September 1st and 2nd
Happy Birthday Heidi! In Honor of you, we traveled South and went camping!
We decided in the afternoon on September 1st, we better go on a cool trip before Dave gets a job and may have a more complicated process to get time off.
So at 7:00 p.m. we made up our minds to leave right away. We threw everything in the car as fast as we could and were on the road by 7:30 p.m. Dave and I are just like that sometimes. Neither one of us really likes to plan very far in advance.
Since we left so late we stopped at Green River to camp. This was Lucy's first time sleeping in a tent so of course we documented it with a picture. She really loved the tent, although she didn't display that by sleeping very well in it.
Outside Arches National Park Visitor center Lucy found a friend that also had two ponies.
Our first stop along the trek, Park Avenue.
At this point, I looked at some map and thought we could hike to "Balanced Rock" from here. So we went on a hike, and luckily after only one mile we came to the road again and realized that "Balanced Rock" was miles away. I guess what they say about women reading maps might be true, at least for me. Dave hiked back and got the car for us. I was extremely impressed with Lucy, because she hiked the whole mile and absolutely refused to be carried. Even when we stopped to wait for Dave to get the car, she wanted to keep hiking.Here are some pictures of our very awesome, short hike to the road that we drove on to get to "Balanced Rock":
Lucy going under a Lucy sized arch that we found
Dave and Lucy, with "The Three Gossips" in the Background
Here is the cool rock Lucy and I ate lunch underneath, while Dave fetched the car.
After getting in the car and driving 9 miles, we finally reached "Balanced Rock." I am sure glad we didn't try to keep hiking there!Here is Dave and Lucy trying to blow "Balanced Rock" over
Pretty cool, huh?
And we don't look like we have been sweating out here or anything
Here is Lucy trying to balance her own rocks. These interested her much more than the random huge balanced rock above her head.
Ah, and here is the artist in me, capturing the real "Balanced Rock" with Lucy trying to balance her rock. I thought it was sweet.
Do you think Dave is strong enough to push it over?
Maybe with the help of Lucy he can. Lucy didn't understand what we were doing of course, but she really wanted to pretend to do whatever Daddy was doing too. I couldn't get her to line up perfectly, but she sure tried hard.
Here is one of the Window Arches. I thought it was pretty cool and worth a picture.
Here is the other Window Arch (I think).
Double Arches (This was one of my favorites!)
Dave asked some ladies, while video taping, "Where's the arches? Are they up here somewhere?" while we were standing underneath them. They were foreign and tried to explain to us that we were already there. We pretended to react as though we had no idea we were right underneath it. It was funny. Maybe if I get highly motivated sometime I will post the video.
Here is the view from up at the arch
Who's that hot silhouette?
It's me!
Here is the most famous "Delicate Arch"which is also on our license plate. We didn't hike to it because Lucy was asleep and it was supposedly a somewhat hard, 3 hour hike. Maybe next trip. It's not too bad of a shot, zoomed completely in with my camera.
After a long hot Day, we set up camp at Slide Rock campground in Moab. The campsites were pretty small and shabby, but they had a pool and that was all that mattered to Lucy. Even the freezing temperature didn't stop her. Here she is jumping in (one of her favorite pool pastimes).
Look at the love on those faces, even through chattering teeth.
What a perfect ending to a perfect day! We celebrated the evening by going to the grocery store and buying Green Machine Naked Juice, which we also discovered was one of Lucy's favorite things (as well as mine). The adventures aren't over yet! Stay tuned for Day 3 of our Arches Adventures tomorrow.
