Road Trip Day 8: Zion National Park

From Stella: We woke up, had a good breakfast and we dropped off Maggie at the pet hotel for the day. Then we drove up to Zion. First we stopped at the visitor center to get the information about the Jr. Rangers Program so I could get the cool wooden badge. The other national parks I've been too have plastic badges. I did the first page of the Jr. Rangers packet and then we hopped on the shuttle. We rode up to the Emerald Pools and hiked up the beautiful trail. Even though there wasn't much rainfall, the Emerald Pools were still very pretty.

Our next shuttle stop was up at River Walk. We hiked up the trail and at the end, I took my shoes off and put my feet in the river. The water was perfect after hiking a couple miles. We hiked back and hopped back on the shuttle. We needed to stop at several places to complete more activities in my Jr. Rangers handbook. The last place we stopped was the Zion Museum. We listened to a cool speech about Zion's rocks and geology. It turned out I could get my cool wooden badge at the museum. I was sworn in by Ranger Gretchen to protect our National Parks for generations to come, and to try to get my friends to visit our National Parks too. 

After that we rode the shuttle back to the visitors center, walked back to the car, picked up Maggie from the puppy day care, headed back to the hotel and had a refreshing dip in the pool.  

From Stacey: After a busy morning, we headed out to Zion from St. George, which is about 45 minutes - an hour away. We did all fun things Stella said. The hike up to the Emerald Pools was filled with wildlife. We saw some Bambi style deer in the river drinking water as well as an elephant beetle. The pools were a little underwhelming because of the lack of rainfall. There is usually a pretty decent waterfall, from what I hear. We had more of a trickle, but it was still very pretty. We only hiked the lower pool, because of time constraints, but I would love to do the middle and upper pools too. 

We headed up to River Walk, which was nice because it was in the shade. It was starting to get warm. My goal for the day was to complete the hikes before lunch so we wouldn't be dealing with them in the heat of the day. When we got back to the shuttle it was HOT! We ate lunch at the Zion Lodge in the restaurant (the one inside with the air conditioning). The food was tasty! We did all the other very hot stops for Stella's Ranger Badge requirements. It was good though.

Lessons learned: Some of the Zion shuttle stops are more interesting than others. I want to go back! Trying to do everything in one day is exhausting! I think one big hike per day and then some re-hydration is necessary. You need to drink a lot more water than you think. It was 98° when we left. I thought I drank enough water, but I had a dehydration headache...no bueno! Get to the park early because it gets really crowded at about 10:30 am. We were there at 8:45, which was great because the Ranger Stations don't open until 8:30am. I loved the ranger talks. I would definitely go to more of those! 

This is my last blog entry, because the drive home from Zion wasn't all that interesting. It is nice to be home! I am so thankful to my parents for letting Stella and I join my dad while driving across the country. Thanks mom, for letting me take dad home early. Thanks dad for a really great trip! Memories were definitely made!

Road Trip Day 7: Fruita, CO to St. George, UT

From Stella: We got in the car and the drive was cool because we drove through different National Forests and we got to see mountains with different color layers. We stopped at a view point turn off and we found a Navajo woman selling jewelry. I bought a necklace with a dream catcher. 

We checked into the hotel and blah blah blah blah. I played on a National Parks website and then we had dinner at 5 guys and came back. We went for a night swim, which was fun. I had a shower and my mom says I need to go to bed early. Boo!

 

From Stacey: This morning we woke up bright and early to get on the road for the drive from the Colorado border to head to St. George, Utah. The initial goal was to drive to Springdale, UT but that La Quinta has had no availability for the past couple of weeks (because of it's proximity to Zion). I think this may have worked out for the best though. The hotel here is great, the nicest so far to fit the needs of our traveling circus. The jury is still out on breakfast though, so we shall see. 

We stopped for coffee at a local coffee house, Aspen Coffee, in Fruita. I love mom and pop coffee houses, they are always so much better! We got on the road and it wasn't long before we were in awe of the various rock formations in Utah. There are so many from the layers and mesa's of bright red rock, to the almost stalagmite growths of white in Fishlake National Forest. 

We got Maggie (the dog) booked for doggie day camp tomorrow, while we head off to Zion and then we checked into the hotel. We went to dinner at 5 Guys, yum. Then Stella and Papa had a nice little night swim. We are going to attempt to get to bed early for our big day tomorrow.

Road trip day 6: Denver to Fruita, CO

From Stella: The drive today was absolutely beautiful! We saw hills with bright red colors and lots of trees and ski lifts, which are pretty cool. When we got to Fruita, we dropped the cat off with the concierge because our room wasn't ready and then we went to the Colorado National Monument. I earned a Junior Ranger Badge and I'm hoping to get more at Zion to add to my collection. After that we checked into the hotel, and we went to the Dinosaur museum. It was really cool. After the museum, we went to the pool and had a quick swim before dinner. At dinner I had the best pizza I have ever eaten. It was pesto, with tomatoes, feta and a little mozerella. It was magical. Now I'm going for a night swim, come back and eat a cookie!

