Today is the day me and my friends driving back home to Boise. After a tour that Jason and Chris gave us in Salt Lake City this afternoon and a nice lunch at Charlie’s Chow, I am in the car right now writing this. I have been really missing my blog since I have been gone.
Besides from the bitchy and cynical parts of one of my friends, the overall trip was fun and exciting. On the first day, Jason, Brian and I drove from Boise to Salt Lake City. We left about 9:30 and arrived in SLC at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We drove up to another friend’s house, and that’s where we were staying. Chris is a funny and mellow type of guy. Afterwards, Jason suggested going to IKEA, a furniture store which is huge that I wish Boise had one. Then we wanted to have a good dinner and wanted to dine at local Chinese restaurant called Charlie’s Chow, but it was closed. We decided to go to Olive Garden instead. At about 9:45 in the evening, we drove up to the University of Utah’s golf campus to watch the 4th of July’s firework. From that campus, we could see huge SLC valley, but the firework watching experience was not very exciting because we picked the wrong spot to watch the firework. We were practically “looking for” firework to watch, hehe… but it was all good and we enjoyed ourselves though the night bugs were annoying. Later on, Jason wanted Chris to show Brian the 8th street in SLC, which basically is a road that is high and the driver really cannot see the lower part of the road while driving. It was cool but we were stuck in the traffic at the Sugar House area due to people is coming out from there after watching the firework. We should have gone to Sugar House to watch firework. The traffic was really bad! We were totally stuck in the traffic for about one and half hour. We made it home at around 11:30 or so, and Brian started to mention about going out to the club, which was initially planned. I was a llittle bit tired and was going to not go, but I felt like since I was in SLC, I might as well check out the club scene. I wanted to go, and Chris did not object with the idea, but Jason was the one that just wanted to go to sleep. He started to blah blah about the timing concern with going to the club, waking up in the morning, going to the parks, and so forth causing the going out’s plan cancelled. I was pissed and said “Well, then I am going to bed.” They all saw that I was mad. I did not want to behave that way, but I was just sick of everything has to be done according to Jason’s way. Later on though, they all changed their mind and asked me to go out, haha…. The club was lame; I did not enjoy it at all. It wasn’t a dancing club but was more like a socializing club. My friends though all enjoyed themselves which was cool. It was worth an experience. I went to bed very good that night, except for Brian snored. I ended up going upstairs and took the couch instead.
On the second day, July 5th, we all got up and got ready to go for another 4 hours drive to Arches National Park in Moab. At about 9:30, we left SLC and headed to Moab. On the journey to the park, the scenery was just so magnificent. We stopped at couple view points - Salt Wash and Devil’s Canyon to take some photos and look at the sceneries. I got my refrigerator magnet right before we entered to the park. The park’s admission was only 10 dollars, but the sceneries in there were amazing. We got to see different shapes of rocks, mountains, and arches. We wanted to see the Delicate Arch, which is the arch that is on the Utah’s license plate, but we had to hike to it. The distance was about 2 miles round trip, and we were running out of time so we did not go but we were able to go to the view point where we were still able to see the Delicate Arch from the distant. Then we drove up to a spot that we were able to see Sand Dune, Broken, and Skyline Arches. Jason and Chris were climbing to the top of the Sand Dune arch, and I did too. But I was scared to death when I reached the top. I could not even get off, and Jason came to my rescue. It was a fun interactive experience. Later on we hiked about .8 miles to see the Tunnel, Pine Tree, and Landscape Arches. Brian and I took a lot of pictures on our cameras. We all were exhausted that evening. We left the park around 7ish and drove up to Moab. It is a small interesting tourist town. We ate at the Burger King. We wanted to stay in a motel in Moab but we already made a motel reservation in St. George, which is another 4 hours drive from Moab. The plan was to go to St. George so that we could get up in the morning and drove to Zion National Park. Chris and Brian suggested going back to SLC and cancelled other parks’ plan. I was neutral. I did not care much about going to the parks or back. Jason wanted to do the parks, which I later on agreed. My original plan was to see the Arches. It did not really bother me much whether or not to see Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. I was happy though that we decided to go to see those parks. Chris was driving that night from Moab to St. George, and we did not get to our Sun Time Motel until 2 o’clock in the morning.
