An Adventure in Alta

This morning my Lucky Dragon woke up begging to go to Beaver to Pluba's house. We ate breakfast and then I gave him a choice of what he wanted to do, go to Beaver or go to Pluba's. He thought about it for a minute and then said, "Go on an adventure! THEN go to Pluba's!" So we made plans to go on an adventure (which is what he calls anything that happens outside in nature."

There are several hikes on the Wasatch Front to choose from, but I settled on a hike that had water involved because our Lucky Dragon loves water of any kind. We went to Cecret Lake in the town of Alta up Little Cottonwood Canyon. I had no idea how to pronounce the name of the lake, was it 'see-sret lake'? 'kes-ret lake'? 'ke-kret lake'? or my Turkish came in and I wanted to call it, 'jej-ret' lake. We pulled up to the entrance of the Alta nature and recreation area and the ranger woman asked me where we were going. I explained we were going to hike to the lake I could not name, she laughed and said, "It's 'Secret Lake' but the miner that named it could not spell. I tell every kid I see that he is an example of why we pay attention in school!"

So our adventure began!

We rode a van from the parking lot all the way up to Albion Basin area where the trail starts. I was so proud of my little guy--who is not so little any more--he walked all the way up to the lake. It is not an intense hike. There were plenty of families doing it together, it is about one mile and a half round trip with most of it being a rolling hill climb and one steep climb towards the end. He was so excited that our adventure ended in finding a secret lake! His eyes would twinkle as he told me about where we were going.

We had to stop often to "shovel some dirt"

He was fascinated by this mine shaft and how when he yelled into it, it would echo back

He chattered happily the whole way about what we were seeing, the people who walked by (that would laugh at his black-and-white frank analysis of them--which sometimes was not...ah...politically correct) haha, he also talked about birds he could hear and the bugs we passed. He was especially interested in the loud grasshoppers that were flying everywhere. I told him about when I was younger and riding the Go-cart and a grasshopper flew into my mouth and in surprised shock when something latched onto my tongue I shut my mouth fast and ended up biting off the grasshopper's head and insect guts exploded into my mouth! That ended in a explosion of my trademark gag reflex and vomit. He LOVED this story and made me tell it over and over as we walked and he would hear the grasshoppers.

We made it up to Cecret Lake and he was so excited to see it. We spent nearly an hour hunting down every loose rock in sight to throw them in. My job was to count how many splashes his rocks made when he threw them in.

Very sad to see this sign...the lake looked so inviting after a long dusty hike

And then we went on our way back. The best part of the return journey was seeing a Rock Chuck scouring for food and then a huge bull moose went right across our path a few yards from us. We both thought that was really awesome!

After we made it back to Mongoose, we went to Snowbird and joined the many merry-makers at Utah's Oktoberfest that apparently runs every Saturday from AUG to OCT. Tau'aho and I had some delicious German food and he wanted to be as close as possible to the music they were playing and dancing to. He would cheer with the crowd as each song ended and the wild (probably drunk) dancers would return to their seats.

Snowbird also has several activities that are made for the adrenaline seeker--perfect for us! I bought tickets to do the Alpine Slide. It is similar to a Luge mountain slide but you go down on a cart-like vehicle. We we down together. When we were at the top and poised to begin I asked him if he wanted to go fast or slow, he quickly said in a loud excited voice that made everyone around laugh, "FAST!" That's my boy! It was so fun. We went down and he was yelling with glee. He then hit my arm that was holding him and demanded, "Dustin, you aren't yelling!" I had to yell too so we went soaring past all the faux German, beer drinking crowd yelling and laughing at the top of our lungs. It was so much fun.

The Alpine slide

Riding the Ski lift...he loved it so much he kept wanting to scoot forward and look down--which made me NERVOUS

"Look, Dustin! A Christmas Tree!" I am pretty sure that the beads are from another reason, but hey, I guess a Christmas Tree could work--we passed it as we rode by on the ski lift

Working for his ride

Ready to move

Watching the performers

We had a good day together, I was so proud of him, he walked up and back to lake by himself and then showed he appreciated cultures of other and finally loves a good adrenaline rush. He fell asleep on the way home. When I laid him on his bed, still covered in dirt and bratwurst juice in the corners of his mouth he opened his eyes and started to cry because the plan was "...adventure then go to Pluba's house!" We finally talked him into the fact that it was too late to go to Beaver this late in the day and I asked him to tell Lady Hiva about our day. The first thing he said was, "Daddy ate a grasshopper that squirted blood all over his mouth!" Well, I guess something stuck out to him from our day of activities! haha...