Summer Vacation...National Park Style!

Family Vacation!  This year, it’s all about Utah.  The national parks, to be exact.  We are huge national park fans.  Several years ago PBS did a special on the historic national park lodges (not the same show as the Ken Burns National Parks: America’s Best Idea by the way, which is also so good!), and we vowed to stay in each one before our kids go to college.  This year we will mark 3 off the list: Bryce Canyon Lodge, Grand Canyon Lodge, and Zion Lodge.  As you can imagine, these places are VERY popular, so much so that I had to book them over a YEAR in advance.  (So much so also, that they don’t work with travel agents- BOO!)  Today, however, we flew into Salt Lake City to collect ourselves before heading south.  We have a standard formula when traveling as a family that always involves a stop at Target and Trader Joes for provisions.  This year we also bought a $20 large cooler on Amazon to be delivered to our hotel when we arrived.  We do tend to make and eat a lot of our own breakfasts and lunches (there comes a point where I just can’t eat out for 3 meals a day), so having a cooler on hand with sandwich fixings and snacks is always a good idea.  Then when we’re done with the trip, we donate the cooler.  PS- SLC is HOT, and when walking downtown, the stoplights seem to take immeasurably long to change to “WALK” while we fry on the sidewalk.  We had some very crabby campers this afternoon…  Headed to Capitol Reef tomorrow!