Context
In 2020 our Spring Break trip to Europe was canceled due to COVID. We had planned a great trip to France / Switzerland to visit a friend and see the sights. COVID came to the United States at almost the exact same time as we were supposed to leave the US. Anyway, our Spring Break sights were significantly more modest in 2021 & 2022 with trips with our close friends to a house in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Gatlinburg has overly tourist appeal familiar to anyone who has been to Myrtle Beach, Branson or the Wisconsins Dells, but the two trips were fun / relaxing and thanks to being within driving distance....relatively cheap. In 2023 we wanted to plan something bigger and hopefully better and set our sights on Utah / Arizona. The main appeal were the national parks with Utah having the "mighty 5" which were relatively close to the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. We booked our flights, bought the travel books and were on our way!
Trip
3/17 - Travel Day
Our flight from Columbus had a 3 hour layover in Denver. I was able to watch 16th seeded Farleigh Dickinson upset 1st seeded Purdue in one of the bigger upsets in March Madness history. It was a strange feeling watching it in the Denver airport knowing that the upset was happening in Columbus in an arena 10 minutes from our house. Anyway, we made it to Salt Lake around midnight, took a take to our hotel and promptly went to sleep.
3/18 - Salt Lake City Day
We woke up in much better spirits than I expected considering how late we arrived and were ready for our big day in Salt Lake City. It started off with a lucky break as we went to our next hotel (The Grand America Hotel) and were allowed to check-in 7 hours before our check-in time. Our plan for the trip was to get one night in a relatively cheap hotel (the first night) and one night in a more expensive hotel....with the average cost being two nights in a moderate hotel. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but that worked to perfection because we just slept the first night and then we had 27 hours to enjoy the life of luxury in what my kids thought was a castle. And the hotel was just amazing from the rooms to the pool to the customer service. I generally don't think the marginal benefit of a nice hotel is worth the extra cost, but with this one I agree with some of my more well-off friends.
After checking in we had a full day of the following:
- The Tracy Aviary - J's favorite of the trip. It was free (we have reciprocity through the Franklin Park Conservatory), not crowded and the birds were awesome to see. Also, randomly the food there was excellent.
- Walking around beautiful Salt Lake City - it's just such a clean and nice city. The only disappointing part was Temple Square was under construction, so we couldn't see that. One fun thing is that L got 30,000 steps for the first time on her fitbit.
- Swimming in the hotel pool - we took advantage of this and very much enjoyed the pool
- High tea at The Grand America Hotel - the girls really enjoyed getting dressed up for a different experience than what we normally do.
- Dinner at the Blue Iguana - excellent food in a cool spot within walking distance of the basketball arena.
- Jazz vs Celtics - I've been a Jazz fan for 30 years and it was great to to take family to a very exciting game that ended with an upset Jazz win. L was super into the game, which was was really fun to see. It's weird to me though being a Jazz fan for so long, that this was only the 2nd Jazz home game in my life.
3/19 Salt Lake City to Arches
The day started off with an outstanding breakfast at Eva's Bakery in downtown Salt Lake City. I then took the city train (another bonus about SLC is the train) to the airport to get the car, while M took the kids to the hotel pool for the 3rd time.
Before we left SLC we checked out the Utah State Capital. The build was cool to see and it didn't hurt that it was free. And then it was off on the 4 hour trip to Moab! Lunch was at "Waffle Love" and this was a nice pleasant surprise since I thought fast food was our most likely option next to a Target.
We arrived at Arches National Park at 5pm, which gave us enough time for the tough hike up a mountain to Delicate Arch. The hike took about an hour but in the words of L was "definitely worth it." So many times big things like that are underwhelming. Decline Arch not only met, but vastly exceeded expectations. It was huge and the entire surrounding area was gorgeous. You could see the arch, the rest of the national park and snow capped mountains in the background (See below).
The walk back was much easier since it was down a mountain. We got back in our car hungry for dinner. We stopped at Moab Brewery and the food was ok. After that we checking into our Airbnb about 10 minutes from downtown Moab.
The rest of the evening was very low key. We went bowling, got dinner at Wal-Mart and took it back to the hotel to eat while we watched a movie. Bowling was actually really fun with the highlight being L getting a spare on her last bowl.
