The Princess Pat

Yeah for a roadtrip with Mike!

Well I have had the past week to recover from the craziness of the two weeks prior. Mike and I managed to pull off a last minute trip before he started radiation. I was able to move my schedule around at work to have some days off and then we were just waiting on making sure we had a car. We got rid of my beloved Honda. I am still quite attached to the car, and don't know why anyone would want anything different. But she needed some work done and so now she is in the caring hands of my cousin Chellcee and her mechanical father. So we now have a new car to drive around. It is a 2002 Nissan Altima- a good decade newer than the Honda. I feel very "hiso" driving it, and it turned out to be perfect for our road trip adventure.

I'm going to miss this car!

We left Tuesday after I got up from work. After dropping off my old car at my cousins in Heber we headed down and spent the night in Capitol Reef national park. It was quite the adventure because it was dark as we drove the road to get there and were constantly putting on the breaks because of all the animals crossing the road- deer, elk, cows. It was quite scary and I don't think we would do that again. The campsite was full and so we drove out to a campsite out in the middle of nowhere, which was also full. Since it was midnight we picked a spot in the bushes and went to bed.

Mike and I under Hickman Bridge, the short hike we did at Capitol Reef.

I had never been to Capitol Reef- it is different. The whole reason it is a park is because of a crust formation, but that is hard to see when you are actually in it. So we did a fun shorter hike to a cool natural bridge and then headed on our way. Well every since last year when on our expedition to Coyote Gulch we had wanted to stop back at the Burr Trail Grill in Boulder. While they didn't have the carrot cake we had been dreaming about, the meal was still fantastic and the food divine. If you ever find yourself in Boulder and want a delicious meal and a "cultural" experience, stop.

Well we then went on to Bryce Canyon- I hadn't been there since I was really little. It is a fun park, and I loved the hike we went on. It wasn't hard, and there were lots of cool things to look at. We ended up camping in the park that night. Thursday we woke up and drove to the East entrance to Zions. What a magnificent park. I love it there. We had planned on being able to hike through the narrows, but knew there would be a chance it would be too fast. Well, we were right. Due to the huge run off we are having this spring they had close the Narrows trailhead. So instead we completed the hike to Observation Point. It is really a beautiful hike. It is 8 miles round trip, but the 4 miles there are a pretty steep uphill climb. I think the hike would have seemed a lot easier if 1- We hadn't started at 2 pm. and 2- It was >90 degrees out. We went through all the water on the way up. That night we camped somewhere on the side of the road- not exactly a campground, but there were other campers and it was Free!

My copycat picture of my friend Sarah's at the same point. Pretty high up!

Friday I did my best to clean myself up without a shower and washed my hair using our big water bottles. We stopped in St. George for breakfast and then headed into Vegas. Mike had never been there and so we spent some time walking the strip before we could check into our hotel. We had planned our entire trip around a certificate for a free Marriott hotel stay, which expired the day after we used it. That evening we ate some delicious Indian food- well it made us kind of sick for the following days, and so I don't think it was worth it. Mike had ordered goat- it wasn't even a menu option but the waiter recommended it. Bones and all- and we were surprised we got sick... Anyways, we went to the Beatles LOVE show that night. It is a Cirque de Soleil show. We both loved it. Amazing performance and great music! We traveled home the next day and a chance to hang out by the pool and got back to Logan at 1 am.

Well- this is turning out longer than I planned. Anyways, the next week was Girls Camp. It was fun, but also so nice to have over since it was a lot of work. Originally there was going to be 6 leaders and 6 girls. We ended up with 2 leaders and 5 girls. The girls were awesome. The camp was up Logan canyon at stake property, called Camp Lomia. The weather ended up being perfect too. Mike started radiation treatment that week. It was hard not even being able to talk to him to see how he was doing since we were out of cell phone service and he had our car so I couldn't drive down the canyon to get it. He ended up feeling worse than we thought he would, but we were blessed and he has done okay!

The second years and I on our 5 mile hike.

My amazing Sis-in-law had her camp right next to mine- so glad!