1-year Anniv Utah - Day 4

Day 4 started off in Green River, Utah.  We ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and got on the road.  We had a nice morning drive into Moab and went straight into Arches National Park entrance @10am.  We made a quick stop at the Visitors Center to catch the Welcome Video, bought a patch, and then headed to the sites.

Our first stop was The Windows section, which includes the famous Double Arch.  From there we headed to Devils Garden, which includes the record-breaking Landscape Arch (almost 300 feet wide!).  The weather was warm and the sun was killer.  Before starting the Delicate Arch hike, we headed into Moab to check into our hotel and catch some AC.  We then headed back into the park and started the Delicate Arch sunset hike @~530pm, and man, the exposed hike was still super hot!  We arrived a large group of people, all watching the shadows creep up on the famous arch.

We wanted to stay at Delicate Arch for hours, but headed back down in time to beat the daylight.  Just as we were heading into Moab, the moon popped up behind the mountain range and provided a jaw-dropping view.  We snapped a quick photo, then headed into town to grab some grub at the Moab Brewery.  We filled our bellies, then headed back to the hotel for some sleep.

Arches National Park - Drive into The Windows section

Arches NP - Double Arch

Arches NP - Nadine overlooking Devils Garden (Landscape Arch in upper right)

Arches NP - Delicate Arch at sunset (looking East)

Arches NP - Delicate Arch at sunset (looking West)

Arches NP - Full Moon rise over the Moab city

1-year Anniv Utah - Day 3

We woke up to a chill and a frosty windshield!  We also woke up a little more sore and decided to get breakfast at the Bryce Canyon Pines Restaurant.  The omelets and hot chocolates warmed us up as we headed all the way into the park, and reached almost 10,000 feet elevation!

We spent the morning driving along the scenic route, and stopping for photos.  Our favorite spot was Inspiration point where the view of the Hoodoos was amazing.  From there we headed to Navajo Trail and hiked down into the park.  We passed right along the hoodoo structures and felt tiny among the giant rock formulations.  We got to end of the trail in the valley and raindrops started to fail.  We headed back up, knowing also that we had a long afternoon of driving.

We left Bryce dodging downpours and headed into Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  This park is HUGE, so we stopped at a visitor center and grabbed a map.  We only had planned for a view hours, so we first headed to Grosvenors Arch.  It took some dirt roads and a small river crossing to finally make it.  It was a short walk to the Arch, and grabbed a nice photo.  To stay on schedule, we headed back to the main road and again hit a downpour.  After 1 hour of driving we came upon Hell's Backbone, and the view was stunning.  The land was barren for as far as the eye could see.  But the drive was spectacular, one the best roads I've ever driven.  Scenery in every direction.  Twisting and turning, up and down valleys and canyons.

Our final stop that evening was Capitol Reef National Park.  We arrived after the Visitor Center was closed, but followed the main scenic drive.  The road hugged close to the massive red cliffs, and the sun made the red rock look like fire.  We drove through Fruita, an old Mormon settlement where several fruit trees were planted.  We also drove down Gorge Road, a road created as a pass through where you were surrounded by high rising walls.  The final sight in Capitol Reef was Hickman's Bridge hike.  We barely squeezed in the 1 hour roundtrip hike as dusk settled in, and on the way home we treated to a spectacular view of the full moon.

As dusk turned to darkness, we hopped in the car and headed for Green River, Utah where we had a hotel for the night.  The full moon light the way for us, as we cruised and talked about another fantastic day!  We arrived to the hotel, happily took showers (the 1st since Friday!), and passed out on the comfy bed.

Bryce National Park - Inspiration Point

Bryce NP - Navajo Trail

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument -- Grosvenors Arch

Grand Staircase-Escalante Nat'l Monument -- Hells backbone

Capitol Reef National Park entrance

Capital Reef NP - Scenic Drive

Capital Reef NP -- Fruita

Capital Reef NP -- Gorge Road

Capital Reef NP -- Hickman's Bridge Hike (look at that moon!)

1-year Anniv Utah - Day 2

We slept hard and woke up with the daybreak around 6am.  We knew that the parking lot would fill up quickly, so we quickly through the tent and everything into the car and drove over to the Visitor Center to quickly grab a spot.  The lot was already 3/4ths full on this Sunday of Memorial Day.  We got dressed, packed our bags, and headed to the shuttle line before 7am.

Holy cow, the line for the shuttle bus was long.  We ended up waiting 1+ hour to get on...imagine what the line looked like at 9am!  We hopped on and rode until the stop for Angel's Landing Hike.  We hopped off at Grotto Trailhead before 9am and started the trek up.  The trail was still shaded through Refrigerator Canyon , which made the hiking much more manageable for the pregnant Mom carrying twins!