From Stacey: Ugh, last night was awful. After the delicious mexican food, we fell asleep a little early. Our room this time definitely wasn't the nicest, but eh, it's just a room for the night right? We had one of those rooms with the adjoining doors to a suite we had no affiliation with. These people were disgusting. I guess the waiver for being a non-smoking room means nothing, and the threat of having to pay an additional $250 cleaning charge is worthless. These people partied, yelled at each other, smoked and got loud phone calls from about midnight until 4am. My dad and I gave up and at about 5:15am we just started getting ready to head out. Breakfast at the hotel was awful. We made a stop at Starbucks. Thank you Starbucks for being the first of many wonderful things today!

We got on the road and drove through downtown Denver and into the Rocky Mountains. Stella is right, it was absolutely beautiful! I haven't driven through Colorado since the summer of 1993 and it is so much more beautiful than I remember. It starts out with the climb into 10,000+ foot level with steep hills of pine trees (not the best picture, but you get the gist:

After the steep climb, the drive down the mountain has so many different and majestic vistas, from lakes to Eagle River that follows the highway and flows into the Colorado River. There are lots of terrain changes, not all of which are obsessively shown here: 

 

Once we got into Fruita, which is just past Grand Junction and just before the Utah border, we attempted to check into our hotel, but the room wasn't ready (probably because our sleep was rudely interupted), but we were able to drop of Jojo, the cat at the hotel. We had lunch and went to Colorado National Monument, which I was attempting to tell Stella was exactly like Zion, so we wouldn't have to go there too. I probably could have gotten away with it until the wonderful park ranger told Stella that the Jr. Ranger Badge at Zion is made of wood, not plastic. Jeez. Anyways, back to the park, seriously it is amazing! If you are ever in the Grand Junction/Fruita area, I recommend just bypassing interstate 70 and taking monument road, which is much longer, but totally worth it!

After the park, we went to Dinosaur Journey Museum to see what it was all about. The museum is really great for kids. It was a quick stop for me, about 90 minutes, but if you have a dino fanatic (husband, aka Ross Geller, I'm talking to you), it could probably be a 3-4 hour event. It was worth the stop. Stella got to play paleontologist/anthropologist for a while. She had fun. 

 We had dinner at this pizza place. It came recommended from Carlos' friend Alvin. We do not argue with Alvin about food...ever. He is always right, and this is no exception! They had me when I looked at the menu and they had micro-brews. We decided to extend our stay in St George to 2 days instead of just 1 because Stella won the Zion discussion. We have decided that we are going to be indentured servants to my dad in order to repay him for this incredible adventure!

Road trip Day 5: Salina, KS to Denver, CO

From Stella: So today the drive wasn't much better than yesterday, but once we got to Denver it was fine. On the way, we stopped by the gas station to get gas, but we also got really tasty sandwiches from Quiznos. Once we got to the hotel I went swimming in the outdoor pool (yay) and made a new friend. The shower here is really weird because it's hard to get the temperature just right. We went to dinner, it was delicious. I had albondigas soup. Mmm, so good.

From Stacey: We left a little earlier than normal today for our long, 420 mile drive from the middle of nowhere Kansas, to Denver. Don't get me wrong, Salina was a cute little town, but we have an end goal here and it's getting home. As we were just starting out the drive this morning it was foggy. It was really peaceful with the fog on the plains with the wind farms. Today's agriculture consisted of corn, sorghum and sunflowers! We only crossed one state line today. I am highly sensitive to altitude. I think it comes from basically living at an altitude less than 100'. So our 4000' climb from Kansas into Denver left me exhausted. Thank you physiology class for giving me the knowledge to know why I was so freaking tired. Once we checked into the hotel, I had to take a nap! We had Mexican (real Mexican) food for dinner. We have another long day tomorrow, off to Fruita, CO. At least the drive will be pretty!

 

 

 

Road Trip Day 4: St. Louis to Salina, KS

From Stella: Today was a whole lotta nothing.We stopped for lunch in Topeka and we had realllly good panini. We saw the capital of Kansas, Topeka. Kansas isn't really flat or mountainy, it's more of rolling hills. After we got to the hotel, I got to go swimming. There was a pool noodle! Then we went to target and ate dinner at Olive Garden and it was really good.

