SK & J: family vacation

I married a man who LOVES to hike, camp, be outdoors, all that jazz. Me, not so much. My ideal vacay is Lake Powell. But we haven't tent-camped at Powell since I was little, now we sleep on our houseboat. When I married Jeff I knew I would have to get out of my comfort zone and do camping trips/hiking with him. I had no idea that would mean a 16+ MILE hike. (We guesstimated that we walked about 20 miles through the Narrows)

Jeff's family decided to do a trip to Zion's to hike the Narrows. It would be not too hard, they said. It would be a cool temperature, and I wouldn't sweat, they said. Ha, well that was all wrong.

I want to preface this by saying I have had really bad hip joint pain for a little over a year. I have severe hip bursitis that my family has been nagging me for a while to go to a specialist for because it seems to be much more than that. By Jeff & his family's description of the Narrows, I thought it would be something my hip could handle and would be fun. But I figured out how wrong I was about 2 miles in. Somewhere around half way through I got to the point where I had to literally depend on Jeff to get through. Also, it was SO hot. The water felt so good because at times I was dripping sweat.

However, the Narrows was gorgeous. And the next day we went on a smaller hike to explore more of Zions. Then on our way home we stopped at Bryce Canyon. Growing up in California, I hadn't been to either of these National Parks so I was glad to have seen them, but the hip problem kinda put a damper on the whole 'fun' weekend. I'm glad I went to see the beautiful area, but I don't plan on doing the Narrows again. I think once was enough for a lifetime. If I hadn't been in so much pain, I really think the Narrows would have been an incredible experience. Jeff loved it and that made me so happy. I was glad I could do it with him.

We went with Jeff's parents, his aunt and uncle, and 2 cousins. It was fun to be with them for the weekend and bond a little. And by the end of the trip, we were all ready to be home again.

love,
SK

1:45 PM
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Grandpa's Younger than the Kids

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5:58 PM
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How to Survive a Week in Tahiti

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Yes you read that right, the Jensen family trip required surviving. We googled a number of things that would have been helpful to know before we came to the beautiful French Polynesian Islands, as well as came up with things people should know.

These were all the things we googled:

What is Menoi Oil? We noticed as we walked into our hut above the water that in the bathroom there was a bottle of Menoi oil. Turns out it is basically like a lotion and also helps with frizzy hair!
Ways to Cook your Eggs. It didn't take us long to discover that Tahitians undercook everything! We had to find the most thoroughly cooked egg style and ask for that, and it was still a raw egg! This trend was the same with all the fish and red meat too - everything was raw!
Linguletti Pasta It's basically Fettucini.
Why does the weather say thunderstorm and there is no thunderstorm? There isn't an answer for this on the internet, FYI. Basically the weather kept saying it was having thunderstorms, and there was not a cloud in the sky. We got lots of sun. LOTS (By the end of the trip we were french fries).
Uses of Coconut Milk. It seemed that Coconut Milk was used a lot, and we saw a random pitcher of coconut milk on the breakfast table so we had to find out why it was there. Nate ended up adding it to his mango juice to make a "mango pina colada".
LDS Church on Taha'a. We found a Mormon church on the island. We couldn't understand anything they were saying, but there was a Missionary there who spoke English, and the people were so warm and friendly to us.
What does a Pearl Farm Look like? Pearls are big in Tahiti, but the don't look like what you would think they would look like.
How long is the flight from Tahiti to LAX? By the end of the week, we were really dreading that red-eye flight more than our red sunburns. The flight is 8 hours and 10 minutes by the way. Too long, if you ask me. Our flight left at midnight from Tahiti so we were exhausted by the time we got home. I might have slept that whole day.

Some other Thoughts on Tahiti:

The "Chicken Supreme" is in fact nothing supreme, but the size of a hot dog.

The Sun is at its strongest there, and Nate and I got FRIED. Despite trying to stay in the shade and apply loads of sunscreen, this did nothing because the sun won that fight. And its humid. My hair was double the size that it normally is, approaching afro.

The fish are beautiful, and when we would climb into the water off the porch of our cabana, there would often be stingrays swimming around with us. (The first picture in this post was from a snorkeling trip)

The little airplanes that you island hop in fit about 20 people and make you thing you are going to die if a slight breeze decides to blow.

Dear Boat Driver, did you know your boat will go faster than 5mph?

Even if you don't want to swim with sharks, you probably will. We were snorkeling and all of the sudden we looked over and a huge shark was right there next to us.

Bug spray is a must. You think you can hide from the mosquitos, but you can't. Take my word for it.

This week we had a challenge against Tahiti, and let me tell you, TAHITI WON. But we had the best time there and it really was so amazing.