Moyab

After Steve returned from the Alamo this week, we took an October trip to Moab to do a little research on what will be my latest writing project (more to come on that later). While he was gone Sunny would tell me several times a day..."Steve is going to take me to MoYab!" It was super cute.

Since I haven’t been since I was a teenager and Steve hasn’t been since before his mission when he broke a car wheel on the way there, then broke his foot as soon as they arrived but hiked all weekend anyway. We decided to give it a go for a little family road trip.

I in my usual pre-trip stress ball mode nearly killed everyone before we left, but we did leave only an hour and fifteen minutes behind schedule. We drove out of the driveway and down the street before Sunny made her first demand. A drink. Rather than fight with her over it for the 5 hour car ride I stopped at our neighbor’s house and filled up our sippy cups. Then we were off.

We hit a 20 minute traffic jam in Lindon thanks to Utah’s largest construction project. Once through there we flew down to Spanish Fork to head up Highway Six. Shortly after we got onto the highway we saw a man waving a caution flag up ahead. Then we saw a bunch of cows in the road. It turned out to be a full-on City Slickers style Cattle Drive! There must have been at least 300 head of cattle moving slowly up the side of the road with about 20 cowboys and one cow girl directing the herd. It was so exciting to see.
We rolled down the window and mooed out the windows. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

We rolled through the country until we got to Price where we ate at KFC and had a delicious $18.23 helping of Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. KFC is so overpriced, especially for what it is.

We moved through after our Lunch and continued on our drive. The kids were pretty good, but I have to say, every kid I ever knew just fell asleep on long car rides. What is defective with my kids. They are always wired on car rides. We have no snacks, no drinks (besides water) and usually no movies (this was the first time we’ve used a DVD player). And they both stayed awake the whole time (until we crossed the threshold into Arches National Park of course, then they simultaneously fell asleep).

The further south we drove the more scenic it got, and the more restless Sunny became. At one point, after her screaming out that she would never stop yelling and never say she was sorry and she wanted to go home and take a nap in her bed, I had Steve pull over in a turn out so I could open up a “can” on the littlest one who was ruining the trip for everyone.

I’m sure all the passing motorist were either laughing at me scolding a two-year-old on the side of the highway or calling the highway patrol. Either way the side-of-the-road scolding was the right message to send, because she was quiet and very obedient for the rest of the drive.

We entered into the Arches Park as our first destination. In case you were wondering, Arches park is 221 miles from our front door. Before we even paid the fee (which was only $10.00) the kids were both asleep. So we did what we could and drove through the park seeing what we could from the road, including Balanced Rock which was a marvel all on its own. We also saw Double Arch, North Window, South Window and Turret Arch. All stupendous, seriously incredible.

The kids woke up after thirty or so minutes of sleeping. Not enough time, but we’ll take whatever we could get. We drove them back up to North and South Window where it looked to be a short little jaunt to get to the arch.


Alyssa was pretty impressed with the arch, but complained a lot about the walking which is very unusual for her.
She usually really digs hiking. She has complained about her head hurting and I was afraid she was getting sick. We drug them around to three arches on our little 30 minute hike. We ended up carrying both of them for the latter half of the trip. They seemed mildly impressed, but hey they are kids, what do they know. If you introduce stuff like this too soon they’ll just think it’s normal to have red rock and arches all over the place. I’ll tell you what though…the couple we met on the trail from Singapore didn’t think the arches were all that common.


After our mini adventure, we piled back in the van and headed into town, stopping off at City Market (aka Smith’s) to pick up a few things.

Then to the Ramada to spend the night and eat our dinner which I prepared the night before. Taco meat and tortillas. It was easy and delicious and hit the spot. Best of all we didn’t have to drag our grouchy children into any kind of restaurant and buy them food they would not eat.

We settled into the room and Alyssa went into her office which was the closet that had a pocket sliding door. She re-watched the same movie she had just seen on the trip up. We kept Sunny away from her knowing she needed some space from the she-devil. While in the closet she developed a fever. Thank goodness I followed the prompting to bring the children’s Motrin. Hopefully that will take care of it and she’ll feel better tomorrow.

