Vacation Training

Since the dawn of time(ish) Steve has wanted to partake of the iconic American adventure of rafting through the Grand Canyon. We signed up 2 years ago to take a 7-day trip in May 2021, since it's the first year that WanYing will be old enough. There is also a helicopter involved. We are all very excited. 

Like everybody else, all of our vacation plans last summer got scrambled. We did a lot of local camping around the great state of Utah, which was great. And we started started thinking, "what could we do that keeps us out in the outdoors, socially distanced, and is still having a good time all together?" And, thus, our ramp-up plan for Grand Canyon rafting was born.

The training regimen started with tubing the Provo River. Admittedly, that was really just for fun and had no actual "white water rafting skills" element

Next, we did a one-day rafting Green River expedition in Dinosaur National Park, as described in this post.

Our 2020 rafting training culminated in a two-day trip through Westwater in Southern Utah. We had so much fun! I thought a one-day expedition was a blast, but the fun of two days in a raft, camping out in the wilds, and having the staff cart our stuff around and cook for us was SO GREAT.

We spent a couple of days tooling around Moab first, which was fun because we hadn't been to Arches for a few years. It's such a great park. 

Also, the campground we stayed at was super posh and had a pool, so we also spent considerable time there.

And then it was time to start rafting! Westwater is a series of class III and IV rapids on the Colorado River in southeastern Utah. There are some pretty intense sections, as well as a lot of flatwater (true in any river expedition). 

Of course, we love the rapids.

But, while we don't love rowing particularly much, we love playing around on the flatwater and end up spending the majority of our time very wet and very happy. 

One favorite game is a trust fall circle thing (I guess I should work harder to come up with a name for this game). Basically everybody stands up on the gunwales and holds hands and then we lean back until somewhere between one and 6 people end up falling into the water. 

Maybe I'm not selling it very well, but it really is a ton of fun. Our guide even insisted on playing with us (he was probably tired of rowing while we all goofed around). 

We also love the t-grip trust lean game (still working on names). In this one, two people lock oar t-grips and lean back until one or both of them fall into the water. Our games aren't sophisticated, but they sure are a lot of fun.

Other fun games include the perennial fun of pushing people out of the boat when they least suspect it (the trick is to try and grab your attacker's PFD so you can pull them in with you) and otter floating (less of a game then just floating down the river to avoid rowing). 

We also enjoy jumping off of big rocks and forcibly boarding the gear rafts because we know they have the snacks. 

WanYing's specialty is "riding the bull" (that one has a name!) in the medium-sized rapids. This is where she sits on the nose of the raft, one hand in the air and one holding on.

But our very favorite game is Last Man Standing. The goal being, of course, to throw/yank/push/kick everybody else out of the raft. This one gets vicious and, also, exhausting. We finally figured out that we need to set rules requiring people to stay on the gunwales because the little ones will just burrow in under the seats and good luck prying them free.

I hear rumors that some people just paddle and float placidly down the slackwater. Admittedly, that does sound more restful than the constant motion of my family, but where's the fun of the float if you don't worry that at any moment you may be shoved off into freezing water?

Fortunately, the camping was placid and lovely. I love primitive camping, especially when somebody else does the cooking, cleaning, and all of the actual work.

Our Grand Canyon Rampup was a wonderful and unexpected way to enjoy 2020. Bring it on, Colorado River!

Intention in Three Bracelets

Like so many people, the events of the past week have torn me apart. Violence. Hatred. The incredible abandonment of any true definition of leadership by the highest post in the land - worse than that, encouragement of distrust and destruction by an elected official. 

I've been reading Be the Bridge by Latisha Morrison and am grateful for her voice and hope for reconciliation. She lays out a framework for racial reconciliation (or, let's be honest, reconciliation of any kind) of lamentation to confession and forgiveness  to restorative reconciliation. But right now, I'm just stuck in lamentation and confession for the brokenness of our nation and our collective responsibility and guilt. I think it's ok to hang out here in lamentation - it's an appropriate response.

I'm not one for New Year's resolutions - the stats on how quickly the average resolution is broken (80% are broken by February) tell me that resolutions are not a great formula for change. 

But I do like the emerging trend of a word or intention for the new year. My friend Sarah and I always compare notes on our new year's intentions, and this year we both chose the same word: Gentle.

I struggle with the concept of self-care... I can never quite decide if something good for me "counts" as self-care or not, even if it doesn't make me feel good in the moment. I find the notion stressful (the opposite of the purpose of the concept of "self-care"). But in the last few months, I've come to embrace the concept of being gentle with myself. It may be hard for me to decide if a given choice is "self-care," but it's easy for me to identify whether or not a choice is gentle.

And I have emphatically determined that I need more gentleness in my life. 

This month, my heart and my intentions are well-summarized by three bracelets I've been wearing regularly to celebrate and remember my intention:

1. A cross. For faith. For redemption. For new life. For hope.
2. Noonday's We See Color bracelet. More redemption - it provides a living wage to artisans in Uganda and is a visible celebration of all the colors of us. It reminds me to continue my inner and outer work of racial education and reconciliation.
3. Noonday's Morse Code Bracelet Kit. Redemption part three - the beads are made from artillery shells that artists in Ethiopia melt down. It's violence and conflict transformed into hope, dignity, and beauty. And I used the beads to spell this year's intention, "gentle."
   

