Things and Stuff: What I Did on Summer Vacation Part 1

So, for me, September was a whirlwind of a month! It started with an amazing gift from a friend that I had never actually met until Labor Day weekend. Angelina, from JoJo and Eloise took me along for a fun-filled, action-packed, intensely scenic, and incredibly beautiful, as well as a very enlightening trip to Lake Powell with the Redmond Trading Company.

Should you ever get the chance to do anything with the people of this company by all means JUMP at the chance. They were some of the most genuine, engaging, kind and co-operative people I have ever met. I was especially blown away by their humility and the way they worked so well together. The trip was full of Redmond employees, many of whom work together on a regular basis, and never, once did I sense any tension between them.

Getting to meet Angelina was such a delight. She is just as sweet and inspiring in person as she has been online and in all of our correspondence and phone conversations. She is easily one of the most creative people I know, and so generous with her knowledge and her ideas! If you follow her blog and have seen her many tutorials you will know just what I mean!

We arrived in Salt Lake City, and toured the Redmond facility in Herber, ate a wonderful dinner, and had such a nice time getting acquainted with some of the people we would be spending the week with.

Kim, who works with Redmond, and her husband, Guy, were our guides from Herber to Lake Powell. They were so much fun and made the trip just delightful. They kept us informed, entertained, and anticipated our every whim.

The next day was filled with a really exciting game of redneck golf, which consisted of shooting at dynamites with live ammunition. Obviously, I had never done that before, but I enjoyed it immensely.

We toured one of the salt mines and were encouraged to take some of the salt rocks home with us. The different colors in the rocks are different mineral contents in the salt. I learned so much about salt. You can read about the Redmond's Real Salt here.

The rest of the day we spent traveling to Lake Powell. It was a beautiful ride with breath taking scenery and interesting conversations.

We took a gorgeous little side trip to Bryce Canyon.

The next day we took another to Horseshoe Bend. Oh, the scenery! I wanted to just sit for hours and soak it all up, but we had to move on in order to get to our destination.

There just aren't enough words to describe the wonders of Lake Powell, the luxurious boats where we stayed, the enlightening lessons we learned, the amazing food we were served, the caliber of people we hung out with, nor the fabulous excursions and adventures we experienced!