After 257 miles, we still have half a tank of gas. Pretty good gas mileage for an 8-passenger beast. Thank you annoying Eco engine.

Moyab Day 2
Day two started out in the worst way possible.
Sunny woke up at 12:45 am and stayed up until about 4:00 am despite my constant chiding and threats of which I made good on. She ended up being lovingly placed in the van at about 3:30 am in an effort to let Alyssa and Steve sleep. I only left her there five minutes or so and I stood guard the whole time.

Under duress she agreed to keep her big fat mouth shut and go to sleep at about 4 am. We all slept peacefully from 4:00 to 7:00 am.

We took a tour of the area with one of our former neighbors who is from here. He showed us a great many things. The first stop we made was to Matrimony Springs where we filled our jugs of natural spring water that came right out of a hole in this big rock cliff. Mitch, our guide assured us that the water was safe to drink, so Steve filled up our bottles for our day’s journey.

We traveled on and learned a lot about Moab and caught some amazing glimpses. It was a very drizzly day and there was a lot of low laying clouds. They made from some pretty dramatic views many of which we caught with our Camera.

Here is what they call the priest and the nuns, a rock formation that really looks like a priest blessing some nuns. This was in the town of Castle Valley.


Mitch took us on a three hour tour that ended back at our hotel and with Sunny the night owl asleep in her car seat at noon (a very early naptime for her—hmm I wonder why).

We stopped at the store and took turns making a quick pit stop while she slept. We also bought 99 cent ponchos so we could head back into Arches Park and do a little more hiking.

Back in the park we headed straight for the main attraction, Delicate Arch. I had never seen it before if you can believe that and I was sort of planning to make the three mile hike myself while Sunnyboo slept and Alyssa entertained herself with the DVD player. But the child woke up so we decided to make a family go of the shorter half mile hike where you can view the arch albeit from about 1000 yards away.


It was totally amazing to see it with my own eyes. I mean sure I’ve seen it a million times on my license plate, but it’s just not the same as seeing the real thing. I thought it was about the size of a large balloon arch from the 1980’s, but turns out it’s a great deal larger. Probably 100 feet tall and 120 feet wide. Crazy big.


The trail leading up to the arch was very muddy and full of senior citizens who could do nothing but complain about the trek up to the view point. The mud was annoying, but if we were doing it hauling an unruly sleep deprived angry two-year-old and her five-year-old sister, it really just wasn’t that bad of a trek.

Next we decided to take our lunch break. We specifically targeted a picnic area 8 miles away, but when we got there we decided it was too cold and wet to picnic so we folded down the back row of our van and laid out the blanket and ate inside the van.
The kids thought it was great and we had a very nice and cozy picnic. We realized here that the van door does not open from the inside and we had left our shoes just outside the back door. It was my great pleasure to crawl out of the van’s sliding door and walk on the wet pavement to retrieve the shoes and open the door.

On the agenda next was Landscape Arch. I remember the news story several years ago (1991) when a big hunk of the arch fell down. It was the largest arch by far and quite a fun little trek to get there. It was 1.2 miles round trip. Just enough to make it challenging for our crew of four. It was drizzling pretty good, so we were glad to have the ponchos to keep us dry.
We also were glad we had a kid back pack to place Sunny in since it would be too long to carry her (not that I haven’t carried her farther than that on other hikes, but still).
Turns out she liked the backpack okay. Steve carried her most of the way there before she started complaining that it wasn’t me carrying her. I claim that as a victory. I honestly don’t know why she wants me at all. Especially on this trip all I have done is threaten and scold her.

I put on the pack and we sang songs until we saw the arch.
It was pretty impressive and large!

We turned around and headed back. We got 3/4ths the way back before Sunbun demanded she be let out. Another victory that we made it that far and past the majority of the mud.

The two little girls discovered that there was a lot of fine red sand on the trail we let them play in the dirt for a good long while since we knew it would be our last stop for the day before going back to the Ramada for a nice bath.


We found an awesome sand pile and the kiddo’s had a great time frolicking in it. All the passers by enjoyed watching them play.
I believe they may have been the only two children in the entire park that day. Everyone acted so surprised to see kids there. Maybe they were from foreign countries where children are banned. Wherever it is, I wish that I too was from there. Either way our kids were very popular with the other tourists.

