20th anniversary trip {"the road" to Cedar City, Utah}

Last summer Ian and I celebrated a pretty monumental anniversary.  

ready to board our flight out of NC and begin this adventure!

I'm not sure how, but 20 years have flown by.

Well, I guess I know how, but instead of running a list of life events we've celebrated and mourned together, I'll focus for now on how we decided to celebrate such a milestone.

uh...we're not in Kansas anymore.  at airport can gamble should be the code name for LAS

In the year leading up to our 20th we made lists of potential destinations.  The Greek Isles, a European river cruise, Machu Picchu, Alaska, Hawaii and even Disney World made the list.  Then we crossed most of them out...the kids wouldn't forgive us for going kidless to Hawaii or Disney and both Europe and South America seemed so far away...and added new ones.  While relaxing at a resort somewhere sounded nice, we decided that we wanted to go for more of an adventure angle...just where in the world to head?

giant lizard statue "sinking" into the floor...why not?

It was while browsing Google that we started to see articles about the "Big Sky" of Utah.  It only took a few blogs filled with amazing pictures and we were sold...

lunch time!  hello Fat Choy!

The biggest issue once we settled upon a state was just what areas to cover.  Utah boasts five national parks, seven national monuments and forty-three state parks.  We quickly decided  our long weekend was not enough and extended the trip into a "bonus week" (leaving on a 7am flight on a Saturday and coming home on the red eye the following Saturday night) to maximize our adventure.

the pork belly bao was "all that" and a pinch of chopped peanuts!

For the months leading up to the trip we gathered information about parks, places to stay and even restaurants to visit (Ian even made concessions to ensure I got to visit several places featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) and put together an itinerary that could have filled a month of time.  We booked a hotel, a lodge, a conestoga wagon and even a "glamping" tent to make a long zig zag across the state.  Between each destination we had many options of places to stop, depending on our mood, how much we wanted to hike or if we wanted to get from point A to point B quickly.

oh vegas...giant creepy clowns anyone?

And while we wanted to get on the way to Cedar Breaks without losing much time, we did decide to cruise "the strip" in Vegas.  After all, getting to Fat Choy in the Eureka casino diverted us from the direct route to our hotel from the airport...

retro MeDongLau for Nicholas

We stopped at Fat Choy for a late lunch...it was one-ish in Vegas and we hadn't eaten since 6:30am Eastern time.  We shared an order of pork belly bao, a short rib grilled cheese sandwich and a house salad.  The salad was nothing to write home about, but it seemed necessary to cut the rich decadence of the bao and sandwich.

From there it was a quick cruise down the strip to take in sights familiar from movies.  As I suspect we won't be back, I almost hated Ian missed Vegas at night.  (My family stayed overnight on a trip out west when we picked up a motor home years ago...I was not quite 20 and still remember the neon!)

Then we left the hustle of the city behind and hit the open road.

And I do mean open.

Most of our interstate driving that day was in areas with 80mph speed limits.

Finally the sight we wanted to see...the Utah state line!

Just an hour or so after that, we reached our destination for the night.  The Best Western Plus of Cedar City, UT.

We checked in and fought the overwhelming urge to just crash...  But there was so much to see and so little time to see it!