We went to Bear Lake this last week with a bunch of Tara’s family. TJ and Marsha, Troy’s family, Bret’s Family, Jaylynn Z., and my brother Dustin. We had all sorts of fun boating which includes; wakesurfing / waterskiing / wakeboarding / tubing / swimming / kneeboarding / playing our own version of wipe out (Kaylee the champ has some serious balance, Makenna was the runner up, good job girls!) / hanging on the beach / and even falling off the boat in motion, although I would not recommend it, it was SCARY. We also spent some time playing Golf at Bear Lake West, had a family tennis tournament (thanks Nate), explored the Minnetonka Cave, and went to the funniest melodrama I have ever seen at the Pickelville Playhouse titled: The Hanging of El Bandito, go see it if you get the chance and be prepared to laugh your fanny off.
It was a GREAT time. Thanks to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Dee for being so generous and letting us stay at their cabin, you guys are awesome!
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The Great Salt Lake
You know your bucket list – that list of things you want to do before you bite the dust. I got to check an item off this last month. I’m not really into sharing all my bucket list items but this one was a weird one.
Ever since I was a young boy, every time I drive by the Great Salt Lake I have wondered what the water was like. Somehow in the back of my mind I knew it probably would not be a pleasant experience, nevertheless it has been pestering me for years.
We went to visit a few of Tara’s best friends from Highschool, Marci and her 5 children and husband from Arizona and Becky and her 4 children and her friend Bobby and his daughter from Colorado, we all met in Tooele UT, we were closer to the Salt Lake than I had ever been before, so I convinced the group to check it out. As we approached the lake we all noticed a real stink in the air. When we got to the beach we were greeted by a few billion little black flies (brine flies) and a kind of gross green/orange
algae along the waters edge, it was lovely as I am sure you can imagine. Since none of us really wanted to hang out on the beach we headed out into the lake, the water was surprisingly warm and shallow. It took us at least 100 yards before the kids got up to their waists, most of them did not last long since the concentrated salt water did not agree with there most tender parts. Mason managed to get his eyes wet but after a good cry he was ready for more, he was really fascinated with the fact that he could float so easily and he was enjoying just bobbing around. A breeze came across the water and we started to get pelted with those tiny flies that seemed to be everywhere, it felt like it was raining bugs. The rest of the group had already made there way back toward the cars so Tara and I drug Mason in so the others would not have to wait. Just as we were coming out of the water I noticed that what I thought was a large sand bar was actually a large pile of bird dung, the salt water must preserve
it and the water washed it up on the beach in a sand bar like formation, unfortunately we had to walk over it to get out. We also noticed that as we dried out, our skin and cloths were covered in salt, in fact the towels we used to dry off became stiff with all the salt. We all drove back to the swimming pool as fast as we could to get the nastiness off. On a good note: the salt water seemed to have some healing effect on one of Mason’s toes that has been cut and infected and was having a difficult time healing since the kid will not keep shoes on for anything.
So there you go – If you enjoy stink, bugs in the millions I mean billions, having your “tenders” irritated, stinging eyes, bird dung, and salt residue all over your skin and cloths then the Great Salt Lake is THE PLACE for you.
Here are a few interesting facts Tara discovered after our experience: the concentration of salt is 3% to 29%, the dead sea is 30%, Brigham Young came here for healing purposes, lake effect storms happen 4 or 5 times a year and thus that is the reason Utah has the best snow on earth. One question I had was why after all this time of dilution of fresh water has the Great Salt Lake remained so salty? Well the salt level does fluctuate but because the salt is in the ground it will always remain nearly as dead as the dead sea.
Ever since I was a young boy, every time I drive by the Great Salt Lake I have wondered what the water was like. Somehow in the back of my mind I knew it probably would not be a pleasant experience, nevertheless it has been pestering me for years.
We went to visit a few of Tara’s best friends from Highschool, Marci and her 5 children and husband from Arizona and Becky and her 4 children and her friend Bobby and his daughter from Colorado, we all met in Tooele UT, we were closer to the Salt Lake than I had ever been before, so I convinced the group to check it out. As we approached the lake we all noticed a real stink in the air. When we got to the beach we were greeted by a few billion little black flies (brine flies) and a kind of gross green/orange
algae along the waters edge, it was lovely as I am sure you can imagine. Since none of us really wanted to hang out on the beach we headed out into the lake, the water was surprisingly warm and shallow. It took us at least 100 yards before the kids got up to their waists, most of them did not last long since the concentrated salt water did not agree with there most tender parts. Mason managed to get his eyes wet but after a good cry he was ready for more, he was really fascinated with the fact that he could float so easily and he was enjoying just bobbing around. A breeze came across the water and we started to get pelted with those tiny flies that seemed to be everywhere, it felt like it was raining bugs. The rest of the group had already made there way back toward the cars so Tara and I drug Mason in so the others would not have to wait. Just as we were coming out of the water I noticed that what I thought was a large sand bar was actually a large pile of bird dung, the salt water must preserve
it and the water washed it up on the beach in a sand bar like formation, unfortunately we had to walk over it to get out. We also noticed that as we dried out, our skin and cloths were covered in salt, in fact the towels we used to dry off became stiff with all the salt. We all drove back to the swimming pool as fast as we could to get the nastiness off. On a good note: the salt water seemed to have some healing effect on one of Mason’s toes that has been cut and infected and was having a difficult time healing since the kid will not keep shoes on for anything.So there you go – If you enjoy stink, bugs in the millions I mean billions, having your “tenders” irritated, stinging eyes, bird dung, and salt residue all over your skin and cloths then the Great Salt Lake is THE PLACE for you.