It was a beautiful and only slightly wet trip through the canyon walls.

We headed back to the hotel and rather than going out for dinner I had Steve visit one of the last standing Teriyaki Sticks for some yummy chicken bowls. They were delicious, but even as I am writing this, I feel disgusting inside like I have just eaten the equivalent of 5 or 6 Loft House sugar cookies. Bummer it turns out white rice covered in sugar sauce is basically chicken-chunk candy. We used to eat this stuff all the time—but I guess we were a lot fatter (and younger) then and it had no bad effect (except weight gain). They did taste good though.

Then we wrapped up the evening and put the kids to bed. There was some struggle, but within 20 minutes, they are both snoozing. Let’s hope tonight goes better than last.

MoYab day three:
Well this night went considerably better than the last. Sunny slept from 9:00 pm to 9:00 am. It was wonderful. The only interruption was a night terror by Alyssa. I defected to her bed and slept with her since there was more room and she needed some comfort. Sharing a double bed with a five year old is roomier than sharing with a full grown man.

We woke up ate, showered and dressed and set out. I mentioned to Steve that I wanted to see some petroglyphs so he spent the evening researching the best/easiest rock art to find in Moab. After we packed up the room, he navigated us there.
The first of three stops was at Moonflower Canyon.
There certainly was ancient art there, but it was mixed with a little vandalism which sort of ruined it for me.

The next stop, about a mile down the same road, was a little easier to miss and harder to find, but we managed it with Steve’s excellent directions. It was more authentic and had no vandalism. It was pretty cool.

The last site we visited was about 2 more miles down that road.
The pavement ended and we travelled up hill on a dirt road for a little ways.
We were switch backing and the only other cars on the road were landrovers and jeeps. Our mini-van is totally tough. It really was incredibly beautiful. The sheer cliffs of rock looked fake. We saw tons of bikers and atv-ers and dirt bikers.

It was a little nerve racking driving on the narrow and slightly muddy road, but according to the mileage on the directions, it would be ridiculous not to forge on. We found the big boulder with art all over it. It was certainly the best of the three. This one depicted some birthing scenes in ancient times. Apparently back then babies came out feet first.
Ouch.


It was really cool to see the art. I remember back in second grade, Mike Marshall came back from a trip with his family and bragged about seeing petroglyphs so ever since then…I have wanted to see some for myself, but I never have until today.
Just another of my dreams brought to life by my awesome husband who makes all my dreams come true.

After the adventure we stopped in at the local BK to go potty. And since we were there and we were hungry, we also picked up a hamburger, which Alyssa ate in its entirety. I think it’s the first time she had ever finished an entire hamburger.

After our lunch I started to remember the last time I was here…it was when I participated in what me and my college roomates called The Woodland Fat Camp. We went camping with a bunch of boy’s from our college apartments and ward. Boy-girl drama ensued, but we had a great time. Those Woodland boys really pulled the granola out of all us girls. I have never had a rougher camp then that. We were on the back side of Arches Park in an undesignated site out in the middle of nowhere all by ourselves. I am pretty sure the Woodland Brothers brought bows and arrows and slayed all the food we ate. Which is why we called it fat camp. We didn’t eat much on that trip, and wanting to impress the boys we never complained and did a lot of rugged hiking. I bet I lost 10 pounds on that trip.Anyway I told Steve all about that trip and we laughed and laughed.

We intended to head out and as we were driving past Arches Park. Steve said, “last chance to do the Delicate Arch hike.” Thinking about it quickly I first said “no thanks” and we passed up the park. Then I changed my mind. The weather was the nicest it had been all weekend. We had just eaten and gone to the bathroom and the kids were both in a great mood. We figured if not now, when?

So we flipped the car around and headed back into the park. We got the last parking spot in the whole lot at the trail head. We put Sunnyboo in the kid backpack and headed up the trail. It was delightful. It was cool outside, but moving up the trail and climbing kept us nice and toasty.
We didn’t even need a sweatshirt.

