The Aftershow of the Powell Finale...or The REAL Powell finale, probably not but, I hope!

This is only day 3.  Again, it's a photo post.

Day 3 started out a little more cloudy than day 2, which was fine with me because it's easier to get a tan on the shore...sitting on a boat all day only tans the front side, you know what I mean?  The down side was that the water was a little rougher than the day before, which makes for a loooong, bumpy boat ride.

We decided to take a trip to Rainbow Bridge, which was about 30 miles south of where we were "camped".  The only scary part about this long trip was that the gas gauge in our boat didn't work...it said "empty" all the time, and gas stations aren't very common on a lake - not that they don't exist, but not in our path this day.

I prayed and stressed a lot this day.  I didn't feel much like rowing back, or rather, I didn't want to watch Will row us back!

This was on the way...we went caravan style.  Three boats packed full!

We made a stop at Hole-in-the-Rock, which I'm sure I've been to before or maybe we always sped past and pointed to where it was.  Again, it's hard to get perspective on how big these rocks really are until you get right up next to them.  I always thought that the pioneers took their wagons down this crack...one wagon wheel on one side of the mountain, and the other wagon wheel on the other.  I think that's because I only saw this from a distance.  Once we got up next to it, you can see how the Pioneers made it through - not that it was easy by any stretch of the imagination, but I can picture how they were able to do it now.

Imagine how hard it is to get a stroller over a rock, or a shopping cart over a piece of rice that fell on the ground (speaking from experience on both)...now imagine getting wagons over these rocks!  Can you see how I naively thought how a wagon would get down this canyon?  Like if the crack was only three feet across?  From a distance?  Kind of?

Tiny specks...people.

Jay and Katie decided to ride in the speedy, party boat...the boat with all the fun people, a.k.a. Ryan and Steven!

Snacks - which in our boat was licorice and pringles, and a little swim and then it was back on the water.

Of course, when Ryan and Will are together there always has to be a little friendly competition.  Don't worry Ryan, I won't tell anyone who always wins! ;)   They decided to race to a place that I consider to be a home for lots of fish.

Then...

Classic Ryan.

The concerned father...he enjoyed every second of watching Ryan push that rock into the water!!

Aunt Nette

Allie and Autumn

Eric had enough of the heat

Most of the grand kids

Long story short,  as we caravaned to Rainbow Bridge we lost Eric and Beckie and their boat-load who were the third boat, we waited for a while and they never showed up so we decided to turn around to see if maybe they had seen a fish boil and Eric stopped to fish, which has happened in the past, or if something else had happened. 

Coming around a corner, Steven saw my mom and Lauren and Lindsay on the side of a rock waving at us.  Eric's boat had overheated and they had gone way back into a little windy (not blowing windy, but twisty-turny windy...are those two words spelled the same? English.) canyon to get out of the rough waves and we would have never found them if my mom, Lauren and Lindsay hadn't have swum out to flag us down...this isn't turning into a short story...

Our family was also the recipient of selfless service from another family who stopped to help out...it's good to know there are still people out there in the world  who will take the time to help out strangers.  It doesn't happen as often as you would hope.  So...

My dad, Ryan and Eric ended up staying with Eric's boat, while we went on to the bridge.

 These guys welcomed us...

They like Pringles!  We had a little Pringle accident in the boat...perfect fish food!

Yuck!  This one was a lucky fish too - or so ugly that they let it go!

Do you see it?  Dinosaur track!

The last time we came here was right after Will and I got married...I don't really remember visiting Rainbow Bridge on that trip...it WAS still our honeymoon...the bridge was beautiful and huge and totally worth the hike in!

Then, the whole way down we had to listen to Steven talk about a fish he caught that was THAT big!  Sheesh!  Or he was being a monster to make Lilly laugh!  Maybe that was it!

The end.  A very cute end!

p.s...there's still another days worth of pictures - but they're more ACTION pictures!