After our hiking adventure we headed up to Park City and spent two days there. It was nice to recover because I was soooo SORE. It was hard to walk up and down stairs but well worth it because we had never been to downtown Park City and it was awesome.

We spent the night with July, Cayman and Cooper and had so much fun. Phil and I took Cayman swimming. Alli and Paul joined us for dinner and then we were headed to DENVER in the morning.

We were running behind Wednesday morning and had to make our flight. We thought we were parking in long term parking when really it wasn't and would later cost us $125 to park at the airport. We checked in, got some food, went to the bathroom and were the last TWO on the flight. We made it to Denver and headed out to Vail. The drive on I-70 is beautiful. The mountains, trees, rocks, rivers just BEAUTIFUL!! Vail was pretty and all SHUT down. School started early so nothing was opened. We talked to some locals and they told us to go to this place called "Hanging Lakes." We hiked in and it was amazing. It is this remote lake on the mountain and then if you hike up another hundred yards there is a HUGE waterfall. Just beautiful. Who knew I would become such a HIKER on one vacation.

We headed to Denver on Thursday and went to the 16Th street mall. It was fun and HOT. We decided to go the the Aquarium but once we got there we noticed they had BIKES for rent so we rented a bike and rode around the river. We noticed there was a Bronco's game and found a scalper and bought tickets. 2 tickets for $25 bucks if you like sitting in section 5 row 14. Totally fun!

Friday we went to a movie and then head out to see Tyler and Heidi (Phil's sister). We had so much fun. They have a crazy cat named Ruby. We visited, went to a show, dinner and had a blast. They took us to Boulder on Saturday and we saw lots of crazy street performers. We were sad to leave but glad to be home. After being gone since Sunday it was nice to not live out of a suit case and sleep in your own BED.

Reality is hard to come back to. At least we have San Francisco to look forward to in October!

Vacation

VACATION! The words holiday or vacation have related meanings in different English-speaking countries and continents, but usually refer to one of the following activities or events:

• A general leave of absence from a regular occupation for rest or recreation
• A specific trip or journey for the purposes of recreation or tourism

Two things Phil and I did. We took a leave of absence from work for NINE days and enjoyed a journey.

Phil grew up backpacking, hiking, fishing, and camping so did I however mine was easy campers, showers, toilets, and YUMMY food. He finally convinced me to go back packing. We borrowed some things from his Dad and headed out on our two day journey. The preparation was FUN! Grocery shopping, packing, and realizing everything you want you have to hike in. We headed out and got to our destination to the trail head where the sign read GREEN LAKES 6.5 miles. WOW, not only is it far I have a 30 pound pack on my back. We hiked in and started to set up camp. We had lunch (rice and ramen) and of course I brought every kind of candy you could think of. We had peach rings, red vines, gummies, cookies and me not being so careful spilled FOOD. We decided to take a nap, read,and play cards. We woke up to start dinner (ramen and rice) I know twice in one day and Phil went to explore. He ran up some rocks and ran down a different direction. He looked panicked and said "We need to talk." He pulled me over by the tent and said "THERE IS A BEAR" in the next camp what do you want to do??? Me, not really believing him say what really are you sure. Phil yes, I go into PANIC mode. GET ME OUT OF HERE! oh wait, its 7:00 at night and the car is 6.5 miles away. I start to clean up the tent and Phil says "Mel look, I look and the BEAR is 20 yards away. We packed up camp and hiked 6.5 miles to the car in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

My first camping experience went well if you ignore the fact that we were only there for 6 hours, I didn't have to sleep in the tent, I showered when we got home and I didn't even have to use a bush! HA HA. When we try this next year maybe we will make it through the night.