Alyssa proved to us how she was one tough cookie.
She made the hike 95 percent on her own two feet. Steve did carry her up the last quarter of the slick rock face part of the trail, but it was long and quite steep.


I was really excited to see the arch and make this trek. I feel like every Utahn must pay homage to the arch at some point in their life, especially if they are going to drive around with it on their license plate. I feel like I should have done this years ago and somehow I just never have.

It was 1.5 miles to the arch. We were hoping to make it there and back in under 2 hours and we were making great time, moving really fast for the brood we were traveling with. We did some pretty strenuous hiking especially with the kids, but then we turned the corner and low and behold!

It was incredible.
Of course I cried when I saw it.


It was much larger than I expected, even from what it seemed like yesterday. But the thing that surprised me the most what the grandeur and splendor of seeing in at close range. If I ever had any doubt about why this is our states’s best symbol, I don’t anymore, not that I ever really did.



Steve went into bizzaro personality once we got there. While it is true that there were sheer rock cliffs pretty much all around us, he acted like we were walking a tight rope and one wrong move meant imminent death. Poor Steve had a pretty wicked unrealistic fear of heights.

We spent 15 or so minutes there and caught some amazing photos. Just as we had gotten ready to head back this ginormous crow landed right by us. I was a little nervous that he would snatch one of my children.
I pulled out the camera again and took this fab pic.

What a great hike. I am so glad we decided to go for it. We really would have neglected an opportunity if we had missed it.
We made great time on the way back too and made our goal of getting there and back in 2 hours.

We got back into the car and headed to the visitor’s center for one last pit stop. Then back to the car for the long journey home. We considered stopping at Dead Horse Point State Park, but decided against it since it was already after 4:00 pm.
After making the trek, we decided that we probably do lead an active lifestyle. It used to be the weekends meant a trip to Taco Maker and several other out to eats. Now although those things still do occur, we sure to them a lot less and tings like this a lot more. Victory.

We made a stop in Green River since I can’t remember ever being there before.
We stopped and bought a watermelon and a few other melon related products since that is what you do when you are in Green River. We drove through the town which consisted of mostly motels, and fruit stands.

WE got back on the highway just in time to see a really intense double rainbow.
The colors were so vivid.
The camera never does it justice. It really was incredible. I think it meant something.

About 20 miles outside Price we had the great pleasure of stopping for nearly 45 minutes at the scene of what appeared to be a minor accident. What a pleasure.

Once we finally made our way through, we saw the carnage that is Highway 6, which included seeing a stretcher with a white sheet draped over it. I hope it was for just in case and that everyone will be okay. Later we found out that two people had died in that accident.

After that sobering sight, I was more than a little freaked out about traveling on the highway of death on a wet, dark night. I am always terrified about canyon drives at night after I hit a deer when I was 19 (while driving a friends car). You never drive the same after actually seeing a deer in your headlights.

I made Steve reduce our speed to between 45 and 50 to give a better reaction time WHEN we saw the deer dart in front of our car. Luckily, it never happened and the worst thing that happened is we annoyed a lot of people who wanted to drive faster.

Once out of the canyon we stopped by our friends the Davies house in SP Fork for a quick bite and to change the kids into jammies since it was approaching 10pm. We hoped the kids would be asleep when we got home.

WE enjoyed a good visit with our friends and made it home around 11 totally beat with barely enough energy to carry the semi-sleeping children into the house and unload the van. In all we drove more than 600 miles, had countless experiences, some good some annoying, but all worth it.

I highly recommend a trip to Moab and Arches Park. Stay at the Ramada. It was really nice and comfy and very affordably priced.

Déjà vu

After of fun filled day in New York the day before, I decided to do it all over again, just the same.

I woke up early turned on the Today Show and got myself TV ready while watching. Then I grabbed by trusty two-sided Utah Themed poster and headed back down to the Plaza at Rockefeller Center to be part of the Today Show…again.

This time as a special favor to my feet I just wore my running shoes. In New York City, that makes you a quitter. You can’t believe the crazy shoes the ladies of NYC are wearing. I hope there are a lot of people going into podiatry because there will be a big need in NYC soon if there isn’t a huge demand already. These ladies feet will be all but broken in a few years.

