Tour de Utah begins

I was born and raised in Utah... still here, and still have never done most of the touristy experiences around. For instance, I had never hiked to Mt. Timp Cave National Monument (or Mt Timp for that matter... later this summer on that one) until a couple weeks ago. I had also never been to the infamous "clothing optional" hot springs at Diamond Fork until last night (no show that night though). And there are so many other not-yet-completed adventures within a couple hours' drive of the place I've lived most of my life, and it's high time I get out and do them. So my touring Utah summer has kicked off and I can now add a few adventures to the list of "checked" items, with hopes of many more to be checked off soon.

Memorial Day weekend was when it began. After canceling a trip to Yellowstone due to bad weather, my roommates and I made up for it by packing in the local adventures. This is when we hiked to Mt. Timp cave (which I had never done), went to a Real Salt Lake game (which Connie and Cherissa had never done... at Rio Tinto Stadium anyway), enjoyed an hour and a half at a massage and oxygen bar (which none of us had done), and ate at our favorite thai and indian restaurants (which I was all too excited to do again). All-in-all it was an immensely enjoyable backup to Yellowstone. A few pics from Memorial Day weekend follow.

The next weekend Connie and I continued a tradition with the 2nd annual "Make Adam give up a perfectly nice Saturday morning to take us to Carl's Cafe and fishing on free fishing day." It was a success... except we didn't catch any fish. Or was it 20 fish that we caught? We kept mixing up our answers when different people asked. Ok, the correct answer was "zero". Maybe it had something to do with how the lake was FROZEN!? We were not expecting that. But there was a little melted area by the dock so we at least pretended there was a point to throwing in our lines. Adam's a great sport to take us fishing two years in a row. And we had a great time, even though the fishing itself was unsuccessful.

Finally, this weekend we continued Tour de Utah with my first time going to Fifth Water Hot Springs. It's a 2.5 mile hike (easy at that!) to a water fall and 5 varying-temperature hot spring pools. It was amazing... and I will be back! This adventure was headed up by our friend Joseph. I've wanted to go there since I was a student at BYU, so I was grateful for the invitation. Another long-time goal fulfilled.

The next picture of me was of me trying out a new style of brainfreeze.... sticking my head through a waterfall. Each of our group did this... a kind of initiation rite I believe.

Tour de Utah is off to a great start. Hopefully the coming weeks and months will bring more new and exciting experiences. Stay tuned...