The Great West Trip of 2021

After suffering first world problems and not being able to get on planes because of the pandemic, we settled on a vacation itinerary that would provide us the opportunity to do plenty of fly fishing (perhaps not as high of a priority for Leslie as it was for me), see the outdoors, spend time with family, and eat, drink and be merry. We started our trip by flying into Reno, NV. Below is our photo journal of the Great West Trip of 2021! First stop: Reno, NV!

1. Reno gets a bad rap: yeah, its known for its second-rate casinos, but the Truckee River goes right through the city, and it is surrounded by beautiful landscapes. Reading about the history of Reno (Link) is fascinating…

3. On our second night, we went to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. The pic below is what we found at our table; Leslie had put down the reason for the reservation as “date night” and they thought it was our anniversary!

5. We found the Taj Mahal! (Ok, its actually the Conservatory of Flowers…) —->

(Leslie loves taking pictures of flowers— and why not?)

7. Of course we needed to get some tea at the Japanese Tea Garden! —->

9. At 6 am, I woke to several texts from Chase Bank, telling me my credit card had some suspicious activity. Sure enough, it was suspicious all right… and then I thought for two seconds and realized that I think that that specific card was in a fly fishing bag that was in the car… which would have meant that the car had been broken into? No, can’t be… Let me check!

11. We did not take the Pacific Coast highway, as we were pressed for time and wanted to get to LA as soon as possible. But we were able to stop at a farmstand along the way— super cheap avocados!

13. That evening we took a longer walk than expected down the Santa Monica boardwalk. We were in search of some food trucks that we never found, but we appreciated the views!

14. But we came to LA not to see the beaches or frolic on the boardwalk, but to get in some family time! Leslie’s nieces, Lilly (7) and Theadora (3) were thrilled to spend time with their Aunt Leslie. On our first day in Santa Monica, we took the girls to the park, but not before getting our morning coffee (the girls don’t drink coffee yet).

17. Here we are in the car, packed and ready to go. The girls were super excited, but I think Tony may have been looking forward to the park more than any of us! —->

19. Disney is precisely what John Muir had in mind when he said these words:

21. I call the below picture “American Dream.”

22. We were sad to leave Tony and his family, but looking forward to getting out to the desert and the woods, headed in the direction of Utah and the beautiful National Parks… but first… Las Vegas! First stop after checking into the hotel was a restaurant we had been looking forward to since we were there two years ago, Lotus of Siam, which has been the best Thai food I’ve ever tasted. Here is a pic of the Old Fashioned that I ordered at the bar; we needed a drink after 5 hours of driving through the desert! ——>

24. In Las Vegas, I unsuccessfully played poker at the Venetian, while Leslie went to a country music concert by herself. She came back a big Brad Paisley fan, and even went so far as to try to convince me to turn in our Kia Sorrento for a pickup. She wanted to buy an American flag and put it on the back of the pickup too!

(Disclaimer: that last part didn’t happen, but she did like the Brad Paisley concert!)

28. The next day we did a little hike at Bryce Canyon National Park.

29. After the hike, we had about an hour drive up to Escalante, where we had reserved a small cabin. On our drive we could see the rain approaching, and we got caught in it as we came into the town.

31. The below pic is the Tiny Cabin that we stayed in— very cozy!

33. We loved the town of Escalante! Great food, friendly people, and cool vibe at the restaurant where we had dinner:

35. More rain on this drive— the land needs it!

37. Leslie “Whats on the agenda for these next few days?” Me: “Oh, you know, fishing, fishing and more fishing!?”

Leslie: …

39. We had some great food in Torrey, including burgers at the Capitol Burger food truck, which has the #22 rated burger in the country according to Yelp. Yum!

40. While staying in Torrey, we went into Capitol Reef National Park, a place we had been to two years ago. The views are spectacular, and on par with the pies they serve at Gifford Homestead. We tasted almost all of them (for reporting purposes, of course), and we both agreed that the strawberry-rhubarb pie is the winner!

41. Capitol Reef is beautiful— hard to leave here!

43. That night we ate a Blaze Pizza, which was the first time for me. Its a make-your-own pizza place, kind of like Chipotle for pizza. It was better than I expected! The highlight of the night was when one of the workers yelled out “Pizza for Jesus!” but instead of Jesús (“hay-soos”), yelled, emphatically, “Pizza for GEE-SUS!”…. White people, amirite?

44. After a day of driving and fishing, we were tired, and the cider and pizza knocked us out. We had big plans for the next day: to go up to Sundance resort and ride up the scenic chairlift, and, of course, figure out how to catch some trout on the Provo River! Oh, and take lots of selfies! Don’t mind the beautiful mountains, that selfie on the chairlift is gonna be dope for the ‘gram!

46. At the top of the mountain was a cafe, and we were a bit hungry so… nachos! We had to wait a few minutes for them (can’t rush perfection), but we didn’t mind, the view was decent…

47. Having filled up with nachos, we headed down the mountain, and into the fly shop at the resort. After some good conversation with the shop manager and some helpful advice, we headed back to the Provo River in search of some tight lines. But first, we needed to get down to the river. Below is a picture of Leslie navigating that path. She took a little spill, but was undeterred. Once down at the river, we had bigger problems: scores of rafters coming down the river and going right through our honey holes!

49... But, it turns out, the trout are probably used to the rafters at this point. We were able to find some good looking trout, sipping on small size 20/22 split cases. Great times!

