Driving, Driving and more Driving (and a little bit of hiking too)

Woke up this morning and got breakfast out for everyone. It was too cold and windy to eat out on the porch. The kids were disappointed because Ellie and Caleb were the only ones that got any Cookie Crisp cereal. Life is hard. Wood and Susan were not ready yet so we headed out to the visitor center where they would later meet us. Derek had to get some gas for his car so Brad took us (Rachel, Emma, Hunter and me) to the Gifford Farmhouse. I guess we should have told someone because they thought we had ditched them. We would never do that! The farmhouse is a museum/gift shop inside the park. If you go there, get some of their little home made pies and ice cream. Mmmmm, so tasty! Everyone joined up with us and we had a brunch of pies and ice cream. Not the most nutritious but definitely most delicious.

Now we were ready for a long drive. Brad had planned for us to drive over to Boulder. We took the Notum Road and the Burr Trail. If you want solitude and unpaved roads, that's the way you want to go to Boulder.








That's Derek, Brad and Wood looking back over the switchbacks that they had just driven up. I'm glad the cars all had enough gas and were working properly. Some say there is a definite "Miller look." Can you see the family resemblance? When we made it to paved road, we had lunch at Hell's Backbone grill. The food was great, the reading material at the table was weird ("How to Understand Women"-I was surprised the author was married) and the music was annoying.

Let me flashback to a year ago when Brad and I took our little family down to Boulder to stay at the Boulder Lodge. The people that run the lodge are Buddhists and there are Tibetan prayer flags flying over the property. Anyway, when Brad was checking in, I looked over and saw Buddhist monks dressed in their yellow and orange robes playing volleyball. Apparently there was some important Buddhist bigwig that was visiting from and he brought his entourage. Monks playing volleyball in the Middle of Nowhere, Utah? Talk about a double take. I guess there's quite an enclave of Buddhists in Boulder. Whod've thunk?

After lunch we drove on highway 12 over to Calf Creek. I love that road! It sits on top of a narrow ridge and it drops off hundreds of feet on both sides. Talk about dramatic!

Brad really wanted to take everyone to Lower Calf Creek Falls. Unfortunately, it was late in the day and there was school the next day. We walked about 1 1/2 miles into the trail and in commemoration of Memorial Day, Grammie told us a neat story about how her father was sent on a secret mission to Poland to rescue somebody during WWII, and we hiked back out. The kids were allowed to play in Calf Creek for awhile and then we drove home. Yeah, it was a pretty good trip.