Sunday, May 10, 2009

page

Dave had to travel up to Page to do a service on a fire pump and asked if I wanted to go along for the ride. It had been a very busy week so I meant to say no, but I accidentally said yes.
(But now I'm glad I did)
It is a five hour drive, and the service on the pump took just under 2 hours. Oh, and then five more hours to get home. So we decided to stay overnight and made a mini vacation out of it. (I love having olderish kids so we can just leave town at a moment's notice and not have to make complicated arrangements for them.)
So when we got up there, it was too early to check into our hotel so Dave went to get the service work done and I told him I'd go for a walk. I needed a destination where I could meet him in a couple of hours or more if the work took him a little longer so we decided on Walmart. It was CLEAR across town so I headed out with my walking shoes and my MP3. When I arrived just 20 minutes later I had plenty of time to walk up and down the aisles and see what I didn't need. As I was wandering aimlessly, I found out I did need some board shorts for my swim suit this summer.
So now it was 3pm, work is complete and we began our vacation. We check into our hotel and I remember reading that this little hotel had a heated pool and a jacuzzi so we headed outside. We got a funny look from the front desk when we asked about towels for the pool. We did enjoy sitting in the jacuzzi for a bit, but the pool was hypothermia-inducing cold. I re-read the brochure and realized it didn't say just heated, but it said 'solar' heated. Well, that leaves the pool useless 9 months out of the year.
After we called Suzanne to get a restaurant recommendation from the myriad of restaurant choices up here,we had a bite to eat then we went to the movies. Well, actually the 'movie' . . . singular. There is one movie theater, one movie, one option. The whole town turned out for the premier of "Wolverine". We arrived about 20 minutes early and I would have thought we were at a premiere of "Pinocchio". We were sitting in a sea of 7 year olds, and 4 year olds, and toddlers. It was a very high ratio of the under 13 crowd. As the movie progressed I became very uneasy at the high amount of graphic violence as I was watching it with pre-schoolers. Yikes.
Saturday morning we kind of slept in and had to rush to make it to the complimentary breakfast hour. After we ate, we realized it wasn't after 9, it was only 8am. Somehow, my cell phone had picked up Utah time and we were an hour earlier than we thought.
I wanted to take Dave out to show him one of the slot canyons nearby, Antelope Canyon. I have been there before with Suzanne and it is the most beautiful place you can imagine. However, they were charging $32 per person. I had already seen it. We couldn't justify $64 our of our budget for a 30 minute tour.
So we went back into town to go through the John Wesley Powell Museum, but it was closed on Saturdays (a tourist attraction closed on Saturdays? go figure). We were going to go to the arts and crafts fair in the park, but it didn't begin until 11am. So we went to the dam to take a tour. Yes, tours were available, but the next one was in 1 1/2 hours. We finally realized that Page is a great place to visit if you have a boat, a tent and hiking shoes, but the town has very little to offer. We finally found some scenic lookout points and took some photos
I guess we should have taken the kids with us after all so we would have had someone to take our pictures together so it wouldn't look like Dave took a trip all by himself.
Dave decided he wanted a piece of pie for lunch. Not lunch itself, just a piece of pie. We went on a massive search all over town for a restaurant, cafe, sandwich shop anywhere that sold pie. We did find two places that didn't really have a big selection, but did have apple pie. Disappointed, we finally settled at Denny's. They had 3 flavors on their menu. It didn't quite hit the spot for him, but it was the best we could do.
We headed out mid-afternoon and stopped in Flagstaff to take Brady out to dinner. There was a cute little waitress that Dave almost asked out for Brady. We always have to remind him that opportunities abound!
Anyway, a fun couple of days.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You make everything Joy! I hope Brady didn't get too embaressed! We try to help Brandon too!

everyday katie said...

There is no other landscape quite like southern Utah. GORGEOUS. I'd do just about anything for a night away with Spencer. Even if it was to a hokey little town. Sounds kind of fun. You look AMAZING! I can't believe how thing you are.

Unknown said...

That's hilarious - would have been more funny if Dave would have asked the waitress out for Brady. My first year at Ricks, my parents came to help me get moved in. My mom went grocery shopping for me while I got unpacked. When she got back she told me she had showed my picture to a few boys she met at the store and told them where I lived--so embarrassing! It was even more embarrassing when they stopped by and told me my mom had showed them my picture.

Curtis Whipple said...

Sometimes the adventure is in the journey and not knowing what you are gonna get. It's just good to be together too. I wonder how people live in some of those small towns like Page... and Winslow.