things to mention and the continuation of the grand canyon adventure...

pics tonight
stories to follow--ideally tomorrow over an almond croissant and wonderful coffee.
we'll see if i'm lucky enough to find a web cafe with all that i desire...


i just had the most amazing day in san francisco
a full heart.
oh my my.

love,
jenny

________________________________________

monday sept 19 2011:
ok! here i am. it feels so weird to think about what day it is.  i haven't really needed to keep track. which is pretty amazing.
the freedom is truly intoxicating.

today, i slept in. it's monday. i slept in. no work to go to, only what I want to do ahead of me.
only what i plan ahead of me. there are no true obligations here. only pure desire.
wow
my plans for today included resting in.
washing up
get directions for the places i want to go in san fran, checking them on my atlas map.
( i want to mention here that I am really bad at directions/ getting lost, so this is a triumph for me.
to be able to get around on my own. no help. not getting lost.)
i've started the journey and so far, so good. already thrilled with myself.
are my standards to low? hahah.
ok, so the other things i am doing today-
find web cafe. plan next portion of trip. get directions from one thing to another.
work on blog
go to art store!!!! yayyayayyayayayyyayayayyayayayyyayaya. love love art stores.
the pencils... the paper.... the possibilities! whoo hoo. hope it's great.
i'm checking out this place called FLAX, which i got a recommendation for from anne.
go to electronic store. buy larger memory card for my camera.
ideally write some letters
call a few people
eat great food. ideally sushi later today since i had a pretty heavy breakfast and
loooooooooooooovvvveee sushi.
watch sunset somewhere. ideally at the coast.

ok, so back to business...
see adventures below.

i put in a few pictures here that i didn't have the luxury of uploading before. this is one of them. 

this is hans.

he's 84.

he is dutch.

he jumps out of planes

he loves to white water raft 

he comes every year to utah on vacation

so much so, that a restaurant there named a great dessert after him.

the description is shown below.

here's a link to hans's practicing skydiving:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ9NjXucvtY

here's his first jump:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FFXIpzO1bE

he told me i could search on youtube for it and he was right. just found those links. amazing.

that crazy dutchman! hans was very nice to talk to. interested in talking, but not pushy. 

while i was talking to hans, mark was talking to the couple next to him who were doing a very similar trip as we were doing, lots of the same places. 

this is a place mark found out about by talking to that couple. i found out about it by talking to hans.

we went on a drive after leaving the restaurant down this street. 

it was mind boggling. steep rock faces on both sides of the road, a river down the center. 

this is a big spot for rock climbing. 

in this pic i am feeling the rock. 

sounds weird, but normal if you've ever really rock climbed.

"where can i hold onto?"

the street is called: potash road.

it's also owned by the department of the interior.

they got all the good stuff man...

this is a little hut under the rock ledge at the top of a Butte. this is a place where native americans would store grains.

this is a picture of our campsite at lake powell. i loved this campsite. it was warm, the sky was clear, etc.
just another pic of my appreciation for this area.

this is a pic of the off road trucks that took us to antelope. yeah buddy!

and here we are again, back at our journey down the grand canyon. 

witness the progression of pics... wow, it was beautiful...

that's mark down there at the end. that little spot. on the trail. takes my breath away to see it again.

getting tired and hot now... and feeling the weight of the pack.

we arrived at the bottom of the grand canyon. here's the sign for the Phantom Ranch, the little outpost/ small accomidations located there. some people stay in the little cabins down there, but got a campsite on a creek.  what a relief to see we had finally reached the bottom.

the 7 ish mile hike down the South Kaibab trail was more strenuous than i had anticipated.

when we were going down, we were GOING DOWN! and it was pretty hard on our joints and muscles. 

