Arches and Temples

 Fall Break.  It's a four-day weekend here in Utah, known as U.E.A.  We used to plan our week-long Imperial Beach trip for U.E.A., but Nutcracker put a stop to that.  Now we have to plan a 4-day vacation for our 4-day break, instead of a 10-day vacation.  Thumbs down!  We tried to go back to the Imperial Beach idea this year, but the minute I booked it last spring, I started worrying about it.  We cancelled soon after booking.  I felt much better about not trying to wrangle 4 days into 10, and it's a good thing we didn't try it.  It would have been disastrous in terms of school, not to mention Nutcracker.  How rude of life to get in the way of our travel plans, right?

Our Fall Break Vacation Plan went through many iterations before in coalesced.  There was the St. Louis idea.  Then there was the idea of going back to Moscow, Idaho, to show Golda and Ruby where they lived as babies.  We talked circles around all the Utah parks, the Grand Canyon, Glacier, Park City, the Salt Lake Valley.  Then we decided on San Francisco.  I don't even know how many hotel rooms we booked and cancelled during the six months we talked about this weekend.  At the end of it all, the trip we took was perfect.  I want to hand out itineraries, it was so perfect.  I can't find a map to put here that shows the loop we took, so you'll just have to picture it.  THIS WEBSITE is the best map I can find.  We took I-15 to Highway 6 just past Provo.  Hwy 6 took us through Helper and Price to Moab.  So the first day, we left at 5 am and arrived at our first stop at 9ish.  Dead Horse Point National Monument.  It was sunny, the scenery was majestic, Ptolemy got a smashed penny...so pure bliss.

Not to mention, I got to use my National Parks Annual Pass!  I love this pass.  It cost $80, and I would have already spent $125.  So obviously, we have to go to more national parks before the end of next July so I can get even more value out of the pass, but don't worry.  We will.

 For example, Canyonlands!  It's right next door to Dead Horse Point.  We stopped to hear a ranger talking, and wanted to stay all day.  The geological history of this place is incredibly fascinating.

Of course, not everybody thinks so.  Ha ha.

 The problem with this awe-inspiring scenery is that you take way too many great photos.

Next stop, Arches National Park, just down the street from Canyonlands.

 We ran into Jamison and Kris and their kids.  They were doing the hard-core camping and hiking in Arches, and they were in a rush.  They sped right by us in our sandals and skirts, as we barely scratched the surface of what Arches has to offer.

 The only hike we did was to Double Arch.  I take that back.  We also did the "easy" hike to the view of Delicate Arch, and it wasn't that easy.  Granted, it was our third national park of the day.  Maybe we were tired.  Meanwhile, Jamison and Kris were probably hiking with their five kids on some 20-mile climb, straight up a sheer rock face.  But...we're pansies.  I mean, Ruby was wearing a khaki skirt and I was in a dress.  We didn't even bring water.  We had to guzzle the rest of our two-liter of Diet Coke so that we could fill up the bottle with life-sustaining agua, in case we got trapped in the desert long enough to get dehydrated.  That's the kind of outdoorsmen we are.  After Arches, we explored the city of Moab, hunting and gathering gelato and then trekking across the street to a quaint little book shop.

 Rugged, huh?  Tziporah is quite an adventurous soul, though.  She and Ptolemy were like baby mountain goats, scaling those rocks.  We did the easy hike to Delicate Arch because we didn't want Tizzy falling to her death, she's such a daredevil.  When we got to the overlook, she squinted across the divide at the arch and said, "How we get all duh way over there?"  Somehow she knew we had copped out of the real hike.

 Our hotel was in Cortez, Colorado, southeast of the national parks.  Passing through Monticello, Utah, we noticed this beautiful LDS temple.  I don't know how I could have forgotten about this petite beauty.  We had to stop and walk around the grounds.  Just like we weren't entirely prepared for everything the national parks had to offer, we weren't entirely prepared to feel of the peaceful spirit of the temple.  In both cases, yes, we did have a marvelous experience.  We didn't need more.  But it's interesting to note that had we taken a moment before charging onto the temple grounds, we would have been more receptive to the feeling of it.  The light was fading, and we rushed.  We didn't savor.  Golda reminded us, getting back into the car, that we should always be prepared to go to the temple, even if it's just the grounds.  I have a long way to go on that, but I am grateful for the reminder, and grateful that no matter our level of interest, ability or expertise, the national parks are there for us to draw strength from, and so are the temples.