Cache Valley get-away.

Since we knew we'd be in Cache Valley for dads birthday, Darin and I decided to take a couple of nights and get away on our own. Logan and Ellie got to stay with Ammon and Alison and cousins, which was also a fun summer get-away for them.Perfect! Thanks Sonny! So everyone already knows we usually stay here when we "get away" in Cache Valley.....The Best Western Weston Inn. I know, it sounds weird.....but we love it! Honeymoon suite....top two windows on the left.

Darin brought his road bike and cycled around the valley for a couple of hours one morning with his sisters. And I did some reading and relaxing. The past week I've been reading books that I ordered for the kids. 

Nearly twenty years ago, Darin carved our initials and a little heart, in a tree. An aspen tree that was near the Cold Water hike trail head at the watering trough. I'm not exactly sure how "near" this tree was, but between  the two of us we had a pretty good idea where it was. I've always wanted to go see it again. We decided this was the day. We took our van 4-wheeling to get to Cold Water. 

We hiked around for a couple of hours....mostly not on trails, because the original tree was not on a trail. It was an adventure for sure, and I was determined to check every aspen tree could find. 

Well, we never did find the tree. It was a big tree twenty years ago, and they say aspens don't live a lot more than twenty years. Many trees had fallen over the years and lots had bark split off. So maybe we were in the exact spot and the tree was long gone, or maybe we never even saw the right tree. But it was still really fun looking for it. We decided to carve our initials in another tree....maybe a little closer to our current home. And here's my digitally enhanced version of what our tree kind of looked like way back when. Maybe it is still standing somewhere on the mountain!

Darin got surprised by a mother turkey and her tiny babies, when he nearly stepped right on them. The mother was making all kinds of noise to protect her little ones.

We did some regular shopping. And some vehicle shopping....mostly for trucks. (Darin's car died so we are in the market.) We watched a movie and ate "everything but the..." and we ate out at a few fun places. 

Friday evening we took a walk from the hotel. We walked up and around the temple. (All these walk pics are from Darin's phone. Not bad for a phone camera.) 

 

We sat on a bench looking at the temple for awhile. Then we switched to another bench and took in the view over the island. 

We started reminiscing about the area and when we were kids. I spotted the ice-skating shack at Merlin Olsen Central Park, where we used to skate in the winter. The city turns the field into an ice rink every year. That got me thinking, and we decided to walk back to the hotel a different way.  

We walked past the old roller skating rink. It's all shut down now. I have no idea how old it is, but it seemed old when we were kids. I went there so many times as a kid. Man, we were hot stuff rollin' around there, disco ball flashing, doing the limbo!

Then we walked past the old library. I remember it being nice and cool there in the summer. And they had one of those bubbly drinking fountains that just keep running. We always came home with a big stack of books every couple of weeks. We used to go here for FHE on Monday nights to watch free movies in the basement. That's where I saw "Lambert the sheepish lion". 

And last we passed by here. Won't mean much to anyone else...but the Daugs family will all know. Darin had no idea what I was taking a picture of. It's the old cold storage locker. For years we rented space here to keep all our frozen meat and produce and jams. Tons and tons of frozen stuff! I don't know why we didn't get a deep freeze for so many years. We used to always stop by "the locker" every time we went to the grocery store. Mom would pull out what she needed for the next week or whatever. I used to be nervous that we'd get locked in there, with the rows and rows of frozen food cages. I can still remember what it feels like in the hot summer, coming out of the locker and the heat feeling so nice....for a few minutes anyways. Then we had to get back into the boiling car with no A/C. Awesome memories!

Darin and I had a really great get-away. Wish we could go away together once a month!
And this little literal walk down memory lane got me to thinking......and that led to the following post!!