utah, wow! you impressive beast-of-a-state, you!

it's still hard to gauge exactly how much time i'll need to get to the airport and get to my gate at a decent time. i think part of this stems from having worked for the airlines; the other part is that nagging necessity to be punctual (OVERLY punctual). flying out on tuesday was no exception.

i opted for extra space and chose an exit row window...my mistake was that this aircraft had 2 exit rows, and i sat in the fwd, which means that my seat did not recline. add to that the fact that i chose the wrong side...i missed the great view as we were drawing closer to vegas. oof. the only positive was that the flight attendant had slid into our row to get out of the way of those boarding, which saved us from having a middle seat occupant...thank you, flight attendant! so i re-positioned when we got to LAS.

salt deposits creating a beautiful landscape flying into slc

bacon and letter writing-bacon goes with everything!

 jane picked me up at the slc airport and we were off...to the doctor. she wasn't feeling so great, so we stopped into the one-stop-shop-doc-in-a-box and after she diagnosed herself and told the doc what she needed, he wrote up a script and sent us on our way. while there, i noticed that they had a special little corner set up under the t.v., which was a little awkward...not sure why it was set up like this-time out box-like in hockey a penalty box, perhaps? (no one puts baby in the corner came to mind)...or maybe a privacy area for breast feeding, but that would be counter-productive, as the t.v. was right there..terrible designing of space... much of my wait was spent analyzing this, and feeling sorry for the lady who had just filled out her paperwork and told them she'd hurt herself on the job-she didn't want to fill out workman's comp (as it was a brand new job for her), but legally they had to file it that way because she'd mentioned it, so she had to redo paperwork..boo. anyhoo...

after stopping at the pharmacy which google maps told us was in the parking lot (unless it was a superhero thing, like wonder woman's jet, that info was incorrect-so we went into target). from there, we grabbed lunch, because it was about a 2 hour drive to our hotel, through the mountains. getting to the little burger joint was a mini adventure as we missed the turn and had to make a loop. and we were on the road-one annoying thing is billboards of ears. everywhere-with no real advertisement...not sure if it was an ear doctor, plastic surgeon for ears...man who listens well..still don't know exactly, but there were at least 10 of these things littering our viewing pleasure. the mountains changed with every turn as far as the flora (0 fauna in sight). 

upon arrival, i will rarely turn down the opportunity to take a nap! (one of my super powers). at the appropriate time, we reconvened for dinner and asked the receptionist for suggestions, to which she excitedly suggested groggs. so we were off to helper, ut about 5 minutes away to check out groggs pinnacle brewing company (the view is nothing like what is shown...when i think pinnacle, i think highest point, right? nope. pretty flat and routine). and we were very excited about the spinach dip...then it arrived. the food-ok. i think jane enjoyed her salad more than i enjoyed the philly...i need to stop expecting my philly to compare to the one i had in kc so many years ago! that said, she may not have enjoyed the salad so much, had she poured the "bleu cheese dressing" all over it...mayonaise. it was a ramekin of mayo...miracle whip even...(the cooks were probably thinking..."hmm, we don't have bleu cheese, this is the closest thing we got...they'll never know!) anyhoo, they did have the coolest jugs, because the history of the place is that they used to actually be a brewery as well.

definitely a 'locals' joint! 

spinach dip? dip with spinach on it...on bread. lori said it best in a fb comment: looks legit.

great souvenirs, but i've cut back on purchasing things b/c they end up at goodwill; pics will suffice

afterward, it was too early to go back, so we explored the area of price. price seemed to be an old mining town. one of the first things that caught my eye as we drove under the quaint little bridge and around a small hill. it was a backyard that screamed "child predator!" you know, the overgrown weed-look, with a couple of old ice cream trucks (the real deal, with the music and all)...i half expected a clown to show up in the door and wave us in...then we came across this gem, which perhaps really made great shaved ice, it was just the sketchiness of where it was.

there were ample mexican restaurants in town-which was surprising, we didn't realize that there was such a presence of hispanics in this area. i wish i'd gotten a good pic of the downtown area, because it was really a great backdrop-beautiful old town feel! ancient everything. there was an original jc pennys, the theaters, it was pretty cool-here's a link if you want to see what it really looked like! once it got dark, we went back to the hotel to get our rest.

the following morning, thankfully jane was feeling better, the meds were working, and our training was a little later, so we grabbed brunch at the local diner we'd seen the night before. there was only one lady manning the entire place, which was hoppin', and mostly men. we shared breakfast foods-each getting what we needed to survive the day! then we made our drive to huntington. it was an easy little drive and once we arrived, the streets were super wide. apparently, from what i just read, the roads were designed this way back in the day to be wide enough to turn a team of oxen around.

once again, a training success, and it was fun watching aha lights, and teachers that looked like they were seeing and learning something that would be a valuable tool to them in the classroom. love it. i think they really got a lot out of the hands-on portion and working through the different segments they'd be using. in huntington, they only have half days on wednesdays due to their bus schedules. so by the time we finished, the teachers were ready to jet.

and as soon as we were done, we decided to be adventurous. we drove another 2 hours south to moab, to see the arches national park. we were very fortunate to arrive after the ticket-takers had already left for the day, so we didn't have to pay the entrance fee. but we stopped into the visitors station and purchased the national parks passport, as it is the 100th anniversary!

then we talked to the ranger, and asked her what would be easy to do in the amount of time we had before it got too dark. she pointed a couple things out on the map, and once again we were off to the races. first up, balanced rock-such neat formations! i loved teaching about the erosion and weathering with my fourth grade class, so this was fascinating to me! there were some formations that would be exhilarating to climb! then we returned to the car and headed for the arches. i didn't look at the map again to see what the lady had circled, so we went into the parking and started out on our little hike up to the delicate arch...there was some steepness, it was a pretty good little hike...there were parts i would've loved to 'trail-run', and at the time we were there, the trail itself wasn't too busy. i probably should've warned jane that i'm so used to trying to keep pace with shea and the kampers when we'd go on trip at k2, that i was used to being challenged. we did stop a couple of times to 'enjoy the scenery' (cough). at one point there was this older gentleman who appeared out of nowhere with work-type clothing, and kinda a red-flag; jane was in one area and i was on the other, and this one, he was a strange cookie. not sure if he made it or not, but it seemed like something out of 48 hours... i'm fairly certain that had i said "we're almost there" one more time, it would've been etched into jane's memory forever (i'm the we're-almost-there-gal) GO HARD OR GO HOME!! but truly, had it been easier to arrive, it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable nor enjoyable. the way it should be, the best things in life make you appreciate the journey!

the pictures speak for themselves-the majesty...

you would think that going back down would be easier, but the truth is, going down is just not great on the ankles, knees or back. it was a beating- i'd rather go uphill any day. we did arrive at the parking lot by dark and at this point, we hadn't eaten since brunch, and it was about 8:00, so we went into moab, as there was nothing on the way back to the hotel. so after getting moab, ut t-shirts (jane is starting a collection, and me, well, i needed something to wear on the way home!) afterward, we stopped at moab brewery (you'd think all they did around here was brew!) but the meal-i tried the jamaican burger, still trying to match up to the sweet/savory burger i had back in miami at kush! it was good, but not a match for kush's guava burger!!

i drove back that night, and jane kept us busy by googling to entertain us. we learned that the area was rich in uranium, there is a bacteria that makes the rocks look green, the difference between a mile and a nautical mile, and that nautical miles have something to do meridians-and to really understand this nautical mile thing, you have to go back to some geometrical understanding (not good, as the only reason i passed geometry was that ms. fasquelle probably felt sorry for me or was amused by the equations i used to somehow make connections), the etymology of the mile is roman, feet, acres, all goes back to the furlong and how far an ox can plow without resting. p.s. from now on, anyone traveling with me may now hear me referring to distances in furlongs-prepare yourselves! 

we got back to the hotel sometime after midnight. completely worth it!! i emptied my shoes out-sand from the hike, and was too tired to shower. so i woke up early the following morning to shower right before we were to take of for slc to fly out. the problem with doing this is that i had to straighten my hair, which leads to having to cool the iron down quickly enough in order to pack it up without my carry-on smoking and going up in flames. so there was this effort:

the trip home was uneventful through denver and (as always) it was great to be home again.

julie