end of summer posts

It's almost fall again. Its hard to believe since we had record breaking temps today of 96. Luckily, I love the transition seasons. I'm sad to see summer end, but also happy to break out the sweaters; enjoy the lovely 70 degree evenings; post-season baseball and football games; the normalcy of school days; camping; my annual girls trip with some old college girlfriends; and all things autumn.

Before fall officially begins, though, I feel like I need to share more memories of the quickly expiring summer . . .

Road-trip:

Guy's summer internship in California ended (finally!) and I flew to Oakland so we could take a meandering (that is Guy's word), road trip, back to Colorado. Our unintentional theme this summer, was "National Parks." We drove though eastern California to Yosemite National Park, Fresno, Bakersfield, and then on to Las Vegas. Our Yosemite visit was not memorable. We visited on the last Saturday before school started, on a National Park free-day, and didn't arrive until 3:30 p.m. It was a zoo of people and cars, and we were stuck in traffic trying to find a parking spot for almost an hour. We briefly took some pictures and decided to continue the journey to Bakersfield for the night and Vegas the next day. Luckily, the drive was beautiful.

[Yosemite NP]

In Vegas, we visited with some old friends from my Vegas-days: Adrienne and Kara, catching up easily, even though it had been a year since our last visit and almost two years since we had quality time to see each other. Guy and I stayed at the MGM, so everyone came over to swim in the pool around 10am, Adrienne and Kara both brought their kids and we had a great time. By noon, it must have been 108 degrees and everyone soon left for naptime. Guy and I stayed to enjoy the "lazy river" portion of the pool and because we only came prepared with regular sunblock"and not "waterproof" sunblock, we both had major sunburns (Guy, turned pink and had sores on his shoulders for a few days). I should have borrowed the Waterbabies SPF 70 from someone but didn't realize our mistake until it was too late. We made a stop at Trader Joe's and saw Kara's new digs in Summerlin, for a BBQ.


We stayed a couple more days in Sin-City, and tightly held on to our twenties - rather than deposit them in the slot machines. (We probably stayed a day too long since its too pricy to enjoy spa-time, or see any shows). We also shopped at "Towne Center" the outdoor shopping mall on the south strip. Outdoor shopping malls in Vegas do not make sense. It was miserable being outside in the sun and heat and we quickly retreated to Fry's Electronics and eventually the casino air-conditioning so I could recover from dehydration and we could both move without sweating uncomfortably. I also took Guy to see the Fremont Street Experience that he hadn't seen before and we danced along to the "American Pie"-lightshow, devoured crab legs at the Fremont buffet; and watched the street artists spraypaint.

After we left, we drove through St. George and Colorado City (I saw a fundamentalist with her bonnet and long-dress) and stopped at our next destination: the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was cool and rainy when we arrived. We met up with our friends, Ian and Kate, and camped with them in their tent for the night. This was by far our favorite part of the trip. The north rim was so calm and beautiful. I expected to see a great big canyon, but I didn't expect it to be so extremely beautiful and breathtaking. I would love to go back and spend 3-4 days there camping or staying in a cute cabin nearby. We didn't take any major hikes but the weather would have been perfect for a 3-5 mile hike. I urge anybody who hasn't been before to travel the long-distances to get there and relax.

[Grand Canyon NP]

We followed Ian and Kate to Zion and camped with them the next night too. We stayed in the campground by the "Watchman" and roasted marshmallows for smores. We all woke up to hike early in the morning at the park. Guy and I left for Bryce Canyon, while Ian and Kate stayed another night. All of my pictures of Bryce, from our quick visit, look like postcards.

[Zion NP]

[Bryce Canyon NP]

We continued to Torrey, Utah for some super yummy gourmet food at "Cafe Diablo" and breathtaking views from our hotel room of "Capitol Reef National Park" (my favorite, only behind the Grand Canyon and Grand Tetons).

[Capitol Reef NP]

[Ribs from Cafe Diablo]

We drove all the way home the next day, with a brief stop for jam and salsa at Capitol Reef and a two-hour stop at Cabela's. Late in the evening we arrived home to our to our new apartment in Boulder. [Stay tuned for the next installment of "adventures of moving-in together" . . . ].