Minneapolis

This town is really cool. No, though the temperatures are really cold, that wasn't what I was talking about. I'm talking about how well this city does at snow removal. Not only did I see plows on the streets and those brush-things that drive up and down, brushing the snow off the sidewalks, but there were entire crews hand-shoveling sidewalks. They even went so far as to clear off the running/biking path along the Mississippi River.

I thought I was crazy to be out for a run in the temperatures we are having here, but I found that I wasn't the only one. I saw several runners out (more in the snow Monday evening than in the frigid, though sunny, noon-day Tuesday), braving the weather for a run. Though I can understand why; the alternative is the dreadmill for half the year. And there were plenty of bicyclists who brave the weather year-round. But I never had to be outside if I didn't want to. The hotel is connected to the convention center via walkway. There is a pool and a pretty nice-sized fitness room in the hotel and there are multiple eateries in the hotel and the convention center (though you end up paying for the convenience).

But if you do go out, bus stops are lighted and heated. And they come complete with signs telling you when to expect your bus. And the trail along the Mississippi River seems to go on forever. This is one cool town.

Spring Break Part 3: Ft. DeSoto County Park

While we were in central Florida with our friend, we visited Ft. DeSoto Park, located on Mullet Island (yes, that's what it's called - I think I saw the guy who it was named after) off St. Petersburg. We decided that we should come back and spend more time there, so after Sanibel, we made Ft. DeSoto our destination.  They reserved a certain number of  "walk-in" campsites, so we took advantage of that to grab a Monday-Thursday night stay.

This was perhaps the most beautiful campground I've ever stayed in.  There were plenty of waterfront campsites, but (in order to not have to move mid-week) we stayed "inland."  So our water view was across the camp road.The breeze blew in off the water, keeping the campsite pleasantly cool even though the sun really warmed things up during the day.  Perfect weather for vacation!

We were on "relax" mode - we didn't make plans to go a lot of places or do a lot of things; but then again, we didn't need to, as there was plenty to do there in the park. 

We spent our time at the beach, checking out the fishing pier (and getting cast-net fishing lessons from a 12 year old), going to the old fort, riding our bikes, and of course, going to the beach!  We went to the beach every day, and a beautiful beach it was!  Uncrowded, nice sand, lots of space for the boys to play (and dig), and a beautiful place to watch the sun set!

 

On the last night we were staying there, I woke up very early in the morning - Andrew was coughing a little - just enough to keep me awake - so I decided to go out for a run.  As I was heading out of the park, I noticed a crowd gathering by the camp office.  I thought maybe they were meeting for an excursion or something, but when I returned, I realized that they were "walk ins" waiting to register for campsites for the weekend.  There were probably 50 of them there... before 5 am!  That's dedication!

That morning I ended up going for a 10 mile run/walk along the beach trails (note: one banana isn't enough fuel for that long of a run).  The beach road was closed from dusk to dawn, and I got there pre-dawn.  I didn't think anything of it until I got to the a bridge leading toward the beach... where there were large barricades proclaiming the beach "closed."  I ran past the barricades (and hid behind when a park truck came by - the park worker was taking down the closed signs).

There's something about an early-morning run anyway - I love watching the sun rise - but on the beach without another person in sight?... fantastic.  This was one of the best vacations I've ever taken.  Certainly the most relaxing and recharging!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Our little boy is now 6 years old! He had a fantastic birthday - the grandparents came up from Kentucky to celebrate with him.

Instead of having a traditional birthday cake, which Jonathan wouldn't eat, he had strawberry/blueberry creme puffs. They were delicious!

As you might be able to tell, he loved them immensely!

Instead of getting him more toys for his birthday (his grandparents came through in the toy department with some cool Star Wars toys), we took him (and his brother, of course) to Kalahari indoor water park. This was his choice, and he had so much fun.  He was, however, not pleased with the rule that he had to try a water slide.  But he told me Thursday morning that he thought he could be brave enough to try the orange one.  We went there first with my promise that once he tried it, I wouldn't bother him about it at all during the day.

