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| On the Road Somewhere in Utah |
Keystone, CO - This post may confuse some folks as Suwei, Keira and I are currently in the middle of Baby's Second Road Trip, Fall 2011. If Keira looks a little small in these pictures, it's because they were all taken last January when she was a little more than one month old. I just figured that I should post the photos from trip #1 before I get overwhelmed by the new ones I'm taking now.
Let's back up to last January. Suwei had almost 3 months of maternity leave left to burn through. What better way can you think of than to hit the road and head to Colorado for a month or so of skiing? Anyway, that's what we came up with. Our plan was to minimize each days driving time as much as possible, visit as many friends along the way as possible, and to keep the baby from freezing to death. Were we a little nervous? Hell yes!
As it turns out the trip went off without too many hitches.
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| In Truck Diaper Change |
For the trip out to Colorado, we chose to stick pretty close to HWY 80 as that is by far the fastest way across. Frankly, we chose that route because we were not too sure how things were going to work out and wanted to be able to b-line to Colorado it if needed.
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| Mark & Wendy in Grass Valley, CA |
Our first stop was only about 3 hours away from the Bay Area in Grass Valley, CA where we stayed with the Nelsen Clan. Mark and Wendy are good friends of mine from way back in high school and... they have a spare room! Moki, a friend of Suwei's from her early Colorado days, also lives in Grass Valley. We ended up meeting her and her son Aonghas for breakfast in town. Next was a night at a typically awful motel in Elko, NV. Then before reaching Utah, we veered north of HWY 80 to see the Golden Spike National Historic Site.
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| Breakfast with Moki & Aonghas in Grass Valley, CA |
It was during out
Northern Route Road Trip last summer that Suwei and I had talked about getting Keira a
National Park Passport. Actually there was a lot of debate about whether or not we could get one early and start stamping it while Keira was still in the belly. Anyway, Golden Spike National Historic Site was Keira's first National Park and that's where we got her her passport and her first stamp.
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| Northern Nevada |
Golden Spike National Historic Site
Description: The site commemorates the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad where the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad met on May 10, 1869. The final joining of the rails spanning the continent was signified by the driving of the ceremonial Golden Spike.
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| Logan, UT |
Our third night on the road was spent in Logan, UT with Edi and Donald. Edi is Jackie and Jenny's Mom. Jackie and Jenny are friends of ours from Colorado. Although this is the first time I have met Edi, Suwei has stopped by and visited a number of times. Edi was kind enough to send us tons of cute clothes for Keira including a pink tutu that matched the one she bought for her dog. Way too cute.
Anyway, Jackie was in the area for work and we had hoped that we could meet up at Edi's place. As it turns out, it snowed quite a bit that night and Jackie couldn't make it down the hill until the next morning. So, we met up with her for lunch in Ogden, UT.
Edi & Donald's Place in Logan, UT / Edi & Keira / Baby's First Brew Pub, Lunch in Ogden with Jackie
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| Jennifer and Keira in Moab, UT |
Our last stop on the tour before reaching Colorado was at Jennifer and Brian's place in Moab, UT. Jennifer is a friend ours who has joined us on a number of very cool backpacking trips. Brain is her other and owns
Pagen Mountaineering in downtown Moab. Even though Jennifer had just blown out her knee in a skiing accident and was not feeling all that spry, she joined us on a gorgeous winter tour of Arches National Park.
It was so nice out there, I decided to get up early and head out to Landscape Arch for sunrise the next day (sans baby). Turns out there wasn't much of a sunrise as it was quite cloudy out there. However, I did manage to get a few shots that I'm proud of.
Arches National Park
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| Park Avenue Viewpoint, Arches National Park, UT |
 Description: Arches National Park is known for preserving over 2000 natural sandstone arches, including the world-famous Delicate Arch, in addition to a variety of unique geological resources and formations.
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| North Window Arch, Arches National Park, UT |
Skyline Arch / Keira's Cozy Carseat / North Window Arch
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| Sunrise, Arches National Park |
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| Early Morning View of the La Sal Mountains, Arches National Park, UT |
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| Panorama from the Courthouse Tower Viewpoint, Arches National Park, UT |
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| One last shot from Utah. This was taken near Fisher Tower's where we stopped for another feeding and a diaper change. |
Next stop Colorado! Stay tuned for Part 2.
As usual there are a lot more photos in the slideshow:
