So we went to Moab last weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This was #4. We went on an overnight rafting trip down the Colorado River. It was a good time, overall.

Here’s a picture of us at our campsite.

John and I both have fair skin that burns easily, so we were extra careful to slather ourselves completely in SPF 45 the morning of our first day of rafting. Even so, by nightfall we discovered that we were noticeably red and in pain in the arm, leg, and shoulder areas.

Dang SPF 45 Sun block.

Friday night we slept on cots on a beach under the stars. A storm was passing nearby, though, so it was super windy for a few hours that night–which meant no sleep for me. Somehow John (a.k.a. Mr. Insomniac) seemed to sleep fine.

But the stars were gorgeous. Or so I heard (since my contacts were out).

Here’s a photo of the red mesas surrounding our campsite.

The night before our rafting trip started we ate dinner at the fanciest restaurant in Moab called the Center Cafe, which was neither on Center Street nor a Cafe. Go figure.

But the food was fabulous. We weren’t super hungry, so we split a beef tenderloin, which I guess is like filet mignon, and was so tasty. We told the waitress we were celebrating an anniversary and she said, “Well, you better keep an appetite for dessert, because it’s on us tonight.” When we got the dessert menu we picked the $10 lemon trio dessert. It had a lemon tart with raspberries, homemade lemon ice cream, and some sort of lemon custard with a French name I can’t remember. Yumm, it was good.

We stayed the night prior to our rafting trip in the La Quinta Inn. Not a bad place to stay, but pricey for a basic motel. I guess that’s what you get for going during tourist season. We thought our room was . . . interesting. It was large, which we liked. But it was sort of odd in that it was more decorated than any other basic motel room I’ve ever been in. I mean–look at all the Indian stuff! (And this is just one tiny corner of the room.) There’s even fake leather fringe hung around the top of the lamp and our very own artificial cactus arrangement in the lower right corner. They thought of everything.

They must’ve used a different decorator for the bathroom, though, because it lost all its southwestern flavor and went for a more oceanic feel. Check out these fish.

They were above the towel rack (brown towels, by the way; a little scary to use since all dirt is hidden). Some of them are painted on and others are those plastic 3-D ones you can hang in your bathtub. Fun stuff. Borderline tacky. But at least they tried.