Every Wish That We Put Into Motion.... (comments welcome!)

[Herding_Cats]

That's a classic neuroma location. Be sure you're not lacing your shoes too tight around the arch or toes. That's usually a trigger for mine.

If anything, my shoes are loose? I do wear compression socks for every game because it helps my legs get through the games.

 

[The Expert]

If anything, my shoes are loose? I do wear compression socks for every game because it helps my legs get through the games.

Weird. Maybe just an irritate nerve ending or something. Neuromas are a pain so I hope that's not it!

 

[Herding_Cats]

A foray into off-topic stuff: We are working on a plan for DS2's senior trip (likely mid-June 2026, but the our spring break (end of March, beginning of April is an option too.) I'm gently pushing not-a-cruise because of the ages of his siblings (They're in the weird in-between ages for a lot of the on-ship activities, and we discovered last year that means they don't have much to do after 8pm and DD didn't love kids club. That means one or both of us end up sitting in the room every evening.) I suggested he look into state and national parks in the western states and see what seemed like it could be fun. And I've been on him about this because senior trip will directly effect whether or not I run MW or Princess in 2026. Priorities and all that.

So I'm paging @The Expert and @Professor_Cookie and anyone else who might have some insight into this! Last night he sent me a bunch of links for a resort near Sand Hollow State Park, and then some surrounding state parks. Look like it's near-ish Zion? About a 2hr drive from the Vegas airport, so possibly affordable to fly instead of *driving* from northern Michigan. Hiking is an obvious thing to do. He specifically brought up that there are pickleball courts nearby. What are some other things we should look into?

I know we could also drive south into Arizona to check out the Grand Canyon for a day, but I'm not sure if that would be too similar to the parks in Utah? I would be ok with doing 3-4 days in one area as a "base" and then driving 4 or 5 hours to another area to spend another 3-4 days (maybe north toward SLC or south to Sedona?)

Our travel group would be myself, DH, DS2(18), DS3(14), DD(6), possibly DS1(20), and possibly DS2's girlfriend, assuming they are still dating(18.)

 

[MissLiss279]

The Zion area is great. You’ve got, Zion, Bryce, and Canyonlands is close proximity. My cousin and I were able to get a reservation to hike The Subway in Zion several years ago. It’s probably not a good hike for young kids - somewhat technical and long hike. But the day before this hike we took a class with Zion Adventure Company and they provided all the gear we would need for the Subway hike (repelling gear, dry Bag, wet suit, etc.) I think they have other classes/activities that are good for the whole family.
I think if you have time for the Grand Canyon it is worth it.

 

[MissLiss279]

Also, if you do head down to the Grand Canyon, you could stop in the Page, AZ area and tour Antelope Slot Canyon.

 

[Herding_Cats]

In "training" news. Yeah. As stated a few posts back, I feel like I'm wrecking my body these past 2 weeks. Between make-up games to other officials being out sick (and DS3 might have flu as of today *ugh*) I worked 27 games in 14 days. Which comes out to about 36 hours of running around a gym. They were pretty evenly split (14 games the first week, 13 the 2nd week) but as a comparison, my *peak week* for marathon training is about 9 hours, and these were 18hr weeks. I was so incredibly exhausted by Friday afternoon this past week that I basically was a lump on the couch, took a nap, drove an hour to work the games, came home, slept, got up and worked 3 more games the next morning with DH, and then was a lump on the couch for the rest of the weekend. My foot/toes are weird (2 toes are slightly swollen off and on, but not sore or bruised) on the left, and my right hip flexor is messed up. My left glute/hamstring is still "off" but is OK once I'm warmed up. In my Saturday games I looked like I was on day 8 of Dopey wakeups (seriously I looked like I could just lay down on the court and fall asleep) and I could barely change from a reasonable walk to sort-of-a-jog because my legs were trashed. Not sore. Just absolutely no energy to keep moving.

The good news is that I "only" work Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday this week. And I'm done with refereeing at the end of the month.

I started listening to a few episodes of a new-to-me podcast (She Runs Ultras) and while the verdict is still out on whether I like it or not. (She hasn't said anything like "You should *only* consider doing a _____ once you've been running for ___months/years and ____mile weeks for ____months or you're making a terrible decision.") It has had some reasonable "tips" about training (like....you have to DO the training, and don't just put everything off until your plan for your far-down-the-road-race is supposed to start.) Things I already know, but are good to hear again from not-me.

 

[The Expert]

I am super familiar with that area of southern Utah/northern Arizona and there is a TON to do there! I'd recommend staying in Kanab (home of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, hint hint) as pretty much everything is in about a 90 minute drive in any direction. There are tons of affordable AirBnBs, cheap, clean chain hotels, and campgrounds. From there you could do Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Grand Staircase, slot canyons, even apply for The Wave (this might be a lot for the little one though). They definitely are NOT all the same! I'd advise going before Memorial Day if you can as it gets really crowded and HOT -- like deadly hot -- in summer. If you're comfortable navigating on your own, you can definitely do so with AWD or 4x4, but you can also take tours with guides to any of these places.

