Seventh Anniversary Travels

Every year during fall break, Robyn and I take a short trip to celebrate our anniversary.  We take turns planning the trip, and this year I was in charge.

We decided to head into southern Utah for some outdoor festivities.  Our first stop on the way down was to Pando Forest near Fish Lake.

Pando Forest happens to be the oldest and largest living organism on the entire planet.  The entire forest consists of one Aspen tree that has spread its roots far and wide and sprouted other trees from that same root system.  Which means that every tree in the entire forest is part of one vast living organism.

We did the Doctor Creek Trail which goes right through the forest.

Sometimes I have to hug the oldest living organism on the planet.

The forest was really pretty.

Standing among the trees with the slowly falling leaves was super relaxing.  Robyn needed to do her zen pose.

After Pando Forest, the plan was to continue south and head to our cabin.  Unfortunately, we had no signal so the GPS on our phones wasn't working.  We figured we'd just start driving around the lake and hopefully find some place with a signal.  It was a super scenic drive and it was really pretty.  But it was also in the wrong direction, so we added a good hour to our drive.  Oh well, it was fun.

We got a picture of the lake out of our little drive.

Eventually, despite our detour we made it to the cabin.  It was a super cute little cabin in Duck Creek Village, Utah.

Doesn't it look so fun?

The next day we went to Zion National Park to do some hiking.

The drippy, mossy walls at Lower Emerald Pools

The waterfall coming off of the middle Emerald Pool (onto the Lower Emerald Pool)

Robyn at the Middle Emerald Pool

Posing with the mountains

It was very important for Robyn to take lots of pictures.

It was also important to do the signature Robyn pose.

As we were walking back to the car, this deer was just chilling and didn't care that we were there.  I've never been that close to a deer before.

The plan for day 3 was to go to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Unfortunately, it rained all day long.  We decided that hiking through mud didn't sound very fun.  And we thought the flash flood warnings sounded even less fun.  So we had to find things to entertain ourselves.

We found a German Bakery with delicious pastries.  It also had a carving of the Bread Spirit.  I've never heard of a bread spirit, but that sounds like the coolest ghost ever.

We did do some walking in Duck Creek Village.  It was wildernessy enough to at least feel like we got some nature in.

We did lots of reading.  Doesn't she look so smart with her reading glasses?

That evening I had planned to have hot dogs roasted over the fire for dinner.  The vision in my head was that I would make a camp fire, we would sit around it and chat while it got dark.  We'd eat our hot dogs outside and have a grand old time.

That's not quite what happened.  In the true story, I went out in the rain and built a fire.  Robyn stayed inside and yelled that it was cold.  When the fire was big enough to roast hot dogs over, she ran outside to participate in the roasting.  She roasted hers as quickly as she could and then ran back inside.

Isn't she a cute little hot dog roaster?

You should know that even though it was raining, it wasn't nearly as cold as her attire would have you believe.

This was the actual proper attire for hot dog roasting.

Despite the rain changing our plans, it was really quite a successful trip.  The most exciting part was that my sister totally made a person while we were gone.  (Well, it was really a project that she'd been working on for 9 months or so.  It wasn't all done while we were gone, but she completed the project during our trip.)

On the way back, we stopped off at the hospital to meet our new niece, Adaline.

Do you see the preciousness?

So with plenty of nature, plenty of time with my love and a precious new niece, it was a fantastic weekend.