The Road Trip: Day 1 & 2

I've been dreading writing these posts because it means that our vacation is really over.  And man is that a hard pill to swallow.  This vacation was much needed.  It wasn't just time away from work or time to relax.  (Although those are both great reasons to vacation.)  It was much needed time spent with family and friends not to mention a little adventure to mix things up.

On July 26, 2014 we started our amazing road trip to Salt Lake City.  Our first stop was Albuquerque, New Mexico.  On our way to Albuquerque we experienced the most amazing storm in the desert.  There was a gorgeous lightning show with wonderful rain and just enough sunshine to make you feel as if you were in a movie.  I wish I could have captured the moment better on camera, but we were driving.  Once we arrived in Albuquerque we checked into our hotel. Hyatt Place I would definitely recommend it.  We went to Twisters for dinner.  (Supposedly "Breaking Bad" was filmed there)  The food was mediocre.  We went back to our hotel, relaxed and watched the UFC fights on Fox for the rest of the night.

July 27, 2014 was our most eventful day of our road trip.  We woke up early.  Enjoyed a nice complimentary breakfast at our hotel and started our journey north.  Our first stop of the day was Mesa Verde National Park.  Unfortunately that was a total bust.  We drove in the car for 4 hours just to find out that the actual park was 2 hours away from the visitors center. Instead of freaking out (like I usually do)  we decided to move on to our next adventure, which was Canyonlands National Park.

From Mesa Verde it was a 2 hour drive.  The drive was breathtakingly beautiful.  I saw rock formations I had never seen before.  There was one set of rocks that looked like it had horses painted on it in coal.  When we got to the visitors center we paid our fee and collected our map.  We were a little disappointed because we found out that Canyonlands is made of three separate pieces of land that are quite spread apart.  We originally wanted to visit and hike Island in the Sky, but here we were in The Pines section.  So just like earlier in the day we made the best of it and hiked some really fun trials with some really amazing views.  I would still call it a very successful day.  After Canyonlands we made our way to downtown Moab where our hotel was and stayed the night there.  If you've ever stayed in Moab you know how over priced hotels are.  We ended up staying in the Super 8.  The rooms were newly remodeled and nice especially for a Super 8. It was nothing special at all, but it was clean.

Take a look at all of the pictures from our adventures.

It's a pretty lame picture of the storm, but just know it was great.

This is the view from the Mesa Verde visitors center.

Family picture at the border.  We made it to Utah!!

Fun fact: We stopped at all the border signs, for except New Mexico.

Cody's turn to drive

Heading out on our first hike in Canyonlands.

Ancient ruins.

Cave family photo.

I of course had to take the adventurous route.

Cody and Riddler climbing the ladder.

My turn to climb up.

The view was spectacular.

Kissing on top of the world.

Cody and Riddler posing.

Taking in the scenery.

Off to the hotel we go.

Riddler is exhausted after a long day.

Stay tuned for day 3 of the road trip and what we did while in Salt Lake City.