28 thoughts on “July 15, 2022: Rivers In The Cities”

  1. My Southern Utah people here?

    We're staying in Kanab, UT, for 8 days starting next Wednesday. Two healthy-enough adults and kids (11, 15, 18) who are ready to hike. We've done 4-hour hikes as a family, but longer than that would be a new thing. We're geared with trekking poles and water bladder packs. Planning to carry a ton of water and lots of calories. Our current plans involve:

    - Trying to get a permit for Subway (Zion) – if we get it plan to try to get in there at about 7:30am and we're a little intimidated
    - Not doing Angel's Landing (Zion) because heights and kids
    - Other Zion ideas: Observation Point via East Mesa and Canyon Overlook
    - A day at Bryce Canyon hiking something
    - A drive to the Grand Canyon on the north side - any hikes along the way?
    - A couple hikes from these around Kanab: visit Horsehoe Bend, Wire Pass, Toad Stools, Hanging Garden, Birthday Arch
    - Coral Pink Sand Dunes with maybe a hike of Sand Caves
    - Maybe a slot canyon UTV tour, though my wife is nervous of being in a vehicle with others

    Any of these can't miss? Any can't miss things that I'm missing? Any protips other than getting up super early to beat the crowds?

    1. We did Kolob Canyon in Zion, and not the main entrance and we loved it! A lot less crowded

      1. Thanks! I have a few of those hikes on the list, probably for if we don't get Subway. Both of those locations are a bit of a drive from Kanab. Any particular hikes that you took and loved there?

        1. We were only there a day. We drove up from Las Vegas first thing in the morning, then stayed in La Verkin that night. We did those first two - Taylor Creek then Timber Creek Overlook Trail. I haven't done the main tunnel in Zion, but the one that gets you as you come around the bend to Timber Creek (I misremembered it being a tunnel, but there is a big reveal)- I audibly gasped and said "Holy shit!" because that was just about the only words my brain could process. Absolutely stunning.

          The next day we did a regional park (Red Cliffs) in St. George as my brother and SIL headed back to LV and dropped us to get our rental to drive to SLC, but that's even further away from you in Kanab so probably not useful unless you're flying in and out of SGU (if they ever finished fixing the sinking runway)

    2. Grand Staircase Escalante is amazing and not as busy as Zion or Grand Canyon. Bryce you can do with a 3 hour hike.

  2. I “coached” my first T-ball game this week. The Poissonnière’s getting her start in the youth rec league, and it’s clear the coaching is understaffed and a bit, well, young & indifferent. A couple of dads have started to help out, coaching fielders & runners at each base. I drew first base this week, which meant I was involved in every play on both offense & defensive ends. (The necessary ‘eyes on everything’ mindset reminded me of catching!)

    It seemed to me that what kids need at this point, other than help with fundamentals, is a little positive reinforcement. I tried to pick out something each did well — a strong hit, good catch or block of a throw from a teammate, or just plain hustle — so they’d feel encouraged and want to keep playing. A couple kids did really well with the mechanics of playing first, considering the quality of throws they were getting. (“All of your teammates are very excited to throw the ball to you, but they might not always get their throws right here to the base. Make sure you’re ready to move!)

    Selfishly, it was a lot more fun than simply watching all the other kids who aren’t mine. I didn’t get to enjoy watching the Poissonnière quite as much, since I had to focus on plays at/around first when she was running the bases, but I did get a big hug when she reached first each time, and I got to coach her when she came over to play first in the bottom of the third.

    1. I've daydreamed about coaching my girls in rugby someday. Kid2 is much more likely to be the player, but there's a decent chance Kid1 will end up a referee. She loves that part of watching games, though I'm not sure she'll have the temperament, meaning if someone gets in her face and yells over a call will probably be very hard for her. She's a very sensitive child, which is just fine of course, but maybe not great for "get yelled at by massive slabs of dudes" (though she is only 5, so plenty of growing yet to do).

    3. My favorite drill at that age was to have them run the bases and yell out the base when they hit it.

      1. My two favorite soccer "drills" were (1) the St John's "beautiful day" drill and (2) the Hokey-Pokey.

  3. ALSO, does anyone have a concert venue review for Surly Brewing Field?

    So many good shows upcoming, but I can't help but decide not to go because I'm getting too old for GA standing shows and I'm getting too old for GA standing shows. I'm not too turned off by outdoors, but only assuming the weather holds for the concert lol.

    I have tickets for Tenacious D in September, but I keep deciding not to get Fleet Foxes and Decembrists and so on tickets because I don't know if I'll enjoy the venue/standing.

    1. It’s a great place. Wide open, food, beverage, bathrooms well placed. Big enough to find your spot where ever you want to plant yourself. Will be dusty if really dry and muddy if wet.

    2. The last show I went to there was Hold Steady. I didn't enjoy it. Too many a-hole frat boys. One guy would keep bumping people from behind until they'd finally relent and let him in front of them. Another was using people's shoulders as a trampoline to jump as high as possible.

      I'm not sure if that is representative of their typical crowd or not.

        1. I was going to try to work in a joke about seeing you there but couldn't figure anything out.

  4. Miguel Sano is apparently continuing his rehab assignment in St. Paul now. Even the Magic 8 Ball doesn't know what's going to happen with him.

    1. He's 3-for-8 so far with two doubles, a walk, and three strikeouts, for whatever that's worth.

      1. I would love to see him come back with a new attitude and realize his potential as a player, but my expectations are not aligned with that desire.

        1. Nor are mine. At this point (assuming he's healthy), he pretty much is what he is. He's going to hit some home runs, draw some walks, strike out a ton, and add nothing on defense. You either decide that's good enough or you don't.

    2. The Twins have until July 24 to determine what to do with him. That's the latest his rehab assignment can go. I doubt he comes back before the All-Star game.

  5. The last I checked his most similar comp was Schwarber. Schwarber has turned his career around so that means Sano will too. (It's statistics. No use arguing against it!)

    1. I saw Schwarber when the Phillies & I were both passing through San Diego. Dude can swing the stick.

      I think something that I definitely didn’t appreciate as well as I do now is consistency as a player skill. It’s not as apparent as tools, which Sanó certainly has a lot of, nor as weird a mix of biology & luck as health/durability. But it’s become much clearer to me over the years that some players have a much better ability to keep their mechanics consistent and diagnose/correct inconsistencies than do others. Some of that may be attitude or work ethic, but I think there’s a hard-to-quantify degree of executive function or embodied cognition that enable some players to more rapidly correct or adapt to inconsistencies inherent with being a human repeating a highly specialized set of manual tasks.

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