A Utah Wonder

July 9, 2010- Timpanogos Cave

So we decided to have Shane come over to our house and sleep over for a night.  He came over and him and Trav went golfing while I worked.  When I got home we went and got Papa John's pizza and played games all night, including Sorry, Yatzhee, and Rummikub.  We had a lot of fun that night.  The next day was Friday and I had decided to take it off to spend some time with Travis and Shane.  We thought that going to Timpanogos Cave would be a lot of fun.  We knew that Shannon and Josh had wanted to come when we had mentioned it earlier in the summer so we called them.  Shannon was able to come, but poor Josh had homework to do and then he had work that day.  So it was kind of an odd combo of Trav, Me, Shannon, and Shane, but it was so much fun!

So we headed out around 8 so that we would get hiking at 9.  We knew it was going to be super hot, so we wanted to get a decently early start. We geared up with our water bottles, snacks, and jackets.  It is only 1 and 1/2 mile hike, but it is ALL uphill.

This was when we still looked fresh!  It was funny because Shane said he would carry the backpack with all the water all the way up to the cave. (We were going to take turns)  He had that attitude of "It won't be bad.  I got this. "Trav and I thought that sounded great and agreed! :)  Well when we got to the top he was like, "I'm not carrying this all the way down."  It was kind of funny because he had to let his pride go.  So I carried it through the cave and Trav carried it down.

Shannon, Me, and Shane.  I love my siblings!  I'm sure glad I was born into the family I was.  They're the best!

This is when we arrived at the top. I think we were all ready for a break, but we didn't have to wait long until we were in the cave.

Shannon and I had to wear the backpacks in front of us so that we woudn't touch the cave.  There are some parts when it is super close quarters and they want the cave preserved, but it kind of looked funny and felt funny.

This is a little lake that was in the cave.  There were a few of these.

The Heart of Timpanogos.  They lit it up with a red light and turned it off and on so it looks like a heart was pumping.  It was pretty cool.

I am still waiting for these to meet in the middle.  I have been since the first time I went to Timpanogos Cave.  Ha ha.  We did find out that the cave was discoved by a man that went hunting.  There are a total of 3 different caves that are connected.  The first cave is the original one that the hunter found, but it doesn't have all the wonders because when robbers heard about a cave, they went at took a bunch of stuff out.  The other caves were discovered later and they were designated a National Park to protect the treasures.

What makes the stalagtites and stalagmites is a sort of acid that sticks.  I just thought this was cool. I can't remember exactly what it is.

This is the door exiting the cave.  Inside the cave they did turn off the lights completely in one spot and it was pitch black. You could not see your hand AT ALL.  It was nothingness and was a little eery.

On the hike down.

You can see the American Fork Valley through the mountains.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I had a moment while hiking down and thought, "That cave was so beautiful and so cool, but look how beautiful this scenery is that we live in."  So we enjoyed a few pictures on the way down.

Trav and Shane were little buddies all the way and they are always buddies whenever we're together.  It is interesting that Shane is wearing U of U gear and Trav is in blue.  I guess BYU and U of U fans can get along. :)

We decided to have a little picnic up in the woods.  It made me a little nervous when we saw a sign that said "Rattlesnake Habitat".  How many rattlesnakes have to be spotted in the area for an official sign to be put up. YIKES! We had subways, chips, apples and carmel dip, carrots and strawberries.  It was yummy after our hike.  Thanks Shannon and Shane for joining us on our adventure.  You both added to the fun! 

Kennecott Copper Mine

So we have decided that we want to make sure we go visit the places of Utah that people come to see when they come to tour Utah.  I think it would be pretty crazy to live here for at least 1/4 of the my life and not have gone and seen the Golden Spike (We saw that last year) and Kennecott Copper Mine (Largest Man Made Thing).  There were tour buses up there with a lot of Asian people, so we knew that it must be worth seeing.

It just had layer upon layers that they had dug out, and it was impossible to get the whole mine in one pictures.  You'll just have to go to get the full magnitude.

They had a museum and movie that you could watch about how they mine copper.  Once the dirt that they have dug out has been refined over and over it ends up being this sheet of 99.9% copper.  I took a picture of this dinosaur skull because it was discovered down around where Trav is from.

There was a cool little fact that I learned.  They made all the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic medals out of gold, silver, and bronze that was mined at Kennecott Copper Mine.  It is the only Olympic Host that had Medals made in the same location as the games were hosted!

This is the tire that are on the trucks that hold all the dirt that is mined.  As you can see it is gigantic.

This was the best picture that we got of the mine.  It was awesome to learn that it is the only man made thing that you can actually see from SPACE!!!  I do recommend you go and see it.  It is a pretty inexpensive date and a good time!

Bees Night

So Trav and I always like to hit up a couple of Bees games in the summer.  It was a lot of fun this year because my work was selling tickets that were for really good seats that cost a little bit more than general admission.  On night we were right here between home plate and first base, and the second game we went to we were a little to the right of home plate. Just 7 rows back.  It was fun to be up close.  The first time we went to a Bees game together was when we were dating.  We went on July 7th.  The next year we hit up a game with my family and I was opening my wallet and found the ticket from the year before when Trav and I had went on July 7th.  I then realized that today was July 7th!  We didn't even do that on purpose. So  the next year we planned to go on July 7th, and then we didn't stop the tradition, we went on July 7th  again this year.  We are lucky that they have been in town playing every July 7th so far!  It is a fun little tradition we have started.

