Tinder Jetty

September 7, 2014

#111 - Spiral Jetty

Yes, I have been to the Spiral Jetty before but I still feel like it should be included as an adventure.  I have decided that we live in a pretty amazing place.  There are so many things to see that are within a few hours drive of Salt Lake.  Whitney, Susie and I decided to take advantage of our Sunday afternoon after Regional Conference.  Our normal church meetings don't get over until 4:00 each week.  This Sunday our regional meeting got done around 11:30 and we still had so much daylight left.  I snuck in a quick power nap before we hit the road on your sabbath afternoon adventure.

This adventure wasn't quite as exciting for me since the Spiral Jetty was no longer unknown territory. It was the company that made the trip exciting.  Whitney teaches her 4th grade students about the Golden Spike and the transcontinental railroad.  She has lots of random information in her head, including a very catch tune that her students perform.  We were lucky enough to hear a couple versus of this song during our drive to the Golden Spike visitors' center.  A quick stop at the center to take some pictures and we were off down the dirt road and over the cattle guards to the jetty.

After a very bumpy butt massage drive, we come to the end of the road and realize that we aren't the only people taking advantage of a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  A couple was just getting out of their car when we parked.  Simultaneously we realized that we all "knew" the guy getting out of the car. How did we know him?  Each of us had seen him on Tinder (yes we are all on Tinder) and there he was in the flesh on what we can only imagine was a Tinder date.  He is now known as Tinder Jetty.  We took our time getting out of the car to give them a chance to head down before us.  We pretty much followed them around the entire time because they went down to the jetty; then we went down to the jetty.  They walked out to the water; we walked out to the water.  They stopped for pictures along the way; we stopped for pictures along the way.  It was all very tender.  ;)

A nice shot of the happy couple jetty

Old Navy flip flops couldn't handle the salt

Spiral Jetty is still just as cool as the last time I saw it.  This time the water was a lot further from the jetty than before.  We decided to make the trek out to the edge of the solid ground.  Ran into a minor problem, water use to be covering the ground that we had to walk across.  I was the lucky one to lead the pack and find the mushy, juicy areas.  Salt juice combined with flip flops are a recipe for disaster!!  I ended up with gunk all over my feet, on my legs and pants.  Whitney and Susie had a nice laugh at my expense and threatened not to let me back in the car because the salt brine smell would come with me.  Lots of pictures and some jumping later we were ready to head home.  The three of us had one last opportunity to make Tinder Jetty's date a little more awkward.  Pretty sure we interrupted a romantic moment when we started to make our way back up the hill to the cars.

Back in the car we had snacks waiting for us.  I felt like an elementary student on a field trip as I ate my uncrustable sandwich (actually pretty good) and drank my water.  Even though I was bringing the lake with me, I was still allowed back into the car for the ride home.

Relaxing Sunday afternoon adventures are some of my favorites!  If you haven't visited the Spiral Jetty, do it...NOW!

- Em

Sidenote:  We have since run into Tinder Jetty 2-3 times at various stake activities.  Whitney joked on Sunday that she was going to go up to him and ask him if he was at the Spiral Jetty.  It didn't happen but is bound to happen sooner or later.