Today's getting old(er) moment: Being halfway to work and realizing I'd left my laptop at home. Having to turn around and go get it, because without it, what am I going to do at work? Have meetings? Read something on paper? Seriously though, without my computer I really couldn't get anything done. Anyway, that was an extra 30 minutes of commuting that I hadn't planned on.
Our 2nd day on the boat (our first full day), was our "Fun Day at Sea", which basically just meant that we weren't going to be stopping anywhere. So it was kind of a day to get used to being on the boat. We did some laying out in the sun, though it was quite windy, and for about 10 minutes a fairly severe rainshower showed up and forced back inside.
Chillin in the room
We ate breakfast and lunch at the main buffet. Played some more trivia -- I won at TV Theme songs, but only due to some major assistance from some older ladies who clearly had watched plenty of TV in their time, so I gave them the "Piece of Ship" trophy. Honestly, they got more of the answers than I did. (Gomer Pyle? Dynasty? Johnny Carson? who knows those songs?)
Tuesday night was "Formal Night" for dinner, so we got dressed up and went up to enjoy some more delicious food. Not sure what I ate that night, other than that I got something called Blanc & Bitter for dessert which was a combination white and dark chocolate bread pudding that was delicious, even if mine only had a tiny speck of dark chocolate (a personal fave) in the midst of all the white. Brandon and Kellen weren't feeling too good so they missed out on dessert. :(
Getting ready for dinner
Dressed up for Dinner
Me with the Ladies
After dinner, we took a couple photos, then changed into more relaxed attire, and hit up a dance show put on by the cruise dance group. After that, we wandered around the boat, checking out the dance club where only a handful of people were dancing while probably over a hundred people stood around drinking, and finally ended up on the deck watching a movie (Eagle Eye) for a while before calling it a night.
So, I'm finally getting around to blogging about my cruise a mere two and a half weeks after getting back from it. When did time start to move so fast? September is past half over, for heaven's sake. Before I know it, I'll be 31. (Actually on Friday, please no gifts, just cash, thanks).
Anyhow, a while ago, I went on a cruise with 7 good friends from here in Salt Lake, 2 of whom happen to be my roommates, and the other 5 of whom are in my ward. Brandon and Mel can argue about whose idea it was, but I'll just say that Brandon is the one that invited me to join in on this cruise to the Bahamas, and I, having never been on a cruise, and suddenly finding myself with both the money and barely enough PTO, decided to give it a go. I especially love going on trips that other people have planned (see my trips to St. George and Yellowstone in July).
Anyway, as soon as we put our down payments in, I started working on getting my passport renewed (yes, it's been more than 10 years since I left on my mission), slimmed down (not specifically for cruise purposes, but hey), and started spending several hours a day standing on a teeter-totter. Okay that last one isn't true, but maybe it would have been good preparation for being on the boat. I can gratefully say that at no point did I ever feel like I was going to throw up, but especially in the first couple days I did feel a little dizzy, like the room was moving (which it was), something that seemed to be most noticeable in large enclosed spaces like the dining room and the theater. I didn't take any Dramamine or anything for motion sickness, but managed to get by alright without it.
Waiting at SLC
Our trip started in the dead of night, with a 12:50 am flight from Salt Lake International to Atlanta and then on to Miami. Julie-Ann and Kellen had flown down a couple days earlier and stayed with Julie-Ann's brother who goes to school down there, so it was the other 6 of us on this flight. On rare occasion, I do sometime wish I'd been involved in planning things, and I would have opted to skip the red-eye, but it probably saved us money on a hotel and just on ticket prices. I was better off than most, as I had pretty much no trouble sleeping on either flight. On both legs, I was out before they went through the safety presentation. Sadly, this meant I missed out on snack and drink time. Brandon was nice enough to save me one of his bags of peanuts on the 2nd leg though. Anyway, even with two longish naps, totally maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep total, I was still pretty tired, and I can only imagine how the others felt, including some who couldn't sleep at all.
We arrived at Miami Int'l around 9 am, and figured we'd need to find somewhere to eat breakfast and then head to the ship. The van driver we found thought if we just went to the boat, we could get onboard and eat there and not have to buy food somewhere else. We trusted him and while we didn't end up getting on the boat until 11:30, it was better than we'd feared (we thought we couldn't even board until 1 or later).