It's a mile in elevation change from the rim of the grand canyon  to the colorado river. 

here's our campsite 

here's the nice, cold creek with little cubbies where we could put out tired feet in and lay down in and feel much much more refreshed. 

seeing the picture makes me want to go right back in again. 

haha. makes me think of a discussion mark and i were having about how much we'd have to be paid to do the hike back up out of the canyon again right now...

i said i'd maybe do it for a 1000.00 dollars... but after our debate in the car, we landed on about 2000.00 would be a reasonable sum. 

that gives you an idea of how hard it was to do... :))))

i'll take a second here again to say, if you want to do this-- you should train. like really train.

like be able to run 7 miles would be best. like 7  miles pretty regularly.

ok. onward.

this is the morning light in the canyon as we started our journey out.

here's the sign-- we went on the bright angel trail out of the canyon. 

morning light falling into the canyon

tired tired tired. 

all good though

half way point. another creak to rest your feet in. they advise you rest here for about an hour before continuing the journey.

people die doing this... hiking into the grand canyon.

it gets super hot. 

we were really lucky and the day was pretty cool and overcast mostly, so we weren't in danger of heat stroke.

still. supposed to have had about a gallon of water by the time we reached this point.

we got pretty close to that.

the grind

this is a picture of the trail. 

this is what we looked at from 7:00 am to about 2:00 pm. when we weren't looking up.

ahhh... look how far we've come!!!

see that squiggly line on the right, down in the bottom right ish corner of the picture, 

that's the trail we came up!! 

ugh. rough now.

whew! really close. pull up a smile.

show you're happy to be here! this is amaaaazzziinng.

started breathing easier. knew there was just about a mile to go to the top.

this was the last rest stop. 

nice little resting spot mark found.

"let's take one more picture together before the top."

triumph!

antelope and the descent begins

antelope: a long hard trek to... a parking lot where we boarded huge off road-ing trucks. a journey only by touring company into the slot canyons located near lake powell. 

it's a quick trip. a half hour across sand, super bumpy terrain. an hour spent taking pictures and being herded from one point to another quickly! quickly! out of the way, trying to take a picture, move there, move here, but it was

beautiful! really amazing to see what water does and it also wasn't too strenuous- perfect because our next adventure was gonna need a lot of energy. 

SO.... here goes... it's been awhile since I've gotten to blog.. no reception, or super jenky computers, shutting down after hours of work, etc. etc. but here I am. Here to catch up on the magic. Here to tell the story.....

Mark really instigated this whole journey. I was up for it, but he really got it going. We arrived at the grand canyon, set up camp the first night and realized all the park facilities and offices were closed by that time. might have been around 7? A thing to remember, arriving any time after 5 to a national park might mean no info until the next day.
We did a little research that night, finding out what opened when the next day, etc. etc. and decided we would wake up early, run over to the back-country offices and see what our options would be for getting a pass. (only so many passes are given/ bought each day and we had heard from a ranger at the camping check in office that there really wasn't a chance of us getting one, but we are the type to make sure- ask and you shall receive, right????!!!
Well, we asked first thing in the morn and it was a GO!!!! OF COURSE they had passes available, and jokey jokester over the counter mr. hippie ranger having a good time was best buds with us within minutes.
It was great. Mark and I looked at each other and we had this feeling of "are we really going to do this?? ahh!! yes!!! let's hurry! let's go!!" ADVENTURE!

2 hrs later, packs jammed with our tents, thermarests, sleeping bags, food, etc. we were standing at the top looking down, and oh man, on our way....

starlight starbright

the sunrise greeted mark and i when we awoke this morning at lake powell, arizona.
it was a great night. the sun was shining when we arrived here yesterday afternoon, hot and blazing, we set up camp and headed down to the water, which was much warmer than in Colorado or Utah and hung out there until the sun was starting to go down. The night was super nice. Perfect temperature, perfect sunset, perfect fire --compliments of Mark. It was just right. It was just so beautiful that we couldn't help but settle in to a nice night of camping and talking. We've been "on the go" as I'd say, and it's been a little much for me here and there, so this was just the ticket. Relax a tion.
OH and GET THIS!! one of the neighboring campsites was playing FLEETWOOD MAC on REPEAT!!
it was almost too perfect to be a coincidence. It was like the night was made just for me.
Mark being super kind, the weather so perfect, the music, the light fading.
We woke up a few times during the night to see stars and stars and stars.

