Julie has a friend, Annette Johnson, who lives close to Cedar City, so we decided to take a trip to visit her (along with some of Julie and Annette's other North-Ogden friends) and do some fun hiking in the area. We were not disappointed! Each hike was amazing!
We got there Thursday night. Annette fed us Hawaiian Haystacks and then we went to a play called "Tavern" on the SUU campus. It was pretty funny, but I had a hard time staying awake (I think it's my age). We stayed in a house just down the road from Annette. A friend of hers lets people stay there or sometimes rents it out. It worked great for us!
Friday morning we went on the Kanarraville Falls hike. It was beautiful and much of it was hiking in the cold stream, so our feet were frozen! But it was worth it! Here are some pics.
Here we go! Dani, Annette, Julie, Michele and Me
(paid $10 for parking just below this trailhead)
The first of three falls with a fun ladder to climb
This second ladder was a little sketchy, but Julie and I made it!
After the Kanarraville Falls hike, which was about a 3-hr adventure, we headed down the road a ways and did the Spring Creek trail. The first 1/2 hr of it is not as interesting, but once you hit the slot canyon it was spectacular again.
We ate dinner that night at Rusty's, which was a great restaurant! We thoroughly enjoyed it all - bloomin' onion, sweet potato fries and salmon --Mmmm Mmmm. Saturday we headed to Cedar Breaks National Park and Bryce Canyon. WOW! It was breath-taking.
This is Cedar Breaks National Park
The clouds rolled in as we started hiking in Cedar Breaks park, so we soon left for Bryce's National Park.
The Queen's Garden
Standing in the Queen's Garden
We hiked the Navajo Loop in conjunction with the Queen's Garden
There were a LOT of switchbacks leading up to the top.
Pretty amazing, right?
We ordered pizza from The Hub by Annette's house for dinner and then watched the Women's Conference which we pre-recorded. It was very nice. For a treat we had ice-cream sandwiches with chocolate syrup (she prefers caramel) and nuts on top. Yummy.
Sunday we went to all of Annette's church and enjoyed it very much. She fed us spaghetti casserole for dinner and then we headed home. We hope to make it a yearly event!
(I don't know why pictures look perfectly clear until I add them to the blog and then they're blurry...sorry)
January 11-18, 2019 Sailed out of Miami. Came in a day early and found a VRBO for the night (#1145862 owned by Danny de la Parte). It was pretty close to the airport and the cruise terminal. Boarded the Carnival Glory on Saturday morning. Sunday was a fun day at sea. Our cabin is on the 2nd deck, very rear. It makes for more walking, but we haven’t minded it. The worst part is the little child across the hall who is very often crying.
Monday the port was Cayman Islands. We booked online ahead of time a pkg of three things- snorkeling, sting ray city, and starfish beach. I think it was $60 apiece. All three of them were ok...just ok. We got to hold a sting ray and kiss it. Got to hold a starfish and see a few of them along the beach. I was stung by a jelly fish which does not feel good, but today it is better. It was a sunny day, but a little chilly after being wet for so long. The Cayman Islands is a tender port which means you have to take a ferry (tender) from the ship into the port, which takes an extra half hour. Coming back to the ship, there was a HUGE line we had to wait in, but it moved along fairly well.
At the next stop we got to hold a starfish and see a few of them along the beach. You're not supposed to take them out of the water.
Starfish Point
Tuesday was Roatan, Mahogany Bay. The Webbs went diving so Scott and I were on our own for the day. We hired a taxi driver for the day for $25 apiece. He took us to the sloths and monkeys. We got to hold a sloth and let the monkeys jump around on our heads. We also held and fed the Macaws. It was pretty fun. The animals were very tame and friendly. It rained nearly the entire time we were out with the taxi driver.
Taxi Driver we hired for the day
After the animal place, our driver took us to the Pirates of the Caribbean Zip line where we did the Extreme Extreme pkg. it included about 9 zip lines. It was raining the whole time. We got very wet and pretty dirty. I thought it was a lot of fun. Scott thought it was ok. We went to the beach, but it was too rainy to really do anything, so then we just went back to the ship.