He dropped us off and a nice young man in serious need of some orthodontic work introduced himself as our "porter" and not-to-subtly suggested that we needed to pay him to ensure the save transfer of our bags to the boat. ("Sometimes you gotta grease the wheels. With some THICK grease. I'd say about $5 per person.") After that, we went through an airport-esque security checkpoint and then into a big room like an airport lobby that had a tall wall of windows where you could see the boat. We got checked in for the cruise, and then waited another 30 minutes or so before boarding and finding some lunch.
Waiting to board the ship
After a quick meal, and some exploring up top, we headed down below deck to get into our room and hopefully take a nap. Our room had 4 beds (2 above the other), but the two top bunks had yet to be lowered from the ceiling, so Brandon used an ottoman and some pillows to make a bridge between the two other beds, and we got some well-needed catch-up sleep. I always slept very well on the cruise. The beds were very comfortable with good pillows, and having an inside cabin meant our room was pretty much pitch black at any hour of the day.
Main deck area
Nap time
Kellen and Julie-Ann got on-board a few hours after we did, and we saw Kellen poke his head in briefly in the midst of our napping. A few hours later, we finally were up and ready to start vacationing for real. First stop? Trivia. Trivia was a common activity on the boat, happening several times a day, and when I could I tried to hit up the games. At this first installment (theme: General Knowledge), I won my first of several rounds, and earned myself a super-cheap Carnival Destiny (our ship) trophy.
Trivia time
After trivia, we headed up to the deck to watch as we sailed out of Miami. Definitely lots of impressive housing there along the route we took. It was kind of funny watching people wave at us, and even cars on the highway honk as we cruised on out into the ocean. You'd think they'd see that stuff all the time, but maybe not.
Leaving Miami
After that, we wandered around the deck some more, some of the girls got airbrushed tattoos, and then we went back to our rooms to see if our luggage had been sufficiently greased to make it to us without incident. Thankfully they had, and we did some unpacking and relaxing until time for dinner.
Dinner turned out to always be one of my favorite moments of each day. Plenty of exciting and tasty choices, and a good time to sit and relax. Plenty of time, too. Dinner started at 8:15 and usually we were getting done right around 10:00. Between bread, appetizers, main course(s), and dessert(s), there was plenty of serving and clean-up and waiting time in between courses. I know the first night I had a steak, and my first of many melting chocolate cakes (with sugar-free ice cream on the side). Can't remember what I had for my appetizer, but I'm sure it was good, too.
After dinner, there was an opening show in the theater where the dancers danced, and the singers sang, and the cruise director cracked some jokes, and then there was an actual comedian who was fairly funny (especially compared to the guy we saw later in the week).
Opening show
After the show, we went up on the deck to chill for a while, and then called it a night.
Apparently everyone needed some space. Not sure why everyone is so spread out in this photo.
Random thought while sitting in church yesterday looking at a girl with 2 earrings in each ear:
How did it become fashionable to poke a hole in your ear lobe and then use it to put jewelry on? And after that happened, who decided that it was perfectly normal, but that poking holes in other parts of yourself or more holes in your ear was weird?
Not saying I disagree with Pres. Hinckley's statement that men ought not to wear earrings and women should stick to one pair or less. Just saying that it seems like the whole piercing thing is pretty strange, and that the difference between poking holes in yourself and not poking holes in yourself is much larger than the difference between just putting one set of holes in a specific spot and putting multiple holes in various places.
I'm just about ready to start blogging about my cruise, but in the meantime, I wanted to let you all know that Atlas Shrugged wasn't going to end up as my favorite book of the year, simply by being the only book I actually read this year. I took a brief respite from long speeches about motive force to quickly go through the first of the Newbery Award winners that I mentioned I was going to try to read. Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary was the winner in 1984, and while I've read many of her other books (I especially remember reading some of the ones about Ramona), I'm pretty sure I never read this one before.
It's written in the form of letters from an elementary school-aged kid to an author (Mr. Henshaw), and then switches mostly to journal entries partway through. The boy's parents divorce early on in the book and it mostly deals with Leigh's(the boy) trying to cope with that issue, including his mom working a lot, and moving to a new school and not having friends for a while. I liked it, and was touched, and also grateful that my parents have managed to stay together when so many others have not.
