Trip to Utah Part 1 - Road Trip to Las Vegas: Cove Fort and Mountain Meadows

We arrived in Utah earlier than usual this year and there was still a coolness in the air and plenty of snow on the mountains.  Because of the busy summer, we were not going to be able to see all of my sister Mican's family at our reunion in Payson later in June. Our daughters would miss seeing their cousin, Emma, who they really love a lot - especially after we lived down the block from them in Las Vegas for a year.  We decided that we would take a road trip down to see them.  We arrived on Monday afternoon, Tuesday I spent the day getting the car tuned, inspected, and registered, and Wednesday morning we left for Las Vegas.

The drive was beautiful.  Everything was green and the sky was dark blue and partly cloudy.  We decided that we would stop at historic Cove Fort.  It was a fort built to protect travelers going from northern Utah to Southern Utah and back. It operated for a number of years, but was never used as a fort since the pioneer settlers in the area had good relations with the native Paiute tribe in the area.  I had been before and taken a tour, but when we stopped with Yulia last time it was a Sunday afternoon and we only walked around the outside.

We had a very nice tour guide and we took the full tour.  We watched a video about the fort and the family that settled it - the grandfather of LDS church President, Gordan B. Hinkley - and how the Fort was built and how it operated.  Then we took a tour of the restored fort itself, including the barns and outbuildings.  It was very interesting and the girls had a wonderful time.

A beautiful drive - Yulia took this picture while I drove.

The girls getting ready to roll iron hoops - a pioneer pastime.

Looking through the Fort.

View inside the fort.

The kitchen. Meals were prepared for the family and for the travelers that stayed.

Looking down into the fort.  Look at that beautiful sky!

The girls up on the ramparts of the fort.

This was the station where the oxen were shod.  They had to be lifted since they couldn't hold up one foot like a horse during the procedure.

This was the hay crane, used to make haystacks and move hay into the top of the barn for winter.

This was a rock hauling wagon.

Inside the barn looking at tack. A riding saddle foreground and two pack saddles in the back.

The girls with their spinners.  They got to keep these and had lots of fun in the car with them.

Rolling hoops.

We stopped for lunch in Cedar City, Utah and filled up with gas.  Then we went around the back way and took the kids to see the different Mountain Meadows Massacre sites.  The Mountain Meadows Massacre was one of the great tragedies in Utah history and in the history of the LDS church. We spoke to the girls about the tensions that existed, the looming threat of the Utah war, and about the decisions that people made that ended up killing a whole group of Arkansas pioneers.  John D. Lee was executed for his role in the massacre, but for many years there was silence about the whole episode.  I recommend Jaunita Brooks book to understand the event.

It was a solemn afternoon, but a good learning experience for our girls.  The back valleys of southern Utah were beautiful and we had a very nice drive from Mountain Meadows through the Dameron Valley, Gunlock, the Paiute Reservation, and out to Beaver Dam in Arizona where we met up with I-15 and drove into Las Vegas.

One of the sites.

Talking to the girls.

Hiking up to the monument and overlook.

Looking down on the site.

At the gravesite.

Driving. What a gorgeous view!

This reservoir with waterfalls at Gunlock was awesome.  If we had more time we would have gone in!

Driving through the Paiute Reservation.

The desert was green sage, moving into Joshua tree desert.

We arrived in Las Vegas and had a wonderful greeting and a nice meal waiting for us.  The kids had a great time playing games and just hanging out together.

On Thursday our adventure was to go bowling at one of the Casinos.  I think it was Texas Station, but I can't remember for sure.  The kids had a lot of fun and we bowled two complete games, so we wore them out after a couple of hours of bowling.

On Friday we drove over to Henderson to a pool there.  It was a pool that we used to all go to when we lived here.  It is nice because it is indoors and usually not too crowded.  We all swam for a couple of hours and then on our way home we stopped and ate at a place called the Chicken Shack.  The food was pretty good and we all got plenty to eat.

We woke up on Saturday and got ready and drove back home to Payson.  We were glad that we could make it down to Las Vegas to see the Mayo family and to have a little adventure.  It was a nice way to start our vacation!

Playing games

Bowling!

Chicken Shack!

Fun times!

Mount Timpanogas as we are coming up over the ridge into Santaquin on our way home to Payson. I told you it was beautiful!

Trip to Paris - Day 2 - Bayeux, Normandy

Our bed and breakfast included a wonderful breakfast.  We shared it with a nice couple from the US who had traveled to Bayeux the day before by train and who were taking a tour of all the sites with a group during the day.  They told us that the train system in Paris was a bit wild, and so they had a bit of a tough time getting to Bayeux.  They were very nice and we had a great breakfast with them.

After eating breakfast, we took a walk through Bayeux.  We went to the cathedral and wandered through it.  It was quiet (and being renovated like many cathedrals we have seen in Europe) and quite beautiful.  After walking through the cathedral, we walked through town.  The old town was just like it had been centuries ago and was quite interesting.  

The breakfast spread.

Looking out toward the front from the breakfast nook.

Our bed and breakfast.

The adventurous travelers.

