We stayed in their extra bedroom - hasn't changed in decades. It's just gotten more full of sewing stuff. 

Monday morning we got a tour of all the things they grow. It's amazing! Trees - they have kumquat, orange, walnut, apple, and a few others. Plus a garden full of tomatoes, green onion, lettuce and other things. 

Got sent home with tortillas and fruit. Best. 

We stopped by Casa Grande National Monument on the way out of Coolidge. Once again, I have drive by this place literally hundreds of times, but had never gone. 

Back to Phoenix for lunch with Shannon at Postino. It's still my favorite. 

Then to Grandma Kleck's house for family dinner! 

She made delicious dinner, which she hasn't done in awhile since Grandpa passed.

The whole gang came over. 

I love Grandma's living room. 

Tuesday morning we were up super early to fly home. Quick trip, but the best, getting to explore new places and see the family. 

Came back to these little babies. 

I smoked some meat. 

Archer had his first birthday! He was also born on his grandpa Brad's birthday, so we celebrated with the whole Wells clan at a Thai place. 

Still winter. 

But spring is coming. 

I kept furniture shopping. But I have questions about all these very similar chairs. I don't understand furnture. 

Moody cats. 

Draper temple night with friends. 

Goodbye dinner with Jacinda. She left SLC to head back east. Boo. But we had a messy Cajun dinner to celebrate, and she left us with tons of her leftover toilet paper, which, little did we know would come in handy the next month. 

Youtube for cats. They like birds. 

Anthony had an overnight sleep study. Kinda sad, but it's sorta helped him figure out what's going on. 

And there we have it. Caught up on 2020. 

Bryce Canyon - Thanksgiving 2020

For Thanksgiving weekend, we got out of town to hit up Bryce Canyon, especially since I'd never been. And when you have an annual parks pass, you'd best use it. 

Anthony and I both had Friday off as well, and initially I wanted to be away for the whole four days. But with cold weather and wrangling a cat sitter, we just did a quick one-nighter, which turned out to be enough. 

The kitties wished they could have come. 

We left early Friday morning to head south. 

We headed straight to Bryce to make the most of the day. We picked a random spot to park and ventured out into some trails. 

It was cold, but not too bad once you get moving. The sun was out and I've finally learned how to dress warmly. 

The amazing thing in winter - you'll quickly notice that everyone drives from viewpoint to viewpoint, hops out of the car for a few photos, and then drives on. We saw no one on this trail, despite seeing a good bit of road traffic! No one dared venture too far from the car. Bonus for us. 

We did the Swamp Canyon loop, then drove to the very end of the canyon to Rainbow Point. Probably the most full parking lot, but once again, we got out and hit a trail and had the place to ourselves. 

There was a fire not too long ago, lots of dead stuff in this part. 

This place was pretty magical, with the sun going down and just being alone, listening to sounds of nature. 

It started to get pretty cold once we lost the sun, so we headed back to the car. This spot is at 9000 ft elevation, so it's chilly. 

Snapped a photo on the drive back to town. So gorgeous. 

We had a motel reservation in Panguitch, about half an hour away from the park. Since it's the off season, I didn't know how many food places would still be open right at the park area. Pro tip - pack a lunch to eat in the car. There are a couple places to stay/eat that we did see open right at Bryce, even in winter. But staying in Panguitch works too. When we checked into our room, I'm glad we had a reservation, because it was sold out for the weekend, even though I only booked it two days before. And on the way into town we saw a restaurant that looked interesting - Tandoori Taqueria. We were stoked to try it, then sad to find out it wasn't open. I thought we were doomed to eat at the Subway inside a gas station, but luckily we saw a little cafe across the street. We got takeout and took it back to the motel. Fancy living. 

Checked on the kitties via our cat cam. They're just fine. 

Saturday morning Anthony wanted to get going early, like 7am. Except when we woke up, it was 9 degrees outside. That's a no for me. I wanted to wait until the sun came up and we got a little more warmth. We maybe left our room around 9am and drove to Bryce Point for the Peekaboo Loop trail, which is just over 5 miles. 

At work, the CEO handed out a little holiday bonus, giving everyone $100 to spend to help someone, and another $100 to do something memorable. We spent our fun money on shoe spikes for winter hiking, and they came in handy on this trail. 

This trail did get crowded as the day went on, but for the first 90 minutes or so, we only saw 4 people. 

You wind through some trail under the canyon rim and make your way to the canyon floor. It's really cool. 

There's a good bit of up and down on this loop, so lots of vantage points. 

We obviously didn't see everything in Bryce, but I would wager that this loop is the best hike in the park. 

We finished up mid-afternoon and decided to head home. We got enough fill, since Bryce is small and it was really cold. 

We did the long way up highway 89 - it's amazing country down here. 

Found our little ones safe and sound at home. I'm sure they missed us.