Up and up we went, first through Walters Wiggles, a series of 21 switchbacks.  Then to the start of the Angel's Landing summit, passing people as we climbed.  When we arrived to Scout's Point, there was already a long line to go up, which was also due to the trail being only 1 person wide at certain spots.  After waiting 10-15 minutes, we started the climb to the summit.  There was tough footing, chains to hang on, and at one point the trail was only 5 feet wide!  We eventually rose to the 5800 foot summit and the view made us speechless.  Zion Canyon to the west, and The Narrows back to the East.  We ate lunch, cooled off, but then it was time to climb back down.  We arrived back at Grotto Trailhead ~5 hours later.  We hopped the shuttle back to our car, grabbed a quick shot of the beautiful Watchman's Peak, and headed onto Bryce National Park!

We drove for ~2 hours and before entering Bryce NP, we set up camp and bought some supplies for a campfire & s'mores!  We entered the park and headed for Sunset Point with a view of Shipwreck Rock.  We ate a picnic dinner and watched the sun set on the hoodoos!  We got back to the campsite and started the fire, it was cold!  The forecast said the nighttime temps would dip into the low 30s since we were at much higher altitude than Zion (almost 8000 ft!).  We celebrated our 1st anniversary exploring the sights and laughing side-by-side.

Zion NP - Line at Shuttle Stop was long at 7am!

Zion NP - Walter's Wiggles, 21 switchbacks to start Angels Landing hike

Zion NP - Scout's Point view of Angels Landing summit

Zion NP - Line at the beginning of Angels Landing summit

Zion NP - Angels Landing hike "The Spine" - Look how narrow the trail gets!

Zion NP - Amazing view of Zion Canyon from top of Angels Landing

Zion NP - Watchman's Peak from canyon floor

Onto Bryce National Park!



Bryce NP - Shipwreck Rock at sunset

Bryce NP - Marshmallows before camping (got down to 30 degrees!)

1-year Anniv Utah - Day 1

We woke up on Saturday at 330am and took a taxi to Midway Airport to catch our 6am flight.  We landed safely in Las Vegas before 9am, grabbed our rental car (with being yelled at for cutting under a fence), stopped at a grocery to load up on food, and then headed for Zion National Park.  On the way out we saw the Vegas strip, including the Mandalay Bay where the unfortunate shooting happened the year prior.

We cruised along and arrived to a crazy-busy Zion NP at 1pm.  We skipped past the line since we had a camping reservation (which was crazy to get 2 weeks prior).  We rolled out the tent and had camp setup by 2pm!  We ate lunch, then decided to head into the park.  First stop...The Narrows!

We walked to the Visitor Center, and waited 20 minutes for a shuttle.  We headed into the park and constantly were looking up at the amazing Zion Canyon.  The shuttle took us all the way to the back of park.  As we hiked to The Narrows, we could tell it was going to packed.  We got to the river, changed out of our boots and into old shoes (Dave) and flip-flops (Nadine)!

We slowly waded through the river, avoiding any major spills, but enjoying the technical footing and the beautiful steep cliffs.  We waded through the river for about 2 miles, then headed back.

After The Narrows, the sun was getting low, but we decided to do a quick hike up The Hidden Canyon.  It was an initially steep hike, but you quickly got amazing views of the canyon floor.  As we were climbing, we were surprised by a rattlesnake!  Out of nowhere we heard a rattle and jumped back!  We stayed away, but also snapped a few amazing photos of the beautiful creature.

As we climbed up to the top of Hidden Canyon, there were narrow trails with chains to hold onto.  It made the hike fun and technical.  But the sun was setting, and it was time to head back down.

We caught a bus back to the campsite, and were very pleased with Day 1.  We grabbed some groceries and a few cold drinks, and watched the moon rise over the Canyon floor.  We pulled the rainfly off our tent and quickly asleep with the amazing breeze.

Mandalay Bay Hotel in Vegas -- View of shooters hotel room

Entering Zion National Park

Zion NP - Drive into the park



Zion NP - Our camp site in South Campground

Zion NP - The Narrows Hike (so Busy on Saturday of Memorial Day!)

Zion NP - The Narrows Hike

Zion NP - Hidden Canyon Trail

Zion NP - Hidden Canyon Trail

Zion NP - Hidden Canyon Trail - Rattlesnake on the trail!




Zion NP - Hidden Canyon Trail - Great view of Angels Landing hike (for tomorrow!)

1-year Anniv Utah - Day 0

For our 1st year anniversary, we decided to head out west and explore the National Parks across Utah & Arizona and end in New Mexico.  The schedule of our trip is shown below.

