The Rahns head west - Days 6 and 7 ~ 18th Anniversary, Traveling to Park City, Utah and the Utah Olympic Park

Day 6 and 7 were spent in Park City, Utah. We spent two nights here as a respite between national park adventures. We also celebrated our 18th anniversary here and because of that we decided to splurge and stay at the Waldorf Astoria in Park City. It was beautiful and a nice 48 hours.

The drive from the Tetons to Park City was about 4 hours and we included 2 stops. The first was in Afton, Wyoming - we had to stop and take a picture of "the largest antler arch in the world."  Not much else in this tiny little town, but I guess they can claim their arch. :)

We then continued on and crossed over into Idaho for a while, then back into Wyoming and finally into Utah.

Once in Utah we drove for a while and drove around Bear Lake. It was beautiful, and not many pullovers for photo ops that weren't full of July 4th weekend revelers playing in the water. It was a VERY crowded area. We definitely weren't in the national parks anymore.

We did have to make one more stop on the other side of Bear Lake - known for its raspberries, Garden City, Utah claims to have the best Raspberry Shakes in the world.  We had to try them and there are 3 places in close proximity that compete against each other. One was closed, and the girls chose the "cuter" of the other two. So Hometown Drive-In got our business and yes, their shakes were pretty good, as was their lunch.

We continued about another hour through the beautiful countryside until we approached Park City,

Waiting for us in our room were some treats.

After checking in and exploring a bit, we took the shuttle to historic Main Street and ate dinner and did some shopping. It's a very cute place.

Had to have the teenage photo shoot against a blue door in the middle of Main St

We returned to the hotel and then participated in their nightly s'more making. Every night from 7-9 they bring out the fixins and anyone can make s'mores over the open fire pit by the pool. The girls had fun with that.

July 3 - Day 7 and Day 2 in Park City...

Hard to believe 18 years ago in 100!+ degree temperatures in Virginia, we were married!! Lots of adventures since then and many of our anniversaries have been spent on the road in a place far away from Virginia. This year was no different

Today we stepped away from the National Parks and went to the Utah Olympic Park. Site of the Olympic Ski Jumping and Bobsled in the Salt Lake Olympics. It's still an Olympic training site and in full swing all summer.

The ski jumps are used for extreme tubing in the summer - they wet the green part and then you can tube down them. The girls enjoyed that.

They also have 2 different zip line adventures. We did both of them. They were fun, and Carleigh will say that they don't even come close to comparing to paragliding.

 Here are the girls finishing their tubing runs.

They have aerial ski jumping practice runs that empty out into a pool, The cafe overlooks the practice pool, so we got to watch them for a while. Some were kids barely making it off the jump, and then there were some serious winter athletes that were starting at the top of the jumps and doing triple flips and lots of other tricks before landing in the pool. It was very cool!!  You could tell that some were working with coaches. It was fun to watch,

The highlight of the day was the girls going down the bobsled run. In the off season, they put the sled on wheels, but it is the same run that is used in the winter and in the Olympics.  They rode 4 to a sled, with a pilot as #1 in the front who drove the sled.

notice the sign behind their heads - nope I wasn't nervous....

IF you look carefully, Don is one of the pushers for their sled

They made it down the track in 59 seconds - Olympic winter speed is aobut 40ish seconds. They were going about 70 miles an hour. They did do a little bouncing around and had some minor neck pain when it was over. They were very excited to have experienced it.

Photo op with one of the winter bobsleds

their score and claiming first place of the groups that were currently going in their round

We returned to the Waldorf and relaxed for a bit at the pool before heading to our anniversary dinner.

We headed back to Park City Main Street for dinner and then back to another round of s'mores.

Park City was fun, but we are nature people and were ready to get to our next stop. Moab, Utah - home of Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. We will be there for 3 nights.  It's going to be hot, and I'm sure there will be lots of pictures!!

Stay tuned!!