Monday - Sunday November 17-30, 2025
Cold and snowy
The first week of this block flew by. Work. Runs. Strength training. Tae Kwon Do. All fun stuff. I even had a haircut with Jenny on Wednesday. The main thing was the boy's XC Banquet, which was fun. He got some awards, though my favorite thing was Jackson passing him on his hair bandana that had been passed on to him. He is such a sweet kid, and I will forever be grateful to him for having been so welcoming of the boy and his friends last year.
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| ELHS XC Boys! |
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| Passing on the bandana! |
Then, the travels began. We decided last-minute to spend Friday night at a hotel and avoid rushing Saturday morning, so we left home in the evening, after dinner, and made it to a hotel by a new parking lot we were going to try after Al had also recommended it. I wasn't opposed to the idea of saving money in parking, especially now that the parking at DTW has gotten ridiculous (and that reminds me, I should book the Flyer and a hotel for our Christmas trip!).
We slept, then Saturday morning we were up early, packed, and then went to park to this new place, took the shuttle to the airport, and soon enough we were off to Salt Lake City for a trip many, many years in the making... 19 to be exact.
Back in November of 2006, I went to visit my friend Isabel in Utah, where she had taken a job at Weber State in Ogden. I wanted to see her of course, but for some years before then, I had dreamed about going to see Arches National Park, so I told her I'd go but we'd have to make the drive to Arches, which we did. And she loved it, so much that she's been back countless time and eventually she and Hugo bought a place in Moab, which Mayra and I visted back in
November of 2022.
I love that area. It truly is one of my happy places in this world. My Man had been there before we started going out, but he and I had never been there together, and of course, the boy had never been, so when trying to decide what to do for Thanskgiving this year, we figured we would go and visit our friends and make it there finally together.
They picked us up from the SLC airport in the late morning, and after stopping for lunch in Spanish Fork, we made it all the way to Moab, but instead of going straight to their place, we stopped to do the Corona Arch Trail, which was amazing and not as busy as it is not officially part of Arches National Park.
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| Friends at Corona Arch! |
The hike was fun, not too long, and even felt a bit warm, but was so good after all the sitting around flying and driving earlier in the day! We even got to see 2 crazy guys doing base jumping! Insanity.
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| Guys about to do base jumping! |
After that we went to their house, had dinner there, and I basically called it an early day.
Sunday morning the boy and I were up early to go for a run. This time I wanted to run a little longer so we went into the Hidden Valley Trail area, but instead of doing the pedestrian trail that goes up, we just followed the trail for the off-road vehicles, which was fun. I ended up talking to a woman who was visiting from Wyoming for a bit. Fun to see the early people, and definitely gorgeous to take in the scenery and share that with the boy.
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| My favorite runner leaving me behind... |
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| Gorgeous Hidden Valley Trail run... |
I got back to their place before the boy did (he ran longer!), so I stretched, then we all got ready, had breakfast, prepped some food, and by 9:30 am we were heading out to Arches National Park, as Isabel had requested a special permit so we could hike the Fiery Furnace area, which she had only shown Mayra and I from a distance when we had been there 3 years ago.
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| Off go the children to the Fiery Furnace! |
The trail was definitely more technical than just a walk in the woods, and it was fun, and in some places, completely breath-taking. It was crazy to think that in one minute you were squeezing between rocks barely able to see what was around you, then next thing you'd be in an open space with giant rocks around you. It was amazing and I was so thankful that they thought of taking us there! (Also thankful that we are the kind of people who can *be* taken to such places, ha!)
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| In the Fiery Furnace... |
At some points you were at the bottom of the rocks, then you were on top of everything with amazing views from far away. I was in heaven, and to my heart's joy, the boy was loving it! The hike really made me miss hiking in Monterrey, climbing the various mountains there on random weekends, so much fun. We definitely don't have this in Michigan; sure, we have hiking, but it typically isn't on this level nor with these views. So yeah, I definitely was taking it all in.
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| With my boys at the Fiery Furnace! |
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| With the boy in the Fiery Furnace... |
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| Group scenes at the Fiery Furnace... |
The last part of the hike were truly amazing; we had amazing views of the rest of Arches and the La Sal mountains at a distance, and by then the sun had started coming out (we had been worried about some rain in the forecast but thankfully it never rained!).
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| The various levels inside Fiery Furnace... |
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| Boys and boulders! |
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| Gorgeous views from the Fiery Furnace! |
Once we finished our hike, we went to the car and ate our packed lunches standing, taking in the view. Then we got back in the cars and drove to the other side of the park to the Delicate Arch trail. Now, up to this point the day had been awesome but it was about to get completely out of this world for me.
I did most of the hike to the Arch with Hugo and Isabel's son Victor, who is so cute and super talkative. We kept joking we would beat everybody to the Arch, and for the most part we did! My Man and the boy were behind us, and behind them were Hugo, Isabel, and Norah. By the time we got close to the Arch, Victor convinced me to go up on an area where there was a sort of "window" through the rock to see the arch. It was beautiful. Then my Man and the boy caught up and I was in heaven. Truly. To be there with them was a dream come true for me. And I loved that the boy loved it.
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| One of my happiest moments from 2025!!! |
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| Group photo at the Delicate Arch! |
At some point the 3 of us went under the Arch and had some pictures taken - I might have been teary eyed at those moments.
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| Happy Moment! |
On the hike back we decided to go a different route, climbing straight down from the arch into the amphitheater and finding our way back to the main trail, which I'm pretty sure is how Isabel and I got there the first time we went in 2006!
When we were almost back to the parking lot, we took a slight detour with the boy and Victor to see the petroglyphs I hadn't had a chance to see the previous times. Super cool.
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| Petroglyphs near Delicate Arch... |
Since it was still early in the afternoon when we were done with that hike, we decided to drive to Dead Horse State Park to see the sunset. No hiking there, just a little path by the parking lot, where Isabel had taken Mayra and I 2 years ago, except this time it wasn't as cold. It was beautiful.
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| Friends at Dead Horse State Park... |
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| Boy at Dead Horse State Park! |
I can't recall if it was that evening or the next one that we had dinner at a pizza place in Moab, but that's what we did. One night we had tostadas at their place, the other night we went out. It was fun.
The next morning we got up and I did my strength workout with mini bands while people slept. Then we had breakfast and headed out for the day. Our outing that day was to visit Canyonlands National Park, which my Man and I had not seen before. We stopped at a place where Hugo was telling us about some of the mountain bike trails he has done (it does look fantastic for that!). Then we carried on, Hugo and the boys driving first, then the girls following to our next stop: The Mesa Arch.
On the way there, Isabel and I (and Norah) hit a deer by Gemini Bridge. That was definitely a first for me. I can see the moment, mostly in slow motion, of us driving on a beautiful day, no cars behind nor coming towards us, then suddenly a dear with giant antlers coming from the right, Isabel moving into the oncoming traffic lane to try to avoid it, the realization for me that we were in fact going to hit the deer -and briefly thinking we were about to crash and maybe even roll over- then the crash, and the deer sort of falling and bouncing back, and eventually, Isabel coming to a full stop still on the oncoming traffic lane. I remember noticing we were ok, looking on the rearview mirrors, and then calmly telling her to drive back to our lane and stop on the side of the road. Once we came to a full stop, we got out of the car and I could tell my legs and arms were shaking, and that's when I told them we needed a group hug. That's when I texted my Man to tell him we had stopped because we had hit a deer, then minutes later I texted to say we were ok (in case that had not been clear). Within minutes, Hugo and the boys were back, checking on us. The car was basically fine, a small dent, mostly deer hair and ... sweat? Who knows what the liquid was.
We eventually got back on the road and made it to our first destination: Mesa Arch. The hike to it was tiny compared to the hikes we had done the previous day, maybe a quarter of a mile. The arch itself was really cool; low and long, but with a cliff behind it, basically!
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| Friends at Mesa Arch! |
I was amazed by the all the large crows that were flying and walking around, so many! After the Mesa Arch, we drove to another part of the park where we did a longer hike to see the Upheaval Dome; we didn't actually go down the crater, just saw it from 2 points on the hike. The hike was amazing, mostly walking on huge rocks, and the views were awesome.
Tuesday morning the boy and I got up and went for a run, our last in Moab, then we had breakfast, packed, and on our way out of Moab we stopped by the Colorado River and by the entrance to Arches to take some photos. Then we drove back the ~3 h to Salt Lake City, where we stopped to have a late lunch/early dinner at the Red Iguana, my enmoladas were delicious.
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| Old U2 scenario now at the SLC aquarium! |
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| Friends at the Red Iguana... |
That evening Isabel and I went shopping for last-minute things for Thanksgiving and sadly, I started feeling some soreness in my throat so after playing some board games, I called it a night early.
On Wednesday morning I woke up and was not feeling great, so I skipped going on a run with the boy; he went on his own for a ~4 mi run in their neighborhood. Then we went on a day trip with Isabel to see the
Golden Spike site; the site where the railroad across the US came together. Sadly, since the spike was made of actual gold, we didn't see the actual gold spike, but we still got to see the site where the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads joined each other. Sadly the visitor center was closed, but we still got to walk around the area. Evidently there used to be a town there (Promontory) but it has since disappeared.