Driving from Vegas is further than it appears. If you can fly into St George reasonably, do so.

A few good guides to the area:
https://www.bestfriendsroadhouse.org/area-attractions

https://www.visitutah.com/articles/...0210&ds_rl=1285028&ds_rl=1290213&gad_source=1

https://www.roadtriplocals.com/blog/best-things-to-do-kanab-utah

 

[Herding_Cats]

I am super familiar with that area of southern Utah/northern Arizona and there is a TON to do there! I'd recommend staying in Kanab (home of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, hint hint) as pretty much everything is in about a 90 minute drive in any direction. There are tons of affordable AirBnBs, cheap, clean chain hotels, and tons of campgrounds. From there you could do Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Grand Staircase, slot canyons, even apply for The Wave (this might be a lot for the little one though). They definitely are NOT all the same! I'd advise going before Memorial Day if you can as it gets really crowded and HOT -- like deadly hot -- in summer. If you're comfortable navigating on your own, you can definitely do so with AWD or 4x4, but you can also take tours with guides to any of these places.

Driving from Vegas is further than it appears. If you can fly into St George reasonably, do so.

A few good guides to the area:
https://www.bestfriendsroadhouse.org/area-attractions

https://www.visitutah.com/articles/...0210&ds_rl=1285028&ds_rl=1290213&gad_source=1

https://www.roadtriplocals.com/blog/best-things-to-do-kanab-utah

I have no idea what to even expect as far as weather goes. We went to Bullhead City, AZ when BIL/SIL lived there and had their first baby (early May), and when we went to the Grand Canyon for a day there was snow. Because of senior year, and track season, we can either go during spring break (March 27 - April 6) or after school gets out (and state finals for track) which isn't until June 10th, depending on if we need to make up snow days.

ETA: OOF. I just looked at average temperatures for southern Utah for our dates and 72/42 in April sounds infinitely better than the 95/65 of mid-June!

 

[michigandergirl]

In 2021, we did a spring break trip to northern Arizona & southern Utah over 9 days. It was my favorite family trip EVER!! There is so much to do and see. The weather was so perfect in early April, sunny and highs in the low 70's. We flew into Phoenix and spent time in Sedona and the Grand Canyon, then Kanab, Bryce Canyon & Zion, then flew home out of Vegas. We did a variety of hikes in all locations and it was gorgeous. Other activities included a jeep tour in Sedona, Bearizona, an ATV/slot canyon tour in Kanab, horseback riding in Bryce Canyon, and I even ran the Vacation Races Zion Trail half marathon.

I'd recommend staying in Kanab

We stayed a few nights in Kanab and absolutely loved it. We rented a cute ranch house. We wanted to volunteer at Best Friends, but ran out of time.

 

[jmasgat]

We did a Utah/AZ trip last September because my DH had never been to the Grand Canyon. We flew into Vegas, drove up to Cedar Breaks National Monument (overlooked gem), Bryce, Capitol Reef, Grand Staircase Escalante, Kodachrome Basin State Park and then down to Grand Canyon for a few days. Overnighted on the way to Phoenix in Sedona and also saw a Diamondbacks game as well as the Heard Museum. Lots of hiking (still have what we did bookmarked on AllTrails)

This was over 12-ish days, though. Also it turned out to be cheaper at the time we went to do a one way rental than RT. It was a great trip. So many possibilities. We have also done Zion on a previous trip--before the days of ruinous crowds and reservations to hike trails!

When my son was young, I took him and a friend to the Grand Canyon and some of the surrounding National Monuments over spring break. I remember the day we left GC, it was flurrying, but down in Phoenix it was all systems go for the resort/water park I had booked. So yeah, wide variety of weather.

 

[Erika10021]

I think taking a trip through the national parks and monuments is the best trip, right up with the awesomeness of Disney.

We took two of the boys for a 9-day hiking trip though Utah during spring break a few years ago. (Zion, Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef). Fabulous day hikes, glorious weather (except it did snow overnight one night). The boys were late teens/early 20's and I think they really enjoyed it. We flew into St. George and flew out of Grand Junction. I really want to do that trip again but we have so many we still want to do before we start doubling up.

The two of us did Arizona and New Mexico in June. Flew into Tucson and out of El Paso. We did Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Petrified Forest, Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, Wupatki, White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns and more that I am forgetting, I am sure. We did a ton of day hikes in as many parks as we could. We stayed the longest in the Grand Canyon and while we loved it, three days of Grand Canyon was more than enough. Except for the hikes in the Grand Canyon (three times we went downhill, then uphill in a massively big hole), every other park and hike was so different than the one before. Also can't wait to this trip again!

A friend of mine from California relocated to Kanab to work at Best Friends for a couple of years.

 

[The Expert]

ETA: OOF. I just looked at average temperatures for southern Utah for our dates and 72/42 in April sounds infinitely better than the 95/65 of mid-June!

Spring break will be a bit crowded, but the weather will be WAY better than June (which is also still crowded). It is the desert and does get cold as soon as the sun goes down, so use lots of layers.

A friend of mine from California relocated to Kanab to work at Best Friends for a couple of years.

