Dana - The Rowland Family Blog

Bryce Canyon National Park | Camping Trip 2020

Camping is one of my favorite pastimes. Since leaving Colorado over 12 years ago I haven’t been camping once. Come to think about it, I bet it’s been almost 14 years since the last time I went camping. It’s not that I lost interest, it’s just that it was an activity that just didn’t fit into my life for the past decade or so. I’m so glad to have rediscovered it and am able to share the experience with Feiya and Dana. The seeds for this trip were planted one year ago when we visited Cedar Breaks National Monument just outside of Cedar City, Utah. While exploring this beautiful area we stumbled upon a campground located in a high meadow full of wildflowers. We walked the campsite loop and saw several empty sites that had spectacular views. We were excited thinking we could be sleeping under the stars in anyone of these sites. And it was a busy holiday weekend to boot! I camped regularly in the Mountains of Colorado in the 12 years I lived there. In my early 20’s camping was more or less finding a secluded spot on a backcountry access road and set up a tent, …

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Capitol Reef National Park and Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument We took a much needed break from the Vegas heat and the 2020 nonsense over the 4th of July weekend. We rented a SUV for a song and drove to Central Utah and stayed in a rented cabin for 3 days. It was like opening the decompression valves to full. All three of us were very happy for the short escape. We reserved the cabin and rental car last month. That’s when we decided that there was no better way to practice social distancing than Utah. I looked at it as a social distancing vacation from well, social distancing. Utah has been pretty laxed on pandemic requirements. When we were there you could tell who the tourists were and who the locals were by the mask or the absence of a mask. I’m not a fan of wearing a mask, but I had to ask myself– Why not? Right now there is no other known way to prevent the spread. Yes, wearing masks is arguably causes more harm than good. I believe that wearing a mask for short periods of time throughout the day as you weave in and out of public places will cause …

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Pine Glen Condo Part I | Summerlin

Here we are smack dab in the middle of pandemic. I’ve never experienced a crisis this directly before. The weird thing is, EVERYBODY is experiencing it. This is not one of those “That only happens somewhere else.” situations. This is happening worldwide simultaneously. Never before has the world been so connected by a common effort, to defeat the coronavirus, or COVID-19. I’m staying optimistic throughout this ordeal as long as I possibly can. We all know the economic hardships that are coming down the pipe. Will the worse case scenarios come to fruition? Sure, there’s a very real possibility that my job is on the line. Vegas doesn’t do well in downturns. And, man do we have a downturn coming! Right now every casino in Las Vegas is closed! The bigger casinos are taking care of their people, for now. The smaller one’s, not so much. This will take awhile to dig out of this hole. The last recession Las Vegas had was in 2008. Home prices finally reached their pre-recession prices in the last two years. That’s nearly ten years of recovery! So, what did we do? We bought a f*****g condo, in FEBRUARY! I’m not sitting here shitting …

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Snowy Mountain Pics | Lovell Canyon, NV

Feiya was invited over to her friend’s house over the weekend for an overnight stay. That left Dana and myself to ourselves for 24 hours. We dropped Feiya off and headed to the best Asian buffet in Vegas- Krazy Buffet. Delicious as always! It snowed in the higher elevations around Las Vegas the before and we wanted to get some photos of the snow capped mountains. After lunch we made our way out of town. We drove along Highway 159 leaving Las Vegas and went by Red Rock Conversation Area. It’s a beautiful place and Dana loves it. However, I wanted to show her a secret spot I found earlier this year. As we drove by Red Rock traffic was backed up and they had actually closed the entrance because it was so full. Everyone wanted photos of the snow and Red Rock was no disappointment. We could see from the highway how beautiful it was, but I knew my spot was going to be good as well. We took a left turn at Highway 160 and headed up the pass (sorry, I can’t remember what the name of the pass is) toward Pahrump, NV. The snow was getting deeper …

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Dana’s 40th Birthday | Las Vegas, NV

Dana will turn 40 years old this coming week. We celebrated this weekend by going to a Chinese restaurant and going for a walk in a park nearby our house. We tried a new place to eat that was recommended to Dana by her coworkers. SK Seafood didn’t disappoint. We had ordered 4 dishes- Mongolian Beef, Sweat and sour Pork Chop, Fried Shrimp and Green Beans. We also had a big bowl of Wonton Soup. All dishes were very tasty. They were a little on the spicy side, however. Feiya didn’t like that. Can’t really blame her. So, I bought her a boba tea on the way home. After dinner we went to a park/walking path near our house. We’ve been there a few times and it’s a nice place for walk. The weather was near perfect. The trees still have a lot of color in them as they continue to cling to their Autumn leaves. I took a lot of pics. I used my trusty Ricoh GR II point and shoot today. I readjusted the focus back to spot focus. It worked much better today than it did our last outing in California.