A Week Away (with NO kids!)

A year ago, I told David I needed a vacation.  Not just a 3-day weekend trip.  A REAL vacation.  You know...without the kids.  Preferable someplace cooler than Houston in July.  With good food.  Fun activities.  And a nice hotel room...not a tent!  Something like this...

Theresa's godparents have timeshares all over the creation.  They said we could take one.  So I booked us a condo at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort for a week.  It met all the criteria.  Nice room, good restaurants and fun activities in Salt Lake City (30 minutes away).  And...gorgeous views of mountains along with moderate temperatures.  It sounded perfect. 

I didn't quite believe we were actually going to pull this off until we came in for the landing over Salt Lake City.  Check it out.  Beautiful sunset against the mountains.  Wow.  

It was a promising start.  The next day, we woke up to this...

Amazing. 

We started off with Mass at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.  There was a Sacred Choral Conference going on that same weekend.  So we were treated to a fantastic choir who sang all the mass parts in Latin.  Beautiful.  And because of that, mass was 1 hour and 45 minutes long.  But, we enjoyed every minute.  How could you not in such a beautiful place? Picture courtesy of photowalkingutah.com.  

Next...lunch.  We had packed sandwiches to eat in a nearby park.  'Cause after such a long mass, one gets hungry.  To check out all our Salt Lake City eats, click here to visit my cooking blog. ;-)

Then we walked around the Mormon Temple Square.  David wanted to learn more, and 2 young ladies gave us a tour of the Mormon History Museum.  Honestly, I was a bit uncomfortable at first, but I did appreciate the time they gave us, and hey...I did learn a thing or two.  

Monday...we took short hike to the observation deck.  David set the timer on the camera, and we ended up with my favorite picture from our vacation. 

Then we headed to a grove of aspen trees about 2 miles from the resort to have a picnic lunch.  I was enthralled by a sight I'd only seen in Ansel Adams prints.  We sat next to a stream and enjoyed the sounds of water and a curious squirrel who ran off with one of David's chips.  

Then we headed to the mall.  I wanted to get the mandatory souvenirs for the kids and grandparents, who were kind enough to watch our crew while we were gone.  After that, and dinner, we headed back to the condo to try out the hot tub on the balcony, and admire the view again.  

Next morning, we woke up late (I still can't get over the fact that we didn't have any kids around to wake us up!), and headed out for some summer alpine activities. 

Like the zip-line.  I did it 2x.  Yes me...the one afraid of heights and prone to motion sickness!

And alpine sledding.  Seriously...this is fun y'all.  It's like driving a car with a stick shift (which I had in my first car...loved it and still miss it!)  Wish David hadn't take a picture of my backside though.  Sure would be fun to bring the kids back here one day...they would have an absolute blast.

David wiped on one of his trips down, and skinned his leg and knuckles.  Good grief.  

We had decided earlier to go on a long hike that day.  So after prepping another picnic lunch, we took the ariel tram up to the top of Hidden Peak with the intend of hiking all the way down... about 4 miles. There's a tunnel you can cross over to the other side of the peak too.  Plus, we saw a few stubborn patches of snow.  Thank goodness I'd been working out lately.  That trail was steep...the average grade on the slope was 12 degrees.  I felt like I was digging my toes in all the way down.  I fell twice.  And I'm not gonna lie...I was sore the next 3 days!  

We felt we deserved a reward after that...so we took the ski lift all the way back up the mountain, and down again.  This time we could appreciate the scenery, instead of trying not to skid halfway down the mountain!  

A wildfire 12 miles from Snowbird broke out that same afternoon...we could see and smell the smoke as ash from the fire sprinkling down on us as we headed down.  Yikes. 

Another night out on the town to have dinner, and another soak in the hot tub.  I sure needed it after that long hike.  
On the 4th...David decided he wanted to try one of the mountain scooters.  I told him to be careful.  Little good that did.  

On David's second trip down, he hit a culvert, and took a nasty fall.  When I got his text, I hoped he was joking.  He said, 

"I think I'll need some stitches."  Uh oh.  

I texted him back right away (I was eating leftover pizza and downloading pics from the camera back at the condo).  When he didn't respond...I knew he wasn't kidding.  

When I got to the bike rentals, he looking fine at first.  But then I saw blood all over his limbs and a large bandaged area on his left arm.  The ski patrol guys said he would need stitches for sure.  We got back to the condo so David could shower...he was really a mess.  Then we headed out to an urgent care clinic that thankfully took our insurance.  

The PN was very nice, and we got back to the treatment room right away.  It took her a good 30 minutes to put 4 internal and 15 external stitches in David's arm.  Good grief.  Warning...the next few pics might be too much for certain people to look at.  View at your own risk. 

We'd planned to drive by the Great Salt Lake later that day, go to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game that night, and stay afterwards for the fireworks.  Which we did...

 Once we got to the 5th inning, though, David was miserable and we had to leave early.  All the lidocaine they'd shot into his arm was wearing off, and they didn't give us any pain meds.  Not good.  We caught a few fireworks on our way home...

Back at our room, David tried to get comfortable enough to sleep.  Around midnight, I realized that wasn't happening.  So we got up and headed to the ER for some pain meds.  Two hours later, we had 5 pills and I had to drive us back up the mountain...pitch black...saw 2 deer...freaked me out...Lord have mercy.  Thankfully, once we got back into bed, David was able to sleep.  And man, did we sleep...until 9:30 the next day! 

We were off to a very slow start, and David was stiff and sore, but he wanted to do something.  It was also raining...which meant no outdoor activities.  We decided to head to the movies and ended up seeing "Snow White and the Huntsman."  Not much else that day...just tried not to do too much, since David was technically okay, but not always comfortable in terms of his pain.  We were able to walk around a bit, but that was all.  

Our last day, (Friday) with David feeling better, we drove 2 hours north to the Golden Spike National Historical Site.  This is where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads merged to complete the Transcontinental Railroad.  It was out in the middle of nowhere...but I found a great activity book for the kids, and David flattened 4 pennies for them in one of those souvenir machines. :-)

We couldn't miss the opportunity to spend time at the Mormon Family History Library...we spend nearly 3 hours there trying to dig up more info on my side of the family.  We made progress with my paternal grandmother's ancestors...but hit a roadblock with my paternal grandfather's family.  They emigrated from Spain to Puerto Rico a long time ago...and our Spanish just isn't good enough to make a lot of progress.  Oh well.  We still got to view a gorgeous sunset that night. 

Back in the city, we decided on sushi for dinner, and organic ice cream for dessert...both delicious.  And on our way back up the mountain for the last time...a scattered shower and a rainbow! Wow. 

I was a bit sad to go back home, even though I did miss the kids.  We had splendid weather, lows in the 50's at night, low humidity during the day, and highs in the upper 80's to low 90's.  I doubt we will be able to get away again for quite some time.  

Even with David's mishap on the mountain, we had a wonderful vacation.  We were able to spend 6 days together, talk about things we'd been putting off, and honestly, just spending time together without being interrupted was fantastic.  I think we truly appreciated the gift we'd been given.