I was excited when I got there to find a smallish crowd. In just a matter of minutes I was able to worm my way to the front and was on camera right away. The morning team, Matt, Meridith, Al and Ann were all out on the plaza.

It was really fun to see Al Roker bopping around talking to the crowd and performing for the camera. Ann Curry spent the most time of any of them talking to the crowd. She’d talk to anyone, but she never got close enough to me to have a conversation. I wanted to call her out in person for being so awful to Dr. Laura last time she was on. I mean really Ann don’t displace your maternal guilt on Dr. Laura. She’s just the messenger.

Meredith had long conversations with a few in the crowd and took pictures with them, but when she was done she split quick and was inside without any hesitation.

Matt, as you might imagine was very dignified with the way he mingled with the crowd. He didn’t go out of his way to be overly friendly. Just enough crowd pleasing to be socially acceptable.

I have admired Matt for a long time. He reminds me a lot of my brother Randy. I really wanted to meet him and have a pic. Unfortunately he never came very close to where I was standing. Did I let that stop me? No. As he was making his way back into the studio I yelled out to him. “Matt, please…do you have time for just one picture?” To my surprise and complete pleasure…He stopped, turned and came over to me and actually posed.
I threw my camera to a couple girls I had met from Chicago and they snapped this awesome pic. My proudest moment of the trip to this point. Me and Matt. All my television dreams were coming true.

Also on my list of photos to nab were…Me and Lenny. If you don’t know who Lenny is, he’s a crowd member who has not missed a day standing in the crow at the TODAY show in more than 7 years. He’s practically part of the morning team. They regularly talk to him and stand near him when they introduce new segments.
He looks a little bit old on camera, but in person…he looks way older, like he is probably 85. He was so skinny and frail. He was very pleasant and was more than happy to pose for several photos with me. Nice guy. Watch for him next time you see TODAY.

Here is me and the girls I met from Chicago.
Together we were a force in chanting to the talent to get them to come to us. We got the camera guy to come pan across us and I was once more able to wave and tell my children hello from New York, this time with a microphone. It was just for a split second, but they did see and hear me.

The Chicago girls were super excited to see Selena Gomez and I tried my best to beckon her over to us so I could return the favor and get her pic with them…but no success.
She came close to us, but didn't pose. Her people kept her too tightly under control to mingle with strangers.

After all the talent went back in, I headed back to the hotel for a 10 a.m. nap (No kids). Steve came back around noon and we packed it up and headed out of our swanky mid-town hotel. Next stop was my cousin Lynette’s apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan.

We decided to take the subway since it would save us about $50 and we only had to make one transfer to get there. No biggie right?
Wrong. If you’ve ever dragged all your luggage through the subway in the middle of July, you know how big of idiots we were for attempt this. We were successful, but by the time we got to her place we were both soaking wet with sweat and starting to turn on each other. Not really, but we were very relieved to not be dragging luggage through the subway anymore. If you didn’t already know the subway is HOT in the summer. Dreadfully HOT. Unbelievably HOT.


I do have to say people continued to be so nice and helpful to me. I don’t think I carried my bag up or down the subway stairs more than once because nice gentlemen always asked if they could do it for me. Isn’t that surprising? I did put my feet on the seat in the subway once and a stranger told me I was “filthy.” I was a little surprised, but I got over it. Everyone was very nice to me. Steve on the other hand. . . at least twice he was given intentionally incorrect directions. He was also harassed by one metro card salesman.

Lynette’s place was nice and quite large for a Manhattan apartment. She was gone for the week, so the doorman let us in and we had the place to ourselves. Thankfully it was air conditioned. After our subway adventure we did what it took to cool down in her apartment. I’ll spare you the details.

After the cool down process concluded, we headed back via subway (much easier w/o luggage) back to mid-town where we ate Greek Food from a street vender.

I dare say it was the best Gyro of my life. We sat on a granite wall that surrounded a fountain and ate our lunch. We were lucky enough to be able to share it with 40 new friends, all pigeons.
They sat at our feet and ate each and every scrap that fell. As a special favor to my new bird friends, I threw pieces out for them to eat.