He loved it!

And went on it over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.  And tried the blue one, too, and loved it as well!  So he and Andrew kept riding and riding and riding!  They had a blast!

It was an extremely fun trip with the family - and Kalahari is a great place to visit, especially when they're doing during-the-week specials (so we get the room and two days of the water park for less than we would have paid for one day's tickets to the water park) and when the place is practically empty (which is why they're running the great deals during the week while kids are in school)!

And a good time was had by all!

Blogging From the NPC: Day 4

Any guesses how I started my final day at the NPC? If you guessed "running" you'd be almost right. Actually what I did first was sneak into the Zondervan store and update my blog. But then I ran with the runners club. I only ran 3 miles, which means I was shamed by Rudy, who ran for 45 minutes (and did stairs... and walked like a 90 year old the rest of the day).

We decided that showers would be a better idea than seminars, so we got cleaned up (and started the extreme job of packing - when you come home with a truckload of books, it makes packing into an art form). Then we went to the final main session.

Efrem Smith was our speaker again, this time for a Communion service. He also led us in some hymn singing - as an aside, this was a great moment for the tech team. Efrem started a well-known song and then we went to the second verse and stopped and asked, "Do you know the second verse?" Then he turned around and noted, "Oh, they've got it on the screen!"

Communion was wonderful.

After communion, Rudy and I went out for lunch, but shortly after lunch, my old friend Jeff Rosenberry came down from LA to hang out. It was fantastic to see Jeff; it's been way too long since our days together playing soccer and at Chapel Hill. He is definitely one of the good guys.

He and Rudy and I drove around and saw the sights, walked on the beach, saw a famous hotel (that's been in lots of movies) and ate ice cream there (it was really good, and despite the fact that it was not all that warm out, it melted and got all over the place; I felt like I was one of my boys eating it). Thankfully I had napkins, so when the ice cream got on my nose, I could wipe it off (and I did know that it was there before Jeff started whispering and giggling about it - I knew Rudy wouldn't tell me it was there; not after the time I had suffered a bloody nose and spent the afternoon in the office with crusted blood under my nose and he never said anything about it. Nope, not bitter or anything). So anyway, before I went on that tirade, I was talking about that hotel. Its picture is below.

After that, we drove around some more, talking and having a good time. We decided to check out Point Loma Nazarene University. Rudy had a friend who went there for a while, and we were there, so we drove over to visit. The campus overlooks the ocean... yeah, pretty spectacular. We drove in and there was a "guard shack" where we told the young woman, "We'd just like to visit campus."

Later Jeff (or was it Rudy?) said, "that girl is going to be really upset when we start shooting the place up." Hilarious!

We ended up parking and walking around campus.

Yes, that picture is for real. But we ran out of plutonium for the flux capacitor, and we couldn't get it up to 88 mph in this crowded parking lot.

Our tour of PLNU was uneventful; it seemed like the students knew we were coming and disappeared (or maybe they all went home for the 3 day weekend). We seem to have missed seeing Abraham Lincoln in concert (by a day), but we did see a mouse in their chapel.

I had been told that I had to try In-n-Out while I was in California, and it was certainly interesting! First of all, I guess they hadn't heard that there's an economic downturn; the place was consistently FULL (or maybe these were the people who usually would eat out at more expensive places... or they're just addicted and can't stop eating there!). By the time we left, there were people standing around waiting for tables. Lots of people.

I was thinking that In-n-Out mirrors many churches. 1. There weren't many choices. 2. There were more choices than there seemed to be, but you had to have insider information to order them. 3. They used specific insider language and terminology. 4. People regularly come back (and order the same thing) religiously. 5. You had to be a great driver to maneuver the parking lot.

By then it was time to go back to the hotel and let Jeff head back north. It was so good to catch up with him, to share fun stories, to hear how God is using him, and to just hang out with a great friend.

