Southern Utah Motorcycle Trip ~ September 2014

I always think we don't get around much, but this summer seems to have been spent anticipating a trip, going on a trip, and recovering from a trip. Then repeating that about three more times. All well worth it, of course. We've sure been busy.

In September we did a motorcycle trip with our friends Karen and Scott Perry, Tamara and Dave Badger, and Mary Ann and Kirk Harvey. We spent eight days travelling. We started in Salt Lake, and went from there to Arches National Park, Moab, Gateway, Ridgway, Telluride, Mesa Verde National Park, Bluff, Moki Dugway, Natural Bridges Monument, Hanksville, Capital Reef National Park, Escalante National Monument, Bryce Canyon National Park, Panguitch, Cedar Breaks, Zion's National Park, St. George, Snow Canyon, Mountain Meadow Massacre Monument, Beaver, Manti, Gunnison, Mt. Nebo Loop, Alpine Loop, home.

We traveled to all these places on scenic highways, and rarely saw anyone else on the road. It was terrific. There were some storms and flooding going on while we traveled, so we did have to cut out a couple of places we were going to see, but pretty much the storm was ahead of us and for the most part we stayed very dry.

Here are another bunch of photos.

July 2014 ~ Lake Cavanaugh

We just had the best week of our lives. All of our children and their families with us for a week on beautiful Lake Cavanaugh in Washington State. No cell phone service, no internet. Completely unplugged and nothing but fun.

We rented a house for the week. It used to be our house--we sold it in 2002. My daughter saw it for rent on VRBO and we jumped right on it. Of course we chose the week with the 4th of July because you've never seen more fun fireworks than on Lake Cavanaugh. Many people around the lake set fireworks off on the end of their docks. Surrounding you are fireworks lighting the night sky.  Our thanks this year especially to the house down the lake who must have spent thousands of dollars on fireworks. What a show!

Lake Cavanaugh is a little over an hour from Seattle. It is a small lake, about 4 miles long and maybe a mile wide at the widest. There is a public boat launch, but no other public places to moor a boat, or camp. Boats on the lake are almost all owned by homeowners there. So there are few boats around, and it is quiet and serene.

We loved the lakehouse when we owned it, and to tell the truth, we all cried when we sold it. It's a little scary to go back to a place you love so much--can it ever be as good? Yes, yes it can. This time we had the added joy of introducing all of our children's spouses and our grandchildren to the magic of being together as a family on Lake Cavanaugh. We relived all of our great memories of family and friends being there with us in the past and created so many new memories with our own family.

It couldn't have been better.

Here are a million (or so) pictures, in no particular order: