Catching Up

The first two days of our vacation, I was on track to keep up with the blog posts. I was actually planning on posting them in real time! I was so proud of myself for getting both Saturday and Sunday's blog posts up by Monday morning.

And then, just as I was getting ready to publish a blog post, our MacBook alerted me that its battery was dying. I asked Michael to grab the power adapter for me so we could plug it in. No big deal. Except when I plugged it in, the light didn't go on, indicating it was charging.

We tried again. We tried plugging it into different outlets. After several minutes of troubleshooting, we discovered that the adapter was indeed DEAD.

On vacation. Out in the middle of nowhere.

Michael called Apple and after troubleshooting a few things over the phone, they agreed that it was dead, too. They said they would replace it under warranty. Because we always use our laptop to back up our photos while we're on vacation, it was important for us to get the new adapter ASAP. So, we had Apple ship us the new adapter to our lodge in the Grand Canyon. Hilariousness.

As it turned out, we ended up at a few hotels that didn't offer internet (or wanted you to pay an arm and a leg for it), so I would've had trouble keeping up with my posts throughout the week anyway.

As a result, here I am, back from vacation, and trying to catch up. I'll be continuing to back-post our vacation recaps, so make sure to check for updates by scrolling down the page. (Assuming you read on the blog. If you read through a reader, well, the new posts should show up automatically.)

Lots and lots of pics to share, so stay tuned!

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Bryce

Another day, another early morning. Although I'm not usually a morning person, I am finding it pretty easy to get out of bed out here, given the time change. It's actually quite nice to get so much accomplished so early in the day--I wish this is how things came naturally to me at home!

Once ready, we decided to take a drive through Bryce Canyon National Park, stopping at the scenic overlooks. Bryce is located at a fairly high elevation, and because it was so early, it was quite cold out. We wanted to wait for it to warm up a bit before doing any hiking. Also, Nora needed a nap so we figured she could take a morning snooze in the car while we did our driving around.

While Nora slept in her car seat, Michael and I took turns getting out of the car to check out the views from the overlooks. Not exactly the ideal way to see the sights together, but it was one of the sacrifices we had to make while traveling with a little one!

The views were just beautiful. It was really interesting to explore Bryce and see how different it is from Zion.

As you can see in some of the photos, it was so cold at the higher elevations that there was actually still snow up there.

By the time we reached the top, Nora was awake, so we decided to get out of the car all together. At first, we planned to hike a short, easy trail up there, but soon discovered that it was completely snow covered. We didn't want to risk getting lost, so we ultimately chose to turn around and get back in the car.

We stopped at a few more scenic overlooks on the way back down toward the entrance/exit.

Once back down at the bottom, we went to our hotel to pack up and check out. We had a little something to eat, loaded up the car, and then went back into the park.

We set out to hike on a trail called Queens Garden, which is 1.8 miles round trip. The trail winds down into the canyon, then you have to turn around and backtrack back up. Although it's not very long, it was a little rough on the knees to walk all of the way down, and then it was a bit challenging to hike uphill all the way back up! It was worth it for the views, though... holy moly.

As we set out, it was time for Nora to eat, so instead of sitting in the car to feed her, I rigged her in a nursing position in the Ergo carrier and fed her as we hiked. Multitasking FTW!

Can you even tell? I don't think the people we walked past could, either. :)

Once Nora was done eating, Michael took over carrying her, and she promptly fell asleep.

End of trail--but we still had to walk all of the way back up!

Walking back up was quite tiring, but we made it. Once back at the car, it was time to head out to our next destination. To help break up the long drive from Bryce to the Grand Canyon, we planned to spend a night in Page, AZ. Still, it was a 2.5-3 hour drive, and we were eager to get it over with.

After fighting it for quite some time, Nora did eventually pass out during the last hour of driving.

Upon arrival in Page, we made a quick stop at a grocery store to replace some of our essentials, and then checked into our hotel. To our disappointment, it ended up being another kind of crappy room (a Quality Inn). Oh well... nothing we can't handle for one night.

