April 2017 - Visit oma and a trip to Zion, Bryce and Grand Staircase Escalante
Beginning of April, Geert's mom aka oma, mams or Ingrid, arrived for a 2 week visit.
The first week, the kids were in school, so the perfect time to check out things close by and at the same time adjust to the 8 hours of time difference ánd the altitude (we live at 4357 feet or 1328 meters).
Her first evening we already dragged her up the mountains in our 'backyard' for our favourite evening walk, the Bonneville shoreline.
A visit to Salt Lake City was also on the agenda of course. 2 Very present buildings in this city are the capitol and the Mormon temple. The latter is not accessible for non-Mormons ... hell, not even all Mormons are allowed to enter Mormon temples as it depends on your age (min 18), spiritual maturity and personal worthiness 😳.
The second week, the kids had spring break (= no school), and as it was her first time in Utah, we just had to (re)visit some of the National Parks (NPs) and beautiful nature in the South.
To make this blog more organised, I will cover this trip in posts designated to those different destinations as we have been/will be visiting those places more often throughout our stay here in the States.
We first did Zion NP (ref. Zion NP post), then Bryce Canyon NP (ref. second part in the Bryce Canyon NP post) and on our way back home we did a hike in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (ref. Grand Staircase Escalante post) ... one of the National Monuments that will be modified (read 'reduced') thanks to the release of a proclamation by Donald Trump. 😞
Back home we did one last hike with Ingrid at ... Antelope Island of course, that goes without saying 😆
This time we did the easy 'Lakeside trail' which is flat and runs about 270 meters from the lake. And after all this hiking, it's of course on this easy trail where Ingrid falls ... a real face plant! Once we realised that she didn't really hurt herself (which was amazing, because she didn't even put her hands to break her fall!), we couldn't stop laughing, because it really was a hilarious sight.
Luckily we could continue and enjoy the beautiful views of one of our favourite places close to home.
The first week, the kids were in school, so the perfect time to check out things close by and at the same time adjust to the 8 hours of time difference ánd the altitude (we live at 4357 feet or 1328 meters).
Her first evening we already dragged her up the mountains in our 'backyard' for our favourite evening walk, the Bonneville shoreline.
The next day we did another of our favourites ... I guess you already know by now which State park we visited ... Antelope Island, yes indeed! As I said before, nobody escapes from this when visiting us! 😏
Besides the usual stops with the car at Buffalo point and the ranch, we also hiked the 4km Dooly Knob trail where you have nice views on both the Wasatch front (mountains on the main land) and the Great Salt Lake.
Ingrid smelling the local flora, a habit of hers 😉
Enjoying the view at the end point
A visit to Salt Lake City was also on the agenda of course. 2 Very present buildings in this city are the capitol and the Mormon temple. The latter is not accessible for non-Mormons ... hell, not even all Mormons are allowed to enter Mormon temples as it depends on your age (min 18), spiritual maturity and personal worthiness 😳.
View from the stairs of The Capitol
The Mormon Temple
Ingrid is not a skier, but the ski season was almost at its end anyway. We did show her around, and had a beer while enjoying the view @ Snowbasin.
Ingrid was lucky enough to be here during the NBA season, so we took her to a NBA game of the Utah Jazz vs the Portland Trail Blazers ... which our team won with 106-87 by the way 💪!
The second week, the kids had spring break (= no school), and as it was her first time in Utah, we just had to (re)visit some of the National Parks (NPs) and beautiful nature in the South.
To make this blog more organised, I will cover this trip in posts designated to those different destinations as we have been/will be visiting those places more often throughout our stay here in the States.
We first did Zion NP (ref. Zion NP post), then Bryce Canyon NP (ref. second part in the Bryce Canyon NP post) and on our way back home we did a hike in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument (ref. Grand Staircase Escalante post) ... one of the National Monuments that will be modified (read 'reduced') thanks to the release of a proclamation by Donald Trump. 😞
Back home we did one last hike with Ingrid at ... Antelope Island of course, that goes without saying 😆
This time we did the easy 'Lakeside trail' which is flat and runs about 270 meters from the lake. And after all this hiking, it's of course on this easy trail where Ingrid falls ... a real face plant! Once we realised that she didn't really hurt herself (which was amazing, because she didn't even put her hands to break her fall!), we couldn't stop laughing, because it really was a hilarious sight.
Luckily we could continue and enjoy the beautiful views of one of our favourite places close to home.
It sure was a pleasure having her with us and showing her why we love Utah so much!
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