Catch Up Time..

It has been a bit since I updated my blog so I thought I would create one post to highlight my latest adventures.

I'll start with the tulip festival at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, Utah which I went to with my Grandma.  We decided to go because I almost went to the cherry blossom festival in Washington D.C. but that didn't end up working out :(  This was the first time I had gone to the tulip festival and man, the gardens at Thanksgiving Point are large!  

In May I went to Lake Powell with my family.  My favorite thing to do is spend time with my family and getting to spend the week at Lake Powell was even better.  It was a bit of a crazy trip.  The mornings started out sunny, beautiful and warm but around 11 AM the wind picked up.  We spent our days fishing, playing in the water and hiking.

Time to launch the boat

We made it!

Dad Kneeboarding

Me, my mom and Sister

My brother in law throwing an awesome flip

It is tradition to climb "Gary's Mountain" whenever we are in Lake Powell and since the water level is much lower than it used to be it took about two hours to reach the spot where we used to start the hike.  "Gary's Mountain" is a mountain that my dad Gary first figured out how to get to the top so he was the one who got to name it.

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It was a good day to hike since it was a bit cooler and breezy.  By the time we made it back to our camp the tent was blown over and there was sand everywhere inside as well as in all our food containers.  

The next day we spent fishing as it was cloudy and cool.  It then rained all night long and the rain fly on the tent broke so we tried to avoid getting wet by stuffing the corners of the tent with coolers or whatever else we could find.  We decided to leave a day early because the weather wasn't getting any better.

We got off the Lake by about noon and went to see Page, Arizona.  We found a great place for fish and chips for lunch, went to the Glen Canyon Dam and to Horseshoe Bend. 

Utah State Capitol

A few days ago, my friend Leah and I decided to go to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah.  We bought tickets and went into the zoo where we first came across the elephants, there were three.  We observed for a few minutes until I said to Leah that one of the elephants looked very sad which depressed us and we moved on.  Monkeys were next but they also looked sad so we just decided to leave...  We were able to get a refund since it had been less than thirty minutes since we bought our tickets.

We didn't want to just go home since we had already driven an hour to Salt Lake City so we decided to head to the Tracy Aviary.  Leah was sure she knew how to get there but we ended up on the wrong side of the city.  We gave up and went to the Utah State Capitol building instead.

I had seen the Utah State Capitol building from afar but had never been inside, everything was so grand, I wanted to open every single door.  

We saw everything that we we allowed to see at the Capitol building and then ate at Applebee's before heading home. 

It wasn't exactly the adventure that we were looking for but it was a great day.  The thing about travel is that things don't always work out the way you thought it would and you have to learn to go with the flow.

Four Hours From Home...

This weekend my roommate invited me to come to Capitol Reef National Park and Goblin Valley State Park. I had never been to either of those places before and am always happy to go along when adventure/fun/travel is involved.  We left our apartment on Friday afternoon and stayed in a hotel just outside Capitol Reef.  We ate the pasta salad that we brought with us and played canasta before going to bed.

On Saturday we ate breakfast at the hotel and made PB&J sandwiches for lunch before making the 5 minute trip to Capitol Reef.  We mostly just drove though Capitol Reef stopping a few times to look at petroglyphs and a few other things.

We made our way to Goblin Valley and ate our lunch in the car.  We eventually decided to brave the wind and go down into the valley.  There are no hiking trails so you are free to explore wherever you wish.  I would definitely like to get lost there sometime :)



Capitol Reef



Capitol Reef



Capitol Reef



Capitol Reef



Capitol Reef



Capitol Reef



Goblin Valley

 



Goblin Valley
 

I am inspired again to explore more of Utah, particularly Monument Valley.

Alissa's World Tour Continues...

I think I have a problem.  I can't seem to stay home for very long...  I can't help it.   I want to see as much of the world as I possibly can.

Two weeks after I went to Mexico, my mom and I went on a Caribbean cruise. We flew to Miami and from there went to Cozumel, Belize, Honduras and Grand Cayman.  Here are some pictures..

Getting ready to drive to the airport

Welcome to Miami :)

Excited to get to the port of Miami and board the ship

My impression of Horatio Caine

Waiting for our shore excursion

 The first stop was Cozumel, Mexico.  My mom wanted to go see some Mayan ruins so that is exactly what we did.  We took a ferry to the mainland of Mexico and went to the Mayan Ruins of Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula.

On the ferry

 
 Belize was my favorite stop.  We got off the ship and found someone to take us snorkeling, we hopped on the boat and went to a small island that the locals call Gilligan's Island.  We hung out there for a bit before heading off on a smaller boat to snorkel.  My mom totally rocked it!  We had to jump off the side of the boat into the water and it was her first time snorkeling.   We didn't see to many fish but oh well, we got to see lots of coral :)  We snorkeled our way back to the beach where we hung out for another hour or so.

Our snorkel gear

Heading back to the ship

Next we went to Roatan, Honduras.  We decided to face our fears and go zip lining.  My mom and I both had lots of fun and would do it again.

No Hands!

The last stop was Grand Cayman.  It was the most "Americanized" of the places we went and my least favorite.  That is not to say that I won't ever go there again, I just probably won't seek it out.  My favorite shore excursion was at Grand Cayman even though I didn't much care for the island.

The first thing we did was take a half hour boat ride to a sand bar where the stingrays hang out.  We got in the water for about twenty minutes and then took the thirty minute boat ride back.  Mom enjoyed the Stingray City but I was a little bit disappointed, I felt like there were way to many people and not enough time in the water. Most likely I wouldn't do it again.

I'm glad that my mom was able to hold and kiss the Ray.

We also went swimming with a dolphin.  I have been in love with dolphins ever since I went to Hawaii when I was in the eighth grade.  The dolphin that we were paired with was Luna and she was so sweet!  First Luna gave us a kiss on the cheek then she gave us a ride on her belly.  It was awesome and I loved every second!  I will never miss out on an opportunity to interact with a dolphin.

After one more day at sea we returned to the port of Miami where we would stay for about a day and a half before we had to go back home to the cold.  There were two things that I wanted to do in Miami with such limited time; take an air boat ride at the Everglades and go to South Beach.  We did both.

mom and I got to sit on the front row of Taz (the air boat)