May 6…. Visitors

Susanne’s daughter Rease and her husband Michael came to visit us this week. They brought us a care package from home, some mail, some forgotten items, and some stuff that had been shipped to the house after we left. Susanne finally got her replacement rock tumbler, so there’s rumbling in our basement again. Rease’s birthday is later this month, so we celebrated, balloons, streamers, cake, dancing and singing. It was a wild time for sure. 😆

It rained a LOT after we arrived in Provo. After being in arid country for so long, seeing all this green and wet countryside was a real change. The valley where Provo sits blends from one suburb to the next all the way to Salt Lake City and it’s all almost perfectly flat. Farms, fields, crops, and grazing land within a few blocks of towns and development. Surrounding the valley, just popping up from the flat, are some rugged mountains. Rocky, but still very green and growing, and all capped by snowy peaks at this time. They make a beautiful backdrop wherever we look. Susy and I are both fans of this area and it’s definitely on our “return to” list, maybe even as a long term destination.

We went to Bridal Veil Falls for an easy 1.5 mile walk, only Google took me TO the falls. So, we got to see the destination first, and did the trail in reverse. 😁

After visiting the falls, we drove out to Heber City to swim in some hot springs. “Hot” is probably not the best description, they were a comfortable 93 degrees, like a nice warm bath. Called Homestead Crater, the resort is developed around a geothermal hot spring inside a cavern. It’s a big symmetrical mound, where once upon a time, water bubbled up out of the top of the mound. Years ago, the spring was tapped, so water receded inside the mound into a large circular cavern. The crater is about a hundred feet deep overall, with 65 feet of water inside, they drilled a tunnel into the side and now it’s a swimmin’ hole, with a short tunnel hole in the roof. Annoying, they require life jackets for everyone at all times, and get upset if you don’t wear it properly. No sitting on a vest for you! Put it on!