I suppose I had a good night sleep, but those three guys appear to not, especially Jason. He got irritated right when we went for a nice breakfast at Village Inn. This was a 3rd day of our trip, July 6th. We left St. George for Zion National Park. We stopped at a small town called Virgin, Utah. We went into a gift shop there that I got myself a refrigerator magnet that says Zion National Park. We continued our journey and finally reached the park at about 1:30 or so in the afternoon. We decided to park the outside the park so that we could get on the park’s shuttle, which took the tourists for the park’s tour. The shuttle service fee came with the park’s admission fee, which is 25 dollars. The tour was interesting and quite an experience. We got to hear some information about the park, found out the names of the major sight seeing locations were given by a Baptist Minster who was a Methodist Christian, and got to see those huge rocks and mountains. I honestly had no any idea about the Zion National Park. The shuttle basically stopped at seven locations, and the tourists could choose which location they wanted to stop at. The shuttle ran every 5-6 minutes. We stopped at the Three Patriarchs, Weeping Rock, and the final stop. We took a lot of photos of the park and us. Zion National Park was not my favorite park, but like I said it’s worth an experience to check it out. I am glad we went there. Brian was nice enough to buy me, Jason, and Chris a refrigerator magnet that says Zion National Park from the Visitor Center for a souvenir. Now, he created a dilemma for me because now I have two magnets that say Zion National Park, and they both are good magnets, hehe…
The next stop was the Bryce Canyon National Park. We had to drive through the Zion National Park to get there. This time, we drove through the park without the shuttle, and man, those red rocks that we saw earlier were huge. Driving through the Zion kind of scared me because we practically drove on the mountain. We drove through two tunnels – one was 1.1 mile and the other one was very short, but it was really cool. That time, it was raining. But raining added the magnificence to the view. We took a lot of photos of that. It took another hour to get to the Bryce Canyon. We had to stop at a restaurant, which I don’t remember the name, but it was a terrible experience. Chris’s sandwich ended up with a plastic in it. The owner gave his meal for free. Brian’s order was a little bit messed up, Jason was not pleased with his meal and the service, and my sandwiches were too dry. Then, on our way to the Bryce, we also had to go through the Red Canyon, which was really cool. The shapes and the red color of the rocks were amazing. Finally we arrived at the Bryce. The admission was 25 dollars per small vehicle. We got to see the Sunset and the Bryce point. The canyon was really huge and very cool. You have to see this for yourself to believe what I am saying here. Those three guys made conversation with a Switzerland couple that we met there, which I think it wasted a ton of time to see the rest of the park. Given that we did not have enough time to visit the park, and the elevation was high that the weather was cold, we decided to stay at the motel over there and visit the park the next day. However, there were no any vacancies, and we were concerned about our budget as well. Finally, we decided to drive back to SLC around 9pm. Bryce Canyon was great, but we just did not have enough time to visit the rest of the park. We all regret about it, especially Jason. For me, I was cool with it.
Besides from the bitchy and cynical parts of one of my friends, the overall trip was fun and exciting. On the first day, Jason, Brian and I drove from Boise to Salt Lake City. We left about 9:30 and arrived in SLC at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We drove up to another friend’s house, and that’s where we were staying. Chris is a funny and mellow type of guy. Afterwards, Jason suggested going to IKEA, a furniture store which is huge that I wish Boise had one. Then we wanted to have a good dinner and wanted to dine at local Chinese restaurant called Charlie’s Chow, but it was closed. We decided to go to Olive Garden instead. At about 9:45 in the evening, we drove up to the University of Utah’s golf campus to watch the 4th of July’s firework. From that campus, we could see huge SLC valley, but the firework watching experience was not very exciting because we picked the wrong spot to watch the firework. We were practically “looking for” firework to watch, hehe… but it was all good and we enjoyed ourselves though the night bugs were annoying. Later on, Jason wanted Chris to show Brian the 8th street in SLC, which basically is a road that is high and the driver really cannot see the lower part of the road while driving. It was cool but we were stuck in the traffic at the Sugar House area due to people is coming out from there after watching the firework. We should have gone to Sugar House to watch firework. The traffic was really bad! We were totally stuck in the traffic for about one and half hour. We made it home at around 11:30 or so, and Brian started to mention about going out to the club, which was initially planned. I was a llittle bit tired and was going to not go, but I felt like since I was in SLC, I might as well check out the club scene. I wanted to go, and Chris did not object with the idea, but Jason was the one that just wanted to go to sleep. He started to blah blah about the timing concern with going to the club, waking up in the morning, going to the parks, and so forth causing the going out’s plan cancelled. I was pissed and said “Well, then I am going to bed.” They all saw that I was mad. I did not want to behave that way, but I was just sick of everything has to be done according to Jason’s way. Later on though, they all changed their mind and asked me to go out, haha…. The club was lame; I did not enjoy it at all. It wasn’t a dancing club but was more like a socializing club. My friends though all enjoyed themselves which was cool. It was worth an experience. I went to bed very good that night, except for Brian snored. I ended up going upstairs and took the couch instead.
