Blog Break

First off - Congrats to all my fellow A to Z'ers! Life kept me from getting around to as many blogs as I would've liked, but all those I did see were fantastic and entertaining. A great variety of themes this year.

Whew, now that A to Z is done, I'm taking a vacay.

Well, not exactly. It's final exam season in MBA-ville, so I'll be studying and prepping. But when I see you again, I'll be steps away from GRADUATION!

In the meantime, enjoy this hilarious commentary on the power of paper.

Back in a week or two.

Zion

We've reached the end! Congrats to all!

 

Let's take a collective pause to pat ourselves (and each other) on the back.

I'll keep this one short for a wrap up. If you haven't gone to Zion National Park - GO! The scenery is absolutely stunning.

My favorite memory from Zion is a specific photo shot. I waded across a stream at the bottom of a rock-hewn valley with red sandstone spires at the top and vibrant green trees along the valley floor. On the far side of the stream was a solid rock face with a perfect little picture-taking alcove. I hopped up into it and just got the coolest feeling of being in the middle of nature.

Later in the year, the river would flood and cover this area - I felt like I was getting a secret glimpse of features that would no longer exist in a few weeks.

It was a wonderful reminder of why we go on vacations - to seek wonder and adventure!

Hope you enjoyed this year's A to Z.

Yellowstone – Mom is Always Right

Everyone wants to see bison when they’re at Yellowstone, and we’d seen plenty and more by the time we pulled over the car at the site of the latest animal-gazing crowd. Still, we couldn't resist stopping to see what everyone was looking at.

Yet another herd of buffalo, lounging in a distant field across a stream.

By this point, my dad was about to pull a Clark Griswold. “Great. Buffalo. Yup, there they are. Look at that. Let’s go.”

My mom, ever the optimist, said “Hold on a minute. It looks like one is going to cross the river.”

My dad sent her a look. “C’mon. It’s not going to cross the river. These people have probably been waiting around for hours to see that happen. It’s not going to do it now just because we showed up.”

Two minutes later, it was swimming across the river.

Proof that moms really are always right.

Xcaret

Yes, it’s kind of a tourist trap eco park in Mexico, but it’s also really fun!

We went there on a cruise excursion when I was young and did cave tubing. It was pretty cool to meander through the underground rivers in the Caribbean blue waters.

Check out the park pics on Pinterest

 

http://pinterest.com/xcaretpark/underground-rivers-rios-subterraneos/ 

West, Key - Rainy Day Parasailing

Scene: Key West. Mid-summer. I’m strapped into a parasailing harness next to my friend, Ann, watching the boat below us zip across the brilliant Florida blue.

Enter: Rain. In the distance.

Me: That’s so cool. It’s raining over there. You can see the streaks in the clouds and everything.

Ann: And, look, you can see it hitting the water below. This bird’s-eye view is awesome!

Me: I know, right!…hey, wait…the awesome wall of rain seems to be getting closer…like, a lot closer…very quickly.

Ann: …uh oh.

*About this time, the boat does a 180 and our nice helpful parasail guys below start reeling us in like crazy*

Me & Ann: Faster!

Rain: Gets closer. Falls harder.

Me: Eeep, this is gonna be close…

And suddenly it’s pouring, we are (barely) back in the boat and our parasail guys are tossing us lifejackets to shield against the rain torpedoes as we high-tail it back to the docks, laughing hysterically.

It was a blast!

Virgin Islands - Runnin' on Island Time

To this day, Charlotte Amalie is one of my favorite ports. I love the beautiful landscapes, the myriad bays with that indescribable blue water only found in the Caribbean, and the view of the harbor lights at night from the hills above.

I remember my dad taking me sailing amongst the smaller rocky outcroppings and atolls near our hotel. Just an amazing experience!

One day during our trip, we discovered something else about our home-away-from-home.
Island time runs differently.

As in, slooooower.

Which is fantastic when you’re lounging on a beach, but not so much for when you’ve locked your keys in the trunk during a family vacation.

Yeah…we were staying on St. Thomas and planned to catch the ferry to St. John’s to visit Trunk Bay. It took hours to get a locksmith to open the trunk for us, which takes a special kind of skill considering the island is about 8 miles long at its widest. But we made the best of it, had some laughs amid the frustration and still caught the later ferry to St. John’s.




awonders.com

UP of Michigan - Slopes & Stories

For several years, my extended family had a tradition of going skiing in the UP of Michigan. It’s far from big powder Colorado, but I loved it.

We’d rent a cabin right on the slope, with a hot tub (woo hoo!) and just enjoy the time together. This was when my brother, cousins and I were all about 7-12, so the hills were like a winter wonderland to us.

We did jumps and skied down the narrow “unofficial” trails that wove through the woods, crashing almost as often as we managed to stay upright between the trees. We snuck out at night to sled down the newly-combed ski hills (epic!). One year, we convinced my youngest cousin the moguls were dead bodies buried beneath the snow.

Ahh, good times!