Arizona Trip summed up : Dam, Hot, Wedding.... Grand Canyon!!!

First trip to Grand Canyon. Highly recommend being there at sunset. 

In March one of my college roommates got married in Phoenix. The original plan was for me to drive down to AZ from UT with one of my other ol' roomies. During the planning stages, I had called up one of my cousins living in Utah and invited her (and her car :) on this road trip, as my ol' roomie would be very close to her due date and might not be able to go. Turned out to be a good call since as the wedding drew closer, my ol' roomie felt to stick close to home and not go down for the wedding. A hard call for her to make because she really wanted to go but completely rational one.

So that's how I ended up on "crazy cousin road trip, 2013". We started the day out around 4am and hauled down to St. George where we stopped for some breakfast at the grocery store. We took our chow up to Pioneer park and ate it overlooking St. George as the sun was cresting.

Then we got the blood pumping by taking a quick squeeze through crack in the rocks that last a few hundred feet. 

From there we got back on the road and drove on down through Vegas, making a quick stop at the Hoover Dam. It was a first time for both of us. It's pretty big but the pictures just don't do it justice. 

We got to Phoenix in the afternoon where the temp had peaked at 93 deegrees. We met up with yet another ol' roomate at our hotel, who found us tired and stinky, so we laid around watched "The Help" (first time seeing it, very good) and got destinkiefied. 

We found out there was a BJ's Pizza (one of my favorite places to eat when I lived in Long Beach) close by so set out from our hotel room. As we were walking out to the car, we witnessed one of the most amazing sunsets ever! The desert has a way of making you feel that every sunset is the "most amazing ever" though.  

Look, how grown up me and my ol' roomie are now!

The day of my ol' roomies wedding I ran into some old family friends on the temple grounds. I didn't even know they were living in Arizona. Turns out one of their family members was getting married on the same day as my roomie.  Its a Small world, but being LDS makes it smaller! (when I say they were old friends I mean that she was practically like a cousin to my mom and I grew up addressing them both aunt and uncle) 

Mr and Mrs Newlyweds 

Killing time by taking in some downtown Tempe art

Looking at Fish! Killing more time at Bass Pro Shop! (Yup, we were the only ones in dresses) 

This is just one reason why me and this roomie are friends. She had Erlenmeyer and Florence flasks instead of vases at her wedding.  

It was a pretty fancy reception so we did our best to blend in

When we were leaving the reception, the valet brings the car around and comments on Nickelback playing on the stereo...Why Radio, Why?!

On the Drive home we made a detour to the Grand Canyon. We snapped this shot while getting some lunch in Flag Staff, AZ. Super cool town, hard not to be when you've got route 66, lots of history and hippies.  

Here is my thing with the Grand Canyon. I've never not wanted to go, but it wasn't high on my priority list since it seemed like one of those touristy things "everyone" does. Well "everyone" does things either for hype I agree with or disagree with... 

 ...Well I here by endorse the hype of the Grand Canyon! Lives up to the name. 

We made our visit to the Southeastern part. We didn't have time for hikes and pretty much just stopped and check out the views from the road. If I'm ever in the area I'd like to see more

 We had a late night of driving back up north but after the views we saw, completely worth it!!!

 

Easter

(Lately I've been posting songs that I like and that go with the mood of my post. Please feel free to listen or not while you read)



This Easter we invited some friends over, who like us found themselves without family around this holiday. I love when we do this because it just doesn't seem like a holiday without a house full of people. Plus my mom only knows how to cook for an army, so this it nice to have friends help us make a dent in the abundant feast. 

After dinner we took the dogs on a walk. You really couldn't have asked for better weather on Easter. 

I'm still kicking myself for not capturing the grandeur of this view so a big thanks to KK who sent me the ones he took. They turned out really spiffy.

When I talk about Washington to people most the time they go off about how rainy it is and they can't seem to get past that.  I'm not about to deny that we get our fair share of grey days, but it's not grey everyday and when that sun does come out prepare yourself because it's a sensory overload of the evergreen state kind.

One thing me and my sister have come to a mutual conclusion on, is that every place we've lived has had it's "Draws" (Sun, Green, Oceans, Mountains, Financial Stability..etc.) and "Drawbacks"(Earthquakes, Hurricanes, Blizzards, Tornadoes, Traffic, Floods...etc.).  Life has taught me that if you choose to fixate on the drawbacks, you'll be missing out on chances for new experiences and adventures...and you probably won't be very happy.  I've kind of adopted an attitude of "enjoy where your today because who knows where life will take you next". I'm mostly preaching to myself so if I read this on a "grey day", I can adjust my attitude accordingly. 

Off-Road Adventure - Hole in Rock Trail

When you work on a farm, winter and early spring are the best times to get away. I've been about 2 years overdue for a vacation and had some opportunities lately to get out for some fun. My goal over the next few weeks to catch up on some travel logs.

I went on a camping trip with my sister and brother-in-law to the Hole In The Rock trail, which was used by Mormon settlers in 1880 in southern Utah. You can read more about it here. 

DAY ONE

The day started out Sunny and Warm with highs in the 70's. We made a few stops along the way. 

We stopped for great vistas...

 

to check out some Native American Ruins...

....and to stop and check out this old abandon truck. (I was testing out the Panorama setting on my phone,... I'm a fan)  

We got on the trail late afternoon and it was easy going until around dusk, when it got a bit more rugged.  By night fall the trail got more technical. My sister and I ended up scouting out the trial for everyone. With flashlights in hand we did our best to find the cairns and very faded painted dashes lines that marked the trail.  