Blogging From the NPC: Day 3

This morning started (can you guess how?) with a run. Rudy got up and came running, so I tortured him by taking him up the hill. Then I went and met up with the Runners Club for a good 3 miler. It was a lot of fun. The morning group runs are a highlight of the convention for me.

The morning session started out with an interview with Paul Young, author of the Shack. He reinforced God's love for His Bride, the Church (refreshing after last night's downer). One very insightful comment he made was that the shack stands as a metaphor for our human soul that we don't want to live in because of the pain that it has withstood. Therefore we don't live life to the fullest and instead put up facades and live behind them. This was very helpful when thinking about some other things I've read and experienced (Chap Clark's "world beneath" from his book "Hurt" is all about young people not living in the shack).

Tommy Walker led worship again, and was fantastic once again. During worship, he asked us to high-five ten people and praise God for who He is. It sounded kind of cheesy, but we did it (if nothing else, we pastors are obedient to the worship leader!), and it was cool. In fact, the energy in the room went through the roof.

Bill Hybels was our main speaker. He was impressive because he was so humble and vulnerable. He talked about listening to God's voice - God's whisper - and obeying, and how everything he has accomplished (which is tremendous) was simply because he listened and obeyed when God whispered to him. Awesome!

We went to hear J. P. Moreland in the seminar series, and he is brilliant. He was talking about signs and wonders and the one big thing I got from his talk was that we, as humans, are supposed to do the signs and wonders that Jesus did while he was here walking around on earth... fully human. But one reason we don't is because we don't practice, and the spiritual disciplines are there for that reason. Disciplines like self-denial (fasting, serving others, praying for others) and the discipline of living a life of gratitude are important for this.

In the afternoon, we took off to see San Diego. We took the bus to Balboa Park, which was beautiful. We hit the Air and Space Museum, specifically to see the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit, which showed a lot of his inventions and artwork. It was amazing to think that he was doing this inventing around 1500!

Balboa Park was fantastically beautiful, and we enjoyed walking around and looking at stuff.

When we finally made it home (after having a little bit of a time figuring out which bus to take), we had dinner and went to the evening session. The worship (Tommy Walker again) was wonderful. Taylor Mason did some comedy, which was extremely funny (whoever thought a puppeteer could be so funny?). The main speaker was Christopher Wright, and his speaking style was very dry, and since Rudy and I both found ourselves falling asleep, we went back to the room to snooze.

When we got back to the room, I was looking at our NPC book and found that not only had my picture been used for the website (the one where I'm running), but there, on the front of the book, is a picture of me, sitting and reading a book. I'm so famous.

Blogging from the NPC: Day 1: Getting Here

Tuesday morning started early, as Barb W graciously volunteered to pick Rudy and me up at 5:00 to bring us to the airport. Of course, both of us had used our time so wisely that our 4:30 alarm clocks brought us bouncing out of our beds, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for everything (or maybe we were each up late into the night doing laundry and packing).

The flight to San Diego was uneventful; there were a lot of open seats, so we got to spread out, which was nice. We met a character named Andy who was going to Las Vegas (for his 10th time in <3 years); he was very amusing. Most amusing was his little baggie of airport-sized bottles of Jack Daniels, for which he was scolded by Nurse Diesel, the flight attendant who mostly dealt with first class. She dealt with him as if she was a teacher and he was a misbehaving high schooler. This might even go on his permanant record!

One note about US Airways; those commercials you see where the airline keeps jacking up the prices? That's definitely them (if not others). If you check a bag (one bag), that's $15. If you want snacks, that's $5. A drink? $2-7. etc. etc.

Once we got to San Diego, we got a cab to the resort. Our room is in the opposite corner from the room I had last year, which means it is closer to the convention hall AND to the food sources. Nice. When they found that we were from Ohio, everyone kept asking us if it was warmer there than here. I wouldn't know. All I know is that it feels fantastic to be in San Diego. Rudy and I are thinking that it might be prudent to move Millersport here.

Crazy Life

While prudence would dictate that we clean up our house and relax a while after hosting my whole family for Thanksgiving, real life didn't work that way.

We had heard that my brother-in-law and his family were going to move to California, but I thought it wouldn't really happen. After all, my sister-in-law has always been picking up travel and real-estate brochures wherever we go and talking about how much she'd like to live here or there, but they hadn't moved yet.

Anyway, we found out that this time they were serious, so we figured out when would be best to visit them and gave them a call... only to find that they're moving this coming Monday! We really wanted to go see them and the kids before they moved (we hadn't gotten to see their newborn little guy yet!) and to help them with the move. We know about how hard moving is - and we only have 2 kids (they've got 4, and the little guy is newborn - not exactly the easiest situation to pack, clean, and move!).

So Sunday night we headed for Chicago. Tara drove the whole way there (thanks, Mountain Dew), the boys slept, and I tried to nap.

While we were there, we helped around the house, moved boxes from the basement to the garage, played with the kids, hung out and talked with family, cleared out the (older two) kids' room, ate too much, brought the kids their Christmas presents (I know, four more things to move, but we don't see them enough to "forget" their Christmas gifts), and had a good time.

I even got to have lunch with an old friend. Doug was the junior high youth leader in Evanston under whom Tara and I started volunteering with "NUBS" (that was the name of the junior high group). It was awesome to catch up with Doug and especially to hear some success stories about how some of those squirrely junior high kids grew up (it's hard to believe...) and how several of them are in full-time ministry these days.

After a couple of full days (including the one in which I learned the tragic news: all of the Naperville area Krispie Kreme stores have closed: what made this news even worse was the fact that my sister-in-law had a coupon for a free dozen!), we made our way back to Millersport. This time Tara pretty much slept the whole way home. I didn't have to worry about nodding off (thanks, Mountain Dew), especially because Jonathan kept me occupied the whole drive.

Would you please keep my brother-in-law and his family in your prayers as they prepare for the move and as they drive across the country to their new home in California?

More Vacation!

OK, it wasn't originally planned this way. We didn't set out to have back-to-back trips like this (especially not right after the also-unplanned power outage). But back in July, when we'd originally planned (and usually taken) the trip to Michigan with Tara's family, the week we got her uncle's "cottage" was also the week when Tara was playing with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.

So, unfortunately, we had to cancel.

We thought that we would probably have to wait 'til next year (ala Chicago Cubs fans, who really believe that this is "next year"), but then we got the good news: we got the "cottage" for the last week of September!

Due to brand new baby in the house, and something about another vacation trip with sister-in-law's side of the family, Tara's brother and family didn't come up this year, so it was only us and Tara's parents. It made the house seem almost empty!

We arrived on Monday evening (what a long drive!) "early" enough to go to the beach - good enough to wind the boys down and to get a little exercise after a long car ride .

It was good to get walking along the path to the beach (Jonathan only kind-of remembered the "Michigan house" but when we started for the beach, his memory got stronger).

We did not change into swim suits or anything, which was a sure guarantee that we would end up in the water and full of sand.

You can see that the boys have their routine down: Andrew gets busy playing, running, swimming, etc. while Jonathan gets busy working. I'm not sure what kind of engineering marvel he is creating here (no, he's still set on being a fire fighter or a police officer when he grows up), but he was working hard.

Here are my in-laws: isn't this a great picture of them?

As the sun was setting, we took some pictures. It was a beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan, and once it set, we headed back up to the "cottage" to get some rest!

Vacation: Hiking at Rock House

After naps on Friday, we decided to go to Rock House for a little light hiking. I think I'll let the photos speak for themselves (after writing, what, three blog entries this evening, I'm pretty much all out of words).

We've got a couple of little boys who love to hike!

Vacation: More Around the Camp

For some reason, blogger will only allow me to post 5 pictures per post, so here are some more pictures from around the camp, including our new tent! It's roomy enough to fit all of us plus our gear with space to spare.

We dragged the tent over into the shade for naps, which worked wonders. I got back to camp from the adventurous drive to fill the gas tank (no, I wasn't rushing in a panic because I thought the gas station would run out; I was rushing out in a panic because I thought I might run out) only to find both boys sound asleep and Tara stretched across both air mattresses in the one place where there was a draft of fresh air. Not wanting to disturb them, I found the shade behind the tent... and promptly fell asleep myself!

Eating while camping out is always fun. We discovered that we really badly broke campground etiquette, however, by not bringing a tablecloth. Every other (occupied) campsite had a tablecloth. Even the RV campers next to us, who were outside a grand total of about 3.2 seconds (just enough to get out of the car and go into the RV) had a tablecloth. We did not. Didn't bother us any. Camp food always tastes better anyway.

(After the week at the beach, one of our kids told me that he likes pretzels with sand on them. Just wait until he gets to go canoeing with Grandpa, who knows how to make sand-pancakes!)

This picture really should go after the whole vacation is done, but it's an "around camp" picture, so it will go here. Don't worry; we never closed the trunk or drove like this.

Vacation: Around the Camp!

We had tried camping in a tent with the boys once - this summer at Camp Sychar. It worked out well, so we decided it would be fun to do for more than one night. Here are some pics from around the camp.

The boys loved sleeping in the tent. It was perfect sleeping weather (though a little cool for some members of the family). Jonathan kept sliding out of his sleeping bag and, try as I might, I couldn't keep him in it.

Actually, sleeping was difficult the first night. Partly because we traveled on Thursday and then pretty much went straight to bed, but mostly because it was the first night sleeping in the tent.

One of the fun parts of camping is having a campfire. It's one of the reasons that car camping has any charm over backpacking (was it Jeff Foxworthy who said that camping is a way for people who don't live in a trailor park to vacation in one?) - having a roaring campfire.

Of course, due to our expertise with the Coleman stove (we got more practice during the power outage), the only "over-the-fire" cooking we did was marshmallows. I must admit that I am an expert when it comes to the perfect fire-toasted marshmallow.

We ended up having too much wood for our fire, so I made a nice, big roaring fire.

One family member let us know that the only part of camping that he didn't like was "just sitting there" around the fire. It was "a million boring" according to him.

Vacation: Hiking!

Last week we took a vacation to the Hocking Hills (as you probably already knew if you read my last post about the Indian Run). We arrived rather late in the evening on Thursday, so there isn't much to report about that. But on Friday we went hiking. It was a lot of fun. Enjoy some pictures of our adventures!

There's nothing like going out hiking on a cool (yeah, low 50s still seems cool - let's revisit that in January) morning (reminder here: I love mornings) to remind one of God's majesty in creation.



Though I usually like people photos, I thought the beam of sunlight streaming through the canopy of trees was photo-worthy and a great way to test out the new camera.

We found walking sticks (no, not the insect kind, one of which I found on the screen of the cottage in Michigan this morning, but the dead branch kind). This is also the Ohio State vs. Michigan ("this wouldn't be wrong without sports" photo).

Of course, Andrew needed a walking stick, too, and I managed to get a picture in which he is not swinging the stick wildly. Yeah, I mostly made sure his sticks were pretty small for a reason.

Andrew in a hollow log.

Jonathan on the other end of the hollow log.

We all love hiking together. I hope you like the photos.

Now That it's Been Forever...

here's a blog entry.

This past week we had the opportunity to visit my best friend from growing up, so we went back to Kokomo for a few days. It was an insanely quick trip, but it was worth it to see the Careys.

The kids got along famously, and the adults had a great visit. It was nice to be back in Kokomo, and nothing has changed, but everything is different.

An Embarrassing revelation and a Cool Visit

It's kind of embarrassing to admit that I hadn't seen some of my relatives in as long as it's been, but it's true.

In fact, one cousin, Jeff, the creator of the "project cottage" (who has also recently become "the oldest person on facebook") is one such relative. The last time I'd seen him, his daughter was a very well-behaved 10 year old. Now she's a (just as well-behaved, I'm sure) college sophomore.

That's the background info.

Anyway, this weekend, we decided to make a trip north. As I mentioned before, my grandmother has been seeing an angel lately, and we know she's nearing the end of this particular part of her life. We really wanted to go visit her before she died.

We originally were going to go as part of our yearly trip to Michigan, but unfortunately, the week we could get the "cottage" happened to be the same week that Tara was playing in the Lancaster Festival. We were so disappointed, mostly because that's a great time we get to spend with Tara's family, but also because we were hoping to see Granny on the way back.

So we planned out a trip - it worked out really well because two of Tara's cousins are pregnant and they planned a baby shower for them this past Saturday in Chicago. That made South Bend a very convenient stop! This way I could bring the boys there and we could stay overnight while Tara went on to Chicago.

Although we didn't plan for a family reunion, that's kind of what happened. While Tara was seeing all of her family (or, at least all of the women in her family), almost everyone showed up at my Aunt's house!

First of all, Jeff (of the project cottage) came by with his family. When I was a kid, I was scared of him; he was enough bigger than me (and 3 years older) that when he made a threat, I was sure he would follow through (come to think of it, I can't remember him ever laying a hand on me; I guess he didn't need to). That coupled with my brother's mind control techniques made me quiver in fear like a fearful-quivery-scared-guy-thingy. Anyway, he's grown up and isn't scary anymore (unless you're his daughter's potential boyfriend, in which case I'm sure he would play the scary card again). In fact, it was great to see him.

Then the parade continued as my parents, my brother-in-law, and my two nephews all showed up. It was a loud, fun madhouse - poor Grandma was overstimulated! It was a great visit, and I've vowed not to let another 8 years go by without seeing that part of the family.

Let's Get a Deal... or... God is Really in Charge



A couple of years ago, Tara and I went on a wonderful pastor's retreat in Holmes County, Ohio (home of a huge Amish community). On one of our day trips through Amish country, after coming to the conclusion that though Amish furniture is highly superior, we could not realistically afford it, we stumbled upon a wonderful furniture store with really decent prices.

We didn't have the money right at that time to buy anything, but we decided we'd be back. As we moved, we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't have space for our huge office desk (especially since I won't be keeping a designated home office), and since Pastor Dennis (my replacement at NK) didn't have one, we asked him if he'd like ours. Thus we didn't move that heavy beast of a desk, but we still needed something to put our computer(s) on (instead of Tara's craft tables)! We were also looking for two bookshelves, not wanting to (but willing to) settle for the el-cheap-o pressboard kind we already have.


Thus the whole GPS fiasco of last week, where we returned without having found the store or purchasing any furniture.

Now we figured that we knew where the store had to be, so we went back on Monday, only to come to the conclusion (after an entire day of driving, getting lost, and having the only positive being that we did find the P. Graham Dunn store and that we did buy two pieces of artwork at a greatly reduced price from their sale area) that this store is Brigadoon.

When we returned home, Tara decided to check out craig's list for furniture. That very day, someone in Westerville had listed two desks, two bookshelves, and a filing cabinet, all for $400. Can you say "deal"??? So we planned to get the furniture on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, Tara reserved a rental truck so we could pick the furniture up.

Wednesday afternoon was when things started to get interesting.

After I'd come home from work, a family from church stopped by because while they were at a Christian bookstore, their eight-year-old daughter found an angel ornament with Tara's name on it, and she just had to buy it for Tara. We told them what we were doing later, and the mom said, "My husband has a truck that you could use."

Not only was it a truck, but it had an extended cab so we all could go (and not take two cars).

When we got there, we found the furniture was in excellent shape (the only thing wrong with them is that there are some scratches on the top of the desks, but that's my fault for forgetting to put a blanket between items when I loaded the truck). The couple is moving to Phoenix and selling off many of their (very nice) home furnishings. He even helped us carry the (heavy) stuff out to the truck and load it on. It all fit exactly in the truck.

