In June I took a much needed staycation.
The pandemic causes stress.
My job at the grocery store used to be so stress free,
and then Covid-19 came along and there is just
stress. So I took a week off to rest and do things that
were a little stress free.
I went walking at the gardens.
It was nice to see all the flowers in bloom.
Last year I walked the gardens every week.
This year that is not happening.
I just don't want to be around a lot of people when I am
not working.
So while I enjoy walking the gardens,
I have found a new joy in growing my own.
This is a pretty little flower.
On my staycation I pretended that I went to Scotland.
What helps is that I follow a lot of people on Instagram
who are from Scotland. So everyday I get to
see beautiful photos of castles and places in Scotland.
I had a tea party with my family. Do you
see Dynamite in the background?
She was not happy that she was left out of the tea party.
We actually had hot chocolate instead of tea.
I also read a bunch of books that were took place
in Scotland and also watched a few documentaries
about places in Scotland.
We also took my son to the aquarium.
This was one of his Christmas presents.
I liked the poison dart frogs.
It was interesting going to the Aquarium in
a pandemic. Everyone had masks on.
You were supposed to social distance,
but people were not as good about that
as they could have been.
There were a lot more people there
than I thought would be there.
It was nice though to see the different
animals and fish and to learn about the world.
We spent about 4 hours walking around.
I thought this deep sea fish painting was cool.
I tried to do a selfie, my mask kind of glows.
Watching fish and jelly fish float around is relaxing.
This octopus was at the edge of his tank when I first walked up,
it moved all the way to the middle so I could see it,
or perhaps so it could see me.
I thought these ducks were pretty. They were
not very happy with each other. The boy was being a bit bossy to the lady duck.
We also went hiking. Utah has tons of different
hiking trails. You need to read up about the trails before going on them though.
This was the Horse Tail falls trail. It was probably
not the best first hike for me. It was very steep and
we did not make it all the way to the falls.
It gave me an idea of how much I have to work out
on the treadmill at home though. I now do an incline of
13 with a backpack on filled with what I would carry on a hike.
Walking on the treadmill for 30 minutes this way gives me a
good workout.
I saw lots of wild flowers, and my son and husband
saw a rattle snake. It was a bit in the woods
which I was thankful for.
Here is a chipmunk. It is nice to get out
and be away from everything,
There was a beautiful view.
Our next hike was the Battle Creek Falls Trail.
I did much better on this hike.
It wasn't as steep and it was a shorter trail.
Here is the view from the top of the trail.
A view of the falls.
There were people repelling.
It's cool that you can go right up to the bottom of the falls.
This was a beautiful hike.
Oh look our shadows are kissing.
There were many things I wanted to do this summer that I just didn't get to do.
My daughter had wanted to study abroad in Japan, but instead she is
doing zoom calls with a person from Japan that is teaching her how to speak better and they talk about places to visit when she eventually goes.
My husband was supposed to go back to New Jersey this summer but that isn't happening.
The one nice thing about a staycation is that I pretend I am gone somewhere,
and then I am home and getting things cleaned and organized.
This was a much needed break from work. I finally can go into work and
not feel stressed.
My next staycation is to England and Ireland.
What are you doing this summer?
Did you have plans that were cancelled due to the pandemic?
Hope you are safe and well.
G.G.
