Moab Trip

Well, for my first blog I thought I'd share some picutres of our trip to Moab. I was very excited to get away from this yucky cold weather. I was hoping for a little bit warmer in Moab, but the forces of nature are against me! It was a little bit warmer but I think it only hit a high of 45 degrees. I need 75 people!! But at least we got to get out of doors. It was a blast of a trip--as it always is with Devin. We love vacations (meaning I love vacations so Devin has no choice)! We started off at about 9:00 Saturday morning and stopped off in Green River for lunch. I'd like to thank the Burger King ladies for taking my order as it seemed like the last thing they wanted to do on a Saturday afternoon. Once we got into Moab, we went straight into Arches National Park. If you haven't read Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, you must! It is a memoir of his about his time as a park ranger in Arches. We stopped in at the visitor center (anytime there's a bathroom near by, I must stop) and then headed out into the great world of beautiful red rock. After debating about what hike we should do, we settled on the Devils Garden hike. We'd never done that one before because it is usually quite crowded in the warmer months. It ended up being the perfect hike! It was pretty chilly out so we still had to bundle up in sweaters and hats but after a while of walking the cold started to feel good. We were able to walk through snow, which made the red rock color even more intense. We hiked to Landscape Arch. A few years back (could have been 10) part of the arch broke apart and some tourist was there to take a picture of it. What timing! Then we continued on to Double O Arch, which was about 2 miles. Some parts were quite slippery and at one point, I fell victim to the ice covered red rock. My feet swept out from under me and I landed straight on my butt. Then I procceded to slide down the side of the rock face where I was sure I would meet my death. But as soon as my hands became raw enough, I was able to slow my slippage down and realize that it wasn't a cliff I ws falling off but just a ledge that was only 10 feet down. Even so, people are known to have suffered greatly because of a mear drop off of a 10 foot ledge. So I think i was justified in my fright! After that small insidance, we continued on to Double O arch with no problems. We headed back the way we came and stopped off at two more arches that were only a short hike off of the main trail. By this time we were both pretty tired and ready to get back to the car. And I was getting a blister (walking in slippery snow allows shoes to rub in places you didn't think shoes would rub.......uh...moving on). So we got back to the car ready for dinner. We checked in to our hotel (The super duper 8) and headed to town to find a place to feed. We went to a place called Zak's wood fire pizza, and I would recommend that to anyone. I've often thought since then about going back to Moab, just for the pizza. Oh yeah, and they were showing soccer on their tvs! AFter dinner we went back to the hotel, threw on our swimming suits and braved the cold so we could get into the hot tub! Oh it felt nice. And we got it all to ourselves (ah romantic). After the hot tub we went back to the room. Now before I go on I have to explain that Devin has very very very extremely sensitive skin. So dev took a shower to wash the chlorine off of him because he felt itchy. Well, the itch would not go away. Pretty soon he was scratchign his legs and hyperventaliting. I thought he was going to pass out! He started breaking the skin he was scratching so hard. So we decided we should probably go into town to get him to something to stop the itch because we had no idea what was causing it. Well, as soon as we got outside he started feeling better. So Dr Jen and her sidekick, Devin, both decided that it was probably a mixture of chlorine and overheating of the epidermis. By the time we got back from town, I was exhausted. So I went to bed early that night. I'm a real party animal, i know. We went to Denny's for breakfast the next morning and headed back home (after debating about whether or not we should go to St. George or Las Vegas for another night). And that was our trip to Moab. Woohoo!!