Cruiseship Tour (Part 4)

Cruise Ship Fun and Miami Beach

So one of our activities on the cruise ship was mini golfing on the top of the ship.  We both had a lot of fun, but Travis always won!  It was kind of cool because while we were mini golfing the crew who does the video of the whole cruise came and videoed us.  We weren't sure if we would be on the final one after they made all the cuts, but it showed me mini golfing and it showed Travis competing in the dodge ball competition.  I played in that as well, but I got out after about the first thrown ball.  It was kind of sad and our team ended up losing, but it was a fun to participate.  We also got involved in the water volleyball.  They had a competition between the crew members and the guests, but we missed that.  After they did the competition we hopped in and played with other guests for probably a good two hours.  It was an ABSOLUTE BLAST!  If you don't know, I could play volleyball everyday. But it is always hard to find enough people to play.  I'd say that was one of the many highlights of the cruise life.

Here I am in front of the Platinum Theater.  This is where all the major productions showed nightly.  They had two comedian nights, two Mariner of the Seas Dancers night, and a welcome and goodbye show.  The dancers did a fairy tale production and a Cirque de Sole performance.  We always enjoy the shows.  They are always very well done and super entertaining.

Our maid's name was Allyson.  She did an awesome job and when she would see us in the halls going to our room she would always call us by name and ask us how our days went.  Se was really nice and one night we came into our room to see this.  She had taken may beach towel to add to the colorfulness of towel folding.  I LOVED it!

Our ship was the Liberty of the Seas

The Rembrandt was our dining room.  It was on the bottom floor of the dining room and was towards the middle.  It was so cool to look up and see the huge chandelier and be in front of the huge staircase.  It was a beautiful dining room. 

We kept seeing this chair and wanting to get a picture, but other people were always on it.  Finally there was a free moment and we snapped the shop.  I think it is super awesome.  I would definitely by it for my house.

This was called the On Air area.  This included the ice skating rink and all of the karaoke nights.  We watched a few different karaoke nights and saw the ice show.  Another cool thing that they did in the ice rink room was we played "The Quest".  It involved a lot of people.  The whole bowl of seats was full.  We were divided into 12 groups.  The leader of the game would call out something that your group needed to bring up.  One of the items they asked for was false teeth.  People were pulling out their fake teeth and it was kind of nasty, but this elderly guy in our group who hadn't done anything to participate until this point and he basically the only older guy because all the guys in our section happened to be younger, pulled through by pulling out a little black comb he had in his pocket.  They counted in as "false" teeth. The last contest was to send up a guy who looked most rugged, manly, and bikerish.  Well I am telling you, it just happened that all the guys in our group were skinny, young, and dressed nice.  So we send up this guy who was willing to go and kind of preppy, and the leader said "I didn't mean Miami Vice."  Everyone laughed.  So then we had to dress them up and get them ready for the Miss Liberty of the Seas Beauty Pageant.  It was so funny to see all these guys put on skirts, bras, jewelry, high heels, and hold purses.  All the rugged guys total looked out of their element and our guy looked in his element!  It was awesome.  So they all had to walk down the middle of the stage and walk the cat walk.  Our guy walked down in style and gave a big ol' kiss to the camera at the end.  Well he ended up winning Miss. Liberty of the Seas and our group won overall!  It was a blast!  I do have mention that our Miss Liberty of the Seas was in the final video as well and the video ended with his big ol' kiss to the camera.  We should have bought it!

They held an international night in the Royal Promenade where they served all sorts of food.  We were headed to dinner at the time, so we just enjoyed all the excitement.  I thought this carved watermelons and animals made out of fruit were so creative and cute!

Trav really wanted the picture by the mermaid on the wall...so here it is. 

 

The only boxing ring that is currently floating on water.  Don't worry, we didn't try it out.

The Windjammer Cafe.  This is where we ate most of our lunches.  They have a huge buffet and the seating area overlooks the water off the back of the boat.  I loved eating over the ocean.

They had a big pirate parade down the middle of ship.  If you haven't been on a cruise, know that if you go, you will not get bored.  They have so many activities and the fun never ends.  You don't even have time to do everything that you want to do.

This was the curtain to the Platinum Theater.

You got to love when you have someone else take your picture and the miss getting one of your heads.  We are holding virgin strawberry margaritas that were delightful.  We treated ourselves to these a few nights.  Not super cheap, but so worth it. 

This was our main waiter Glenn.  He was so friendly and nice.  He always made she the ladies were served first and that he got their order first.  He gave us a puzzle to solve where we had to use 6 straws to make 4 triangles.  We could not figure it out forever.  He was loving the fact that he had tricked us.  Well while he was away, another waiter came over and helped us figure it out.  Glenn couldn't believe it when he came back, it was a lot of fun! 

So we went on our cruise from a Sunday to a Sunday.  We knew that when we returned back to the port we would not be ready to go home and get back to work.  So we decided to plan one night in Miami.  We stayed at this nice resort that was on the beach.  In the picture below you can see where we were able to swim in the ocean.  What was neat about this location was that you could go clear out to the end of that pier and the water was only up to your chest.  So there was plenty of space for everyone.  We enjoyed the ocean and the pool at the resort.  That night we drove around looking for somewhere good to eat.  We saw a lot of people at this little tiny restaurant on the side of the street, so we went there.  We were able to seat on a table outside by the street and enjoy the Miami night life. 

This is on the plane ride home.  We may have been smiling, but I don't think that we were ready to go home.  We did have a great time together.  After living through this last year of Trav's constant studying and stress, and my full time work and trying to finish up may degree, we sure did enjoy all the good times we spent together in Miami and on the Carribean Cruise.  It was nice to be together 24/7!  There is no one else I would rather spend my time with! I love you Trav!

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