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Girls' Getaway Extraordinaire

I'm back here in the lovely, cold and rainy Pacific Northwest.  We arrived shortly after the middle of April in order to welcome our first grandson.  You might remember seeing some baby knitting that I did over the last few months.  That will have to suffice because, following parents' orders, we aren't allowed to post photos of the little guy on social media.  He's well, growing fast, and I've seen him wearing a hat or two that I made.

Now to the adventure part of the story.  I don't remember if I've blogged about all the trips my sister and I have taken to our favorite spa in St. George, UT, but I think I wrote about our last trip three years ago.  We go on major birthdays, and this time it was one of hers.  To make this time even more special, The Princess came with us for the first three nights.  The spa is great; we always stay a week and get the package that includes hiking, exercise classes, meals, and one spa treatment a day.  I'm not a true outdoorsy person; I like to go on a hike if I have a massage and feather bed waiting for me at the end of the trail.  Definitely not a tent.

We had awesome hiking guides, as always, and met some other nice people.  The scenery in the high desert of Utah is spectacular and I never tire of it.

The first night we arrived was cool and rainy so we dug out the long pants for the next morning's hike.  Luckily the sun came out and it was beautiful.  As always click on a photo to enlarge it.




 We went into a slot canyon and took a glamour shot of The Princess (not difficult to do at anytime) before it got too narrow and claustrophobic.

The second day involved some waterfalls and a little bit of rock climbing.  Real rock climbing isn't on my bucket list.





The next day we climbed up to a cave and actually did climb up the side of the hill to it, due to a slightly unorthodox route taken by the guide in the lead.  That was the day I learned what would happen if I gave my phone to one of the guides (Hi, Kim!) and asked him to take photos.






 Sadly, The Princess had to head home and we carried on without her.




It had been rainy in the desert and the flowers were extra beautiful.

My sister's birthday was a beautiful day.  We saw some lava caves on our hike that day and also a location where a scene from Butch Cassidy had been filmed.  We thank Kim for his wealth of cultural knowledge!






This was a hike we hadn't been on before.  We walked through lots of loose sand in a pine forest and then came out at this spectacular overlook.  The guides like to do some shenanigans up here.






We had time to hike before leaving for the airport on our last day.  The weather looked threatening but rain held off until we were safely back and on our way to Vegas for the flight.  This is head trail guide Mark illustrating why they call this the surfboard rock.






We tried a couple of different classes this time.  Mark gave us a quick intro to slacklining.  He set up a line just a couple of feet off the ground with ropes for us to hold.  It was fun trying to be calm enough to balance and move around.


We also gave TRX a try.  Interesting, that's all I'll say.



Never fear, I had some knitting with me.  I finished this handspun sock and the colors matched one of the rose bushes pretty well.


And, since I'm allowed to post granddog photos, here's our girl Olive with her new little brother, Yoda.  We had a nice visit with them before we drove to the spa.  



Back to knitting and spinning here, so there will be more to post shortly.  


Comments

SS said…
You would think the favorite child would get invited ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A :-) said…
Looks like it was a great trip!!

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