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When I returned from Australia, my son Ben travelled with me for a 2 week vacation in the US. To help him acclimatize to the summer heat and altitude here in Salt Lake we went for a hike near our house along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Corner Canyon.
Ben, who has previously only visited during the snows of winter, couldn't get over how different the area looked with leaves on all the trees.
I travelled to Australia for 2 weeks in June/July to catch up with family and do some wedding planning with daughter Kate who is getting married in May next year. Here's some pics from the trip...
On Saturday night Ben, Heather, Kate & her fiancee Troy went to watch the new Gold Coast Titans football (rugby) team play against the Auckland Warriors (from New Zealand). The Titans won 28-12 (yay!)
On Sunday, Heather's mother held a family get-together as a pre-birthday celebration for those who wouldn't be able to join us in Hawaii in September.
Catching up with sister Margaret (middle) and sister-in-law Maria.
My nephew Angus and his lovely wife Anna.
View from the 11th floor of the Mantra building at Coolangatta looking north along the coast to Surfers Paradise. Mum (who lives 4 hours north of the coast in the town of Gympie) rented the unit for a few days so we could all get together. It was mid-winter in Australia so the beach looked inviting but the water was too cold for swimming!
On July 1st I met up with my dear friend Lorraine, whom I hadn't seen in about 10 years. We got together with some friends and family to celebrate a special birthday for her. Lorraine & I are seated, with friends Barbara & Lee behind.
The following Sunday Kate & I drove to Byron Bay with her bridesmaids to have lunch and discuss menus, seating plans, decorations etc at Fig Tree Restaurant where Kate & Troy are planning to have their wedding reception. Here are Kate & bridesmaid Michelle underneath the 100 year old fig tree that gives the restaurant its name.
The restaurant has beautiful grounds and this lovely pool area which will make a nice spot for having finger food and drinks while waiting for the bridal party to have their photos done.
I also spent a day with my dear friend Cathy, shopping, lunching and catching up on the all the "gossip"!
All to soon it was time to say goodbye to Kate (and her sweet puppy Emma). We got a lot of shopping and planning done for the wedding, including finding the "perfect" wedding dress. (No preview pictures of the dress - stay tuned for the real thing next May!)
Ben loves travel and hiking as much as Mark & I do, so we decided to take him to Moab for a few days to get a taste of the American southwest.
We arrived at Arches National Park around lunchtime. With the temperature forecast to go over 100F (38C) this afternoon, we decided we would only tackle a couple of short hikes - the first one to Balanced Rock.
Ben is dwarfed by the 128ft (39m) rock formation. The hard Entrada sandstone "head" balancing on the softer, eroded Dewey sandstone "neck". The overhanging Entrada sandstone protects the softer sandstone beneath it from some of the effects of erosion, but eventually it will erode enough that the balancing rock will topple over.
Our next hike was in The Windows section of Arches National Park. Here are Ben & Mark beneath Turret Arch.
We then headed over to The Windows arches. If you click on this picture, the size of the people underneath North Window (the one on the left), will give some perspective on the size of these arches.
Ben & I head up to North Window.
View across the park through North Window.
Our last stop for the day was Park Avenue - named for its resemblance to the tall high-rise buildings on Park Avenue in New York.
