Normally, we spend fall break on the beaches of San Diego. This year, partly because of COVID, we needed to have a different view, so we headed north to Utah. We go to Utah frequently, however, this time we wanted to explore places we don't normally go.
One of Stan's birthday presents this year was a National Parks senior pass. We hadn't had a chance to break it in yet, so we decided this was the perfect opportunity. Our first stop was to Moab and Arches National Park. Moab is a really cute touristy town. I think the whole town lives off of the tourists and the outdoor activities. There were ATVs, mountain bikes and RVs all over the place, and this year it was PACKED. I'm glad I made hotel reservations a few months ago. When we arrived in Moab, we ate dinner at a little brewery called The Spoke. The food here was really good and I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Moab. After dinner, we were all pretty tired after a long day of driving, so we went to the hotel. We stayed at the Springhill Suites. It's at the end of the town and is the closest hotel to the park. It's right on the Green River and is really nice, again, another recommendation if you are in town. Since we were only there for the night, we didn't enjoy all the hotel had to offer. In the morning, Stan and I took a stroll on the walking trail behind the hotel at sunrise. It was really beautiful. After our walk, we went back to get the kids up and moving so we could start our day.
We headed to Arches National Park. I was really impressed. Not unlike parts of Arizona, but the park itself was really well kept and quite a peaceful place. We were only there for a few hours, so we just drove up the main road, with some stops to explore and to take photos.
Our main destination for this trip was Park City, so we left Arches around noon and headed north again. It was an uneventful drive and we were glad to finally get to our rental. We rented a place in Park City, right behind the Olympic Ski Training Facility. It was a great location with a gorgeous view. We unpacked our things and then met my sister and her husband for dinner. It was great to see them, since they live just 40 minutes from Park City. After dinner we returned to the house and played some games and visited.
Nikki's main "to do thing" was to go to Lagoon Amusement Park. Ethan and I weren't super thrilled to go, so Stan took Nikki to Lagoon, which was fine with me because I'm usually just the bag holder, and Ethan and I went hiking with my sister and my niece and her husband.
We went up to Brighton Ski Resort. Ethan had found an "easy" trail to hike on, so we started. Only problem was, there was quite an elevation gain. The altitude got to me and it was a really difficult hike because of it. So about a third of the way up, we turned around and went down. We went a little down the road to a trail called Silver Lake, which had practically no elevation gain and was around a beautiful lake. It was really nice and I enjoyed it.
On Monday, we were all really tired from the past three days of non stop, so we just took it easy. We slept in, and hung out at the house. We did drive in to Salt Lake, visiting the U bookstore, and eating lunch at our must stop place, The Pie. The rest of the afternoon was relaxing at home, napping, reading, and watching tv.
