23 Dec 2009

Christmas/ Honeymoon/ New Years

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Photos and Video

Wednesday the 23rd

Rachel, Delilah, and I hit the road and headed for Las Vegas. We checked Delilah in Petsmart and Rachel went to visit her friend and mentor Dr. Rosemary Deering.
Rachel’s family celebrates Christmas Eve the day before Christmas Eve (the eve of Christmas Eve) at her grandma’s house. Later that evening our friends were having dinner at Archi’s. (One of our favorite Thai places) So, we dropped in to say hello to everyone.

Thursday the 24th.
Christmas Eve- This morning Delilah was bitten in day camp by another dog.
Rachel, her mother, her sister, my mother and I all had dinner at Buca DiBeppo. I was worried about Delilah. The bite was pretty nasty so I went and picked her up. From there the dog and I went over to Richelle and Ron’s house, while Rachel went to church with her father, brother, and sister.

Friday the 25th

Of course now we have Delilah so Rachel and I begin our day by taking her to the park. Violet and Johnny came home from spending the night with their father and we opened our Christmas presents. Delilah, being the high maintenance dog she is, tore the stitches out of her face. I am off to spend another morning with the veterinarian. $350.00 and 4 hours later I finish with the dog. Rachel and I head for her Aunt Joellen’s house for Christmas dinner with the family. The family puts on an incredible meal and afterwards we go straight home to take care of Delilah and go to bed. Our flight leaves at 6a.m. tommorrow.

Saturday 26th

Rachel an I wake up at 4:00 a.m to head to the airport. We both feel bad about Delilah and really don’t want to go now. Rachel’s mother and sister have graciously agreed to take care of our high maintainence hound while we head out for our honeymoon. When we arrive in Salt Lake City, we pick up our rental car and check in the hotel. I booked the Hilton Garden Inn in Sandy, Utah which is barely south of Salt Lake. I would highly recommend it. Tripdavisor ranked it as the #1 pick in Salt Lake. It’s a beautiful sunny day, but we decide to take it easy and take a nap. Before our nap we visit the Super Target which Rachel is very excited about and says that they are very rare! We also stop by Barnes and Noble to get Rachel a couple of books. After taking a short nap we decide to head out to catch a meeting- only to find that the battery is dead on the rental car. So we have dinner at the hotel while we wait for Alamo to bring us a new one. Finally after they arrive we decide to go downtown to smoke some Hookah. Not our greatest idea. Luckily, the downtown area is beautiful. There are Christmas lights everywhere and a skating rink right off of the main street. Snow is on the ground and we are definitely grateful to be in Salt Lake. Back to the hotel and a good night’s rest.

Sunday 27th

Well we are up early and it’s our first full day at Park City. We ride Payday, Eagle Lift, King Con, then Silverlode. I was done by then but we are at the summit and have to go all the way down to legacy lodge. That was a grueling ride. Rachel and I got seperated. After limping my way down the hill I find Rachel at the bottom. We grab our gear and have dinner at the Baja Cantina at the base of the mountain. Pretty goood food. After dinner we drive back to the hotel. In the room we have 4 ibuprofen each and promptly head to the Jacuzzi to soke our weary bodies.

Monday 28th

Today I really caught my second wind. It was cold but very sunny. The riding was great. Once again we did the Eagle lift, King Con, and Silverlode. We also added in Thaynes lift had lunch at the summit then rode McConkey’s lift and all the way down the hill back to Legacy Lodge. The lifts close at 4 but it took us until 5 to get to the bottom of the hill. Rachel was a trooper I only did one more run than her today. When we finished I was tired but not limping. It was a good tired.

Tuesday 29th

We had snow today. Both Rachel and I are feeling a little tired . Rachel has some kind of a cold. We decide to take it easy so we end up going to the Megaplex Movie Theater in Sandy Utah and watching Avatar in 3D. If you have not seen it I highly recommend it. Rachel loved it and generally has trouble enjoying this type of movie. It was really good. In the evening we went to The Cheesecake Factory and had a great dinner- Avocado Egg Rolls- Chipotle Chicken Pasta and finished with Red Velvet Cake Cheesecake.

Wednesday 30th

More snow- powder- YEAH!!! Unfortunately Rachel is still feeling ill and I don’t want to drive in hazardous conditions. So we take the bus to go riding we decide to try Solitude which came highly recommended by the locals. According to the news Solitude got more snow overnight than any other resort in the area. Conditions are good- powder alert- when we arrive. Too bad Rachel is sick. She relaxes in the lodge while I proceed to the summit. The summit of Solitude has an elevation of 10,500 feet which you get to in a tiny two-man chair. There is nothing at the top but a tiny ski patrol shack. They don’t call this place Solitude for nothing. I have a great day of riding from here back down to Moonbeam Lodge and all over the rest of the resort. After 3 days of snowboarding I have had enough! We have to leave the airport in Salt Lake at 8 a.m tomorrow.

New Years Eve

We fly in early from Salt Lake. My mother picks us up at the airport and we head to Rachel’s mom’s house. They have had our crazy dog for the last 5 days and I feel bad. She is a handful to say the least. After checking on the dog I go do lunch with my friend David who is in town. New Years eve is pretty tame for us. We get to see a lot of friends but basically just hang out with them and relax. We are ready to go home tomorrow. This was the kind of vacation that you need a vacation from.

New Years Day

We wake up- pack the bags- and have a farewell lunch with family and friends at Archi’s. Hit the road about 4:30 back in La Jolla by 9:30. Rachel has work with the babies tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m., so she heads straight to bed. It was a great trip but I’m glad to be home.

One Response to “Christmas/ Honeymoon/ New Years”

  1. Christmas Honeymoon 2009 Video | Johnny and Rachel's Big Adventure says:

    […] for Christmas from there to Utah for our Honeymoon then back to Vegas again for New Years. For a full commentary of our trip you can go here . If you would like to see the photos you can go here . Add your comments […]

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