We got it loaded and headed back for Millersport. Just as we arrived home, two women from church, out walking togther, passed by. They asked, "Do you want some help unloading that?" Shortly we were joined by five teenagers, all eager and willing to help us move. One of them even apologized that they were out of town when we moved in.

When they finished, they were debating whether they would go play basketball or just go for ice cream. They even refused my offer to give them some ice-cream money (I was holding money out at them and they waved it away).

The furniture was exactly what we wanted, and for a fraction of the cost.

Isn't God good?

GPS

What a fun toy GPS is. My dad gave me a GPS unit for the car, and, after learning how to use it (and suffering through some directions that had me going through fields, yards, and houses, and the occasional suggestion to drive the wrong way on a one-way street, not to mention the awful "GPS signal lost" comment), I decided to allow it to choose the way back from Amish country yesterday.

Shortly after I decided NOT to take a road clearly marked "No Outlet", we ended up on a gravel road (incidentally, a sign proclaimed it to be Ohio's first state road). We travelled approximately 20 miles on gravel, up and down appalachian foothills, all in THE WRONG DIRECTION from home. After more than an hour on small roads, we finally made it to the interstate...

...an interstate we could have reached in about 5 minutes had we just taken "common sense" directions.

The trip out took us 1 1/2 hours (incudling a wrong turn). The return trip took us 2 3/4 hours.

The moral of this story: uncheck "unpaved roads" on the GPS unit before taking trips to Amish country.

Vacation part 5, in which we do get to go Canyoneering

As I said a while back, the Zion Rock and Mountain Guides folks were really cool about repaying our money, but we didn't want repayment; we wanted to go canyoneering! They were really cool about that, too. They said, "How's tomorrow work for you?"

It worked fine; after all, "Nanny" was spending time with the boys (as an aside, we invited her to do stuff on her own and she went with us when we went out to eat and when we went to downtown St. George, but she preferred sticking around the resort, taking the boys to the park and to the pools, which were just across the street from our condo). So on Friday morning, we went back out to Zion.

We got hooked up with our guide - now, mind you, we weren't paying the big bucks just to get stuck with a tour group of strangers. This was a trip with just Tara, me, and Seth, our twenty-something guide. Once we had all our equipment (including harnesses, wetsuits, socks, canyoneering shoes, carabiners, etc), we headed out in a jeep toward Silver Reef, Utah. We turned off the main road and went down a steep gravel road (the kind that would have terrified Big Mama, even if it had been paved). After a while of bumping along this road, we found Yankee Doodle Canyon, a rather off-the-beaten-path slot canyon that apparently was pretty much unexplored until quite recently.

As neither of us had ever done this before, our guide started us out with rappelling lessons (once we had our gear on). Tara, of course, was itching to get into the canyon. The idea of putting herself at the mercy of the ropes and harness and dropping into the canyon was absolutely appealing to her (of course, she was also the one who wanted to brave the deadliest trail in the National Parks the previous day). So she got set and rappelled down the first rappel. No problemo, chief.

Then it was my turn. Though it was still cool out, I sweated enough to steam up my sunglasses. If you're a rappelling expert, you might notice that I look a little, um, stiff. But once I got the hang of it (the hang of it? haha, I crack myself up), it was actually fun.

In fact, when it came time to do the second rappell, which was something like 4 times as long as the first one, I really enjoyed it! I was disappointed to find out that these were the only two rappels we would experience in this canyoneering adventure. Once we move, I am definitely finding out where one can go rappelling in the Hocking Hills or in West Virginia. It's a blast!

This isn't to say that the adventure was done once we'd rappelled twice. There were plenty of serious down-climbs. It would go something like this: Seth (our guide) would tell us that this would be a pretty technical downclimb; that we could do it with or without ropes, so what would we like to do. Our hesitant answer would always end up being "with" rather than "without" but as soon as we would get into the climb, we'd realize that we didn't need the ropes at all.

