Day 221: Happy Purim!

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Ben

Saturday night we went to shul to hear the megilla:

On Sunday, Purim Day, Trish redid B’s face paint:

Sharing the moustache:

Happy Purim!

Day 219: Getting ready for Purim

Posted on March 14, 2014 by Ben

Today we shopped for costumes and prepared our shalach manos for Purim:

I also got to go on a nice 20 mile ride into the hills of Anthem:

Good Shabbos from Las Vegas!

Day 218: GSENM, PSNM, and GCPNM

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Ben

This morning we packed up and said goodbye to Lake Powell and Lone Rock:

We stopped in at one of the visitor centers in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the kids received their Junior Ranger badges:

We continued West to Pipe Spring National Monument, which preserves the Native American and Mormon histories of North-Central Arizona:

The kids received their Junior Ranger badges here as well. They also worked through the workbooks for

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument here, since there is no separate visitor center for GCPNM, and received their badges for that as well.

We arrived in Las Vegas towards evening and will be here for Purim. See the trip map for details.

Day 217: Kayaking Lake Powell

Posted on March 12, 2014 by Ben

This morning we walked our kayaks down to the shore of Lake Powell and paddled out towards Lone Rock:

We had found a lost decoy duck when we went kayaking on the Salt River. B named the duck and tethered it to her kayak. The natives came over to meet their synthetic friend:

We rounded Lone Rock:

In the distance, we spotted a slot canyon:

We pulled our kayaks up on shore and hiked up the canyon:

The last 20 feet of the canyon was very narrow. Here’s the view straight up:

We hiked back to the kayaks and continued our trip:

The herons were out:

Some channels among the rocks were narrow:

In the afternoon, we played on the beach:

…And had a campfire dinner at towards sunset:

Tomorrow we will head back to Las Vegas. We’ve enjoyed our stay here, I’m sure we will be back soon!

Day 216: Horseshoe Bend and Glen Canyon NRA

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Ben

This morning we left Page and drove a couple miles South to the overlook for Horseshoe Bend. I walked out a far as I dared, which was about 10 inches from an 1100 foot drop. I wish I had brought a monopod to get the camera completely beyond the ledge, but you get the idea:

Next we visited the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center:

The kids earned their Glen Canyon NRA Junior Ranger badges, as well as the badges for Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Rainbow Bridge is only reachable by boat, so the visitor center for the monument is here as well: