We were greeted by a huge rainbow on our way up. Good sign.
I made Luke a travel pillow while we were in the car. Well, I cut out the fabric 5 minutes before we left and sewed all but a few inches. Then I turned it inside out, stuffed it with fluff and hand sewed it shut while we were in the car....and then I mended a tear in my new coat lining. Because I ran out of time to do both those things before we left.
PS. Turns out it's hard to do a neat blind stitch while traveling 70mph.
Madelyn wanted a picture with hers--for the pattern and tutorial I did last year, click here.
Anyway....
HAHAHA Ohhhhhh my kids. Madelyn had (finally) zonked out and Luke was being EXTREMELY loud. This picture cracks me up.
Approaching Red Canyon, UT. The way up to Bryce from Cedar is very mountain-y and wind-y and Madelyn kept getting car sick. It's only about 78 miles (2 hours) but we were so glad to reach this point because she'd been whining almost the whole time!
There's a couple of stone arches you drive through in Red Canyon. Pretty neat!
A group of mule deer. They are smart for staying so close to the national park--hunting season just started!
We finally got to Ruby's Inn, where we were staying. The Syrett family owns most of the land right next to Bryce Canyon, so they have sort of a monopoly on everything. They have this huge hotel complex, restaurants and shops. The Syretts drive down to see Mark at the clinic (long drive!!) so they've been bugging us to come up and stay there for years.
Ruby's Inn was established 90 years ago--the owners had bought the land for ranching without even realizing that the canyon was a mile down the road! Then they started inviting friends and family out to see it and started the inn.
The building where our room was had "lakeside views" and the kids were SO EXCITED because there were a ton of ducks out there! Before we did anything else, we had to go walk over for a closer look.
On our way over, we spotted a mysterious creature in the tall grass. We were a couple hundred yards away and couldn't tell what it was. Mark thought it was a black footed ferret. Turns out it was.....
dun-dun-duunnnnn!
a cat.
But it was thrilling to see one in the wild!
Hahahahahahahahha
There's a bunch of camping sites around there, and apparently you can opt to stay in a teepee. The kids thought it was awesome.
The ground got too marshy to get very close to the water, but I considered that a good thing with those kids of mine...
I had never seen ducks like these before. I just googled them, and it turns out, they're not even ducks! They're American Coots. (They look just like ducks and dive like them, but they're more closely related to cranes.)
We spent about an hour on our little excursion, just walking around and enjoying the quiet and beautiful scenery. It was very peaceful.
I thought this looked cool in sepia tone, too. Just insert your old-timey cowboys and Indians! (Although the native Paiutes around there didn't build teepees.)
When Madelyn was a toddler in NM, I used to love turning her loose in fields just to watch her explore.
Then Luke got too close to the water (of course) and fell down in the muck. Time to go back to our hotel room!
It really wasn't that bad, but he was so hysterical about his pants getting "stinky" (muddy) that he couldn't be consoled.
He wailed and carried on for most of the walk back. What was I saying about all that peace and quiet?..........Well it was nice while it lasted.
Poor kid finally crashed for his only nap of the day at 6:00pm when we went to go eat dinner.
After that, we took a dip in the big hotel pool. It was really cold. I didn't get in, but we all had a nice soak in the hot tub. Then it was back into the cold night to drive back to our building for baths and bed.
Pics of the [actual park] Bryce Canyon to come!
1 comment:
Dad and I went to Bryce a couple of years ago and went inside the lodge. I am glad you got to stay there.
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