On the second day, July 5th, we all got up and got ready to go for another 4 hours drive to Arches National Park in Moab. At about 9:30, we left SLC and headed to Moab. On the journey to the park, the scenery was just so magnificent. We stopped at couple view points - Salt Wash and Devil’s Canyon to take some photos and look at the sceneries. I got my refrigerator magnet right before we entered to the park. The park’s admission was only 10 dollars, but the sceneries in there were amazing. We got to see different shapes of rocks, mountains, and arches. We wanted to see the Delicate Arch, which is the arch that is on the Utah’s license plate, but we had to hike to it. The distance was about 2 miles round trip, and we were running out of time so we did not go but we were able to go to the view point where we were still able to see the Delicate Arch from the distant. Then we drove up to a spot that we were able to see Sand Dune, Broken, and Skyline Arches. Jason and Chris were climbing to the top of the Sand Dune arch, and I did too. But I was scared to death when I reached the top. I could not even get off, and Jason came to my rescue. It was a fun interactive experience. Later on we hiked about .8 miles to see the Tunnel, Pine Tree, and Landscape Arches. Brian and I took a lot of pictures on our cameras. We all were exhausted that evening. We left the park around 7ish and drove up to Moab. It is a small interesting tourist town. We ate at the Burger King. We wanted to stay in a motel in Moab but we already made a motel reservation in St. George, which is another 4 hours drive from Moab. The plan was to go to St. George so that we could get up in the morning and drove to Zion National Park. Chris and Brian suggested going back to SLC and cancelled other parks’ plan. I was neutral. I did not care much about going to the parks or back. Jason wanted to do the parks, which I later on agreed. My original plan was to see the Arches. It did not really bother me much whether or not to see Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. I was happy though that we decided to go to see those parks. Chris was driving that night from Moab to St. George, and we did not get to our Sun Time Motel until 2 o’clock in the morning.
I suppose I had a good night sleep, but those three guys appear to not, especially Jason. He got irritated right when we went for a nice breakfast at Village Inn. This was a 3rd day of our trip, July 6th. We left St. George for Zion National Park. We stopped at a small town called Virgin, Utah. We went into a gift shop there that I got myself a refrigerator magnet that says Zion National Park. We continued our journey and finally reached the park at about 1:30 or so in the afternoon. We decided to park the outside the park so that we could get on the park’s shuttle, which took the tourists for the park’s tour. The shuttle service fee came with the park’s admission fee, which is 25 dollars. The tour was interesting and quite an experience. We got to hear some information about the park, found out the names of the major sight seeing locations were given by a Baptist Minster who was a Methodist Christian, and got to see those huge rocks and mountains. I honestly had no any idea about the Zion National Park. The shuttle basically stopped at seven locations, and the tourists could choose which location they wanted to stop at. The shuttle ran every 5-6 minutes. We stopped at the Three Patriarchs, Weeping Rock, and the final stop. We took a lot of photos of the park and us. Zion National Park was not my favorite park, but like I said it’s worth an experience to check it out. I am glad we went there. Brian was nice enough to buy me, Jason, and Chris a refrigerator magnet that says Zion National Park from the Visitor Center for a souvenir. Now, he created a dilemma for me because now I have two magnets that say Zion National Park, and they both are good magnets, hehe…
The next stop was the Bryce Canyon National Park. We had to drive through the Zion National Park to get there. This time, we drove through the park without the shuttle, and man, those red rocks that we saw earlier were huge. Driving through the Zion kind of scared me because we practically drove on the mountain. We drove through two tunnels – one was 1.1 mile and the other one was very short, but it was really cool. That time, it was raining. But raining added the magnificence to the view. We took a lot of photos of that. It took another hour to get to the Bryce Canyon. We had to stop at a restaurant, which I don’t remember the name, but it was a terrible experience. Chris’s sandwich ended up with a plastic in it. The owner gave his meal for free. Brian’s order was a little bit messed up, Jason was not pleased with his meal and the service, and my sandwiches were too dry. Then, on our way to the Bryce, we also had to go through the Red Canyon, which was really cool. The shapes and the red color of the rocks were amazing. Finally we arrived at the Bryce. The admission was 25 dollars per small vehicle. We got to see the Sunset and the Bryce point. The canyon was really huge and very cool. You have to see this for yourself to believe what I am saying here. Those three guys made conversation with a Switzerland couple that we met there, which I think it wasted a ton of time to see the rest of the park. Given that we did not have enough time to visit the park, and the elevation was high that the weather was cold, we decided to stay at the motel over there and visit the park the next day. However, there were no any vacancies, and we were concerned about our budget as well. Finally, we decided to drive back to SLC around 9pm. Bryce Canyon was great, but we just did not have enough time to visit the rest of the park. We all regret about it, especially Jason. For me, I was cool with it.
P.S: More photos can be found on my trip's photo on Shutterfly. The link is above.
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