Once unpacked, we headed out for dinner at a restaurant called Fiesta Mexicana. It was SO GOOD. Plus, they had awesome margaritas. Score!

Because we've been getting up so early, it's been easy to fall asleep fairly early, too. We're calling it another night, and we'll finish our journey to the Grand Canyon in the morning!

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Ain't No Mountain High Enough

We woke up early again this morning (thank you, jet lag), ready to see a bit more of Zion National Park. Nora woke up happy...

...but before we could even finish getting ready for the day, she was already ready for a morning nap. So, while I busied myself with photos and a couple of blog posts, she snoozed beside me...

...and meanwhile, Michael took a short walk outside. It was still REALLY early, so the sun was just starting to illuminate the mountains around us.

Of course, this was the big news of the day:

Since we're on Mountain Time in Utah, it was still relatively early here when President Obama made the announcement last night, so we were already pretty well-versed on the details.

When Nora woke up from her nap, we decided to take a short hike before check-out time. Nora helped us map it out. (She may have eaten a little paper. Whoops. Fiber, right?)

The hike was literally only half a mile (round trip!) so it was just a little walk, though steep at parts.

Our expectations were pretty low, but we were pleasantly surprised by the views when we got to the top.

After spending a little time snapping some pics, we went back to the room to pack everything up into the car and check out of the hotel. Once done, we walked to a nearby restaurant (Cafe Soleil) to have some lunch.

Full of food, we decided to drive up the mountain a ways to find another one of the moderate trails. Once inside the park, we discovered we couldn't drive ourselves the way we originally planned to go (you have to take a shuttle), and we found that the direction we had driven was actually taking us toward our next destination (Bryce Canyon National Park). Rather than head all the way back down like we had originally planned to do prior to leaving Zion completely, we changed our minds and decided to hike a trail closer to where we found ourselves--and once done, simply head out to Bryce from there!

The nearest trail was the Canyon Overlook Trail, a 1-mile trail that was narrow, steep and rocky, but had a lot of guard rails, so was still suitable for us, even though we were toting a baby!

This was a really fun hike that we enjoyed. The scenery was fantastic, the terrain was varied--it kept things interesting. We took it slow, stopping for a lot of photos on the way up.

Once again, Nora slept for part of this hike. I guess she finds the Ergo pretty comfy!

A couple of times, we came upon a few big horn sheep on the trail. We thought they were goats (yeah, so, we're city folk), but when I told a fellow hiker in passing, "You'll see some goats on the trail up there," he replied, "Goats? Or big horn sheep?" Smartass.

Look! It's Nora and Michael with a "goat"!

At the top of the trail, there is a gorgeous view of Zion Canyon:

On the way back down, we saw the big horn sheep again, except closer this time:

Pretty cool.

Once back at the car, we realized that our alternate plan worked out perfectly, because it was late afternoon and it was a fine time to start the 2-3 hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. So, we strapped Nora into the car seat and we hit the road again.

After a bit more driving through Zion, we saw this sign:

...and we were officially done with Zion. It's a beautiful park, and we hope to go back to explore more of it some day. There is too much that we just didn't have time to see.

The drive between Zion and Bryce was quite beautiful. It started off with views like this:

And as we got closer and closer to Bryce, it turned into views like this:

These sights make us excited for what we will see inside Bryce tomorrow. When we arrived here and checked into our hotel room at Ruby's Inn, it was early evening and we only had time to get dinner before it was time to get Nora to bed. So, the park awaits us in the morning!

One thing I have to say is that we are not very impressed with the town of Bryce. There is not much here... not much at all. And Ruby's Inn, our hotel, leaves much to be desired. We're not hotel snobs, but still, this is a bit outdated for our tastes. I find it hard to feel 100% comfortable in hotel rooms like this. I'm glad we're only staying for one night!

We have faith that the park will be worth the stay in the crappy room. :)

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