I work for Best Friends and have for almost 11 years! Who's your friend?? Feel free to DM me if you don't want to post it here.

 

[Professor_Cookie]

Zion is going to be chaos because it allllwayyys is. I highly recommend Bryce if that’s the area you are going to be in.

Do you ski at all? Mountains up by SLC will still be covered with snow, and lower elevation will probably be muddy, if you go in April.

If you go in June north facing slopes will still be fairly snow covered along with some East facing aspects.

Arches and Canyonlands are both accessed from Moab and not far from each other, and there are endless things to do there, from hiking to rafting to tandem BASE jumps. I absolutely love arches and find Zion overrated, probably due to how busy it is. Arches is definitely busy but not on the scale Zion is

A foray into off-topic stuff: We are working on a plan for DS2's senior trip (likely mid-June 2026, but the our spring break (end of March, beginning of April is an option too.) I'm gently pushing not-a-cruise because of the ages of his siblings (They're in the weird in-between ages for a lot of the on-ship activities, and we discovered last year that means they don't have much to do after 8pm and DD didn't love kids club. That means one or both of us end up sitting in the room every evening.) I suggested he look into state and national parks in the western states and see what seemed like it could be fun. And I've been on him about this because senior trip will directly effect whether or not I run MW or Princess in 2026. Priorities and all that.

So I'm paging @The Expert and @Professor_Cookie and anyone else who might have some insight into this! Last night he sent me a bunch of links for a resort near Sand Hollow State Park, and then some surrounding state parks. Look like it's near-ish Zion? About a 2hr drive from the Vegas airport, so possibly affordable to fly instead of *driving* from northern Michigan. Hiking is an obvious thing to do. He specifically brought up that there are pickleball courts nearby. What are some other things we should look into?

I know we could also drive south into Arizona to check out the Grand Canyon for a day, but I'm not sure if that would be too similar to the parks in Utah? I would be ok with doing 3-4 days in one area as a "base" and then driving 4 or 5 hours to another area to spend another 3-4 days (maybe north toward SLC or south to Sedona?)

Our travel group would be myself, DH, DS2(18), DS3(14), DD(6), possibly DS1(20), and possibly DS2's girlfriend, assuming they are still dating(18.)

 

[Erika10021]

Arches and Canyonlands are both accessed from Moab and not far from each other, and there are endless things to do there,

Moab was amazing! I wish we had planned more time there. So much to do!

 

[The Expert]

I absolutely love arches and find Zion overrated, probably due to how busy it is. Arches is definitely busy but not on the scale Zion is

HARD agree with this, but if you're coming to the area for the first time, you gotta at least drive through Zion, imho.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Zion is going to be chaos because it allllwayyys is. I highly recommend Bryce if that’s the area you are going to be in.

We have no hard plans yet. Just looking into options and what is going to make the most sense.

Do you ski at all? Mountains up by SLC will still be covered with snow, and lower elevation will probably be muddy, if you go in April.

If you go in June north facing slopes will still be fairly snow covered along with some East facing aspects.

We do not, despite living about 20min from one of the larger ski resorts in the state.

Arches and Canyonlands are both accessed from Moab and not far from each other, and there are endless things to do there, from hiking to rafting to tandem BASE jumps. I absolutely love arches and find Zion overrated, probably due to how busy it is. Arches is definitely busy but not on the scale Zion is

This is good to know! I don't know that DS is attached to anything in particular, he just wants to see something "different" from our east-of-the-mississippi landscape. "You know that means basically a ton of hikes, right?" Yep.

I was showing him a few things I'd looked at briefly when I was searching yesterday, and then had to go back and tell him that the lottery success rate for "The Wave" was less than 5%. Which. That's bonkers.

 

[The Expert]

I was showing him a few things I'd looked at briefly when I was searching yesterday, and then had to go back and tell him that the lottery success rate for "The Wave" was less than 5%. Which. That's bonkers.

It is. But it also depends on time of year. If you really find you love the area, come back in winter. It's much easier to get in November-January, and the weather is still beautiful.

 

[Herding_Cats]

Well shoooooot. Now there are too many things I want to do and see!

We are looking at 7, maaaaaybe 8 days if we could get flights at convenient times or keep the kids out of school on Friday (and fly on Thursday.)

I think this would drive me as insane as trying to do a disney park every day of a trip, but we could possibly fly into Grand Junction, CO and drive to Moab. Do day 1 at arches, and day 2 at canyonlands. Drive part of the way to kanab and do day 3 at Capitol Reef and day 4 at Bryce Canyon. Drive to Kanab and do day 6 at Zion, day 7 at the Grand Canyon (north rim), and try to fit in part of a day at Page, AZ for the Antelope Canyon. And then fly out of St George. Or some version of that.

 

[The Expert]

That sounds like a good plan! Busy, but not too crazy. Be sure you look into what parks require reservations -- I think it may only be Zion and Arches?

 

[Herding_Cats]

That sounds like a good plan! Busy, but not too crazy. Be sure you look into what parks require reservations -- I think it may only be Zion and Arches?

reservations for the *whole* park? Or just certain hikes within the parks?