Tag: The Word On Travel

Utah Road Trip Day 3

Moab, Utah, to Springdale, Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

After Windows we headed over to the Delicate Arch. The hike up to Delicate Arch was marked as strenuous but also seemed to be the most popular hike because the parking lot was crowded. Although, we were a little apprehensive we decided to give it a try. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! The first bit of the hike was mild and was paved. This changed quickly enough and we had to climb up the face of a rock. This part was strenuous and tiring, especially for our mom and dad. They were very slow and rested every five seconds! Our dad allowed us athletes to go ahead and we quickly lost sight of them. We eventually made it to the top of the rock and expected to see the delicate arch. But we quickly realized that there was even more hiking to do. We continued walking and climbing for ten more minutes and had to navigate a small ledge on the side of a huge rock. It was a little scary being on a ledge where you could see the steep drop but we eventually made it to the end. We waited around 20 minutes at the end before our mom and dad eventually caught up to us. We sat looking at the arch, taking pictures, and had a snack before heading back down. It was a little easier this time because we were going downhill, but it was still challenging to navigate the steep descent. On our way up and down, we saw many families who were dragging small kids. Clearly, they didn’t know what they were getting into either.

Day three of our trip! We woke up at around 5:45 in the morning ready for a day of hiking at Arches National Park. Simran and I quickly got dressed and went down to the lobby of our hotel to get some breakfast for the whole family while Kiran slept in. Again, the breakfast was to-go and we ate in our rooms to keep away from people. We always wore a mask. We had planned to leave our hotel at around 6:40 A.M. to get to the park by 7:00 because we had heard the park would be crowded during Thanksgiving. As usual our family was late and we didn’t end up leaving the hotel until 7:15. All of us were a little worried that the park would be crowded but thankfully we made it early enough and not many people had arrived yet. The first hike we went on was called the Balanced Rock and it was more of a simple walk than hike. The three rock formations were really beautiful and we got some good pictures. Next, we headed over to Windows the second hike that we had planned for the day. We started off on a paved trail and then decided to take the primitive trail which was not paved and was off the beaten path. The trail was marked cairns which are piles of rocks that the park rangers had put out to mark the trail and to help hikers stay on track. This part of the trail was fun and beautiful and we all really enjoyed it. The hike was moderate, not too tiring, but not too easy either. We got some great pictures of the view and some cute pictures of the family as well.

  • All three of us at Delicate Arch!
    (Images by the Jayasinghe Family)

The Delicate Arch hike took us around 3 hours. About 2 hours to go up and 1 hour to come down. Once we made it back down, we just rested in our car drinking water, eating, and resting our tired feet. We all sat there for around 15 minutes before deciding to move on to the next trail, the Devils Garden. There were two trails that we could take. The primitive trail, which would take around 7 hours, or the double o trail, which was pretty short and only around 2 miles. Obviously, we took the 2 mile one. We were extremely tired and barely had any physical strength left after our strenuous hike up Delicate Arch. Only my sisters, me, and my dad went on the Devils Garden trail because our mom was too tired and didn’t feel up to going. She rested in the car. The four of us took some pictures of the beautiful nature and quickly did the hike as we were all tired and we wanted to get back to our hotel. On our way back to our hotel our mom wanted to stop at the gift shop at the Visitor’s Center. The three kids stayed in the car. Once our mom had finished shopping we got some drinks at the Starbucks located inside the City Market (which believe it or not is the only Starbucks in Moab!) and then went back to our hotel to rest. We relaxed in our hotel room and watched some movies before going to pick up some dinner.

On our way to get dinner we also stopped to visit some friends from our swim team who had come to Moab. This was a complete surprise. Our parents and Simran wanted Mediterranean food but Kiran and I wanted pizza, so we ended up getting both. We got pizza from Domino’s and got Mediterranean food from Sultan Mediterranean Grill. After we drove back to our hotel room we lounged while eating before eventually deciding to go to sleep because we were all very tired.

Utah Road Trip Day 2

St. George to Moab Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

On the second day of our trip the plan was to drive from St. George to Moab to visit Arches National Park. The plan was to spend two nights in Moab. We woke up at around 7:30 and grabbed some breakfast that the hotel provided to go, and ate in our room to stay away from people. Because of COVID, the hotel breakfast was very limited and mainly had items that people could take to go. After breakfast we packed up our things and after mom taking a ridiculous amount of pictures, started our drive. Before we got onto the freeway we stopped at a gas station to grab some drinks and get a converter to charge our electronic devices in the car using a cigarette lighter power outlet. We started driving north on Interstate 15 to get onto the I-70 East. A little while into our drive we saw snow scattered on the ground and coating the mountains in the distance. As Californians we never see snow so we got extremely excited and demanded that we stop at the nearest rest stop. We got some wonderful pictures but underestimated how cold it would be and ended up only staying there for a couple of minutes because we were freezing to death. Of course no one thought of taking out our winter jackets from the back of the car. We continued driving for a long while, listening to music and talking. Although the scenery was beautiful the drive was long and boring.

View from the overlook on I-15!
(Image by the Jayasinghe Family)

We stopped at an overlook on I-15 to stretch our legs. This time we did put on our thick winter jackets. The view was stunning and we took a lot of pictures and walked around for a bit. Back on the road, we stopped at a Love’s, (a gas station with a built in store,) to get some gas and grab some snacks. Then it was straight on to Moab.

When we arrived at Moab at around 4:45 the first thing we did was go to the Visitor’s Center at Arches National Park. It was closing in ten minutes so we ran in to get some advice on what to do at the park. We talked to a park ranger for about fifteen minutes, who gave us some maps and told us that the park never closes, and that we could come and go whenever we wanted. That was some good advice. Before going to our hotel, we stopped at the City Market to buy food and snacks for the next day’s hikes at Arches National Park. We headed to the hotel, (Hampton Inn) checked in, and just relaxed in our hotel room watching The Christmas Prince.

An hour later at about 9 P.M. and halfway into our movie, my sisters, me, and our dad left the hotel to go to Arches National Park to stargaze. This area is considered to be an international dark sky park. This is a place recognized for the quality of its night skies. To read more about this, you can visit the website at darksky.org. We had read that the night sky at Moab is really beautiful and we wanted to see what it was like. The drive in the park at night was a little scary. It was pitch black and there were no streetlights. We drove up to the Balanced Rock parking lot, parked, and looked at the night sky. It was beautiful, but sadly Kiran could barely see the stars because of her terrible eyesight. There were a good number of stars in the sky but I think it was less than what we could have seen because of the bright moon. Perhaps we could have gone up a little bit earlier when the moon was a little bit lower on the horizon. Our dad and Simran took pictures and we hung around for about half an hour looking at the stars before heading back to the hotel. We finished The Christmas Prince before going to bed and resting for the long day of hiking ahead of us.

Utah Road Trip Day 1

San Diego, California, St. George, Utah

By Svara Jayasinghe

For the week of November 23rd-29th, my family decided to go on a road trip to Utah to visit three national parks. Because of COVID, we had been cooped up in our house for the past 8 months, and needed to get out of the house. Visiting national parks seemed like the safest thing to do as we would be outside, and could stay away from people. On Monday we drove from San Diego California to St. George Utah. The drive was supposed to be around six hours so we planned to leave early in the morning to get to St. George at a good time. However, our dad forgot to pick up our rental car the day before because he had mixed up the pick-up times and didn’t have the car to leave as early as we had planned. We rented our van from Enterprise Rent-a-Car in Escondido. We were a bit disappointed in the service. They took more than an hour to clean and prepare our car and even then it wasn’t completely clean. When dad brought the car home, we packed and set out at 10 A.M., almost 4-5 hours than we had planned.

An hour and a half into the drive we stopped at a Macy’s at the Mall of Victorville to stretch our legs. We got Starbucks, hung around for a little bit while our mom shopped, and then got back on the road. A little while later, we stopped again at the Outlets at Barstow. Our parents shopped and looked around, while my sisters and I stayed in the car watching a Christmas movie (Noelle) on our laptops. Once we got back on the road, we continued driving and stopped a couple of times at rest stops to stretch our legs, and eventually made it to our hotel at around 8 P.M.. The hotel (at Hampton Inn and Suites in St. George) was nice and looked like it had been built recently. We got two separate rooms, parents in one, kids in another, which made it even nicer. The room was very spacious and clean. Once we settled in, our dad brought us dinner from Arby’s, and we ate and relaxed in the room.

Sri Lanka Trip – Day 11-14

by Simran Jayasinghe

At Minnehaha! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)
(Image by the Jayasinghe family)
(Image by the Jayasinghe family)
Dining hall! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Our grandfather had wanted us to get a more rural view of Sri Lanka, so we stayed at Minnehaha for the last couple days of our trip. Minnehaha was a house or bungalow, like an Airbnb, just off Dedduwa Lake, near a town called Benthota, about an hour drive south of Colombo. Our grandfather had booked all the rooms in the bungalow, which had been converted to be a guest house. Our grandparents stayed in one room, our parents stayed in another, and Kiran, Svara, and I shared a room together! The rooms had air-conditioning, and the bungalow had an outdoor pool, a great view of the lake, and, most importantly, free wifi!

On a walk! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)
Enjoying the pool! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

We relaxed, away from all civilization, for the next three days. We played in the pool, played cards, and went on walks with our grandfather. The most exciting part was the food! All of the meals were delicious and were served to us by the guest house staff. It felt very fancy, and the food was plentiful. After a relaxing few days, we packed up and spent one night at our grandfather’s house. Then, we mentally prepared for the long and tiring flight home, before boarding our plane home! After our layover in Korea, where we freshened up and prepared for the next thirteen hours of death. We landed at L.A.X. on the second of January, thankful to be home! As much as I loved the trip, a 24 hour flight was not my idea of paradise!

Our speedo pose in Sri Lanka! (Image by the Jayasinghe family)

Click here to visit Minnehaha’s website to find out more, or book a room!