update: adventure report!

goodness, i have got to stop doing this to you nice people!  i know i hate it when people don't update their blogs for forever, and here i am doing it myself.  shame on me.

 my last (very brief) post said that i was out having adventures.  and adventures i have had! are you ready for the Exclusively Exclusive Adventure Report?

Exclusively Exclusive Adventure Report

It's Exclusive!

independence day
independence day was celebrated by eating grilled hot dogs and watching toy story 3 with my delightful parents.  i was hoping to be able to see fireworks from my balcony, but no such luck.  the trees were just baaaarely too tall.  that weekend, i also celebrated my friend callie's birthday by eating delicious curry and engaging in general frolicsomeness.

bruce and fred's excellent adventure

after an insanely busy week at work, i escaped with the above-mentioned callie on a weekend road trip!  our first stop on the trip was the topaz internment camp located outside of delta.  i'd never been there and neither had callie, so we didn't really know what to expect, really.  it was wonderful in very unexpected ways.  on the way there, we drove past a memorial rose garden.  so naturally, we stopped to smell the roses and contemplate life. 
 
continuing down the road toward delta, we drove past some very interesting old buildings.  i'm a desperate sucker for old, decrepit buildings, so i stopped to take pictures and callie was very patient with me. finally, we found our way to the Great Basin Museum, which was curated by a very friendly and excitable older gentleman who told us all sorts of interesting facts.  part of the museum was devoted to mining and geology, and another part was devoted to the history of delta, including clothes, books, household appliances, and the like.  guess which part i spazzed out about like a kid in willy wonka's chocolate factory. (hint: OMG OLD THINGS!!)

we did find a section of the museum devoted to topaz, but there wasn't much in it.  there was a recreation of one of the barracks, but we still wanted to see more.  we found out from the curator that the site of the camp is actually several miles outside of delta.  he gave us a map and we drove out into the middle of nowhere to the site.  we were looking for buildings or ruins or something, but couldn't see anything.  we wandered a bit more in the car before i realized that we were driving through the camp.  there was just nothing that was still standing.  we got out of the car and wandered about for a bit.  there was a lot of rubble-- broken stoves with chimneys still standing, broken dishes and jars, discarded piles of wood.  there were also whole patches of ground just covered with rusted nails.  it was eerie.  it looked like the buildings that had held those nails had just dissolved.  i know that's unlikely-- they were probably just discarded there as people disassembled the buildings.  but still.  eerie. 

after wandering around for a bit more, we headed back into the car and continued on our way to the ultimate destination-- zion national park.  we arrived at our hotel after quite a bit of flailing. the room smelled like something had died horribly in it, but it had a bed.  that's all that mattered, really.  we got a good night's rest and then headed into the park the next morning.  we took the shuttle up the canyon and got out at the temple of sinawava to go exploring.  it was early in the morning, so there weren't many people there.  it was so deliciously quiet.  we could hear the river and the birds winging and the squirrels and lizards rustling through the bushes.  we went on the river walk, where we took lots of pictures and callie was assaulted by a very cheeky squirrel who wanted to steal our granola bars.  we also went down to the river, but i didn't go in for fear of river krakens. 

that evening, we went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants-- parallel eighty-eight.  words cannot describe the deliciousness of our food, so i will encourage you to look at the photos coming in the next post so i can let pictures speak for us.  also, the view from the table is stupid-awesome.  

the next day, we both had a hard time getting out of bed.  eventually we made our way back into the park.  it was ridiculously hot that day, so we decided not to bother with hiking and ate ice cream instead.  it started raining, but we defied the rain and refused to hide.  after we finished our ice cream, we sat on rocking chairs on the porch of the lodge and just stared at the stupidly beautiful view until we finally admitted that it was time to pack up and go home. it was such an awesome trip.  i'm so glad we got to go. 
 
adventures in wyoming 
 my sister jennifer is home visiting this month.  her visit happened to coincide with the wedding of a mutual friend whom she met at field school and i met at jen's wedding.  her name is carrie, and she's the sparkliest, most wonderful person ever, pretty much.  i adore her.  the wedding was in cheyenne, wyoming.  the week before the wedding was another insanely busy one in which i had zero (0) time to pack and prepare, so we were a bit later getting on the road than we would have liked.  it was a looooong driiiiive.  but it was rather beautiful in parts, and the stars were ridiculously beautiful when the sun went down.  sooo many stars when you're out in the middle of nowhere. we got to our hotel in cheyenne around one o'clock.  we'd made a reservation, but they'd given our room away because they thought we weren't coming, so we got an upgrade to a king suite.  that bed was quite literally the best bed i have ever encountered.  it was like heaven.  heaven.  words cannot describe this bed.  oh my goodness. 

after a good night's sleep (and early-morning nap), we got dressed and went to carrie's wedding.  it was held at the cheyenne botanical gardens, which were in full bloom for the occasion. carrie looked beautiful. at the end of the ceremony, the officiant told a native american story about the origin of the butterfly.  he said that if we tell our wishes to a butterfly, they would carry it up to the great spirit for us.  carrie and chris opened a box full of butterflies and let them loose.  i wish i would have gotten better pictures of it (so many butterflies!) but i was busy crying my face off. 

after that was the reception at the plains hotel.  i really wanted a cowboy to come in with spurs a-janglin' but no such luck.  the whole town just has such an interesting old-west feel.  i bet wyoming as a whole slew of decrepit old buildings just waiting to be explored!  (OMG, old things!)  anyway, back on topic.  stop distracting me.  the reception was lovely and carrie was all sorts of wonderful.  i love that girl, and the ridiculous drive was completely worth it. and we were treated to a beautiful sunset on our way home. pictures in the next post!  (because i cannot figure out how to make the pictures and text fit well in this one post, because i'm a technological genius like that.)