I'll preface this story by saying that of all the times I've been late to work in my life, almost all of them were due to the fact that I managed to screw up setting my alarm clock, or forgot to set it before going to bed. Yesterday I got up later than usual because I'd showered right before bed, meaning I could sleep in a bit the next day. Then, last night I made sure to change my alarm from 7:40 back to my usual time of 7:10. I woke up this morning, stumbled to the bathroom, and thought, man I am so tired this morning, I'm going back to bed for a few minutes. I made sure to reset my alarm to 7:25, hoping to catch a few extra Zs.
I woke up what felt like hours later, feeling sure that I'd overslept and somehow screwed up my alarm clock. I opened my eyes and saw that the clock read 7:10 and I thought "Dang it, I must have left it on 'set the alarm' mode, rather than actually setting the alarm." and that's why it was still displaying the alarm time, even though it must be quite a bit later than that by now.
I jumped out of bed and checked my watch. Guess what. It was only 7:11. I then recalled changing the alarm to 7:25, so there's no way, even had I left the clock in set-up mode, that it would have read 7:10. It actually was 7:10. Which could only mean one thing: when I woke up the first time, it wasn't even my alarm clock that woke me up, and it must have been sometime in the middle of the night, and I just assumed it was 7:10. Weird.
What are the odds that I would wake up without an alarm at exactly the time that I'd set my alarm for originally? Okay maybe it's not that implausible, since my body tends to get used to getting up at a usual time, but still that fact combined with the fact that I thought I'd already woken up once at 7:10 made for a perplexing moment.
I've been back from my cruise for nearly a week, and don't feel like I've had any time to relax yet (been hiking, to institute and discussion group, a birthday celebration, Utah's opener against USU last night, and going to Grantsville tonight to see my brother play), and have definitely not been doing a good job of catching up on the sleep I got behind on during the cruise. Thankfully, Labor Day weekend will be upon us shortly, and I'm hoping to catch a few extras Z's along the way.
At some point I'll start blogging up some stuff from the cruise, but in the meantime, I'll leave you with this thought:
On our redeye flights to Atlanta and then to Miami at the start of the cruise, I managed to fall asleep before hearing the safety presentations, and then I got to wondering, "Has anyone ever been benefited by the safety presentation?" I mean, how many airplane crashes do people walk away from? And when they do walk away, was it because of careful listening during the safety presentation? Jerry Seinfeld successfully mocked the seatbelt portion ("Oh, lift UP on the buckle. I was going to try to break the metal apart."), but has anyone ever used a seat cushion as a floation device, or needed a "light in the water"? Maybe they have, and I'm just not aware of it. But in the event of an emergency exit, would the flight crew refuse to explain everything to me again, if I'd failed to pay attention during the original presentation? "Excuse me, should I put my oxygen mask on first or that of the child I'm traveling with?" "Sorry, you should have paid more attention earlier..."
Now that I'm sure you're tired of hearing about my vacation that took place almost a month ago, I guess I could blog about something more contemporary. I've been keeping plenty busy, and will be going camping (again!) tonight. Went boating Saturday last week and Monday night this week (an interesting excursion including pirates!) . Saw Iron Man on the lawn of the capitol Wednesday, and Tuesday night I went to a friend's party and then another friend's soccer match.
Anyhow, last night I made a trip to the library with a friend and, among other things, we stumbled across a shelf of Newbery Medal winners in the children's section, and we started talking about reading all the Newbery Medal winners. Seems doable, right? Though maybe not as easy as reading all the Caldecott Medal winners, am I right? :)
I'm guessing they're all relatively available, and for the most part they should be fairly easy reading, right? Anyway, we grabbed two -- The Voyages of Dr. Doolittle, which was the oldest one we could find, the 2nd ever winner in 1923; and Dear Mr. Henshaw from 1984, because it looked like fairly light reading -- to get started with. Guess we'll see how it goes. Some I've ready before, including this Dr. Doolittle book, others not so much. It appeals to the completist in me.
Oh, and yes, I'm still dragging my way through speech after (truly enjoyable, but not really capturing my imagination) speech in Atlas Shrugged, waiting for the pace to pick up. Given that I'm halfway through the book, somehow I'm guessing Ayn Rand isn't going to switch to "show don't tell" after how far we've already come with the "show AND tell and then tell several more times" method. :) Not giving up. Maybe I just need to set aside more reading time, instead of playing Bioshock when I find a spare moment.