I have to tell you all that Mark just walked into the coffee shop where we are and showed me a small hatchett he just bought. He told me lastnight that he wanted one for various purposes, all of which I was super supportive of, especially the one where he's going to kill a bear (only if necessary) with it. :))) haha.
THANKS TO JUSTIN, we have bear spray as well for those times when we'll be on the look out, but this extra precaution is super great and multi-purpose ful.

Things we've done since the last post:
We went to Canyonlands, which was super scary for me. The height was super freaky but also breathtaking. Literally, I kept feeling sick and my heart was pounding a ton.
We did other hikes in Moab. One was super epic- it was outside of the National Parks. The land was owned by the Department of the Interior.
TIP: if you want to go to Moab, look up the department of the Interior, get a spot ON the Colorado river, which is run by them, hike any hikes you see by them, because they are AMAZING. and don't cost anything! We went on a great hike and saw a stream that had the most clear water, it ran along the longest rock face in the area, we took tons of photos and were lovin it.
We left for Page, Arizona yesterday, and drove through Indian Reservations. I'm really glad we came here to see Antelope, it has shown me more about the Native American culture than I've seen before. Another thing to mention is that this area and Utah as well, must be a huge place for international travelers to hit. We have seen mostly people speaking other languages, French, German, Chinese, etc.
It's been interesting to think about all the different lives that people live...
Well, gotta hit the road.. time's running out before our tour of Antelope.

We'll be at the Grand Canyon by 4:00!!
boo-ya!

love,
jenny

the lazy lizard has internet!!

I got lucky and our hostel in Utah (The Lazy Lizard) has internet and it's FREE and no one's bugging me too much to hurry too too fast... but Mark and I have big plans for the night to go over to the Colorado river and have a picnic and drink a few low alchohol content beer as is allowed in Utah due to the large Mormon population. 3.2%. Ok by me. It's super hot. We're sweating a ton, drinking tons of water, have hiked about 7 miles each day which is not bad due to the fact that we've been making some serious mileage and done a TON for the amount of time we've been gone. And also, we haven't really been excercizing.. at least not seriously lately and the elevation is much higher than back in O H I O, so everything makes your heart beat super fast and there is some adjusting going on.
To updat you on where we've been so far...
We left friday night-- hit the road after some good bye's and got some Chipotle. Figured it might be awhile before it was available again and we'd enjoy some good food before a long drive that night. Mark got ambitious and drove about 3 hrs longer than we'd expected to and we made it to Kansas City instead of just west of St. Louis. I slept because I was dilerious and making no sense when I talked. We got to a hotel, got a room and a shower and awoke early to begin the long drive to the Rockies.. or about the rockies.. The drive was not bad and we listened to a mystery book on tape for a lot of the time and our newly made roadtrip cds, which was awesome. Kansas was super pretty, but long and just as long in Colorado to get to Denver, but it was amazing to watch the scenery change and enjoy the time together.  Just outside of Denver, we stayed at a campsite that ended up being a bit cramped, but still great. We got to see some Buffalo in a sectioned off area, the weather was super cool (about 30 degrees), got some supplies for cooking at our campsite. We set up camp, took a small, heart racing walk down and up a hill and got back to the tent to make some dinner.
Slept ok in our great tent, which we both love and I seriously love that it's orange and seems very athletic and wonderful to have it.
We woke up early in the morning, packed up the tent in 6 min, seriously!! it's so so easy to set up! and loaded everything else for the drive to Utah.
We had a little extra time on this part, so we thought up places we could stop and see on the way.
We decided on Aspen first since it was just off I-70 and it was a great choice as we just had about an hour and a half to explore. There was free parking, a little festival going on in the "town" and we found a little hike to go on and had lunch while we were out. It was great.
We keep imagining moving to each place we go to and it's super fun because Mark and I are both big day- dreamers and Mark makes super funny jokes all the time that almost always make me smile and anyways, it was awesome to get another small hike in (about an hour).
We got back onto the road and our next stop planned was a hot springs, that ended up just being a pool/ fun center with hot springs water fueling the water area. We thought this was pretty lame because we can go to a pool everywhere, but not a river with hot water flowing into it, so we moved on, shrugging, but sucking it up after our high expectations were dashed...
:)
We drove about 8 minutes and Mark pulled off the highway next to the Colorado river, which by the way, we'd been following for a long time, which also looked amazing and also, I should mention, the scenery was mind bogglingly beautiful. LIKE RIDICULOUSLY BEAUTIFUL
So, his idea was for us to swim in the river. I liked this idea because I was super hot and the river looked great and there were tons of kayaks and ppl floating by.. Well, not tons, like 5 max.. :) but anyways, I was into it. I put in a toe and it was frigid. Mark was eggin me on so I got in more and more. My thighs were red from how cold it was, but I deemed it not hypothermia enducing and edged my way in.
As Mark put his toes in, he was seriously backing away from it, but I went ahead and egged him on until he submerged as well. Only Mark brought his camera for this part, so you'll  have to ask to see his pics, but it was cold, and great and refreshing and helped us forget about any hot springs we missed.
We proceeded on our drive to Utah.
Utah is crazy. Crazy cool!! ha ha. It was startling to watch the scenery change and follow the Colorado river and move towards MOAB!! Check  out the photos below. but EVERYONE should come here. because it's great and I can only imagine what the grand canyon must be like after seeing this. I DID NOT EXPECT THIS!!!!
DESERT. high desert. crazy amazing rock cliffs/ formations/ BEAUTIFUL color. I LOVE the color here!
I Love color in general, so it was so great. Especially earthy colors.
I freaked out at one point because we were getting low on gas and hadn't seen a gas station in awhile, but we made it safe and sound into Moab where we checked into this hippie hostel and hopped right back in the car to do a hike to the Delicate Arch at sunset. It was super tiring after our long day, but good.
We got some mexican food, which took FOR E V E RRRRR....
and came back and fell right asleep.
Now for today... ahhh! so much we already did!
We got up, got some supplies and went back into Arches National Park. We did an amazing hike down a place I think was called the "parkway" because of how big the spillway was that we hiked down. It was so beautiful, we had a great time and hiked back up, then we proceeded to Devils Garden, saw some amazing scenery and huge crazy arches and lots of places where I wanted, but didn't rock climb  and now here we are, back at the Lazy lizard.
I wish I could rock climb out here. I'm workin on it, but not as hard as paddling down the Colorado river day after tomorrow, but trying to make this trip about relaxation and not just seeing tons of stuff.
We'll see what happens as the adventure continues...
Love you guys lots, MOM! don't worry too much! This is really good for me- try to focus on that!
and I'm really trying to keep danger to a minimum. Mark must have heard me say "be careful" enough to make him puke, but he's dealing with it well. :)
Emily, I miss you too, and wish YOU were HERE. :)
xo
Love,
Jenny
p.s. i'm really happy. and totally in loooveee. :)