Next we did at a little more shopping at H&M, and then headed right over to claim our seats for tonight’s taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Since only I was able to go the night before, we went again together. I was well versed on Late Night etiquette and knew all the rules.

In an effort to not stop or stand in prohibited areas, we headed to the lower concourse of 30 Rock to wait for the show to start. While we were sitting at a food court table not eating, out walked a very causal Ann Curry. She wasn’t wearing any make-up or fancy clothes. She was just carrying a bunch of papers. No one but me recognized her. I called out to her and asked for a photo. At first she said no, but I had already thrown the camera to Steve and he was in position to snap the pic.
She reluctantly agreed to a photo. Since she was so gracious, I decided against the lecture I had prepared about being nice to Dr. Laura.

We magically appeared in the right line for the late show at just the right time and were not scolded by an NBC Paige at all this time. We got good seats for the show and the guests were very interesting. Steve Carell and Selena Gomez (she was making the NYC rounds today) The musical guest was Hale Storm who we had never heard of, but was very very impressive.

Jimmy Fallon was hilarious and the Roots were again fantastic. We decided we are big time Roots fans now and we now love everything about Philadelphia. Jimmy sang an oil spill protest song about tar balls where he warned beach goers not to swim in the ocean due to the risk of getting tar balls in your mouth. During his 3 minute song, Steve and I were featured in a three second close up shot. We had heard him sing this song twice at home and loved it. We were beyond delighted to have him sing it again live for us.

As the show concluded we felt really awesome about the experience we’d just had. Steve Carell was hilarious, Selena Gomez was great, even the band was awesome. After all the satisfaction, it got even better. Jimmy made a round of the theater and gave me a high five on his way past me. I haven’t washed my hand since.

After the show on the recommendation of my hairstylist we went to Canal Street where supposedly knock-off designer hand-bags are for sale. We got off the subway and walked up the stairs where we were met by a dead fish stench from a "fresh fish" market so bad that I instantly started dry-heaving right there on the street.

Notice the trash can in the upper right corner of this picture--trash spilling out everywhere. That's what this whole neighborhood looked and smelled like. It’s amazing how neighborhoods in NYC separated only by a half mile can be so very different. There was literally six inches of trash on the sidewalk that we had to wade through. Canal Street is China Town and Little Italy. It was very yucky.

We walked into one little shop and it looked like a regular little junk souvenir store except that all the shelves were unbelievable loaded with cheap junk from China and all the isles were full of merchandise too, about 8 feet high. There were all these little Asian shop ladies who gave us a stink eye like what are you whities doing in here, it was stinky and dirty and they hated us, so we promptly turned around and left.

Once we got there I remembered how very little I care about purses and designer handbags. They also were selling jewelry that I actually do like even though I don’t like to wear it (I just like to have it and collect it), but I expected it to be cheaper so I didn’t buy any.


We walked around not really knowing what we were supposed to be enjoying in this neighborhood until my feet got really sore.

Just at the point where my feet could take no more we found a dessert bar claiming to be America’s first Espresso bar, Ferrara’s. We sat down at a table to look at the menu. A $9 piece of cheesecake I can swing that. But wait…I just noticed the take out menu where the cheese cake was only $4.50. So we sat outside on the bench and ate what was definitely the best cheesecake of my life.
Steve had what he said was the best Tiramisu ever made. So with that it made the trip to Grossville worth it.

On the way back to the Subway Grandma called us and we talked to the girls who were getting ready for bed. No one seemed to care that much yet that we were gone. What a relief.

We rode the subway back to my cousin’s place where we stopped at the little grocery store in the corner of her building and bought a couple apples, a yogurt and 2 red peppers to eat for dinner. This may not surprise anyone, but you can’t get good produce in that city. One of the apples was rotten on the inside and the pepper was let’s just say…sub standard. It made Wal*Mart’s produce look like a farmer’s market.

We packed up one bag to take with us the next day as we made our exit from the city and entrance to upstate country. We stayed up as late as we could to try and see ourselves on TV during the Late Show, but I fell asleep too soon.