Summer Vacation

It has been a while since I have had a true summer vacation and after buying a house, moving, and switching jobs at work I think I deserve one this year. When Brandon and I found out that he would have nine days off at the end of August we rejoiced and started planning. We looked into India, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico. Unfortunately for one reason or another these did not work out. So instead we decided that we could have some fun in the States. We hopped on a flight to Las Vegas and spent two days gambling in Sin City. After some ups and downs we ended up basically breaking even or a little up. We really didn't gamble too much and spent a lot of time walking up and down the strip looking at all the different casinos. We got to experience Paris, Venice and New York without ever leaving Vegas! It was a great two days but that is all we could handle, so we rented a car and drove to Utah to visit Zion National Park. Brandon has been wanting to head there for over a year to hike the Narrows. When we arrived late Wednesday afternoon we headed straight to the park. To limit the impact to the environment, they no longer allow cars up the scenic route and instead have a shuttle. This is a great idea, because it is included in your park admission and it is nice not having to fight traffic. In addition, the shuttle drivers give you a great overview of the park as they are driving. We did a couple short hikes that first day since it was later in the day. And because I like to be different, I did these hikes in a dress! We were in a hurry to get to the park that we checked into our hotel and left very shortly thereafter that I did not have time to change. But I figured at least I would be comfortable and I did grab my tennis shoes. On Thursday we hiked the Narrows. For this hike our trail was the river and the water ranged from ankle to waist high (on me) for the portion that we hiked. This was an amazing hike and the walls of the canyon raising up on either side and getting narrower as we hiked deeper in was just gorgeous. I wish we had had more waterproof cameras with us, because one was not enough. This hike ended up being around 5 or 6 hours long. After this hike we drove up the canyon and did a mile hike to an overlook of the canyon. Again just breathtaking. The only thing we were disappointed with was that because of the time of day the sun made canyon very hazy and we were not able to get very good pictures. On our last day we attempted a very challenging 2.5 mile (5 mi round trip) hike. The first 2 miles of the hike was very steep switchbacks. We were wondering if we would make it in time to complete the hike we set out. But we actually made pretty good time up to Scouts Landing. The next half mile hike was to Angels Landing and was not really a trail but rocks with some chains to hold on to from time to time with shear cliffs on either side. It was a very long 0.5 miles and at some points I didn't know if we would make it as Brandon is extremely scared of heights and I am a klutz that I didn't know if we would both make it back alive. But we pushed through (and did not look down) and made it. The view was spectacular and I am so glad we did not turn back. We have some pictures of the "trail" but they do not do it justice. Then it was back down and off to Vegas to catch our flight back to Denver. Vacation over :(

Summer Vacation