We arrived at "cowboy camp" in the dark and settled in for the night. Then came the highlight, pie-iron dinners and chatting until late around the campfire. It was surprisingly warm that night. I even made a barefoot run and scurry up a rock to the truck and back to my tent with no regrets. 

DAY TWO

The view from cowboy camp. 

I went for morning stroll with my sister. We got some nice shots. I found some bug tracks in the red sand. I had been missing the southern Utah desert landscapes and this trip was just the fix I was looking for. 

 Fender is a really friendly dog but not too cuddly. Every now and then he'd curl up next to me in the back of the truck and just as I was starting to feel "special" I'd realize the road turned and he was trying to get back in a sunspot. I still count that as a win.

Mid-day we had some folks in the group that had some car trouble so we stopped for lunch and did some exploring while they trouble shoot things. 

We got back on the trail after a few hours. Grey Mesa was within sight and it was one of the most intense stretches of this trail. 

The photos don't do it justice. There was a nice cliff to the right of this shot that was a few hundred ft down.

 I walked a lot the first two days until I got to a point of being comfortable with this level of off-roading, confident with the drivers and let's face it just plan tired enough not to care about the first two concerns. 

view of the Great Bend of the San Juan River

Molly the Bulldog. This girl could just kick it anywhere. 

We ended up having another night pulling into camp after dark. My sister and I scouted the trail out again that night. I was starting to get worried at one point because I thought I was about to run everyone off a cliff. Turns out it was the road. These trucks, jeeps and their drivers were amazing.  We found a good campsite, ate dinner and then I went on a night hike to the top of a big ol' rock with the resident mt goat in the group. I kept up and it was worth it, the stars were amazing that night! 

DAY THREE

It had clouded over by morning and got a tad bit colder but it wasn't too bad. We broke camp and set out. I was feeling more comfortable in the group, as well as more daring so took an empty passenger seat in a different truck for the rest of the trip. 

We made it to the end of the trail and did a bit of hiking. You can just barely see the Hole in The Rock in the background of this photo. 

Stinking Insane!!!

 We got back on the road and stopped again for a bit more hiking. Found this sweet arch. The picture doesn't show how far down that pool was but I was easily 80-100 ft or more down there. 

That's me in a hole!

I got an introduction into canyoneering on this hike. My sister showing me how stemming is done. This scared me a bit since, I have a deep respect for heights, but my sister is more wary of them than me so I bucked up. 

I nearly shut down a few times since, I was so out of my comfort zone.  I hate when that happens because I inside I want to do it but something deeper inside me doesn't want to die. Everyone was really kind and encouraging though.

I'd like to try more of this again, but I think it would help to go on a longer trek where I could just conquer the fear end of it and learn to trust my ability. It really helped having people on either side of me though. 

We hit a bit of rain and hail in the afternoon, but that sun still managed to break every now and then. 

We managed to make it back to camp with some some daylight! We set up camp and stood around the campfire while it rained on and off. Once we turned in for the night the rain just started pouring down. 

DAY FOUR

By morning, the rain had turned to snow and we got a good dusting on our campsite.  

The snow melted off pretty quick and made some nice muddy roads for us on the way out. 

 Double tow on a slick muddy slope

We had just enough mud to make it fun and make the trucks looking like they were undoubtedly off-road that week. 

On our way out we took a detour to check out some petroglyphs 

Then we got in the trucks, jammed up to Hanksville and hovered hamburgers and milk shakes before finishing the trip back up north.  

Facebook vs. Blog

For starters I had "It's Lost" by the Shook Twins on repeat while writing this blog and I thought it went nicely with what I have to say.

Free music player widget at ReverbNation.com

First trip to the Grand Canyon, March 2013

To say I am doing a bad job of posting to this blog is an understatement. It seems that I have two phase in my internet life, the Facebook dominant one and the blog dominant one. My emotional well being seems to drive these phases. For example, a few years back I hit a wall that was brought on by health problems and hard-times.  To date is was my lowest low and I felt like I had little to brag about in my life so I stopped posting on Facebook. As part of my path to health, I decided to make it a priority to be happy. I used the following these 3 guidelines to help me find happiness.

1. Learning new skills (by choice not compulsion) 
2. Creating 
3. Being feminine 

Before I hit this wall my life had been consumed in academic pursuits, which was physically and emotionally stressful for me, as a result my body was falling apart on me. I ended up moving to Iowa to work on an organic farm. I had a little apartment that I used to conduct cooking and lacto-fermentation experiments. I made lots of new friends, went hiking, biking and snowshoeing, read books while taking long hot baths and I blogged.

Bike ride to the Whippy Dip in 2011

Life got better so entered Facebook again. Slowly I started becoming more active there instead of my blog and with good reason. It made it so easy to share a funny clip, maintain a false senses of connection with that person I had a class with 7 years ago, and invite people to parties.

Gleaning on a Sunday afternoon with some friends from town. We would go to the farm I worked at or would try to find the remains of gardens from old abandon farmhouses. I found some Herbs, Rhubarb and Asparagus. 

Life comes with build in highs and lows and you can't avoid it but I'm coming to find that blogging tends to make me a happier person than Facebooking. I've started minimizing Facebook time and increased blog time. I'm not anti-Facebook, I can't be or I would never get invited to parties and my social life would die, but just know if you want updates, funny links, awesome videos or songs they will be posted here.

List of reasons why I like blogging:

1. Encourages me to be introspective
2. Helps me find the little adventures in life
3. Encorages me to plan and carry out projects
4. Fosters pensive connections with others
5. Leaving a meaningful History (if all my descendants have is my journal, they think I was crazy all the time)