The Moab installment

We headed off to the beautiful red rocks of Moab for Memorial Day weekend. My dad got accepted into the Moab Arts Festival (apparently known as the Farts Festival to the locals) to sell his watercolors, so it was the perfect excuse to take a vacation!

We approached the trip with ambitious plans for hiking, sightseeing, and introducing little D to the swimming pool. But alas, all of our dreams were crushed when Moab was—are you ready?—cold AND windy practically the whole time we were there.

Despite the wind, we paid the $10 and headed to Arches National Park, thinking that we could at least take a few short hikes. At the first scenic stop, Paul and Jeff got out and were instantly bombarded by windblown rocks and sand. So we promptly turned the car around and decided to pay $10 more to see if Canyonlands was any less windy…you guessed it…it wasn’t. We all got out of the car at the first stop and almost got blown off the mountain. So we headed back to town. Paul and Jeff went and saw X-Men 3 and I hung out at the Festival with my parents.

The next day seemed more promising. The morning was clear and sunny with only a slight breeze. Well, by the time Davis took his nap and we drove back to Arches, the wind was starting to pick up again. But we couldn’t come all this way without doing anything…especially since Jeff had never been to Moab, Arches, Canyonlands, etc. (the parents were stuck at the Festival the whole time). So we decided that if we were going to do anything, it would have to be Delicate Arch. We hit the three-mile hike with great enthusiasm. Even Davis in his new backpack seemed pretty pleased to be out and moving around. By the time we got to the arch, it was once again freezing cold and windy. But we got to see it, it was great, and we took pictures.

All in all, it was fun just to see the beautifulness and hang out with the family for a few days. Davis always enjoys seeing the grandparents and Uncle Jeff. Hours of entertainment were derived from grandpa or grandma or Jeff saying “da” and having Davis bust out the pirate grin, or even better, say “da” back. We will definitely go back to Moab, but not over Memorial Day—too crowded and my dad isn’t too excited about doing the Farts Festival again (he did sell some art, but I don’t think it was worth the two days they had to spend chained to their booth). So check back in another year or so for a hopefully more action packed “Moab part two”…