the rowleys: May 2017

back in March we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! to celebrate we wanted to take a trip somewhere driving distance and do a road trip (because we are great at those :) ) rather than fly. we originally had planned on going to Austin to celebrate and I actually had it all planned out. we then realized it was the South by Southwest Festival we decided to change plans because we didn't want to have to deal with everything being crowded. our next option was to go to Big Sur along the Cali coast and camp which is something I've really been wanting to do. we quickly had to rule that out since they had a large bridge that collapsed and a lot of road closures because of mudslides from all the rain they had gotten that winter. we were down to our third option- a Utah road trip! we'd been wanting to visit Arches National park and Utah is so beautiful so we always enjoy visiting.
we left on Saturday and we decided to drive through Vegas to eat and see Seven Magic Mountains. Seven Magic Mountains is a temporary art display in the desert just outside Vegas. I am glad we made a stop there because the huge colorful boulders were really beautiful in the desert landscape.

we got to Salt Lake City late Friday night then spent Saturday exploring. we ate some delicious food in downtown and had a great time walking around the city.

we ate lunch at Spitz this delicious Mediterranean sandwich shop in downtown Salt Lake. I loved the funky decor and the food was very tasty too. I think my favorite part was the sweet potato waffle fries with their version of fry sauce- which was much tastier than any I've ever had in Utah. we have a text thread with a few of Jason's siblings called "Vicariously Eating" where we will rate new food places we try and send a pic with a description. the rating system uses side smiles (we started it and somehow side smiles were what we used 😏) and it is out of 5. I think this got 3 1/2. I really wish we had one in Gilbert!

we walked around the downtown area and found some cool wall art.

we then went to Decades a great vintage clothing store that we had been to last time we were in Salt Lake.

we got some very very tasty cookies from Ruby Snap cookies. out of all the desserts out there cookies are probably my favorite. particularly a really well made chocolate chip cookie. sometimes the simplest things are the best! they are definitely a comfort food for me. I wish we had a place in Gilbert that focused just on making excellent cookies like Ruby Snap.

we stopped at the capital on our way to hike Ensign's Peak.

the hike to Ensign's Peak is only about a mile and the views were amazing.

we are all squinty eyed in this pic because we were facing the sun.

our next stop was Temple Square! we got there in the evening and it got dark pretty quickly.

we ate some delicious Italian style pizza at Settebello Pizzeria Napoletana and then got some gelato next door (even though it was very cold) then called it a night. the next morning we ate breakfast croissants at this french style bakery.

we then left for Arches National park! we drove most of the day and got to Canyonlands in the late afternoon. we were only there for a very short time but we would love to go back and see more. I had never really heard much about it but from what we saw it is very beautiful.

we camped in the desert that night at a campsite just outside Arches. we had never camped in the desert before and it was pretty fun! you can see the stars so clearly without trees which is really cool.
the next day we went to Arches.

this arch is called Delicate Arch and it was definitely the most impressive of all the arches. if you only see one thing in Arches this arch is definitely it. we saved it for last and we ended up having to run half of the trail because the park ranger made it sound like we wouldn't make it back before the park closed. we would've had plenty of time but we at least did get a nice little trail run in :) everyone was very polite about waiting in line to get a picture under the arch.