Summer-Fun-Packed Day

Today was an awesome Mom & kid day! We sent Dad to Scout Camp then we packed up & headed North. It was a PERFECT day for an adventure and we had a great day!!! Although I was a bit nervous (calling B with the "details" of our planned excursion just in case we never made it back home. I knew we wouldn't have cell service, and to top that, Karlee's cell was about dead and mine was only half charged...thank goodness Garet had a fully charged phone when we left!!!) Regardless, we had zero problems and saw a ton of cool stuff!

Stop One: Golden Spike National Historic Site at Promontory Point.

Stop Two: The Spiral Jetty. When I heard about the spiral jetty this last week. I KNEW I had to go see it. So...it's like this "art" thing that was created in the Great Salt Lake in 1970. (I never even knew it existed!!) Even though it's visible when the lake levels are 4195 ft or less, and today's measurement was 4196.8 ft, we went anyways. I stole this following pic so we can see what it looks like ABOVE the water...

This is what it looked like today. But we didn't care.

The CRAZY thing was the (on dirt roads) driving directions: "Drive 5.5 miles west then at the fork turn left. Immediately you will cross cattle guard #1. At the 2nd fork, turn right and go 1.3 miles until you cross cattle guard #2. Continue 1.7 miles to cattle guard #3. At cattle guard #4 and an iron pipe gate, the dirt road ends and high-clearance four-wheel drives are recommended." There were also other interesting directions, such as "you will see a white Dodge truck & trailer on the right". Needless to say we took the Rodeo. (But I forgot to mention that I left the directions on the printer & had to call B & have her give us the directions over the phone before we lost cell service and/or cell battery!) ANYWAYS... the roads had been improved this spring and although it was still dirt roads, with a few cattle guards, we breezed almost right to the spiral jetty. And this was the view en route... beautiful!

We even got to see some awesome pelicans!

We really were a bit trepidatious to walk the jetty for a couple of reasons. First, the water was red. Weird. We didn't know until after we got home that was to be expected and one of the reasons the artist chose this location. But, the second resaon we were a bit apprehensive was because of the bazillions of dead brine shrimp floating everywhere - YUK! But we put our big-girl panties on and did it!

The Rodeo as seen from the jetty.

Garet with the tops of the jetty rocks showing in the background.

We walked the entire jetty and made it to the center!!!

So when we returned to the Rodeo, we happily used our drinking water to rinse our feet & legs. It seems we'd rather die of dehydration than have this on our skin! This is a close-up of Karlee's leg showing the salt formations.

Stop Three: The Chinese Arch. This arch was formed by Lake Bonneville just a few short years ago. It is named the Chinese Arch to honor the thousands of Chinese immigrant railway workers. The kids had a blast climbing on it.

What darling kids, what awesome rock formation, what breath-taking views!

Stop Four: The Rocket Garden at ATK. It was so cool to see a rocket booster from the space shuttle. The rocket boosters are the two rocket engines that break away shortly after take-off. It was amazing to see just how big those suckers really are!

Karlee - the teeny, tiny girl standing to the right.

Stop Five: DINNER! Thank goodness we have no photographic evidence of our chow-hounding at Sizzler! Jeff - I've figured out how to get Garet to eat ALL his dinner!!! Starve him ALL DAY LONG! The kid ate a steak, endless salad bar, cheesy bread, 3 brownies, and 2 strawberry lemonades!