I know none of this is going to heal the world. But these symbols of hope and redemption around my wrist are meaningful reminders for me of the work God's doing in me and through me. And I love that.

Running Away to Paradise

Sasha has been working on our scrapbooks lately, and sorting photos and ticket stubs with her reminds me of how much I love these blog posts and being able to look back at the stories of our lives. With the convenience of posting to social media, I don't come back and write blog posts about our big trips and adventures as much as I once did (admittedly, there are fewer trips and adventures than there were!), and I miss having the recaps and retellings. 

I won't commit to our tens of readers to start blogging regularly again, I know myself too well to promise such a thing. But I do like writing and I want to continue to practice to write well, so we shall see.

Like everybody else, our summer and fall plans got completely scrambled by COVID-19. In the fall, I started getting advertisements for all-inclusive places and it got me thinking - maybe that could work as a style of travel in the age of coronavirus? Usually when we travel we go to a new place and plant and explore. We love to get to know the texture of a new place, and as we acquired more kids it became increasingly important to travel with a less packed itinerary. It turns out that my husband also prefers to explore rather than plan too much ahead of time. So, apparently, I'm the only person who eagerly anticipates a pre-planed agenda. Who knew? (answer: everybody). 

To be clear, I still think it's important to schedule a few key activities. They'll never break me of that. But I also have learned to appreciate the fun of meandering.

Anyway, an "explore the local texture" vacation clearly doesn't work right now. But, I thought, maybe the all-inclusive thing could actually work. We'd be able to get to know the environment, and if we went somewhere warm we could be outside the majority of the time. Plus, rates were killer. 

So, after lots of thinking and planning we decided to go for 10 days in the Dominican Republic. In full disclosure, I tested positive for COVID-19 2 weeks after we returned, so the evidence shows that the wisdom of this whole plan is clearly suspect. Judge if you must.

I'll also say that while planes themselves and the resort felt very coronavirus-aware with lots of precautions taken, the airports and immigration lines were another thing altogether with lots of partially-masked people in tight spaces. So, the experiment of traveling in a global pandemic was of mixed results.

All of the above notwithstanding, the trip was such a blessing. 10 days in the sun, perfect weather, getting to practice my Spanish, being together as a family. Also, after the stressful 9 months that we and all the world have persevered through, a decision-free vacation was particularly sweet. We've never done the all-inclusive thing before and after experiencing it, I will definitely agree that the no-stress, no-planning vacation has its place.

Most of our days were pretty darn boring (read: exactly what we were looking for). Lots of time at the beach and at the pool reading and taking naps. Lots of piña coladas. The hotel was only about 20% occupied, so we never had to compete for space in a lounge chair or at a restaurant, which was super sweet.

Here are the memories that stick out with extra fondness for me:

1. Sailing! 

The resort had paddleboards and kayaks that you could sign out, and they also had a little Hobie Cat! Steve and I sailed in college a lot, but after college and moving to a landlocked state, we've only been out a few times. Boy did we make up for lost time over Thanksgiving!

We took the boat out just about every day - sometimes just one or two of us, sometimes a boatload (4 - it was a small boat). We had so much fun! It took Steve and me a few tries to remember how the heck to sail, but it really did come back quickly and we had so much fun zipping around the little bay in front of the hotel.

2. Chartering a boat!

Tours and activities were limited on our trip, for obvious reasons, but there were still some activities available that seemed like a good idea. One was a boat trip. And it was only a little more to charter the boat privately, so we figured, why not?

Well, we definitely didn't realize what we were signing up for - this boat was HUGE! This photo, for example, was taken from the upper deck of the boat rented for the 7 of us plus 2 crew. It was decadent and fabulous.

Everything about the boat trip was great, but the best part was stopping at a sand bar. We spent roughly two hours at this sand bar throwing sand balls at each other. The sand was just so fluffy and that you could pack it down like moonsand and toss it back and forth. It's definitely the most fun we've ever had playing catch. The open bar on the boat probably didn't hurt.

3. Ben Unicycling at circus night

As you can imagine, one of the great trials of this trip was Ben surviving for 10 days without a unicycle. I think the unlimited room service almost made up for it, but it was still a long time to go without a unicycle. 

On Thanksgiving, the resort had a circus night festival and one of the clowns had a unicycle that he kindly let Ben borrow. It was so fun to see Ben in his element in a foreign country just enjoying being on one wheel. And the clown was duly impressed by Ben's unicycle skills.

Here's a bonus picture from that night, because nothing says Thanksgiving like a pirate and a bunny on stilts:

4. Nightly cribbage games with Ben

I don't have any pics of this one, so instead I will substitute a photo of us playing Uno with plastic cards in the pool (also a darn fine memory). 

Pretty much every night after the girls hit the hay, Ben, Steve, and I would sit out on our ridiculously beautiful patio and play a game or two of three-handed cribbage. It was sweet and fun and Ben is unacceptably good at the game.

5. The countryside tour

The other "excursion" we opted for was a countryside tour. We got to go see a local neighborhood and school and then visit a community farm where they grow and process coffee and cocoa (the photo is of WanYing with cocoa beans growing on the tree). It was so fun to see more of the beautiful island, learn about the DR's history and culture, and enjoy some darn delicious samples of cocoa, coffee, and mama juana (a spiced rum typical to the Dominican Republic).

6. Chilaxing together

No explanation needed.

We had a phenomenal Thanksgiving in the Dominican Republic. In fact... it just might be time to go back ;)