Before flying out, we began the celebration on Friday night with seeing Vance Joy in the Rosemont Theater.  We had great seats and the Australian singer helped us remember our amazing time together in Australia...

1st Anniversary Schedule -- May 2018

Vance Joy Concert

May Things

The beginning of May was busy for us!  We had several visitors, and ended the month with our anniversary trip to Utah.

Nadine surprised Dave in the beginning of the month with an awesome gift from her co-workers at Wilson...a pair of Michigan basketball shoes!  And they were the perfect size for Dave...he was super happy!

For the first of weekend of month, we hosted Tanya and Manny at our apartment.  They dropped Nora off with Grammie and Boppa, and the kids had a weekend to themselves.  Manya arrived on Friday night to a home cooked dinner!  On Saturday we drove into the city for dinner and a show!  We went for Sushi at the Union House, and then onto the show at Second City (we laughed our butts off!)  Nadine was still hiding our big news of being pregnant, so we again had to be careful of eating seafood and drinking alcohol! 

The next weekend we flew to Pittsburgh to be with Nadine's family for Mother's Day.  Since we were both traveling for work that week, we coordinated a crazy rendezvous in Charlotte at 6am and then arrived into Pittsburgh late on Friday morning.  We first drove to visit Carleen & Helmo to see their house, and then continued onto Irene's house.  Along the way, we drove on Nadine street and came across the "Nadine Corporation" (cool!).  We relaxed all weekend until it was time flew home on Sunday.

Dave's parents came down to visit the following the weekend, and also helped us build our first garden together.  We bought over 50 plants and several bags of dirt, and completed it all in one day!  It was even complete with a fence to keep the rabbits out!

And the final news of the month...right before we left for our trip to Utah...was a trip to doctors office to confirm if we were pregnant.  We were both nervous but also excited!  When we got into the ultrasound room, we received news that forever changed our family...we were pregnant twins!  WOW!!

Surprise!  Michigan basketball shoes



Pittsburgh for Mother's Day -
Nadine in front of the "Nadine Corporation" on Nadine Street

Playing in the yard on Mother's Day

Building our first garden together at 614 Dunton

Our last photo before finding out we have twins!

Twins!

Bec & Dave - April 30

In late April, Nadine's sister Becky and husband Dave traveling to visit us in Chicago!  We had a big secret to keep quiet (we were pregnant!) so we needed to balance that with the weekend of music and partying we had planned.

Bec and Dave arrived on Thursday and we welcomed them with heading to local brewery to grab some drinks.  It was music themed, so it was perfect!

On Friday we drove into the city and headed to the Chicago History Museum for a tour of the "Amplified Chicago Blues" exhibit.  It was a perfect start to learn about the blues music traveled up the Mississippi River to Chicago, and then needed to be played louder (aka, Amplified) for the larger crowds to hear, and thus the electric guitar was infused into the music!  And greats like Muddy Waters called Chicago home late in his career.  We also walked around the rest of the museum to learn that Chicago was named after a native onion plant!

Next was a visit to the Goose Island Brewery from some grub and drinks.  From there we selected where to catch a nighttime blues show and picked Chicago Blues.  We got there early to get good seats and played cards to pass the time.  The band featured an amazing harmonica and a older woman vocalist from Mississippi.  After the show we headed home and slept in!

On Saturday, we headed into the city again!  This time we caught an afternoon Metra train and arrived into the heart of the city.  It was a sunny day, we walked towards the Bean and saw Millenium Park!  From there we grab some beer and pretzels at Berghoff's, a famous German restaurant!  We quickly stopped into Nadine's work and then caught a train up to Wrigleyville for some BBQ & Blues.  The crowds were manageable, but it was certainly busy at the Cubs were playing an afternoon game.  We then headed back into the city on a packed subway train (bc the game had ended!) and headed for Buddy Guy's Legends.  We got there early again, and got seats right next to the stage!  In fact, the main act was getting ready and asked our table to buy him some drinks, pretty cool!  Nadine and Dave couldn't stay out as long as Bec and Dave (remember, pregnant!) so we caught a cab home around 1a...but Bec and Dave stayed out until the bitter end!  They took a cab home and arrived about 4a, nightowls!

The weekend was a blast and Bec & Dave flew out on Sunday.  We only rested a little bit, as we were hosting Tanya and Manny the following weekend

Thursday - Drinks at the nearby Mikerphone Brewery

Bec and Dave!

Friday - Chicago History Museum & Blues Exhibit!

Drinks and grub at Goose Island Brewery

Nighttime show at Blues Chicago

Saturday - Train ride into the city

The Bean!

Buckingham Fountain

BBQ & Blues in Wrigleyville

Packed Subway train with Cubs fans!

Music at Buddy Guy's Legends