Arches

Once upon a time, July to be exact, Mike and I went to Arches. Two weeks before this trip we were talking about how we should spend one of our upcoming three-day weekends. Law school hadn't even come close to starting, so we could really have a fun, real-person three-day weekend! I mentioned I had never been to Arches before. Mike was appalled, as he thought all good Utah children had been to Arches at least 4 times by the time there were 12. This was not the case for me, so we went.

I just love mini road trips. You still get to buy all the road trip treats, but your bum doesn't get terribly sore. It's just three hours! Perfect. My favorite road trip treats include grapes, Pringles, Teddy Grahams (Chocolate or Honey only), trail mix, pb and j sandwiches, beef jerky and pudding cups. Bon appetite!

Arches was magnificent! We did nearly all of the hikes and had so much fun! I can't believe I had never been there before. Thank you Mike for introducing me to Arches.

Cute Mike

Me reveling in precious shade.

Cute Mike again


Me by my favorite arch


Again, me in precious, shady shelter

There was one scary part that Mike and I now find funny, but still kind of scary. There was a part on the map labeled "primitive trail - for advanced hikers only."
Mike and I were confident in our hiking abilities and decided to conquer this different route back to our car. Everything was going splendidly. We were scaling rocks, finding secret, private arches and having a glorious time walking through the beautiful landscape. The only bad part was the heat. It was the middle of the afternoon toward the end of July. Maybe we were crazy for embarking on this "primitive" adventure, maybe we were brave, maybe we were tough. All I know is it was HOT and there was never any shade. I'm usually a lover of heat, but this was a wee bit more than my body prefers. It gets worse though. The trail was complete sand. We weren't exactly sure if we were on the trail one third of the time because it was, after all, "primitive." Our water was running dangerously low. We never saw anyone. Ever. We could have been wandering in the Gobi Desert for all we knew. And it was HOT. We kept following the semblance of a trail and hoped we'd reach the normal trail soon. I decided that I shouldn't drink anymore water because what if something happened to Mike? What if his was all gone? What if he needed more? What if we were in the Gobi Desert and would never find civilization for days? Those last 4 ounces in my Nalgene bottle were going to be precious. Yes, I would feel much better if I drank it, but who knew what in the world was happening with Mike's water supply? I knew if I asked he would say he was fine, and then he would know I was saving mine and tell me I needed to drink it and my plan would be foiled. I decided not to drink another drop until we reached the regular trail or I had passed out from heat exhaustion and Mike poured it down my throat while I was unconscious. I could tell Mike was starting to get nervous that we might be lost, which then made me nervous. I think we were both on the brink of freaking out. We ended up getting to the regular trail not long after slight freaking commenced and found our hordes of fellow European and Asian hikers just fine. Asian chit-chat never sounded more lovely. We vowed never to walk on stupid sand again for the rest of the day, and I finally drank my wonderful water. As it turns out, Mike had pulled the same Save-Your-Water-For-Your-Spouse-In-Case-They-Run-Out-And-Might-Die trick too. It was funny and we laughed. When we got to the car, we each drank about a half a gallon and nothing had ever tasted so good.

Everything else was rather uneventful. Just your regular hiking and looking at rock arches and formations created by millions and millions of years of erosion. We had such a fun time just running around with each other and spending time together.

We capped off the evening with not one, but two! McDonald's Mango Pineapple Smoothies (one in Moab and Springville) and had a great time at home nursing my wicked sunburns because I was "already tan enough" to make sunblock useless.

Wonderful place, wonderful time, wonderful boy.