Surprisingly, this is our first Durham Bulls game of 2007. Hopefully we’ll win!

Update: Unfortunately, we lost 4-3, but the weather and cold beer were fine, so it’s hard to complain.

Some friends and I (and the dog) went for a walk this morning at the Duke Gardens and I brought along Eric’s birthday present—a Trackstick II. This little GPS unit tracks your trip and when you get home, you just plug it into a USB port and download the information using the software. You then send that information to Google Earth and it generates the map below…

Pup and I walked 2.66 miles. :)

I always do a lot of research when we take trips because I want to know that we will be resting our heads in a nice place. TripAdvisor is usually a good place to start but many people only bother to write bad reviews, as is human nature. All the places we booked for our recent trip had more good reviews than bad, and since we stay at hotels enough, I’ve decided to start chipping in my two cents.

During this trip we stayed in five different hotels/B&Bs, a different place for every night. While I was admittedly tired of living out of my suitcase, all were satisfactory to great. It pays to do research!

Thursday night—Best Western Travel Inn (St. George, UT)
Your typical Best Western hotel but with a friendly host who recommended a wonderful restaurant nearby and the biggest TV I’ve ever seen in a hotel room (eric notes: a 36″ plasma). Located within walking distance of over a dozen restaurants. Breakfast was just okay but the room was quiet and we had no trouble parking. ($60, breakfast included)

Friday night—Bryce Trails B&B (Tropic, UT)
This was the most expensive place we stayed, but the room (Bristle Cone Pine) was large and the breakfast was fabulous. Plenty of breakfast selections, good coffee, and a delicious casserole. Great setting, very quiet and very scenic. Our host, Shaunna, even stayed up to check us in at 9pm. ($118, breakfast included)

Saturday night—Arrowhead Country Inn (Mt. Carmel, UT)
Wow. This place was fantastic. We arrived at the same time as a bunch of other folks and there was a mix-up in our room which turned out to be in our favor. We were upgraded to a ground-level room with a in-suite bath because the owner had tweaked her knee and couldn’t climb stairs very well to clean the basement level rooms. (We hope Jane is feeling better by now.) We were exhausted after two full days of hiking, so we just had dinner at the Inn and it was great, BBQ ribs for me and Southwest Chicken Cordon Bleu (pepperjack cheese and raspberry chipotle, yum!) for Eric. They didn’t have a liquor license anymore (the rules are very strict in Utah), so the host just gave me a bottle of his own beer to have with my meal (thanks, Darren!). We also enjoyed the outdoor hot tub before retiring for the night. Our breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausage, and fresh fruit was just the start we needed to hike in the Grand Canyon. The only downside is that our room (Morning Glory) was right next to the dining room and there was a large (rather loud) party that closed the place down. ($88, breakfast included)

Sunday night—Cliff Dwellers Lodge (Marble Canyon, AZ)
This place is in the middle of nowhere, situated right at the base of the Vermillion Cliffs near Marble Canyon, AZ. Dinner here was great, I had the Angler steak and cheese sandwich and Eric had a turkey sandwich, both on ciabatta bread. The room was large and clean, but showed clear signs of wear and tear. The setting was nearly pitch-black at night and very quiet. Unfortunately, breakfast was a let-down. Service took a while and the food was barely worth eating when it arrived, very disappointing especially after the good dinner. ($84)

Monday night—Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino (Las Vegas, NV)
We weren’t expecting much from this place and it lived up to our low expectations. It was (by far) the cheapest hotel room on The Strip and, consequently, we spent most of our time at the Bellagio and Paris just down the street. We had one of the newly remodeled rooms but the tub and shower still looked old. Our view was of the interior of the hotel but you could see Bellagio and Caesar’s Palace to the left. The casino itself is dark and awful to navigate through. It took about 30 minutes to check into our room which I hear is rather short on average for this place. There were two huge conventions in town, so our timing was bad for affordable places to stay; I wouldn’t stay here again. ($72)

(prices include taxes)

Here is a road map and itinerary of our trip (click on the picture for an enlarged and readable version).

Thursday—flew to Las Vegas, NV; drove to St. George, UT
Friday—drove to Zion National Park; hiked the Riverside Walk into the Virgin River/Narrows, Emerald Pools Trail, and Weeping Rock; drove to Tropic, UT
Saturday—drove to Bryce Canyon National Park; hiked Mossy Cave, Sunrise Point, Queens Garden Trail, Upper Inspiration Point, and Yovimpa Point; drove to Mt. Carmel, UT
Sunday—drove to North Rim of the Grand Canyon; hiked Bright Angel Point, North Kaibab Trail to Coconino Overlook, and drove/hiked to Point Imperial and Cape Royal; drove to Marble Canyon, AZ
Monday—drove to Page, AZ; hiked to Horseshoe Bend; drove to Zion National Park; hiked Canyon Overlook Trail; drove to Las Vegas, NV
Tuesday—flew back to Durham, NC

More to come!

and pup is happy is happy we are back!

We are nearing the end of our Southwest US adventure, and we are finishing in Las Vegas. It is quite the change compared to the national parks and small towns we’ve been through the last few days. We ate in Paris (and gambled a whole dollar!), watched the Bellagio fountans (pictured), and enjoyed a mai-tai in the Imperial Palace. Suffice to say, we’ve had a great time and we’ll be glad to get home tomorrow.

After 90 miles of driving through hills, a plateau, and a pine forest, we finally reached the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Our first stop was Bright Angel Point (near the visitor’s center) where we had our first clear view of the canyon.

We tackled part of the North Kaibab Trail next and we were rewarded with this stunning view at the Coconino Overlook. The 1.5 mile round-trip hike included a 1,000 foot drop in elevation.

All the overlooks offered different and amazing views of the canyon. The Cape Royal overlook at the end of a 20 mile scenic drive was our final stop for the day.

After a hearty breakfast, we packed up the car again for our trip into Bryce Canyon National Park. The scenery is completely different from the views at Zion (a mere hour away), but no less stunning. We started the day with a short hike to Mossy Cave and a nearby waterfall. Once in the park, we descended the Queens Garden Trail to see the “hoodoos” from the ground up.

The rest of our time was spent driving from overlook to overlook, enjoying the grand views. Upper Inspiration Point was by far the most magnificent. It was also the most difficult “overlook” climb!

Suffice it to say we are having an absolute blast, and tomorrow? The Grand Canyon!

Eric asked me to add that dinner was excellent at the Arrowhead Country Inn (our accommodations for this evening). :)

The experience of hiking in the Virgin River through such a beautiful canyon was breathtaking. We ran out of adjectives after about two miles. :)

Our rental footwear did an amazing job of keep our feet toasty warm in the 50 degree water—our knees were not so lucky.

We crossed the river frequently and sometimes it looked like this:

But it was all completely worth it to see Wall Street and views like the one below for the last mile or so…

The Riverwalk Trail that leads to this hike was also covered in columbine and shooting star wildflowers, among others.

Eric took over 400 photos today between our Zion hiking and the drive to Bryce Canyon, so obviously this is only a small sampling. We’ll be posting more photos on flickr once I get a chance to go through them.

Zion National Park is absolutely beautiful! We got in to the park around 8:45am (after picking up our river hiking gear) and we’ve just left at 6pm, happily exhausted after about 8 miles of hiking. After dinner we drive to Tropic, UT, and tomorrow we visit Bryce Canyon. Whew!