We left after the 7th inning stretch so that we could go back to the hotel and get a few more hours at the pool. The hotel was relatively expensive and the main drawing point was the pool, so we definitely wanted to get our money's worth.
3/20 - Moab Day
In the morning we went to Canyonlands National Park and did the mesa arch and grand view trails. They were so cool - both literally and figuratively. The relatively cold weather kept the crowds low on both trails. Parking, hiking and taking pictures was very easy. Also, easy was the hike to Mesa Arch, which with minimal effort produced a great view of the canyon. The grand view hike was longer / tougher, but it felt like walking on top of the world. Below is one picture, but the pictures don't really do it justice.
After the hikes, we enjoyed a great lunch at Mitt's in Moab. We got burgers / milkshakes/ fries. Classic and definitely a recommendation.
That evening we went back to Arches and and picked some of the easier hikes in the Windows Section. The timing worked out well as we briefly got caught in a rain storm that had been threatening all day.
Dinner that night was at Pasta Jay's in downtown Moab. It was excellent and everyone left super happy with an easy day of hiking and great meals.
3/21- Travel Day to Page, Arizona
This was a travel day as we started our drive down to Arizona. It was a really strange drive all morning because it was snowing! That isn't exactly what most people think of when thinking about a "spring break trip Arizona." The snow prevented us from seeing the famous Monument Valley from Forest Gump (and other movies). It's funny in retrospect because whenever our family sees these famous pictures from Monument Valley in travel books / videos we joke about how we could only see 20 feet in front of us due to the snow.
We arrived in Page, Arizona...a very small city...and checked into our hotel before going out to see Horseshoe Bend. This was a short 20 minute hike until you got to the picture below. Wow! Just amazing. It was much bigger in person than I expected. We stayed for about an hour and took a ton of pictures.
3/22 - Page, Arizona & Grand Canyon
Everyone slept well and we woke up ready for the Upper Antelope Tour. The tour into the canyon was with a friendly tour guide and a bunch of retirement age people....4 of whom were from Columbus. The slot canyon was very photogenic (kind of the main point of it) and made me thinking that without the invention of the camera, Page would lose 95% of their economy.
Lunch was at a donut shop right next to the tour company. Donuts were a nice treat after our tour and got us ready for another 4 hour drive....this time to the Grand Canyon.
The Grand Canyon was brutally cold with snow on the ground and a wind that made it seem much colder than the 35 degree temp. Ice checked into the Yavapai Lodge, which had the advantage of being in the park and a short drive to the Grand Canyon Village and the main viewpoint of the Grand Canyon. We bundled up and went to check it out.
The Grand Canyon was as spectacular as advertised even if there were some complaints about the cold. It really did feel different going from mildly cold (but comfortable) in Utah to this kind of cold. We use this as an opportunity to warm up with hot drinks and apps in the famous El Tower hotel.
3/23 - Grand Canyon & Phoenix
We woke up at 6am, put on all our clothes and hopped in the car for a short drive to the best view of the sunrise. One really cool think (and a favorite for J) was seeing 4 deer calmly sitting in the snow outside our room. The sunrise over the Grand Canyon was awesome and somehow both better and colder than the sunset the night before. Despite the smile below, everyone was just kind of over the cold.
We then left the Grand Canyon to do drive to Phoenix and magically went from the frozen tundra to warm / sunny Phoenix. We headed straight to the Desert Botanical Garden. We walked around all the cacti and other plants from the Sonoran Desert. This was also a free activity thanks to our Franklin Park Conservatory membership.
We drove back to our hotel and headed straight to the "river ranch" waterpark. It was somewhat cool outside (especially with the breeze) but the water was warm and the kids absolutely loved it.
We were thrilled to be in Phoenix and ready to end the trip well
3/24 - Phoenix Day
Last full day of the trip!We had breakfast the "hole in the wall" place at the hotel. We could take our time since the pool didn't open up till 10am. At the pool we enjoyed the water with L especially enjoying the lazy river. She took about 6 laps over the two hours we were there.
For the afternoon we drove to Scottsdale to see the Reds play the Diamondbacks. The game was fun (perfect weather / multiple good plays) and it was nice meeting my coworker / friend Sarah and her husband / daughter.
That night we took Sarah's advice and went to the Mexican place (Aunt
3/25- Flight home!
The best news about our flight home was there was no news. Flights went home on time and without incident.
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