Monday, August 24, 2015

True Love Is...


True love is when I, the health-conscious hiker, told him to pull over for an impromptu slice of Ho-Made pie, and when he, the glutinous acrophobe with one bad knee, agreed to scale Angel’s Landing.  True love is when he planned a sunrise photo expedition to Horseshoe Bend, and when I researched the best (and possibly only) location for cold brew in Southwest Utah.  He avoids waking up early with me at all costs, I roll my eyes at his caffeine dependency.  True love is when he handed over the steering wheel of his beloved car, knowing full well of all the risks of having an Asian girl in the pilot seat on twisting canyon roads with no passing lanes.  True love is when I stayed under 80 mph. 




It is not when he deliberately snapped Go-Pro pictures of me while I was attempting to urinate while standing waist-deep in the rushing Virgin River, and not when I wasted an inexplicable amount of time shopping for deerskin moccasins at the trading post.  But when I made a silly face at the camera, and when he jumped in and scooped up a pair of clearance rack moose-skin moccasins in my size that I hadn’t seen—that’s love.

Someone once told me that a good way to tell if a couple is going to last is by whether or not they can survive a road trip together.  The metaphor, though somewhat cheesy, makes a lot of sense.   It’s not really about whether we could stand each other’s company in the car for all of those hours, but if we could agree on decisions on the fly and simply be flexible with whatever we ended up doing.  All of our energy was going into wedding planning, which left very little set in stone for this post-wedding road trip.  We had barely reserved one of our motels and did not have anything else booked for the other three nights that we would be on the road, and we had no idea how many days we wanted to spend in each stop.  We pretty much threw every piece of hiking apparel we owned into our suitcases, grabbed our camelbacks and cameras, and took off, leaving heaps of wedding-related odds and ends all over the apartment.  Were we crazy?  This was a situation rife with potential disagreements.  But it turns out that going headstrong into something so spontaneous was surprisingly easy and such a refreshing experience after a year and a half of intensive wedding planning.  Our pictures say it all – we had a super good time.  And through all the days together in the middle of nowhere, we each made our sacrifices and showed each other a lot of true love.


Taking the tram into Zion - shot with our Go-Pro

Weeping Rock - Zion National Park

Weeping Rock - Zion National Park

Court of the Patriarchs - Zion National Park

Virgin River - Zion National Park

Zion National Park



Sonny Boy's BBQ - Hurricane, UT

At the beginning of the Narrows - Zion National Park

Looking up from the center of the river - Zion National Park

Amazing markings on these rocks - Zion National Park

Go-Pro shot of Wes setting up his tripod in the Narrows

Ready for the long exposure

The Narrows - long exposure shot

Leaving the tripod and camera unattended for 30 seconds

Hiking sticks highly recommended.

Another long exposure, deeper into the Narrows

Desperate times.

Waterproof cases for everything!
Game meatloaf (elk, buffalo, beef) and bison burger at Spotted Dog Cafe - Springdale, UT
"Waterfront views are overrated." - Wes

Returned to Spotted Dog for the $7 breakfast buffet - fueling up for Angel's Landing

Not even halfway up to Angel's Landing - Zion National Park

It was ordered for the bachelorette party

Angel's Landing trail - Go-Pro pictures from now on:







We did that!





It's around the corner!

Top of Angel's Landing - Zion National Park

Top of Angel's Landing - Zion National Park

We were so lucky that it was cloudy



Facing his fears in the name of photography







Spicy dried mangoes from Trader Joe's

The descent begins...











Bye-bye Zion

Checkerboard Mesa - on our way out of Zion National Park



Wes and his favorites at Thunderbird Restaurant - home of the Ho'Made Pies

Thunderbird Restaurant - Mt. Carmel, UT

Woke up to this.  Panguitch, UT

His usual country-fried steak, her usual pancake stack with REAL DINER BUTTER!
Kenny Rays Diner - Panguitch, UT

Bryce Canyon



Ended up taking out the telephoto lens to get better photos of the hoodoos













Navajo Loop trail - Bryce Canyon National Park



Him getting this next shot:



Me getting this next shot:



The rock pieces actually wiggle around quite freely...

Backerei Forscher (German bakery in the middle of nowhere) - Orderville, UT

Very scared of this place - Kanab, UT

Somehow found some upscale-ish food in Kanab, UT

It's 4 in the morning and we are hiking to Horseshoe Bend!

Met another photo geek/enthusiast from Seattle

Just a Go-Pro photo - but dang... watching the colors fill in was enchanting.

Horseshoe Bend, AZ



















Navajo breakfast at Cameron Trading Post - Cameron, AZ

Wish that this wasn't a phone picture. Navajo flatbread in all of its freshly fried glory!  Also great with honey.

Navajo taco, Navajo stew, and a blue corn pancake.

Everyone who worked here was a Navajo native.

He gets his Ho, I get my Kocoum.



Visibility was...nonexistent.







The clouds beginning to part over the Grand Canyon











Squirrel















Caught the sunset, it was magnificent.



Late-night vanilla custard at Freddy's - Flagstaff, AZ

Clear Arizona skies, last day on the road. 

Lilo's Westside Cafe - Seligman, AZ

Jager schnitzel - breaded pork loin with mushroom gravy. "Germany's take on country fried steak!" -Wes

Somewhere along Route 66 - Seligman, AZ

Somehow found Dole Whip, and somehow my wedding manicure is still intact - Happiest Chevron on Earth, AZ

And that's the end of our mini-moon!

-Marilyn



2 comments:

  1. LOVE the combination of scenery pictures and food pictures.

    Please please also post recipes (even if they're guesstimate measures) when you post home-cooked food if possible ... or I will be hunting you down for them cause they're always looking delicious!

    ReplyDelete