friends in utah!

Emily and Benedita, my friends from high school, came out to Utah for a visit over the first weekend in August. Luckily the rain had stopped and the weather forecast was looking hot and sunny! I had never been to Bear Lake--The Caribbean of the Rockies, so I thought we would go adventure up there together.

Little did we know it was Raspberry Days. Hooray for raspberries and raspberry milk shakes, but boo for crowded campgrounds.

We were just a little stressed out about finding a place to set up camp. Also, all the closest beaches were flooded and we were told we'd have to go all the way to the north or south end. We chose south since it was closer, and the map said there was camping there. But, of course, that too was full. In desperation to find a campsite, we kept driving around the east side of the lake to the more "primitive" campgrounds.

I guess primitive means perfect! Our own private beach access:

We got in the cold, cold water before the sun went down, and then gorged ourselves on our many snacks, including cheese curds Emily brought from Wisconsin.

Before the sun went down, we built a fire--with the conveniently left logs waiting for us in our fire pit. 

We had prepared a tin-foil dinner mixture and were, yet again, nervous about how exactly to go about cooking them and knowing when they would be done. Taking them out of the fire was the exciting part. I used two sticks, one which was bent perfectly to help the process along, and Benedita held the "dinner rock" nearby for transportation to the table.

Benedita and I were in girl scouts together when we were wee and here you can see we remembered camping rule number one: No sandals by the fire.

Everything was cooked--in fact, some bits were a bit too charred. But we ate something that wasn't sugary snacks!

The next morning, after it got deceivingly cold that night, and we three were crammed in a two person tent, and Emily was forced to be in the middle, we huddled in blankets eating some breakfast until the sun came over the ridge behind us and then we promptly went for another chilling swim. This time the waves weren't so forceful and we could more easily see where to step without hurting our feet.

Eventually, after many many rounds of Bananagrams, we packed our things and headed out towards Park City to ride the Alpine Coaster. We didn't know we had to drive through Wyoming to get there, but that was all the better. 

Back in Provo we had dinner at Black Sheep Cafe, walked around "downtown" Provo, which to Aaron and my surprise, they thought was cute and interesting. We got frozen yogurt, and came back home for some Jungle Speed. *Highlight: Aaron dragging Benedita across the table and floor and Benedita refusing to let go of the totem. They were fighting for nothing--neither of them could get rid of any cards if they won.*

The next day, Sunday, we made waffles for breakfast and then went on a jaunt up Rock Canyon. It was really hot. We only brought one water bottle and we didn't ration too well. Luckily there was a water fountain on the trail. Unluckily it was swarming with bees. Emily the courageous filled it up.

It was so fun to have these ladies out for a visit!