51. But we had a full day in SLC, and we were determined to make the best of it. We found a cool coffee shop, met up with Leslie’s friend Corey (“raised in Utah, not mormon”) and Leslie was able to experience her first ever Brazilian Steakhouse adventure. So much meat! And grilled pineapple! —->

53. Time go home, unfortunately. : -) The end!

2. In Reno, we hired a guide to take us to the fishing best spots. Upon meeting Leslie, our guide volunteered that he was most definitely not a racist (that was a relief!) and that he had gone drinking with “the brothers” when he was in the Army. Once we had that out of the way, we were able to do some fishing! And while the fishing was decent in the first hour, the heat really got in the way of fishing as the day moved along, which seemed to be a theme of our trip, as it was prohibitively hot. Temperatures soared above 100 for a good portion of our trip!

4.From Reno, we went into California, on our way to Lodi, to see my cousin, Kiko. We got pedicures, went bowling, and had some chinese food. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of that day, just pics of the landscape.

After Lodi, we drove down to San Francisco. On that first day, we walked around Golden Gate Park, which we learned was bigger than NYC’s Central Park.

<——6. The fish at the tea garden were very koi about having their picture taken…

8. That evening, we went to a fantastic restaurant, Brenda’s, which is a French Soul Food place. Everything was great, including the beignet flight, which of course we had to try: crawfish, plain, apple and chocolate. Unfortunately we don’t have pics, but here is a pic of their beignets that I stole from their instagram:

10. After spending several hours dealing with the police department, who really did not care at all about some tourists having their car broken into, and spending entirely too much time on the phone with the rental car company, we picked up our new vehicle and headed down to Los Angeles.

12.Once in LA (ok, Santa Monica), we were able to relax in our Air BNB, which had a nice garden:

15. The girls were adventurous at the park, jumping off swings and balancing on soccer balls…

16. That evening Leslie’s brother, Tony, and his wife, Beja, had us over for a home cooked meal. The girls were ecstatic to have even more Aunt Les time! We had to be sure to get some good sleep that night and rest up for the big day; in the morning we would head off to Disney California Adventure Park!

18. As you can see, I didn’t enjoy myself one bit. Hated the rides.

20. Overall we had a great day, and despite it being long and most definitely a bit of sensory overload, the girls were great, with no breakdowns at all!

23. As we were headed into Vegas, my friend Marc had called me, and he suggested doing a tour with Lip Smacking foodie tours. (Props to Marc, it was a great suggestion!) We saw some art, learned some history, and went to four different restaurants, where we were given a generous portioned tasting menu. By the end, we were stuffed. Leslie even tried the pig ear! Definitely one of the highlights of our trip!

25. We enjoyed the sights of vegas, including the Sistine chapel (below). Who knew Michaelangelo had traveled to Vegas? I think it was on that expedition with Marco Polo.

26. After Vegas, we booked it to Zion National Park. Hiking anywhere was out of the question, as the temperature rose to 107! We stayed right outside the park, and grabbed dinner at a cafe that overlooked a gorge. We ate dinner and admired the sunset (left and above pics).

27. From Zion, we went up to Bryce Canyon National Park. We had a mediocre meal there, and then went off in search of some trout. We didn’t find any, but it was beautiful nonetheless. We came face to face with a bull that was grazing nearby, which got our hearts beating a bit!

30. We sought shelter from the wind and rain in a cafe, where we were able to get a good latte— a good Escalatte!

32. That evening, after the rain had let up, we went down to Wide Hollow Reservoir (below photo), in search of some bass and rainbow trout. We were horrified to find that the water levels had dropped at least 40 feet since we had been there two years ago. Despite the low water levels, we did catch some bass. A lot of rainbow trout had been killed off due to the abnormally high temperatures. Needless to say, people were thrilled to see the rain that day!

34. From Escalante, we booked it over to Torrey. On our way we stopped at Kiva Koffeeshop, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. Great views, beautiful flowers and an excellent burrito!

36. We had loved Torrey when we had stayed there two years ago and were looking forward to staying for a couple of days. Right outside Capitol Reef National Park, Torrey is a small little village with some funky restaurants, great fishing and beautiful views. We stayed at the Red Sands hotel, which was very comfortable and this view from their deck:

38 “…But the fishing is great!”

42. We were sad to leave Torrey and Capitol Reef, but we had to get trekking. We had a decent drive ahead of us, with the mountains of Provo and Sundance awaiting. During this drive you could see the climate change from desert to the Rocky Mountains. A lot more green!

After checking into the hotel, we headed out to the Provo River in search of some fish… we had a bite or two, but no luck. At the end of the time spent on the river, we drank some hard cider that we had purchased from Etta’s brewery in Torrey. We had buried the cider in some fast moving water to keep it cold.

45. It took us 55 minutes to get up the mountain, and we enjoyed every minute. The views on top of the mountain did not disappoint!

48. Leslie was quite amused by the rafters… I was not. We did have some fun conversations though. Lots of partying on the rafts— these guys were having a great time! Hard to not enjoy being surrounded by so much beauty! But I was worried about how all the rafters would impact the fishing…

50. Our vacation was coming to an end, and unfortunately we had to leave Sundance and head to Salt Lake City, to get back to our jobs. Sigh… responsibility. So hard to leave these beautiful mountains and great fishing!

52. At the urging of Corey, we had one last stop before headed to the aiport: Banbury Cross Donuts. Old fashioned donut goodness!