Downtown Bayeux (cathedral to the left)

A close-up of the cathedral.

Inside the cathedral. Beautiful stained glass windows were everywhere.

 

We followed a map that Yulia had and found the British Military cemetery in downtown Bayeux.  There are about 4,600 buried there from all over the British empire.  We really liked the tombstones in the cemetery because they were more detailed.  The Americans were mostly young men.  Many of the British dead were middle aged and fathers.  The cemetery was well-kept and we were very glad to have found it on a quiet morning to have for ourselves.

Tombstones at the British Cemetery ion Bayeux.

 
After the cemetery, we returned to the bed and breakfast and checked out.  We drove to  Longues-sur-Mer where there is still a battery of German guns that had been used by the Nazis on D-Day as part of their defense of Normandy.  We arrived at the same time as a few groups, but the site was huge and we essentially spent our time alone looking at the site.  It was larger than the Ponte du Hoc site with lots of guns and a series of tunnels and ammunition sites that was very extensive.

After we had seen the battery at Longues-sur-Mer, we got back on the road.  We stopped to fill up with fuel and to eat lunch at a rest stop along the way.  We were surrounded by a group of teenage boys who were there on some kind of a trip.  It was fun.  Driving into Paris was a bit congested, but we made it to the airport (with the help of our GPS) and returned the car without incident.

French Road Warriors!

We figured out the trains into Paris and made a switch and got onto the subway and made it to our hotel.  It was a nice little modern room and the price was very reasonable.  We were a block from the subway station and in a quiet neighborhood, so we were happy with the accommodations. We decided to go out and get dinner and get to bed since we were quite tired from all the traveling.  We went out at 7:00 and found a restaurant that was open.  It was not very full at the time, but it filled up as we were eating.  

The name of the Restaurant was "Les Fabricants" and it was Basque food, family style.  And it was amazing.  We ordered a salad and escargot as appetizers.  You can see the size of the "salad" in the picture below. Our meals (I had duck con-fit) also came with salads, which was the same thing just half the size.  We left very full, but very in love with Basque cooking as well.  We slept well, ready for our standard Parisian adventure the next day. 

Trip to France - Day 1 - Normandy

In March we got a wild hair, well Yulia did, and we planned a quick spring break trip to France.  I had always thought I wouldn't like to go to France (a lot of this was quite stupid bias on my part and a bit of Machismo.) Yulia said we could do Paris AND Normandy, though, so I got on board.  We left the kids home with Babushka and went on our own.  This is the third time we've done this since we've been in Kazakhstan (Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, and now France) and it is nice to travel just the two of us.

Yulia got a fantastic deal on flights through Belavia, the national carrier of Belarus, and we were on our way.

Waiting for our early morning flight out of Astana (it was still Astana when we left.)

The Belavia flights were pretty nice - scaled back, but comfortable, clean, and with nice little food boxes.  The layover in Minsk was quick and fine.  The plane that we flew to Paris on was branded with "World of Tanks" and was painted like a tank, had tank decals inside and had special announcements.  Apparently, World of Tanks is one of Belarus's main exports.  It was fun.

When we landed in Paris and cleared customs, we rented a car.  We got the GPS option (great choice on our part) and besides getting lost on our way out of the airport (we went around the circle in the center of the airport three times before I figured it out), we were on the road and fine.  We drove for about two hours and stopped at a roadside McDonald's for lunch.  We eat McDonald's when we travel because it is fast and you always know what you'll get.  Don't worry, we also ate French food, but on the road, McDonald's was fine.

On the road.

We went immediately to the American Cemetery at Normandy.  The visitor's center was closed, but we had the cemetery almost to ourselves and we took our time.  It was very overwhelming.  The cemetery is so well cared for and the different monuments and explanations are very well done.  It was a very moving experience for me especially.

Overlooking the beaches at Normandy

Looking out over the beach.

Rows and rows of crosses and stars of David.

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After we had visited the American cemetery at Normandy, we drove to Pointe du Hoc, which was the site of a ranger assault on the cliffs where a German gun position was located. The craters from the naval bombardment are still visible, filled now with thorny flower bushes.

The fortified positions are still there.  Guns were disabled, but the concrete is still there.  Part of a series of fortifications stretching all along the Atlantic coast.

A view of the how steep the cliffs were where the assault took place. Normandy beaches are just past the little Peninsula.

Driving through little villages along the Normandy Coast.

Yulia had made reservations in the little town of Bayeux at a little bed and breakfast that overlooked the cathedral in the city, one of the most famous in France. We found the place without much trouble and checked in.  After checking in we went looking for somewhere to eat.  That was a problem, because apparently most places in town are by reservation only (and they don't open without reservations), but we found a little restaurant in a different hotel that was open already.

I had a little casserole and Yulia had a beefsteak with fries.  It was a nice meal and more "peasant French" than fine dining, but was delicious.

A view from our hotel room.

Dinner!

Out walking in France!

The cathedral lit up at night.  It was a very beautiful building.

Our first day in France was done.  We had successfully taken a road trip, seen the sites at Normandy that I was most interested in seeing, and had a nice French meal. We were off to a great start.