I'm sure you've realized that I don't do a great job taking photos of people on my trips, mostly of scenery. Anyway, I put together this mosaic of people photos from the Yellowstone trip from the photos of my friends (Alicia and Kelly, maybe one from Kellen), so you can at least realize that it wasn't just me and the waterfalls out there.
Finally, we've come to the end of my July 2009 Week 'o Vacationing. Somehow I suspect that the actual vacation was more fun for me than reading about it has been for you, but it looks like some of you are still stopping by to read.
On the morning of our last day in Yellowstone, I woke up early, 6 or so, to use the bathroom (I can never sleep in too late while camping), and since I was already up, I decided to go for a walk and check out our surroundings. I knew there was a river near where we were camped, so I walked over there to check things out.
Dawn over the Madison River
Looking downstream
After taking a few shots of the sun coming up over the river, I looked downstream a way and saw some dark shapes that I figured must be elk, so I decided to walk down there and check things out. Turns out there were 10-15 elk there (all cows as far as I could tell) eating breakfast. I sat and watched them for half an hour or so and then headed back to camp.
Elk at Dawn
We didn't make a fire that morning, so it was fairly chilly while we sat and waited for the sun to come up. For breakfast we just ate muffins and bagels. Then we packed up our gear and headed for home. Cara's mom was nice enough to have us over for lunch in Chubbock in the middle of our journey, and we made it home mid-afternoon. And I was back home and back to work the next morning.
Definitely a fun set of vacations. Several firsts (Yellowstone, Tuacahn, Alpine Coaster), good times with friends and family alike. And amazingly, I still have one more vacation left to take this summer. In 2 weeks (12 days actually), I'll be going on a cruise (another first) to the Bahamas with my roommates and some other friends (many of whom were on the St. George trip).
Back from a nice busy weekend (a date, ward boating activity, family reunion, sister's musical) and ready to finish off this travelogue of my vacations that ended now 2 full weeks ago.
Our 2nd day in Yellowstone was packed with stuff, and lots of photos, so this might be the longest post of the whole week's worth of vacationing. Pace yourself. :)
We started off with a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and eggs cooked on Jason's campstove. After breakfast, we made some sack lunches, packed up camp and headed on our way for a 2nd day of Yellowstone awesomeness. Our main goal for the day was to drive north on the lower loop and check out the Upper and Lower Falls along Yellowstone River, so we headed up that way.
Serendipitously we found a variety of other fun things to check out along the way. On the map, we saw something called "Mud Volcano", and when we got there, we decided to stop and check it out. It actually turned out to be more than just the Mud Volcano, which was basically a lake of bubbling mud. In addition, there was also the Dragon's Mouth Spring, Sour Lake, the Churning Cauldron, and a couple other bubbling, smelly lakes. And let me just say that they were indeed smelly. Like rotten egg smelly. Really rotten. Kind of overpowering at times. Probably the coolest was the Dragon's Mouth Spring which was a cave where water came out in waves, and steam was constantly rising, and there was a constant stream of booming noises coming from the cave. I have to wonder what people thought about these things when they were first discovered, before there was a wooden walkway going up to it with signs and everything. Amazing stuff.
The Mud Volcano
Dragon's Mouth Spring
After walking around the Mud Volcano area, we crossed to road and walked down to the river to check that out. Nothing too noteworthy other than simply being very picturesque.
Yellowstone River
We got back on the road headed north, and as we entered the Hayden Valley, we had the chance to see a few more bison up close to the road. We pulled over to look at one of them a little closer.
Pulling over to check out a buffalo
The funny thing is how excited we were about seeing a single buffalo, when waiting for us just around the bend was a gigantic herd of them. There were probably hundreds of buffalo in this valley. Maybe thousands, but of what we saw, I'm sure there were at least 100 head. A little further up the road, we reached a point where a large group was crossing the road, so as traffic was stopped we got a good look at them and were able to take some photos and video. One of the highlights of the trip for me.
Moving on from our buffalo crossing experience, we finally were nearing the waterfalls we'd planned to check out. Our first stop was the brink of the upper falls, which was just a short walk down from a parking lot. One thing that I personally enjoyed about Yellowstone was how accessible many of the things were. I understand that it might be more enjoyable without eighty other people there, but especially this day, I was struck by how much you could see in a single day without needing to hike 3 hours each way.
