Great Salt Lake & Medicine Bow

It's really difficult to find the Great Salt Lake. The only directions we could find were in a guide brochure at our hotel in Salt Lake City, and they were wrong. They said to get off at exit 335, when 332 is the correct exit. I just assumed that surely there would be signs telling us where to get off the highway—no directions needed. ...I thought.

Without signs, and carrying incorrect directions, we still managed to wind our way around neighborhoods till we came to the entrance. Phew. The park ranger who we paid to get in said it happens every day, and apologized. Strange.

Looking at these photos, would you say it was worth the effort though? Ohhh, yeaaa. Wow.

Fish can't live in the Great Salt Lake, but it's full of tiny brine shrimp that the birds love to eat. The girls spent half the day scooping brine shrimp up into their cupped hands, looking at them, and then scooping up more.

It was so shallow that we had to walk out very far to sit down in a foot of water. Perfect for little ones.

Since I already posted photos of our last day, at the awesome Salt Lake City Library, on The Spunky Coconut, I'll skip ahead now to day one of our drive home.

Shortly after passing Rawlins, Wyoming on I-80, we saw a sign for a scenic route and took it. Scenic route 130 took us to Saratoga, Wyoming—a really cute little place. Just past the town of Saratoga we saw these little cabins, and decided to spend the night there.

The cabins were on the edge of Medicine Bow National Forest. In the morning we had some Fiona's GF strawberry quinoa cereal and almond milk, then got back into the minivan.

Medicine Bow National Forest...

There was still lots of snow up there, even in the summer. It was beautiful. I've never seen light steel grey rock cliffs like that before. There were also several lakes and streams all along the road.

We drove through Medicine Bow on 130 E, which took us to Centennial and then Laramie, where we got onto 287 S.

287 S took us into Colorado to Fort Collins, where I took I-25 the rest of the way home to Longmont. From Fort Collins we were were home in no time, got the car unpacked, and had laundry in the washing machine before dinner. It was nice to be home in the afternoon rather than late in the evening.

Today was our first full day back, and although we love to travel, we are so happy to be home :-)

Love, Kelly

Gateway splash ground today

I'm going to put a bunch of photos here and on The Spunky Coconut, but first I wanted to get this little video clip up to show you :-) Here is Zoe prancing around the Gateway splash ground, here in Salt Lake City.

Colorodo through Wyoming

Yesterday we headed up 287 N. through Ft. Collins, CO and on into Wyoming. It was so green. Crazy blue skies, perfect clouds, bright sunshine.

I've never seen so many medical marijuana shops. We must have passed at least 4 before we reached Wyoming. And then there was nothing but wide open space when we got on to Route 80 in Wyoming.

American flags on hilltops, on billboards, at truck stops.

Tractors, 18 wheelers, not a lot of cars. The speed limit is 75 miles per hour.

Then we arrived at the park where we planned to camp... It was dangerously windy.

But incredibly beautiful.

We tried to decide if it was too risky to stay and camp. The wind was blowing so hard one of our tent poles snapped as we tried to put up the tent. Andy and I looked at the rain clouds and lightening in the distance... It was coming our way.

So we got in the van and drove back to the main road, Route 80. The rain was pouring down by then, and we had to drive below the speed limit because of the strong wind. We contemplated going straight to Salt Lake City, figuring it was only a few more hours, but were enticed by some Little America Hotel billboards.

The hotel was a great deal: 2 bedrooms, one king, one queen, fairly large, very clean, only $79 for the night. We did something we never do at home... watch TV. At home we don't even have TV. After a couple of Bobby Flay Throwdown's, it was time for us to throwdown and go to sleep.

This morning Ashley woke up early: 6:00 AM. We were on the road around 8:00. Wyoming is the perfect place for these wind turbines. They make my heart happy. We passed about a hundred of them on the way here, in Evanston, Wyoming, at Main Street Artisans Cafe and Gallery.

Time to publish this and get back on the road. Next stop, Salt Lake City. We've never been there and we're super excited. Woohoo!

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, our last day here.

This has been such an educational trip for us all. In Santa Fe we visited the Folk Art Museum. The 7 hour drive to Santa Fe was worth it, just for that museum. I was like a kid in a candy store in there. Of course, there was much more than just the Folk Art Museum to love about Santa Fe, but wow. I can't wait to go to that museum again.

In Tucson we went to the Botanical Gardens, and today, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Both were sensational. The Desert Museum (for short) was also home to all kinds of native animals: mountain lion, Mexican wolves, owls, gila monster, rattle snakes, humming birds and more. I can't wait to return to Tucson again as well.

Click to see a photo larger.

Hanging out, and taking it easy

in Tucson

Visiting Tucson

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The view from our hotel in Tucson.

At the University of Arizona, where I attended one semester in college.

University Blvd. It was crazy seeing it and the school again, 11 years later.

The rest are of the Botanical Gardens, where the girls and I spent most of the day, while Andy attended the PubWest conference.

Breckenridge weekend trip

Friday night we were eating dinner when I said to Andy, "Lets go away this weekend." Without missing a beat, Andy replied, "Alright. Where?" Twenty minutes later we had looked online, and decided to visit Breckenridge. I can't believe we've been here almost 2 years, and never been to Breckenridge, until now.

This may be my favorite picture of Zoe -ever! She's standing in front of some poppies at a park in downtown Breckenridge. We brought gluten-free bread, almond butter and jelly with us to Breckenridge, and had picnic sandwiches for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. -A great way to save money.

This restaurant had the most petunias I have EVER seen in one place. We didn't eat there, we just admired the flowers :-)

Zoe took this one of Andy and I.

As much as I love camping, we decided to treat ourselves to a lodge Saturday night in Breckenridge. It recently changed ownership, and needs just a little TLC, so it was a great deal. Check out the view from our room!

I loved the shutters, wicker and wood beams in the ceiling.

Another view from our room.

On one of the decks.

Gluten-free dinner at Mi Casa. The girls and I shared salads and Andy got fajitas with corn tortillas. The complimentary salsas were some of the best I've ever tasted.

Outside on our patio this morning. It was so chilly! But awesome!

Cherry taking a short break from her busy day.

We played Monopoly in the lobby Saturday night, and this morning we read books there.

It was so beautiful, and so cozy, we never wanted to leave! I hope they keep the lobby exactly the way it is!