Besides rappel #2, my favorite part of the canyon was a climb down into a pool of murky, cold water. I hardly noticed the bugs in it (Tara certainly noticed them). I didn't really even notice how bad the water smelled until I was out of it. I was prepared to be submerged, but it ended up only being chest-deep (btw, we didn't get any pictures in the wetsuits; our camera was safe in an (unneeded) dry bag). The only way to get out of the teacup-shaped hole was to imiatate a whale beaching itself. Now that's fun.

Once we'd navigated this hole, we dried out and ate some of our food. Can you believe that our little family went through four loaves of bread in one week? Then we left our stuff and went for a down-canyon walk. We were hoping to find a place to try out some rock climbing, but that didn't happen. So we went back and got our stuff for the climb out.

We roped in for safety and climbed out. I don't think Tara probably used the ropes at all; I did here and there. She's a bit more sure-footed than I am (or at least more confident while climbing). Anyway, we managed to climb out, and then it was time to head back down the gravel road toward "civilization."

We both agreed that this was a great trip and that we'd love to do canyoneering again.

Vacation part 4: St. George, Utah

When we got "home" from our hike, we set out for downtown St. George to check things out. Having looked it over, we decided to go get the kids and to hang out there. One of the climbing guides made a comment about downtown St. George not being very exciting. Now, if you were evaluating downtown St. George on its adventure sports, that could be true.

Right next to the public library, there was a large fountain, designed for kids to play in. This was a big hit for our kids; they loved climbing on the fountain, running in the water, and splashing around. It was a super hit. (also note Jonathan's versatile shoes - they work well for hiking and for water play)

After we'd been playing in the fountain for long enough, everyone was hungry, so we walked through downtown, looking for somewhere to eat. We ended up at a pretty good pizza place (it passed the parking lot test and though it wasn't crowded, it was certainly doing good business). We ate our fill and then went out for a little more exploring at which time we found this:

Yes, a real fire truck for the kids to play on! They were so excited about it! It was hard to get them away from it, even though we were well past bedtime already.

But when we got back to the library (where the car was parked), it was St. George's big Thursday night celebration, where there were bands playing, vendors selling, and big inflatable games set up for the kids. Jonathan got to ride the big slide (a little nervous about it) and jump in the moonwalk (loved it). The guy let him jump for a loooooonnnngg time.

So the verdict is: we liked downtown St. George. It is an extremely clean city and it seems to have all the benefits of a city without a lot of the downside. They have a flourishing art community, there are plenty of activities for children and families, there are lots of trails and bike paths all through the city, there are lots of parks (it's the goal of the city leadership to have a park within 1/2 mile of every resident), it is near Zion and Bryce and a plethora of state parks we never even had time to visit...

The only downside (as I see it) is it gets pretty darn hot in the summer.

Vacation part 3, in which we do not go canyoneering.





On Thursday morning, we were scheduled to take a canyoneering trip with Zion Rock and Mountain Guides. Unfortunately we forgot/didn't know that there was a time difference between Las Vegas and Zion, so we got there late and nobody was there. We were upset about that, because we didn't figure that there would be any refund (or at least that we'd lose a sizeable deposit).





Since we were already there, we decided to make the best of things and do some hiking. We picked the Angels' Landing trail, which is "not for anyone who is afraid of heights." Oops.




We had to do some serious switchbacks (called Walter's Wiggles). This trail, though steep, wasn't all that strenuous. It was a nice hike until we hit Scouts Landing.

Then, however, came the scary part. OK, it wasn't scary for Tara at all, but it was for me. As my knees grew weak and my head began to spin, I chickened out and went back to Scout's Landing. Soon Tara came back, telling me that it was another 1/2 mile to Angel's Landing. I tried going farther, but it just wasn't going to happen.
Perhaps you can see the sheer cliffs and drop-offs in the next picture. It made me light headed just looking at them.
So we headed back down.

Incidentally, when we got back to the Zion Rock and Mountain Guides store, we found that there had been a communication breakdown; they had told us to be there at 6:30 am, but they didn't expect us until 8. Because it was an honest mistake, they told us they would refund our entire cost or take us at another time. They were completely cool about it.