Alright, I'm catching up on blogging. It's been a busy spring. Abby and I just returned from running the Moab Half Marathon in Utah. We drove out to take advantage of some time off and a much needed vacation. I guess that's part of the whole work hard, play hard strategy. At any rate, I had a lot of the trip planned out - meaning I had identified lots of opportunities along the way to take pictures. Sunrise here, sunset there, a variety of shots in between. We weren't able to pack everything in, but we sure tried! Here's a basic rundown of the trip.
Thursday - hit the road and park for a while on the LA highways while we think about how late we'll be getting into St. George. The plan is to check out sunrise in Zion National Park, and that means lots of driving. We take a quick detour down the strip while we're in Vegas. At least it was worth the look. We'll have to spend some more time here later!
We roll into St. George around 1, or midnight, or whenever. We were pretty tired. But we slept so great, and then decided we'd just hang out in the morning with my Aunt and Uncle, who have a place there.
Friday - Sleeping in was the right thing to do, definitely! We went out to breakfast with my aunt and uncle. Black Bear Diner is a great place to eat in St George if you're in the mood for good food and lots of it! It was a total bonus to the trip to be able to spend some good time catching up with family too! We still had plenty of time to get to Zion and hike a little bit of the Narrows. I love that hike, but I realized that this is the earliest in the year that I've done it and the water was both higher and colder. It's a little nerve racking hiking in that kind of water with a camera in hand, but I can't see myself getting along any other way. We enjoyed our time in Zions a little too much and had to really work to get to Moab in time. We arrived just in time to run into the expo and pick up our race numbers as they were putting everything away and cleaning up. Second bonus of the day- getting to Pasta Jay's just in time for our food to arrive and enjoy dinner with Craig and Jeremy.
It's a staple part of every half marathon in Moab, and it was great to see Jeremy and Craig. We always have a great time, and it's one of the reasons I look forward to that race. The race is great and all, but running it with friends is even better!
Saturday - I was thinking this would be a cold race, and it sure didn't turn out to be that way! In fact, the weather was great, if you ignore the 15-20 mph head wind. Honestly, I had a great race. Abby and I ran together, and I just enjoyed running with her. Plus, the scenery is great. This should be my ninth or tenth time running this race, so there's always a sense of being home and comfortable. We ran a 2:08. Not my best time for sure, but I'd felt a bit less than healthy a few weeks going in, and there was a pretty big head wind. So I was thrilled. Time for more post-canyonlands rituals - the walk through the souvenir shops to find something that could double as a finisher's medal (since they don't have any at this race), a stop by the Moab Brewery for the best onion rings I've ever had, and a short hike to Delicate Arch. We missed sunset, which was too bad, but I've been there and seen that, so we settled for a slightly after sunset version, with a walk back in the almost dark.
Sunday - I had really high hopes to photograph mesa arch in Canyonlands at sunrise. We actually did get up before dawn to make the trip and made it about 5 minutes away before it started blowing hard, then raining, then snowing. All at once. I think the winds were about 20 mph or so, and there was no way that we were even going to get a glimpse of sunrise, so we headed back, slept in, and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast.
We did end up going to Canyonlands, and while we were there it snowed a lot. We were looking over the Green River Overlook when the snow stopped and the winds picked up just enough to blow out the clouds covering the overlook. Absolutely breathtaking view! So we explored Canyonlands for the better part of the day before getting back on the road to get to Monument Valley. We made it there just before or rather at sunset. I was able to get a couple pictures before calling it a night. We'd planned on camping, but better judgement and lower temperatures prevailed. The hotel was another great call!
Monday - Lots of driving. We hiked through Antelope Canyon (both upper and lower), got stranded with a dead battery in our guide's truck, hiked up to Horseshoe Bend (see below), and then finished with sunset at the Grand Canyon. It was another crazy rush to chase the light at sunset.
Tuesday - The snow and wind cleared out. Did I mention there was a foot of snow on the ground or so at the grand canyon. Camping? Nah. Not with 10 degree temperatures, snow, and high winds. But we did get out before sunrise to freeze our little mittens off while waiting for sunrise. It was magnificent. We had the park to ourselves withe very few people there at all. We were just about parked out by around noon, so we headed back home to expensive gas and warmer weather. Ah, sweet California! So good to be home!
PS. I took a ton of pictures. The highlights will start showing up slowly on my website, which should launch in the next month or so. I'm working on a few technical issues, a server migration, and then it should go live. Stay tuned!
This post is a little late, but needed to be made. Abby and I took a week off around Labor Day and enjoyed a week on Kuaui with her parent at their timeshare. It was my first time to Hawaii, and it was amazing! Absolutely worth the wait. One of the things I love about Abby is that we share the same attitude toward travel and vacation. We had a blast traveling all over the island, sampling different places to eat, and making time to enjoy each rainbow, sunrise, and sunset. I'm not going to go over every minute of the trip, but here are the highlights (in no particular order):