Looking upstream from the Upper Falls
After checking out the upper falls, Jason suggested we backtrack just a tad to a spot on the other side of the river where we could hike down and see the falls from below, called Uncle Tom's Point. It was just a quick drive over there, but unfortunately the trail down to the viewing spot was closed for repairs, so we had to settle for a view of the falls from across the river, but not down low like we'd hoped.
Looking back across at the Upper Falls. If you look close you can see people at the viewing platform.
Then it was back across the bridge and further downstream in search of the lower falls. The hike down to the brink of the lower falls was quite a bit longer than the hike down to the brink of the upper falls, but still only 10 to 15 minutes (and of course a bit longer going back up those switchbacks). Along the way down, there was a look out spot to look down the canyon. I stopped to take a gander and was stunned by the beauty of the canyon. The colors of the canyon walls were just surreal (I realized after coming home that this must be why it's called Yellowstone), and the river running down the middle looked like a painting. Just gorgeous. There were better views further down, but this was my first glimpse and it really was awe-inspiring.
Looking down at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone from the Lower Falls brink
More
See? I was there!
The actual falls themselves
We took our time enjoying the view of the falls from above, and then made the hike back up to the parking lot. From there, we headed further downstream to another lookout spot to look back the lower falls. There was a nice view near the parking lot, but most of us also chose to take a longer hike down to the Red Rock viewing platform where the view of the falls was even better.
Looking back upstream at Lower Falls. Down below you can see the Red Rock viewing platform.
The view from Red Rock
After taking more photos down there, we made our way back up again, and regrouped at the cars to decide on our next step. We decided it was probably time for lunch and that we'd stop at the next picnic area we came to.
After a short drive, we found a picnic area where we relaxed and ate our lunch while planning our next move. We'd talked about going north and going around the northern loop and maybe seeing Tower Falls and Mammoth Hot Springs, but given that the weather was looking a little stormy, and that we'd already seen some very impressive waterfalls already, we decided to skip the northern loop and cut across the middle of the park, and head toward our campsite for the night.
First, though, we stopped at a visitors center near the intersection of the highways to see what it had to offer. Mostly I was happy to find that it offered a couch I could sit on for a bit. :)
After resting up a bit, and having a bit of rain, we hit the road again, heading west across the park toward Madison. Along our way, we stopped at the Norris Geyser basin, to see what non-Old Faithful geysers look like. The first thing we went to check out there was the Porcelain Basin. The view was quite extraordinary. Something scorched earth post-apocalyptic perhaps, or maybe just alien. We walked along the rim for a while, then headed back to where we'd started to go another direction and check out Steamboat Geyser.
Porcelain Basin
Porcelain Basin
Steamboat Geyser apparently has had some of the largest eruptions recorded in the park, but they are far from predictable, and the last big event occurred a long time ago (I forget whether it was 7 years or 50 years, or something else. Just that it wasn't something to hold your breath for.) Despite not being spectacularly impressive, there were minor spurts of water and steam every few minutes, and it was a nice supplement to the previous day's experience at Old Faithful. And perhaps made me appreciate both the regularity and magnitude of Old Faithful by comparison. I'm sure there are other possibilities along the Geyser spectrum, but those are the only two I've really seen so far. :)
Steamboat Geyser
After enjoying the Norris Geyser Basin, we hopped back in our vehicles and headed south for Madison. All weekend, we'd been seeing signs letting us know that there would be delays on this stretch of highway due to construction, but when we got to the construction, we only waited a minute or two. Then a few miles down the road, traffic bogged down again, and we figured it must be the rest of the construction. Not so. In fact, it was due to a small group of bison who decided to stop in the middle of the road and just hang out while cars slowly trickled past them on the other side of the highway.
Bovine Road Block
After getting past this bovine roadblock, we quickly arrived at the Madison campground area. We set up camp and set about chopping some deadfall for firewood. The weather was still pretty overcast and a little rainy. Then a park ranger pulled up in his golf cart to inform us that a big storm -- "40 mph wind and an inch of rain" -- was an hour away. So we scrambled to make sure that all of our belongings were secured and covered, then hustled to get dinner ready (beef stew warmed up over the fire) before the storm hit. Then, the storm never actually materialized. Given my history of bad luck with camping weather, I told Kelly it must have been his good camping luck overpowering my bad camping luck.
Kelly chopping some wood
Once it was clear that no storm was coming, we played some Phase 10, and then hung out around the fire until fairly late.