After a late lunch there, the sun decided to shine, so I went with the Webbs back out on land where we walked to a beach just 10 Minutes from the ship. There was a fun little nature trail along the way as well. I walked along the water with my toes in the sand and felt my time on Roatan was well spent.
This is the Life
First chance to walk a sandy beach
Fun path and little nature trail from here back to the ship (seen in the background)
Wednesday we caught a tender again into port-Belize. Then we met up with our tour group to go to the ruins. We took an hour-long bus ride to get to the boat ride which was nearly another hour to get to the ruins. Our tour guide was Wentworth. I liked him and the way he spoke. He was the only tour guide I can remember who didn’t ask for a tip at the end, so we gave him a nice one.
The boat ride was pretty fun. It took us through a narrow channel at some pretty high speeds at times. With the long travel time to and from the ruins they had to go as fast as possible to leave us with an hour and twenty minutes at the ruins.
We got to walk through the jungle to get from ruin to ruin. There were three main structures that we got to see. The second one we got to climb to the very top of and look out over the jungle. Belize is very green and jungly. It’s beautiful to look down on, but riding through on the bus, we noticed a lot of trash. They don’t keep it picked up very well. Anyway, it’s fascinating to realize how much land hasn’t been excavated yet and how many more such mounds are all around —hundreds more just in Belize. I would love to be an excavator and bring ruins to daylight. So exciting! On the bus ride home they fed us lunch of chicken and rice and beans -it was ok. We thought it was a pretty fun tour and we’re glad we did it. If there’s another trip to Belize, I think I would do the cave tubing to check that out.
Mayan ruins in Belize
View from the top of the ruins
Today we took a taxi to Palancar Beach. It cost $25 to take a taxi there. We were hoping to snorkel from the beach, but they told us it was best to take a boat out for diving and snorkeling. So we each paid $35 and went to Cielo which was just a shallow sandy spot where there were lots of starfish and sting rays. It was pretty fun. Then we went to Columbia reef where the reef was farther down (28 feet or so) but it was nice, and we saw a lot of fish and even a turtle. Then we went back to shore and lounged on the beach for an hour or two. They charged us $10 for an umbrella chair. I enjoyed the day very much.
Palancar Beach
Another day at sea and we were back in Miami early Saturday morning to begin the long trip home. Another great cruise come and gone. I'd have to say out of everything, my favorite spot was the dining room on board the ship! YUMMMM! And so fun to be waited on every day. I'm a fan of cruising!
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Notes:
Entertainment on board. The entertainment is actually better than I anticipated- because I didn’t anticipate much after the last Carnival Cruise. But the evening entertainment is usually made up of the production crew putting on a nice dancing singing show. There are eight of them - four girls and four boys. They sing and dance very well, and it’s quite entertaining. With the screen behind them adding quite a bit to the show.
Hasbro seems to be a big sponsor of the cruise line, because they only provide Hasbro games in their library, and they have on-stage Hasbro games and competitions for our entertainment. They also have a pretty good band on board and a couple of guitarists who play and sing quite well. We haven’t had the chance to listen much, but it’s pretty good. Last cruise seemed like more comedians which we didn’t like as well. Haven’t heard one comedian this time.
The dining room is always one of my favorite places. I love trying new dishes and they usually don’t disappoint. I even tried ox tongue a couple nights ago and it was delicious. Couldn’t make myself try the snails last night though. The mushroom soup (can’t remember the whole name) was my favorite appetizer so far) - so creamy and rich and yummy. Look for it again!
Notes: Bring lots of fives and ones for tipping because everyone expects a tip—drivers of tours, tour directors, even ferry workers.
Tip: When arriving at a port, never let the first guys talk you into an excursion or a car, because you usually have to make it farther into the town before you get to the local taxi drivers where it is much cheaper.
