Fourth of July in Moab

So this past weekend Steve and I made the 3 hour trip down to Moab for a fun little get away. We left our house at about 11 on Friday, which means we made into Moab at about 2 that afternoon. Unfortunately it was fairly cloudy and pretty windy- Steve's temperature gage read 106- it was hot and the wind was that really uncomfortable hot wind! We got settled in our hotel and the headed straight for Arches National Park. By the time we got up there it was about 4 o'clock so we just did some short walks around Balanced Rock, Double Arch, and the Windows Arches (they all only totaled about 2.5 miles). Below are a couple of pictures taken at on of the arches- it was almost sunset in these so there really are people in pictures even if you can see us!

Later than night we went to dinner at a restaurant that we always go to when we go to Moab- Zax- it has the most amazing wood burning pizza and salad buffett ever!! It is seriously amazing! Then we walked up and down the streets of downtown looking in all the shops and watching all of the interesting people! After returning to the hotel we went swimming and hot tubbing at the hotel and retired for the night fairly early.

On Saturday we woke up and went up the park again, this time to hike to the famous Delicate Arch. It was cloudy again but still like 100 degrees which makes it extremely pleasant to hike 3 miles straight up hill! I've hiked this arch 3 times ebore but each time it seems to get longer. The trail was filled with people from all over the world, and it was so fun to listen to all of the different languages- there were really very few Americans. But we met some people that were from Vancouver, WA, which is were Steve is from. Overall, it was a really fun hike... but it completely wore me out! We only have one picture right now becuase the battery died on our digital camera but luckily I had a disposable camera from school, but the pictures aren't developed yet.

After taking a nap and laying out at the pool we went back up the park to hike again (all pictures are on the other camera). After swimming again we went to dinner and then walked around the town again. We rested in our hotel for a while and then walked to Hogi Yogi for some delicious milkshakes.

Our last morning was Sunday morning- we woke up, had breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and headed for our last hike of the trip. This hike wasn't in Arches National Park it was outside of town and the trail was along the river the whole time- it was so neat!! We hiked for about 3 miles and stopped several times to swim in these little inlets of the river that created these 4 foot deap pools. Steve was just like a little kid swimming around in the river, he is so funny to watch.

You can look forward to more pictures when the rest come- but overall it was a great trip!!