 

From Stacey: We slept well in St. Louis! I think it was the white knuckle, high blood pressure drive through torrential rain back from Bob and Lisa's house to our hotel. We got on the road early for a long drive from St. Louis to Salina, Kansas. Nothing too exciting happened today, and only 1 new state today. We didn't get lost (yay)! Uneventful travel is sometimes a good thing. We drove and drove. As my dad so wisely said, "Kansas is miles and miles of miles and miles". I'm still confused about how an interstate can justify a toll, but who cares because the speed limit in Kansas is 75 (which means faster than 75).  Kansas is pretty but fairly flat with lots of farm-like things (corn, cows, soy, wheat). We got into the hotel, I did laundry (exciting) while Stella went for a swim. We had to find a Target or Walmart because Stella's flip-flop broke. Salina (pronounced sa-lie-nah) is the cutest little town with lots of old houses from the early 1900's and a quaint little downtown area. We explored a little and are back in the hotel, preparing for tomorrow's long drive to Denver!

Road Trip Day 3: Indiana to Illinois to St. Louis

From Stella: Short drive! Yay! We crossed the Mississippi River into St. Louis, and after running some errands and dropping off the fur babies, we went back downtown to visit the Arch the gateway to the west. With all the construction, it takes a lot of time just to get to the arch. We went underneath this tunnel which lead us to these cool bubble elevator thingies to take us to the top. When we finally got to the top, it did not feel like 630 feet up, it felt like 1000 feet! From the top you can see 2 states, Missouri and Illinois. We came back down and went to the gift shop. I bought a cool bracelet made from the old cable from the bubble elevator. 

We checked into the hotel and got settled and cleaned up to go meet up with my Maca's side of the family. Uncle Bob and Aunt Lisa and her 4 boys had us over for a tasty meal. Uncle Harold brought his granddaughter, Ashley who is about my age and we had fun playing ping pong and other stuff. We didn't get to stay too long because we had to rest up for a long drive the next day, but we had fun!

From Stacey: We woke up in Evansville, IN to find our car very clean from the flash flood style rain. I also had a decent nights rest because Jojo didn't meow and shake the door all night. Happy cat = happy Stacey! We got on the road for a short, 2.5 hour trip thru a tiny bit of Indiana and Illinois into St. Louis. Stella is right, downtown St. Louis is a MESS! Getting to the arch is a nightmare, but completely worth it. It was a great day of sight seeing and spending time with my dad and Stella. We had a really busy day and finally had diner with my mom's cousins (Bob and Harold) and their families. It was nice to catch up after not seeing everyone for so long! 

Roadtrip Day 2 - West Virginia to Kentucky then Indiana

From Stella: We ate breakfast at the hotel and I had a yummy waffle. We got on the road. The drive today was also very pretty, but different from yesterday because it was more flat. There were more horses and barns than yesterday. We stopped a couple times to get out and stretch, eat lunch and walk Maggie. For lunch we went to this really good BBQ place in Louisville, KY and I had the best beans. After lunch we went over the Ohio river several times before getting to Indiana. I had lots of time to take photos today. We just checked into the hotel. I am planning on doing some night swimming in the pool. I'll check in again tomorrow! Here is a photo I took of one of the bridge crossings today.

From Stacey: Traveling with the animals in the car is actually easier than having the animals in the hotel room. There were too many places for kitty kitty to hide in the hotel yesterday, so we kept her in the bathroom. All night long I heard meow and then a violent door shake. Poor kitty. The cat and the dog are actually friendly. So Maggie (the dog) kept licking my elbow to get me to help the other fur baby. My dad finally put the dog in the bathroom too, which worked for a couple hours until Maggie started barking. I was tired this morning. 

We left around 7:45 from Charleston, WV. We were only about 30 or 40 miles from the Kentucky border. We made our way through the rolling hills of Kentucky, which was really green and pretty. I am not used to this much green! We drove through Lexington, past Frankfort (the Capital, but we couldn't see the capital dome from the highway) and into Louisville. We ate at this place called Feast BBQ. They have 2 locations, I may have to suggest they add a 3rd location to a lazy little beach town in Southern California! Stella and I shared a shredded brisket sandwich and baked beans. Nom nom!

We got back on the road. I was convinced that Ohio was just north of Louisville. I was wrong. So after a failed attempt to go to north to Ohio, we perhaps wasted some time going over multiple bridges. It's ok, it made for some great photo ops.

We made it intentionally into Indiana for the 2nd time, because of the Ohio mishap, and drove and drove. We are starting to get very midwest out here. There is a lot of corn and I think it's soybean here. I'll start boring you with fields of corn (not fields of gold, Carlos) in a couple days.

We got into the hotel around 1:30 local time. We are staying at La Quinta chains, because they are all both dog and cat friendly. This location has many many fewer places for Jojo to hide. I don't mind a hiding cat, I mind not being able to get the cat when it's time to go. So at least Jojo is able to hang in the room with us. Hopefully, tonight will result in a much more peaceful night of sleep (ps. animals not allowed on beds here, but I didn't know until my dad told me after I took this photo)

Also, there is a flash flood advisory and some pretty sketchy weather headed our way, so I may actually some real drama to report tomorrow!