I've really got to get the last of these vacations blogged up before I've forgotten all about them...things have just been crazy all week long. I feel like I haven't hardly had time to just sit down this entire week, except when I was at work. And the busy times look to continue until at least Sunday evening. Maybe beyond. When did things get so crazy?
Anyway, our Yellowstone camping excursion began on the morning of Friday the 24th (yay for Pioneer Day!), we got up fairly bright and early, and Kellen and I drove over to Alicia's to help load up the vehicles. Thankfully, Jason was able to borrow his dad's truck or else we would never have had sufficient space to pack everything in. Eventually, we were all packed up and ready to go.
We drove north through Idaho (only my 3rd time in Idaho) up to West Yellowstone (my very 1st time in Montana) where we got lunch and then ventured into the park.
No one I know, just took a picture of the entrance as we drove in.
Mere moments in, we caught our first sight of nature on display, a bald eagle nested quite near the road. The nice thing about Yellowstone is that if there's anything of interest along the way, you can count on other drivers to pull over and look at it. Makes it easy to know where to look. We also saw our first buffalo not too much further down the road. At the time, quite a novelty. By the end of the week, we'd have seen plenty of these guys.
Our national bird, in our national park.
First buffalo
Our first stop of the day was Old Faithful, but before getting there, we got to drive past a variety of geothermal features that I was honestly a little bummed we didn't stop to check out. Just seeing steam coming out of the ground is pretty cool if you ask me. Upon arriving at Old Faithful, a sign informed us we had about 45 minute until the next geyser ought to be arriving. We were able to get decent seats and then took turns watching them while people wandered around various gift shops and ice cream vendors.
What it looks like when it's not being faithful
Kelly and Kellen eating their ice cream
When it was finally time, I have to say I was impressed. A giant spout of hot water coming out of the ground at regular intervals. I can understand why this is part of our first national park. And no, I'm not being sarcastic. I was really impressed.
Getting started
Full steam ahead
After checking Old Faithful off the list, Alicia had a hike planned for us. We headed south to the bottom of the loop and then went a smidge further south to the Riddle Lake trailhead. The hike was a fairly mild walk (very little ups or down) that lasted maybe 45 minutes each way. The lake itself was fairly deserted, we only saw maybe 5 other people during the whole journey. The lake was fairly uninteresting if you ask me, but it was nice to be out enjoying nature. We even heard some wolves howling in the distance.
On our way to Riddle Lake
At Riddle Lake
Hiking back to the road
After our hike, it was time to head to our campsite for the night. We had a reservation at Bridge Bay, near Fishing Bridge by Yellowstone Lake. We got checked in, set up camp, and got to work cooking tin fiol dinners in the coals of our campfire. Dinner was delicious, and we had a good time hanging out around the fire until it was time to retire.
Day 7 of my Week o' Vacationing did not actually contain any vacation, oddly enough. I went in to work and put in my 8 hours (which felt strangely long, perhaps due to my lack of having worked any of the other days that week). When I got home, I made sure to get all my camping gear ready to leave early the next day for Yellowstone, and then I headed out to a big 24th of July Eve party that featured a fireworks show that probably ran continuously for around 10 minutes.
Didn't take my camera on Day 6, so no photos. You'll just have picture it all in your mind.
After two full days playing around Park City, on Wednesday, we headed down into the valley to spend a day at Raging Waters, a place that once held great mystique in my mind. In middle school, we had an after school Science Club whose main draw was that at the end of the year, if you'd been to enough meetings, you got a trip to Raging Waters. I know at least one of the years we went, it was pouring rain the entire time, so not the best, but it was probably better than being at school, right?
Anyway, as an adult, Raging Waters still has some appeal, and it was fun to go with the family. We spent some good time in the Lazy River, and hitting up the slides. I tried my best to reapply sunscreen liberally, and managed to only get mildly burned in some spots on my back that both I and those I drafted to "get my back" managed to miss.
Mom was nice enough to make a Wendy's run to pick us up some lunch, and after working 2/3 of the day, my dad showed up for the last part of our fun.
I had to work Thursday, so after we were finished at the water park, I bid my farewells and headed home, for my first night of sleep in my own bed in nearly a week. This concluded my 2nd vacation of the week, but it was not the last. One more travelogue yet to come!