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| Golden Spike Site... |
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| Golden Spike railroad marker... |
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| Golden Spike Historic area... |
From there, we kept driving, eventually on a dirt road, to a "surprise" site that Hugo had wanted us to see (though unfortunately he wasn't with us on the outing; he had stayed back in Ogden with Norah, who had some extra school homework). Eventually the road was kind of empty, so I started joking with Isabel about what kind of place she was taking us to, and if there were some holes already dug up for us or something. It was that remote, but eventually we made it to the end of the road and we could see the "surprise":
The Spiral Jetty.
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| Spiral Jetty and Great Salt Lake... |
It was definitely a random but cool thing to see. Turns out it was constructed in the 1970s by an American sculptor, Robert Smithson, and at times it has been submerged so it has changed with time. It was really interesting for sure. We walked around it, then walked to the actual shore of the lake, which seemed to take forever but eventually we got to the water, and it was weird. There were no usual waves for a lake shore, and there wasn't really sand, just salt... Definitely a cool experience.
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| On the shore of the Great Salt Lake... |
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| Great Salt Lake... |
That evening we played a board game and I made it to bed early; I was still hoping to feel better, especially after Hugo and Isabel gave me the "
San Marcos de Tigre" (you know, the warmest of them all) so I could be more comfortable.
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| Con la del Tigre... |
Unfortunately I woke up feeling awful on Thursday morning. By this point I had briefly considered just walking the Turkey Trot, but with the headache, fever, and join pain I was having, all I did was say good luck to my boys and went back to sleep. I was so tired and not feeling great. I eventually woke up around 11 am, when Victor knocked on the door and came in to check on me, such a sweet boy. I did get up and shower, and tried to be social even though I wasn't feeling it; it was painful to even think of swallowing saliva, much less other drinks or meals.
I was excited to ask them about the Turkey Trot they had done. The boy was excited to have done a race at elevation, and he ended up winning his age group, and his prize was a giant pumpkin pie from Costco, so he was pleased!
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| Turkey Trot runners and the prize pie! |
I tried to be social during the rest of the day; with the help of DayQuil on a schedule, I managed to be human for the most part, and we had a delicious meal of salmon, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole with tiny marshmallows, and mashed potatoes. It was delicious.
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| Our fantastic hosts... |
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| Delicious Thanksgiving meal... |
After the meal, we watched Deep Impact (ah, comets attacking the earth for years has been a thing!), then we had a delicious cheesecake that Isabel had made (and the boy's pumpkin pie) for dessert before I called it a day. I really had hoped to get in their hot tub, but at that point my joints were feeling achy and I worried that if I did, my fever would get weird and I was going to have a stiff neck the rest of the time. Ugh.
Friday I woke up really feeling awful, and at this point I started worrying that I didn't have just the sniffles; I thought maybe I had the flu. Still, I had some energy after breakfast, and being that it was our last full day in Utah, we all went out to walk in downtown Ogden, had some ramen, and took some pictures.
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| Ogden likes running! |
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| Friends in Ogden... |
That afternoon we played some more games; this time it was Settlers with the Cities and Knights and Seafarers expansions; the game took 3.5 hours! We paused to have dinner and kept playing. It was really fun, especially since we were all playing (well, 6 of us; Norah was babysitting). Even more satisfying was the fact that after getting off to a really slow start, I ended up winning, ha!
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| 3.5 hours later... |
Saturday morning we had breakfast, said our good-byes and then Isabel drove us to the airport. The flight back was fairly uneventful, I watched the Materialists... it was meh. We landed a bit earlier, and so thankful, because it was starting to snow. After it took forever to retrieve our car, I told my Man I would drive for the sake of everybody's peace of mind (especially mine; I wasn't feeling really well, so I figured it'd be best if I had something to focus my energy on instead of just freaking out in the snow while my Man was driving). I also made the executive decision to skip the highway and just take the backroads.
The drive home took 3.5 hours (normally it is 1:15 h!). We never went over 35-40 mph. It took forever but it wasn't really stressful; we eventually made it home close to midnight.
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| Snowy scenes... |
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| Winter wonderland... |
We woke up to ~8 inches of snow on the ground on Sunday morning, and by then I knew I had to go get my throat checked, so as soon as I got up I made an appointment at the Urgent Care and by 9 am, after having fun getting out of the garage and driving on the snowy streets, I was getting diagnosed for strep throat. Fun times. I texted our friends immediately; come to think of it I'm surprised but thankful that my boys nor our friends got it!!! I was given drugs, and spent the rest of the day chilling on the couch.
And that was the Thanksgiving week. I'm glad I didn't get sick until after our stay in Moab; that would have sucked completely! But overall, the trip was wonderful and I'm so, so thrilled I finally got to share one of my favorite places in the world with my boys!!!
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