Chris' parents invited us to join them for a Wine & Song around the Plaza. 
It was a great event downtown Sonoma. They had several different venues where they served wine and appetizers and had a jazz band playing. We spent the day strolling around downtown Sonoma going from one place to another, drinking wine and listening to great music. Not a bad day at all.
Mom decided that instead of going out for a brunch or something equally mundane she would rather go kayaking. We met up early in the morning and went out of Sausalito towards the city. The weather was awesome - calm, no wind and warm but not too much... just perfect.
The other amazing thing was that within two hours you went from desert to ton of snow. Pretty amazing! Zoe & I totally fell in love with Bishop area - we have to come back. We did a nice hike along a creek and Zoe got her fill of swim. We also stopped off by Mammoth, Mono Lake and the backside of Yosemite. Chris was right when he said the 395 was beautiful!!!
I can't believe that our vacation is almost over :o( It went by so fast. I guess that's what happens when you are having fun!! We started the day early in Bryce National Park (btw it was 23F overnight..brr). We brought Zoe with us but unfortunately dogs were not allowed on any trails in the park so we took her anyway, at least on one of the hikes. 
I have heard a lot about Bryce and I have seen many pictures but the semi-snow covered hoodoos were breathtaking. There was still snow all over the trails so the combo of the snow/ice/clay mush made it all a very interesting hike. We hiked a couple of the beautiful almost empty trails around there and around two headed up to a very exciting town Beatty on the border of Death Valley National Park. 
It is amazing how many noman's towns one can encounter in these parts of the world. The drive was about 5-6 hours and we passed through three states on the way. We also got from almost 9000 feet in Bryce to Death Valley in that amount of time. Unbelievable.
his really picturesque slot canyon, but unfortunately we 
didn't make the list of the ten people they let in each day :o( Instead they recommended a different one the Buckskin Gultch. It was amazing!!! The only thing that was somewhat daunting was the constant threat of flash flood. I know it wasn't really all that realistic, but the clouds were collecting... and the three mile hike back through the riverbed was lil scary. Not to mention the wading through the clay water pools, so we turned around lil bit sooner than we intended, but it was still worth it. 
Headed out of Sedona to Grand Canyon first thing in the morning. We got there three hours later. Chris down played as to what to expect when we get there so I didn't really have any high expectations. But once we got there.... it was great! It is not very interactive... but the hike around it was worth it. We hiked for a few hours and then had nice drinks and appetizers in the lodge and left in the afternoon for our next adventure, this time from a small town by Lake Powell - Page.
And as some of you know... our tradition unfortunately is... to get stopped by cops at least ones... and it so happened in the Arizona desert. Suprise surprise Chris was speeding... but common... is 11 miles over limit really speeding? He should have seen us earlier!! Luckily, not sure whether it was the fireman sticker on the van or our super cute border collie that the cop happen to have at home too... but we got away with warning. Uff... that's a first one. 
It seemed like today we never stopped... but it was good. We started with a morning 5 mile hike right from our hotel to Bell Rock, Courthouse and around both. The views from there ... wow. I can see what it is #1 hike in the area. We got back to our room 3 hours later and had a nice lunch downtown Sedona and supported local business by buying few silly lil things we didn't really need. We also checked out a few nice art galleries in the area. 
the Cathedral Rock. Yeah, once again what started as a 2 mile hike ended 5 miles later. We tried to make it all the way to the top but unfortunately, Zoe's lil paws couldn't climb up the steep rock. It was more of a climb than a hike and she just couldn't do it, although she did try - poor thing. 
Instead, we did loop around the whole mountain and finish it off with a swim for Zoe in the creek. 
In order to correct the lil omission we went for yet another, this time really short hike up Bell Rock to watch the sunset... and we got really lucky... you be the judge of that. 