Day 5 of my week of vacations was our 2nd full day in Park City, and we started it out with some omelets and "clouds" courtesy of George and Kimi. After breakfast, we left grandpa with the grandkids and it was off to the outlet stores to do some shopping. I had a few things in mind to look for and was semi-successful in finding them: a new belt to hold up my church pants -- not everything about weight loss is wonderful, couple of polo shirts to wear to work, now that it's kinda hot to wear long sleeves every day. Couldn't find sunglasses at a reasonable price, i.e. anything under $60, or some sleeveless cotton T-shirts. Apparently cotton is out, and magical fibers that obliterate moisture are in. I thought cotton was the fabric of our lives. What happened? Anyway, I've since remedied those short-comings with the help of the internet ($14 sunglasses) and Target (T-shirts for $3.99).
After shopping, we swung by Arby's drive-through for lunch, then back to the condo to trade mom for dad. We then went to check out the latest installment of the Harry Potter series - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Not having read the book in over 2 years made this one infinitely more enjoyable than the 5th movie which I saw with the book fresh in my mind. So much gets cut from the books to fit into a 2 hour movie. The more I think about the new movie the more I remember that was omitted, but at the time I found it to be fairly enjoyable.
After the movie, we headed back to the condo. Ben and Natalie were headed out to Grantsville for 24th of July rehearsal practice, so pizza was ordered for them and then they hit the road. The rest of us wanted a nicer dinner, so we ended up at Red Rock Brewing Company, where we had a pretty delicious meal. I got the Kobe Burger (named for the beef, not the player) which I thought was particularly tasty.
Lucy showing off her coloring skills
Elise enjoying drinking from the straw
After dinner, we headed back to the condo again, and played several rounds of Perudo (a type of liars dice game, perhaps similar to what was in the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean film, but I'm not sure because I only saw that once and was utterly confused at the time by what was going on). I can't remember who won all the games, but I know my mom and I never won. I finished in the top 3 once or twice.
Our first full day in Park City was just that. Full. :) We started out with a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy breakfast courtesy of Natalie. From there, we headed over to check out the Utah Olympic Park, which I'd never actually been to. There is a museum there with stuff from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Costumes from the opening and closing ceremonies, gear from the athletes, pins, and videos recapping highlights of the games. It was fun to remember some of the stories from when the Olympics were here.
Buffalo mask from opening ceremonies
In addition to the museum, the bobsled run and ski jump hills are there, but nothing was really going on on those at the time. They also have a training facility for aerial freestyle skiing, with a variety of ramps that launch skiers into a swimming pool, so they can work on their technique safely, and without a need for snow. There was a group training while we were there, most of whom were fairly novice, but there was one guy going off the big ramp and doing some impressive stuff.
After leaving the Olympic Park, we hit up Cafe Rio for lunch.
Elise showing off her fork skills
Then, it was up into town to the Park City Mountain Resort, where most of us (minus grandpa and the babies) took a run on the Alpine slide, and then Ben, Natalie, and I tried out the new(ish) Alpine Coaster. It's a variation on the Alpine slide, where the sled is attached to the track like a rollercoaster would be, but still with rider controls for braking. The ride attendant told me that because the sled was attached to the track, and I was attached to the sled (via my seatbelt), I should go as fast as I could. So for the first few stretches I kept the handle pushed all the way down. Until I went around a turn that nearly threw me out of the sled. The seatbelt wasn't really snug enough to make me feel like I would be safe doing that any more, so I backed off a tad after that. Still, it was a fun ride, and based solely on the thrill aspect, I would choose the coaster over the slide. The slide does include a relaxing chairlift ride, so that might influence your choice.
Heading up on the alpine coaster
Further up the coaster
We then left the resort and headed back to our condo. Ben and I were in charge of dinner, and had chosen shish kabobs as our dinner of choice. I'm really loving kabobs this summer. We cut up steak and chicken in the morning and put it in marinade all day long. Then at dinner time, we cut up peppers and onions, and had mushrooms that could also be added to the kabobs. Then we cooked them on the grill out on the deck. I have to say I think they turned out pretty great. I especially like the caribben jerk chicken (shout out to Julie-ann for introducing me to that earlier this summer).
After dinner, the kids went to bed, and the adults watched Chariots of Fire, a great film full of inspirational messages and great music, that seemed to fit in well with our day at the Olympic Park.
