Our second day trip of Memorial Day weekend was to Antelope Island. Or, should I say 'Biting Gnat Island'? An electric sign at the entrance warned us "bugs bad on island." And, we were even a bit cocky as we ate our lunch with only a few bugs now and again.
We enjoyed checking out the ranch - roping kids,
walking through the oldest "Anglo-built" home in Utah still on its original foundation,
being stared down by "Causeway" the bison,
rummaging through an old workshop with tools Grandpa claims to have in HIS garage, too,
Uncle Jeff trying to convice the kids to touch the tail of the bison skin - ew,
and tromping around just for kicks. All without ANY bugs. But, little did we know...
The worst was yet to come. We stopped to hunt down a Geocache, which was quite a challenge without a GPS and only the satellite map. There are hundreds of rock formations and they all pretty much look alike. It wasn't until another Geocacher walked up with a GPS that we were able to find it. As we headed back to the cars, we noticed that our shirts were covered with tiny, black gnats, and that's where the itching began.
Our next stop was Buffalo Point - a short, but steep hike to the top of the point with many more rocks to climb. I made the mistake of telling my brother-in-law, Dave, that there was another Geocache somewhere on Buffalo Point. Now, Dave is one of those never-give-up kind of people, and he was off on a mission to find it. The men and older boys disappeared, and having enough of watching the younger boys climb rocks that made my stomach weak, I decided to head back down. My mom and sister, Natalie (who is 8 months pregnant) were waiting down by the cars - swatting gnats, and completely miserable. They were so happy to see me thinking that someone could let them into a car and get out of the gnats - no dice. I had no keys and no idea where the men and older boys went.
After who knows how long I, too, got fed up with the bugs and decided to hike it back up to the point to see if I could find the men with the keys. I plowed up the hill a second time and found Jeff on his own at the top. The rest of the men were off bush-wacking still trying to find the Geocache. By the time the men got back they were hot, tired, thirsty, and we were ALL bug bitten and SUPER itchy. Jayden was looking forward to playing in the salty water, but the bugs were just too much for everyone and we called it a day.
In fact, some of us are STILL itchy and it has been over a week since our adventure to "The Island." But, the way I look at it is - it will be a day they won't soon forget.