Here are a few interesting facts Tara discovered after our experience: the concentration of salt is 3% to 29%, the dead sea is 30%, Brigham Young came here for healing purposes, lake effect storms happen 4 or 5 times a year and thus that is the reason Utah has the best snow on earth. One question I had was why after all this time of dilution of fresh water has the Great Salt Lake remained so salty? Well the salt level does fluctuate but because the salt is in the ground it will always remain nearly as dead as the dead sea.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Lake Powell
Our friends Jeff and Maja McMinn invited us to go stay on their houseboat with them on Lake Powell. Of course it was a family vacation so we took Makenna and Mason, and the McMinn’s brought there little ones: Ryan, Kaylee, and Taylor. The kids are near the same ages so they had a great time playing together.
The houseboat was at Bullfrog so from there we went upstream and stayed at one of McMinns favorite locations (I won’t say where in case it is a place they are trying to keep the crowds away from). Our first night was really interesting as a heavy rainstorm moved in and we were able to witness a display of Mother Nature’s power. Within a minute of the rain falling there were waterfalls everywhere on the cliff walls above us, it was incredibly beautiful but eerie. We knew we were safe on the boat but it was obvious that any living creature in the canyons or above the cliff walls was fighting for its survival. It made me realize just how quickly very dangerous
situations can occur.
We woke our second morning to the calm glassy waters, it was Sunday so it was a bit tempting, however we had already committed to not playing in the water on the Sabbath. We spent the day relaxing and took a boat ride to see some of the historical sites at lake Powell. We went to some Indian ruins called Defiance House. It was a short hike through a swamp and up a cliff, but well worth the effort. The ruins were really awesome and the kids loved seeing them. We had also planned to go see Hole in the Rock, and Rainbow bridge but the water got so choppy that we decided to go back to the house boat and relax some more. The rest of the week was time to play on the water. The mornings and evenings were reserved for waterskiing on the glassy waters, while the rest of the day we worked on our wake surfing, tubing and some wakeboarding. The kids all did great, Makenna at 8 years old did everything we did, she surfed (deep water start), wake boarded, slalom water skied (got up on only her 3 try), and of course did some tubing. Mason at 5 years old was really only interested in swimming the first few days, he started doing more tubing as the week went on and the last day he decided that he wanted to do everything, he got up waterskiing on his first attempt, and got up wakeboarding on his second attempt. Mason said something that I thought was really funny while we were there: it went something like this “you guys keep saying the water is glass; can you please tell me what glassy water entails?” We all had a good laugh and explained what our analogy meant; it’s kind of funny how we just assume people know what we are talking about. We also hiked Smith Fork slot canyon, I figure it wound up being 3-4 miles and was really cool, we saw all sorts of critters, thousands of tad poles, frogs, toads, lizards, and even a really strange snake. The hike was great but when we got back to our boat some Ravens had raided the boat, they opened some chips and spread them all over, they ate an entire bag of starburst candy and crapped all over the place.
The houseboat was at Bullfrog so from there we went upstream and stayed at one of McMinns favorite locations (I won’t say where in case it is a place they are trying to keep the crowds away from). Our first night was really interesting as a heavy rainstorm moved in and we were able to witness a display of Mother Nature’s power. Within a minute of the rain falling there were waterfalls everywhere on the cliff walls above us, it was incredibly beautiful but eerie. We knew we were safe on the boat but it was obvious that any living creature in the canyons or above the cliff walls was fighting for its survival. It made me realize just how quickly very dangerous
situations can occur.We woke our second morning to the calm glassy waters, it was Sunday so it was a bit tempting, however we had already committed to not playing in the water on the Sabbath. We spent the day relaxing and took a boat ride to see some of the historical sites at lake Powell. We went to some Indian ruins called Defiance House. It was a short hike through a swamp and up a cliff, but well worth the effort. The ruins were really awesome and the kids loved seeing them. We had also planned to go see Hole in the Rock, and Rainbow bridge but the water got so choppy that we decided to go back to the house boat and relax some more. The rest of the week was time to play on the water. The mornings and evenings were reserved for waterskiing on the glassy waters, while the rest of the day we worked on our wake surfing, tubing and some wakeboarding. The kids all did great, Makenna at 8 years old did everything we did, she surfed (deep water start), wake boarded, slalom water skied (got up on only her 3 try), and of course did some tubing. Mason at 5 years old was really only interested in swimming the first few days, he started doing more tubing as the week went on and the last day he decided that he wanted to do everything, he got up waterskiing on his first attempt, and got up wakeboarding on his second attempt. Mason said something that I thought was really funny while we were there: it went something like this “you guys keep saying the water is glass; can you please tell me what glassy water entails?” We all had a good laugh and explained what our analogy meant; it’s kind of funny how we just assume people know what we are talking about. We also hiked Smith Fork slot canyon, I figure it wound up being 3-4 miles and was really cool, we saw all sorts of critters, thousands of tad poles, frogs, toads, lizards, and even a really strange snake. The hike was great but when we got back to our boat some Ravens had raided the boat, they opened some chips and spread them all over, they ate an entire bag of starburst candy and crapped all over the place.
The trip was great, THANK YOU McMinn’s for inviting us on this wonderful adventure!
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