a new day

alright alright alright!!!
things are good. getting ready to hit the open road.
well, the road to cinci where i'm picking up mark and saying bye to the fam!
this is amazing. i lOOOOVEEEEE CHANGE.
i feel super exhilerated. (not worried about that spelling because i have about 15 min to do this post before heading out!!)
i have road trip cds for the drive! thanks emily for all the ones you left in my purse at work this morning.
thanks to joe for the snacks for the road.
thanks to erin for a little vodka for a celebration sometime
thanks to everyone from work for such a great morning and smooth exit.
it was definitely bittersweet today, but that's expected.. 4 years 2 months i've been at A&F..

buster just came up by the computer to give me a little snuggle.
my meow's being left at mark's parents house for a few weeks while mark travels with me.
thanks kathy and glenn!! we really appreciate the help!!

it's hot today. and no air at the home front, but i figure i better get used to sweating...
:)
can't wait for some fitness!
ahhhhhh!! yay!!!!
mark's super pumped too and has been telling  me about moonlit hikes and sunrise hikes.
i hope we get to hop in some water at some point. don't anyone worry. no cliff jumping. i'm just
talking like a lake or creak or something cool. :)

well, i'll miss you all. i'm sure this won't be all easy or anything, but i am confident this will be
fun and a growing experience and

i'll bring out the cornyness right now and say it's going to be a "beautiful struggle" :))))))

check out the pics:

peace!