Hoodoo Voodoo

We went on a spontaneous trip to Bryce Canyon (http://www.nps.gov/brca/home.htm) this week. On Monday, we found out that Angela's parents and brother Richard were going to Bryce Canyon Wednesday night through Saturday. Angela had an appointment with the dentist on Friday, so she already had the day off. We decided to head down to Bryce after the dentist. We arrived at the campground at about 2:30. The first thing on the agenda was to set up camp. Everyone thought our tent (which we got from our wedding) was too small, but we told them we would be alright. After setting up our tent, we headed out to hike Queen's Garden and Wall Street. The hike was a lot of fun. It was a little hot on the way down though. It was different for us to hike down before hiking up. We were worried that when it was time to hike back up we would have trouble because of the heat. Much to our excitement, the sun decided to hide behind the clouds just in time for our upward journey. We had a buffet dinner and ate too much. Before going to sleep we played a few games. Then we retired to our small tent, which ended up not being so alright after all. First it started thunderstorming and wouldn't stop. But that didn't get us as wet as Karl had feared—just a few drips through the seams. But Angela had a hard time sleeping in the cramped tent. After struggling to fall asleep, Karl decided to deflate the air mattress to see if that would help Angela to not feel so cramped. It was better: Karl could stretch out diagonally and Angela could now stretch out all the way.

Saturday, we woke up at 8 to the noise of breakfast. Angela's family had already showered and they were getting things out for breakfast. We had some muffins and juice. After taking down camp we went on another hike in Bryce Canyon. This one was called Peakaboo Loop. We had to hike down a steep trail for 1.1 miles until we got to the 3 mile loop. The steep trail made us again worry about the hard journey up in the middle of the afternoon sun, so we hoped for future cloud cover. The loop was beautiful. The loop was also used as a horse trail, so the horse droppings were found all over. Our camera battery died just as we got to the most impressive views. The sky was a threatening blue and the red hoodoos really stood out. We were able to get some video, but that battery died too. Stupid batteries. The rain started to come and come and come. It poured on us for awhile and the trail went up and down and up and down (the trail was rated one of the hardest in Bryce Canyon—but it was nothing after our adventure last week). The lightening made us a little nervous, but it stopped in time for us to make our way back up the steep climb. We were wet and the sun was behind the clouds, so it was a very refreshing hike for the middle of the summer. We made it up to the top, just in time for it to start pouring aging. We had lunch about 3:30 as a result of this hike. We decided to head home since we didn't want to put our wet shoes back on.

As usual, we have pictures.

The rest of the week, we went to a wedding reception for Karl's Frisbee buddy Neal, and visited with Sharla and his Grandma again. Angela helped with a pricing project. She also received a vest for her five year service with the company. It's a "small" vest supposedly, but it fits more like a dress. Besides that, Angela has only two complaints: why do weekends have to be so short and when will they ever find someone to help in nursery. Don't worry, though. Angela is not by herself, there have been substitutes, but she would like someone permanent so she doesn't have to do all the work while the helpers play with the children. Meanwhile, Karl wasted a lot of time playing with his new TV card (I know he isn't suppose to get any new toys, but his cute smile is just hard to say no to). He turned our computer into a TiVo / Multimedia Center, which it was supposed to be already, but the TV card (a Hauppauge PVR 150) and some new software called Meedio makes it a lot easier to use. He also worked on the new website and little bit on his patent.

Thought for the Week
To stave off rain during an important activity, stack three rocks on a ti leaf.
- Angela's Hawaiian Great-Great-Uncle Moses

Posted July 24, 2005 (08:50 PM) | Comments (1)