Getting to know Utah

Joanna is from Utah and I am from California and Arizona. I've spent most of my life here and I think that's great.  It's wonderful to have both of our families close, and Utah is full of wonderful things to do and people to meet.  We both love to see and experience different parts of the world, but we're also grateful to live in a beautiful place like Utah.

What's funny is that after 15 years of living in Utah, I haven't done a lot of Utah things that people from around the world come to Utah to do.  We've started a Utah bucket list that includes wading in the Great Salt Lake, hiking Timpanogos, visiting the Leonardo Museum, the Hansen Planetarium, the Hill Air Force Base Museum, Monument Valley, and all of Utah's national parks.  By the end of February, I had only been to 2 of 5 of Utah's amazing national parks!  I was pretty ashamed.  Perhaps most shameful of all, I had never been to Arches National Park!  The Delicate Arch is probably the most well-known landmark of our state, and we had never seen it.  So, we decided to take a trip to Arches National Park just before beginning my full-time job.

Rich and Jen kindly agreed to watch Mason while we were gone for two and a half days, and we had SO.  MUCH.  FUN. We stayed in a cheap, but clean motel, and we hiked to the Delicate Arch on our first night.  It was a gorgeous hike!  We went at a perfect time--not too hot, not too cold, and we arrived at the Delicate Arch right in time for a spectacular sunset.  We took some pictures, and kissed under the Arch...then we ended the day by getting a burger and root beer at Moab Brewery. Well, I got a burger. Joanna got a salad (as usual).

The following day, we both tried mountain biking for the first time.  Little did I know that Joanna had previously rode on the X Games!  Seriously, though, she was awesome!  I would slow down whenever there was a narrow stretch, and she would just keep flying.  It was perfect weather, perfect scenery, and a very leisurely ride.  I was amazed how the bikes could climb up just about anything.  I was a little tentative on my first ride, but we both enjoyed it a lot.  We had delicious pizza for lunch at Zak's  We went to Slick Rock, probably the world's most famous (and difficult) mountain bike trail, but we weren't quite ready for that route quite yet.  It did give us something to look forward to :)

One of the highlights of the trip was stumbling upon a bunch of petroglyphs on our way to the Poison Spider trail.  The art on the walls of the mountains was well preserved.  Another highlight was that same evening, when we drove out a ways to gaze at the stars while enjoying a Frosty.  It was as if you could see every star in the universe that night.  It was spectacular.

We spent our final day driving around the Canyonlands.  We didn't go too far because the park is enormous, but we made it to the Grand View and Dead Horse Point.  Both offered amazing views.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  We loved just hiking and soaking up the sun.

We came back to Utah County refreshed and ready to take on the world.  Mason was glad to see us, especially his mom, who he now calls "Daddy."  I think it's pretty hilarious, but it drives Joanna nuts.  We can't help but wonder if he's doing it on purpose.

I've now visited 3 of our state's 5 national parks--only Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef are left on my list.