It’s Utah time!

After working from home for over 19 months I was starting to get a bit stir crazy so when Disney announced that we won't be back in person until Jan (at the soonest) - we decided to relocate for a couple of weeks out West:). We picked Moab since there are so many National Parks close by and  

found an amazing Airbnb that I could work from. It's 2 hours behind too so we figured we'd be able to do things in the evenings while we were there and really make the most of our time in Utah. 

I packed my whole work set up and was online and functioning in under 10 minutes - it was great!

On the Sunday after we arrived we were amazed that Arches NP was full! I had no idea it was that busy! So we headed out to Canyonlands, and soaked in the La Sal mountains view on the way...

We stopped at Dead Horse Point State Park...

And saw the famous location where the car went over into the canyon in Thelma and Louise...

Then we headed over to the Island In the Sky region of Canyonlands National Park...our 24th North American NP!

It's just breathtaking. We loved the Mesa Arch hike :) 

We ended our first amazing day at Antica Forma for some incredible pizza:)

I had to work on Monday morning but had plenty of time in the evening to visit Moab Giants - the local dinosaur museum...

On Tuesday evening we did the amazing Corona Arch hike!

Summer is almost here:)

As we finally emerge from the dreaded pandemic, we decided to take a test 'mini-vacation' to see if we could remember how to pack a suitcase and wear shoes again:). We stopped at the epic bucc-ees on the way to St. Augustine - Mike was in hog heaven...

Professor slept his way through our trip at Disney's luxury VIP Pet Resort experience. I spent most of the trip checking on him via webcam:) 

We had cocktails at the beach bar the minute we arrived. I was asleep about an hour after these bad boys - couldn't handle the pace:)

It was so lovely to walk around the old town maskless and worry free now we are all vaccinated...:)

We had a blast playing 'tourist' at the wax museums and local attractions...

I showed Annie Oakley how to wear a mask wrong...

At Ripley's we saw the second of only two full-sized replicas of Michelangelo's statue of David. We saw the other one in Florence back in the day when cruising was a thing...

We watched a yacht race...

And walked on the beach...

It was really lovely:). A great dry run for our big trip to the Dakotas in June - I am beyond excited!!

I also finished my first dollhouse reno of the year recently. Love how it turned out and can't wait for the fun part when we give it away:)

Now I need to try and get into the real, full-sized Shrunk magazine to see if I can get this idea of 'creating and donating' to catch on:)

California Dreamin’

I’ve been planning a trip like this one for a very long time - there is just so much to see in California! And when Elbow announced 4 dates in the area I had the excuse I needed and booked two of the shows to build an itinerary around:). Professor’s foster mom, Stacey, came to pick him up and took him to hang with his buddies at her place for the week. I can’t tell you how wonderful it felt to know he was being spoiled and enjoying a vacation while we were away!

We got into San Diego on the Saturday night (the hotel was a 5 minute walk from the show) and showed up at the venue a couple of hours early (to be sure to snag a spot at the front) and heard them rehearsing at the back door - it was amazing! 

The show was fantastic as ever and Jesca Hoop did a great job as the support act even having Guy Garvey join her for one of her songs.

It was really nice to just enjoy the show and not think about how long it will be until next time because we had tickets for 3 days later!

Despite the late night we got an early start the next day and went to see Sunset Cliffs and enjoy some of the views from San Diego - it’s so pretty there and we loved that famous perfect climate...

Then we drove the Pacific Coast Highway north all the way to Ventura to get ready for a nature-packed day the next day. We could see the Channel Islands in the distance when we arrived!

The Channel Islands National Park consists of 5 islands off the Californian coast. There are no facilities (not even running water!) and so the biodiverse wildlife remains untouched:). Over 250 species of plants and animals exist in this park and nowhere else on the planet - two of which are the Island Scrub Jay and the Island fox and both of which we saw:). For this reason, the Channel Islands are known as the Galapagos of North America:)

Island Packers provide the boat transportation to CINP and we saw literally thousands of dolphins in “super pods” on the 90 minute ride there!

We also shared our boat ride with two (very smelly but super cute) seal pups who had been stranded and were being released back to the wild:)

We had booked a full day on Santa Cruz (the biggest Island) and did some exploring as soon as we got there...

We were so happy to see a couple of Island foxes - so cute!

Of course I loved the birds...

And the ride home was just as eventful with dolphins jumping in the moonlight and we also saw 2 grey whales! 

It was a completely perfect day:)

The next morning we headed over to Santa Ana via Hollywood on the famous Mulholland Scenic Drive through the homes of the rich and famous and walked the Walk of Fame...

It was interesting to see and I’m glad we did it but this was the only day of the trip that I don’t feel the need to do again. Not really our thing:)

But that night we went to the second Elbow show of the week (in an actual observatory!) and bought a Fast Lane pass this time so we only had to arrive a bit early to get a spot on the rail again! 

We met a really fun  couple who had traveled for the shows just like us and enjoyed another amazing Elbow performance up close again:)

In the morning we started out with a quick visit to Pioneertown where many of the old western movies were filmed. Then we went to the amazon Joshua Tree National Park. It’s just gorgeous - no wonder it has an album named after it:)

Keys view...

Skull rock...

To be continued....