Anniversary "Adventure"

Yesterday we celebrated our second wedding anniversary. The day started off well. Nate surprised me at breakfast with a new Tech 4 O Accelerator Series Hiking Watch. The watch acts as a pedometer, and based on information you give the watch, it calculates your speed, distance, and calories burned. Additionally, it has other useful features such as an alarm and timer. I was pretty excited about it, and promptly spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to work it.

Nate got off work early that afternoon so that we could go on a hike. A couple days earlier we had found a trail on Antelope Island that we thought would be a good length for the time we had. We thought that conditions for hiking there would be nice since it is spring. Boy were we wrong! Unfortunately for us, we were unaware of the swarms of brine flies that would hound us there. Although I have been to the island a couple times before, the conditions must have been just right to keep the flies at a minimum, so we were unaware of them. This time, they were simply unbearable. They congregated on our clothes, stuck to our skin, and became tangled in our hair. They crawled in our ears and got caught in our mouths and noses. There must have been billions of the tiny creatures everywhere. Apparently, they bit too, making things itchy as well. It was rather miserable.


As expected, the scenery was pretty, and the still reflective lake was beautiful. We even saw a lone buffalo near the trail, but those things are hard to enjoy when you are being overwhelmed by masses of tiny flies. We continued on for a bit, hoping that maybe the flies would abate some, but when it was apparent that conditions weren't getting any better, gave up our hike and headed back to our car. We then wiped as many of the flies off ourselves as we could. It makes me wonder how the buffalo and other creatures living on the island manage to endure it.

According to my new watch, we went about 4.2 miles on our short hike. I guess my watch isn't very accurate if you are waving your hands all over the place to ward off flies...


After getting back we took a much needed shower. I was amazed at how many bugs were still stuck in my hair despite all my efforts at the park to deter them. After taking my hair down and starting to comb it out, our bathroom quickly became filled with the flies. There were a couple hundred dead ones on the floor, and more live ones flying all over the bathroom. Disgusting. I know.

Showering usually feels nice, but it feels extra nice when you really need it. When you have lots of dead flies smeared on you, you really need it. Feeling clean and fly-free afterward felt wonderful.

The rest of our evening was much more pleasant. We went to Olive Garden for dinner and used a gift card my aunts had given me for my birthday. Luckily, we didn't see any flies in the restaurant.

After coming back, I presented Nate with a gift: a beach towel and a book (thanks for the idea Lori!) with our blog entries and pictures from the past two years of our marriage.

Here we are with Nate's beach towel and my watch.

Since our actually anniversary hike was a disappointment, it is a good thing we have many other exciting adventures planned for this summer, from hiking and camping excursions to weddings. We don't expect to encounter so many flies on those trips, thank goodness!