Our Exotic Getaway

Last weekend Pete and I dropped the kids off at my Dad's house on Thursday and went on a romantic getaway to Central Utah. That's right, we drove 2 hours south to a little town in the middle of nowhere called Spring City and stayed at a bed and breakfast there.




Quite exotic, I know! We actually booked this trip before I knew I was pregnant, and we were going to do some serious cycling and swimming since I would have been getting ready for BAM and Bear Lake Half. We had wanted to go to California, but decided it would be good to see more of this state and save some money.

Since I am now in a more delicate condition, it was a more of a relaxed retreat than planned, but it was still a really fun weekend.

Spring City is the smallest town I've been in for a long time, maybe ever. There aren't even any restaurants, we had to go to neighboring towns for lunch and dinner, or to find anything to do, but it was kind of nice to be so secluded for a few days.

When we first arrived at our bed and breakfast, the hostess had fresh baked cookies for us that were really good with coconut, cranberries and white chocolate, I think. That night we went to The Sorcerer's Apprentice which was very good. The first night I had a really hard time sleeping. The bed we were on was really high up, and I think, subconsciously, I was afraid to I would fall off. It was also really hard which didn't help my hips from getting sore as they tend to do when I'm pregnant. In the morning I asked if we could trade rooms and she let me sit on the other available beds to choose what one I wanted. That was nice, and the room we moved into had a much more comfortable bed.

Friday, we had lunch at a place in Mt. Pleasant called Sub-Zero where they had ok sandwiches and delicious home made ice cream. They were really smart. When we got done eating, they brought a big spoonful of ice cream out to each of us. Of course we had to order some after that, and we both got the kind that we had sampled.

After lunch we drove up Maple Canyon where there are some really cool rock formations, and it got us excited to get back into rock climbing next year. (yeah, when I have a new baby and I'll be training for Ironman St. George...)

We hiked up this little canyon and it was nice and shaded from the heat of the day. The perfect place to go climbing, even in the hot summer. The conglomerate rock is really interesting, though, not what I'm used to climbing on at all.

That evening we went to the Manti Temple. It is one of the oldest temples in the state, and it is very beautiful. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to see it.

On Saturday, we borrowed some cruiser bikes from the inn and rode them around to take a tour of some of the historic houses in the town. It was fun, but the bikes were really hard to ride and it was hot so we only did about a third of the tour. There were a lot of really cool old houses to look at.

Since it was so hot, we were excited to head down to Palisade Lake. It was about half an hour south of where were were staying. We rented a canoe and paddled across the lake, swam a little, paddled around the lake, then we each took turns swimming across the lake while the other paddled. It was really fun. I loved the little lake! It was very small, maybe 700-800 meters across and there were no motor boats to worry about so it would be a perfect lake for open water swim training. I wish I had one in my back yard!

Later that evening we had dinner at a really good Mexican restaurant in Ephram where they gave us the hugest horchatas, then we drove up Ephram canyon. We just kept driving up until we got to the top of the mountain where we got out and took these pictures.

Just then, though, there was a huge thunder crash that was almost on top of us, and it started pouring! We knew it was time to head back down, and it got pretty scary at times because it was getting pretty muddy and there were some kind of steep spots.


This picture doesn't do it justice, but I my heart was beating pretty fast right here because there were the rocks on one side and a cliff on the other side. But we made it though.

Here we are following another Jeep, and I felt like we were in a Jeep commercial. I love our Jeep!

Just after we got off the muddy roads, and back onto some less scary gravel roads, we saw this beautiful view with a rainbow. It was a lovely drive.

When we got back down to Ephram, we went to Knight and Day and enjoyed it very much. It was fun to be able to just go out and not worry about getting back for the baby-sitter or anything. Of course, we were happy to see our kids when we got back to Heber the next day, though.

So, there you go. Even though I'm not racing this year, I can still have my adventure and share them with you! :)