Spring break 2021

 It was a pleasant trip we had this spring break. My dear husband driving the entirety of the 1900 miles. Kids in the back seat talking, arguing, practicing their WWE inspired moves on each other, listening to old and new songs in a multitude of languages and singing along with each of them with equal vigor. What more could you ask for?

  Cool, crisp air blowing through our overgrown hair (thanks to Covid-19 and laziness alike). A week of no office work, no school work nor the thought of what lies ahead when we get back to our daily monotonous routine of hybrid learning(2 days of on campus schooling and the rest online - yes I know, unheard of! before 2020 - been more than an year now), and work from home all day, every day in which ever pajamas you please. Lunches out of a cooler box - fruits, veggies, hummus, veggie burgers , cheeses, sauces and everything I could think of putting in between two slices of bread, thrown in last minute from the Akshaya Patra(look it up) of a fridge that I proudly possess. The day before we left for the road trip, I splurged on buying all kinds of "unhealthy" foods which in our house is a requirement for the hours spent in the car together. I had an arsenal of snacks to neutralize the attack of the hangry mob -  varieties of family size chips, nutter-butter, oreos, cheez-it, granola bars(well, I'm a mom and have a need to put in something healthy, not that anyone ate them unless they really needed to and there was nothing else available) and of course soda - trust me it was worth taking all these.

   Of course, the purpose of the trip was to get out of the house and get some fresh perspective of life beyond the four walls. It took me a lot of reading travel blogs, searching for the perfectly distanced hotels so as to reduce driving distances, picking out just the right amount of hiking vs sight seeing vs enjoying the hotel pools, marking where restaurants were closer to the hotels, figuring out what passes to buy and this effort  produced a nice spreadsheet with our itinerary. I even have the planned out vs actual itinerary! (yes, I updated it after we got back from the trip). 

   My day started with lists of things to do and make others do - no difference from any other day for the manager and full time worker of our four member household of which I am the only female member (I needed to state that - a damsel among... a diamond in the rough...you get the point). Not one person would be able to get outside the house with all his clothes on, forget all the other necessities for any trip on any particular occasion, be it sports, scouts, school, work - unless I was there to find them their keys, fill up their water bottle, hand them their jackets after I found their socks and masks and of course their breakfasts and lunches. Anyway enough about myself. We were able to get everything in to the car including ourselves - took out the trash, locked all the doors and windows etc, checked off everything on my list and started on our trip. Finally, Zion here we come!

   The sun was shining, it was supposed to be a cold week in Zion for which we had packed our jackets and beanies but today there was a whole new forecast- it would be in the high 70s and 80s...good for us as we are definitely more used to the warmth and will take it any day. Some interesting sights on the way were  expansive solar farms on both sides of the I-15 and the "Zzyzx" road near Barstow - yes, there is such a road and it is famous apparently, look it up. I took us around 6.5 hours to get to Springdale where we were staying for 2 days as we explored the National Park.

to be continued..