The Big Rock and Bakery Tour

 We didn’t get enough of southern Utah last year, so we headed back to Moab to explore and drove through the Monument valley which we somehow missed last time.

It’s the perfect introduction to Moab where you will be knocked flat from the stunning landscape at every turn.  We took the jeep 4-wheeling to the Gemini Bridges – it was an excellent wild ride but upon arrival we looked around in bewilderment for the Gemini Bridges.  We knew we were in the right place, but…there was no “there” there.  We finally noticed faint green painted arrows on some of the rocks and began to pick our way across the scrubby ground until suddenly….there it was. BENEATH us.  We looked down and realized we were on top of it all along.

Dead Horse State Park was next - we had heard so much about it and it didn't disappoint.

As we were slack-jawed at the view, Patrick spotted a faint dirt road winding through the bottom of the canyon and said, “How did those people get down there?  That’s where I want to go.”

So of course the next day we set off up Kane Creek Canyon to Chicken Corners.  How did it get it’s name, you ask?  Well, its so precarious that in the narrowest parts if you’re chicken they used to let people out to walk across.

From Moab we headed to Panguitch, UT to see friends of mine in town who were there visiting their parents.  Panguitch is a beautiful little town with one stoplight that was celebrating their annual Quilt Walk by hanging actual quilts out on the street and from building windows.  In the WIND and RAIN and SUN and WEATHER.

As a quilter I only hyperventilated once or twice at the thought of the beautiful quilts being exposed to the elements.  As a city girl I wondered what prevents people from stealing them, but it was neat to see them everywhere and great to visit with my friend, Wendy.  We knew each other in Atlanta for 13 years and we solved a lot of world problems together.

 We wandered our way north, traveling through Capitol Reef National Park so we could stop at Fruita, a town with an orchard inside the park maintained by Park Rangers.  We stopped there specifically because we read they sell homemade pies made from the harvested fruit.  How did we know about this?  I’m pretty sure by now Patrick has the French equivalent of a homing device that leads him to pies, pastries, and all things sweet.  His apple pie did not disappoint.

On to SLC where we biked the Jordan River bike trail, toured Temple Square, swooned over the homemade rolls at the Lion House, and met up with one of my old college roommates for breakfast.

Patrick has learned to accept that no matter how far off the beaten path we are, there’s a 50/50 chance I know someone who lives there, so a blanket apology to all the family and friends that I’m missing as we travel around. In this case, my friend Terri and I met when we were about three years old and went through puberty, high school, and off to college together so there was no way we were leaving town without seeing her.  We caught up on 20 years worth of life and attempted to solve the world's problems but mostly we ate a Cracker Barrel breakfast and reminisced.

Patrick always wanted to see the Bonneville Salt Flats so we took a day and drove to the Great Salt Lake and on to the flats.  Unfortunately, Utah has had an unprecedented amount of rain and the flats were still flat,…but covered in water.

We managed to get some fun pics.

And also an odd pic.  These kind of pictures always distress me because I wear myself out wondering a) how did they not notice they didn't have shoes? and b) what did they do when they finally realized they were shoeless?

We lost our flipping minds going to Kneader’s Bakery several times a day  to get ALL the croissants and baguettes and pastries galore!

We then headed for Steamboat Springs, Colorado and fell in love with the little town.

We hiked up to Fish Creek Waterfall

Biked the Yampa River trail that was one of the nicest bike paths we've ever been on - it wound along the river, through the Botanical Gardens where they had this adorable fairy garden, and every view was gorgeous.

And then we stared at each other in shock when Patrick dropped his iPhone in the river while taking pictures of kayakers battling the rapids.  (Actual picture below taken SECONDS before he ceremoniously donated his phone to the river gods.)

We spent the rest of the day finding a phone store and iPhone. I wisely chose not to memorialize this process in photos and we will never speak of it again.

We built some campfires and had a cutthroat marshmallow roasting/s'mores competition, of which there should be no doubt about who won.

Most importantly, Patrick bought a cowboy hat that  makes him look like a movie star. We're pretty sure this makes us honorary Coloradans.

However, Steamboat Springs looked like this up in the mountains:

So after hitting the "Smell That Bread" bakery for emergency croissants (and where I found my new life motto), we headed for warmer weather.

In Alamosa, CO we stayed at a Farm Brewery and met the cool folks who decided to save their farm by converting it to a brewery.

We enjoyed the tour, their hospitality and the wide open vistas.

Then we continued south to Taos, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque, NM where no one (least of all Patrick) should be surprised that I have family to visit. My uncle Jimmy, a highly decorated Marine veteran, and his lovely wife Teresa went to dinner with us and we thoroughly enjoyed catching up on their lives.

If it seems like we're going in circles, you're right...and our GPS tracker confirms it.

We started in Las Vegas, went north, then east, then north, then south, etc.

And the thing is...we're ok with that.  We have a loose idea that we'd like to come down the Eastern seaboard in the fall to view the foliage, but other than that we're just following our feet and warm weather.  Patrick is from France and we've often talked about going back there to visit and someday we will, but we are both constantly amazed as the beauty of this country we live in and how much of it there is to explore and appreciate.

So for now....it's big rocks and bakeries and views like this one that keep us happily wandering in circles.