The Sting

While drying off after my morning swim two days ago, I felt a sting on the inside of my right arm. I looked down and didn't see the bee (at least I think it was a bee), but the stinger was still in my arm. Fortunately, I was able to extract it. Boy, did it sting! It hurt constantly for about 3 hours and then periodically after that. If anything touched or rubbed the area, it would start stinging all over again.

Stupid bee. What did I ever do to you anyway?

When bees sting, they drive their stinger deep into the body of the victim, leaving the venom apitoxin in the sting area. No wonder it hurts so much!!!

Now, two days later, the sting has fortunately turned to an itch. 

National Parks Trip

Alan and I recently took advantage of our Senior Citizen National Parks Pass by taking a vacation to visit several National Parks most of which were in south eastern Utah. This was an amazing road trip.  Here is a list of the many different parks we visited:

Cedar Breaks

Bryce Canyon

Escalante Canyon

Capitol Reef

Goblin Valley

Arches National Park

Dead Horse Point

Canyon Land  (North and South Areas)

Mesa Verde

Natural Bridges

Monument Valley

That is a lot of parks to visit. We took lots of pictures, but I'm only going to highlight a few of my favorite parks and pictures here:

Rainbow point at Bryce Canyon. It made me think of the song "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie "Titanic".

It was so cool that The Airds and the Fosters were at Bryce Canyon the same day we were so we were able to meet up with them.

We got to take a tour of Jane & Ken's travel trailer. Now, that's camping in style!

 A nice shot of Bryce Canyon.

Goblin Valley was extremely hot, but it was fun to see and walk among the many different formations.

We dubbed this "Kissing Rocks".

 This looked like a duck head to us.

These looked like chess pieces.

Mushrooms

Arches National Park was one of our favorites.

This is called "Balanced Rock" for obvious reasons. I couldn't help but want to flick it off balance. 

Ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place?

One of the smaller and easier to hike to arches.

Mesa Verde was unique in that we were able to see what remains of some real Indian villages.

Monument Valley, another favorite park, was very unique. The rock formations are huge. These pictures don't do it justice.

Four Corners isn't a national park, but it is a place I have always wanted to visit. We went slightly out of our way to see it, but we weren't disappointed.

Four Corners is where four separate states (Utah, Arizona, Colorado, & New Mexico) meet together. One can be standing in all four of those states at the same time. Quite unique!

 Each of my hands and each of my legs is in a separate state.

Alan chose the kneeling position to be in all four states.

Doing it together, I was in two states and Alan was in two states.

This trip lasted 10 days, so this is just a small sampling of what we were able to see and experience. There is nobody I'd rather do a road trip with than my awesome husband, Alan. He rocks my world!

Here we are at Dead Horse Point.