We're Back....

Sorry I was gone so long.  I was in the shower.

So where were we? Oh yeah…in the Pacific Northwest and I promised you tales of vampires and rain forests and hurricanes and I will definitely tell you all about those … someday.  But our trip was cut a bit short when my brother was visiting my place in FL and his daughter got hit by a car while they were riding mopeds... and the driver left the scene...and was never apprehended.  I flew home and Patrick drove the rest of the way but all was ultimately well and I went back to working full time and Patrick went back to waiting for warm weather. 

In the meanwhile we took a cruise to Cuba...

Got engaged...

Biked Savannah, Hilton Head, and Winter Garden, FL where we saw LOTS of these critters!

And spent Easter weekend in New Orleans so Patrick could have a beignet!

Patrick took up fly fishing... 

We got a puppy (meet Tilly, a 3 month old Havanese)...

My last child at home graduated high school and college in the same week...

and we started planning our summer itinerary.   

Since we mostly did the West Coast last year, we decided that this year we would hit the states we missed,starting in Las Vegas since Patrick had some work there.  We wanted to do Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming again, because we love them and there’s so much to see, and then meander through the Dakotas and up into Canada. Toward fall we'll head toward the East coast for the fall foliage and work our way down the coast back to Florida. Because we’re not on a time table like last year, where we needed to arrive in Alaska before the cold weather, we’re going at a much slower pace and trying to stay a few days in places that interest us.

I met Patrick in Las Vegas and we hit the road for southern Utah, since neither one of has much interest in Vegas’s gambling or bright lights.  

We made Kanab UT our base and I have to say we really like this little town.  We stayed here last year and it’s centrally located for access to Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Capital Reef, and Grand Staircase Escalante. The weather was off and on rainy and sunny but the scenery is so stunning we hardly minded.  

Patrick’s unerring ability to find a French restaurant/bakery didn’t disappoint and our first night we went to Vermillion 45, where it was so crowded the hostess told us it would be awhile.  

Of course, Patrick spotted an empty table and said “What about that one” and she said it was reserved for two women ahead of us, but if we wanted to dine with them we could ask…  You know how this ended, don’t you?  Patrick approached, made instant friends, we horned in on their table and had a delightful dinner with them.  They were from San Francisco and they spend two weeks in Kanab every year volunteering at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  We had never heard of it but we soon learned it’s a no-kill shelter dedicated to saving animals all over the US – they have about 1600 homeless animals at any given time on their huge ranch in the canyon.  We took a drive the next day to tour the facility and one of the most touching areas was “Angel’s Rest” where people can bury their pets or place a memorial wind chime for them…thousands of wind chimes hang in the trees  and when the wind blows it’s truly touching and melancholy.

This year we’re towing a Jeep Wrangler (the Mini Cooper was sacrificed to the cause) so we spent one day 4-wheeling in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument area and it was so fun.  I’m all about wild, reckless, bumpy driving, especially when it’s legal!  

And as a bonus, remnants of an old town set from the “Gunsmoke” TV show still exists and can be seen from the road.

Moqui Cave was next on our list and it's a funky, fascinating cave (or sand mine depending on who you believe) in the side of a mountain that an enterprising entrepreneur turned into a naturally air-conditioned speakeasy in the 1950's for the Hollywood people coming into the valley to make movies.  It's got fluorescent rocks, dinosaur tracks, a gorgeous bar inlaid with native stones, kitschy souvenirs, and antique photographs of the polygamous family from whom the owner descended.

The Kanab Creek Bakery is owned and run by the Vermillion 45 owners so we started each day there getting our requisite croissants and pastries.  We went so often that the cute elderly lady who did double duty as the restaurant hostess and bakery cashier started greeting and hugging us each day as if we were long lost friends. Stocked up on carbs, we took off in the Jeep for the White Pocket area of the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. It’s only accessible by 4-wheel drive and we were anxious to test our mettle. It was a wild ride through deep sand, solid rock, red dirt, hot sun, and worth every bumpy mile.

The landscape is eerie, haunting, stunning, and mind boggling.  We ate our picnic lunch gazing at what you see below and then headed back, hoping we were going in the right direction since our phone GPS pooped out in the middle of nowhere.  A red-tailed hawk flew right in front of us with his dinner of a snake hanging from his talons – no picture of that but the memory won’t be forgotten.

On another day we drove to Marble Canyon, the Cliff Dwellers, and the Glen Canyon recreation area where rafters embark down the Colorado through the Grand Canyon. It was picturesque and beautiful and another perfect site for a picnic lunch.

Memorial Day started rainy, morphed into hail, and then back to rain and wind, so it ended up being a Netflix and Chinese food day after I taught Patrick how to play Mexican Train dominoes (and mercilessly beat him).

But whether it’s rainy or sunny, hot or cold, at the end of every day Patrick always asks, “Was it a good day?”… and the answer is always “It was a perfect day.”