the arrival

And ... we're back in business here at WWW!  As I mentioned, the reason for the prolonged hiatus was the arrival of house-guests, this time my family: parents, brother, sister-in-law and niece.  They all flew out here from Maine so the whole bunch of us could go down to Lake Powell for five days on a houseboat, something none of us had ever done.  We'll get to that, but first things first.  The Maine gang arrived Friday night and H and I picked them up at the airport, swinging by Oh Mai for take-out banh mi on the way home. The delicious sandwiches were a big hit and we kept them up late talking and enjoying a couple of Utah microbrews.

Pausing for a break on the way up

Since we weren't leaving for Lake Powell until Sunday morning, we had time on Saturday for an exploration of Little Cottonwood Canyon.  After my dad, my brother and I went grocery shopping for the Powell trip, we went for a hike up to Cecret Lake at Alta, lobbing snowballs at each other from the remaining snow.  It was a slight shock for some of them, hiking above 9,000 ft. after being at sea-level just the day before, but the whole group is active and outdoorsy and no one complained.

Ice is definitely out at Cecret Lake

After the hike the adults were parched.  Luckily, the Brewfest was just hitting its stride at Snowbird so we stopped in for a sampling of the state's best.  My niece convinced her father to go on the alpine slide with her so everyone ended up happy about the day.  Back at home, we got pizza and got organized to head south to Powell the next day.  Items not to forget: beer, sunscreen and swim suits!