Once we were through the canyon and for the rest of the trip, there was no problem. I ended the trip in short sleeves. Nice.
Something fun about the drive- We passed the Manti Temple on the way. Nichole commented, "That's a cool big building up ahead." I commented back, "I think that's the temple. If we're coming up on Manti then that's the temple. I'm pretty sure the Manti temple has a different look than the ones in our area." Then Nichole commented, "I don't see Angel Moroni on top," so of course I second guessed myself. "Maybe it's not the temple but it is a cool building." It's been quite a few years since I've been to that area. As we got closer and closer there were clues that it was indeed the Manti Temple. One of the biggest was that as we were passing, Nichole was able to read on it, "Holiness to the Lord: The House of the Lord." Yep, definitely the temple. 
We talked a little bit about how I thought Manti was one of the older temples in Utah. I looked it up later. Yep. It along with St. George and Logan were dedicated before the Salt Lake Temple even though construction on the Salt Lake Temple began before the others. It took 40 years to build it, though. Wow. There you go- a little bit of Utah/Church history for you.
Now about birding-
We stopped by Palisades State Park. Plenty of birds to see there. 
Then we stopped at Ninemile Reservoir where there were so many more birds. A couple people even saw a peregrine falcon. I didn't see it. Man, that was my nemesis bird. I'd seen plenty of peregrine falcons. I even have pictures of me with one.
This was in 2018.
There's a closer picture on my blog post for December 1, 2018. I'd never seen one in the wild even though I'd gone out looking for them enough times. Sigh. One nice thing, though, is we went across the road from where we parked and were able to see some chukars. I haven't seen chukars in a while, either. This is definitely becoming a better birding year for us than the last couple.
click to see Nichole's picture of a chukar larger
We traveled through Gunnison, actually along a road that we used to travel for our WAFLS (short-eared owl) survey we used to do. We stopped by Redmond Lake and there were sooooo many pelicans. I love pelicans. There were lots on the lake, lots in the sky. It was great.
The sandhill cranes were very vocal there as well. And there was a long-billed curlew flying around. That was fun to see.
These three are Nichole's pictures (give credit where credit is due)
At one point we were driving along a dirt road when someone in the group called over the walkie talkies that there was a raptor on a fence post near a pond. There was some discussion of what it could be. Someone got out a scope to see that it was... a peregrine falcon. Whoopee! Lifer dance!
It was way out there so Nichole and I couldn't see it so well in our binoculars and cameras but it was definitely recognizable in the scope. I was sooooo happy about that and it doesn't matter that I missed the one earlier in the day. Nemesis bird- acquired.
Nichole's picture again.
We finished the trip at Yuba State Park. There wasn't as much to see there. Everyone headed home on their own after that.
It was a nice long day out and such nice bonding time with my daughter sharing this similar interest of birding.
And since March 26 was National Spinach Day, I made Jeremy's request for dinner, spinach quiche. Yumm. We also had rice pilaf from The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner and French bread rolls from Mel's Kitchen Cafe and pears with cottage cheese.
I have to share one more fun thing. While we were out, we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break. Nichole noticed a Fast Break candy bar. She reminded me of a random experience we had one time in a store. We were waiting in the checkout line and a lady came up looking for a candy bar and she mentioned to us that the best candy bar is a Reese's Fast Break. I'd never heard of it before. Nichole obviously remembered what it was called because when we were at the gas station, she saw one and reminded me about it. So we got one to share. Yes, definitely yummy. I would eat one again. I'll have to remember that for the next birding field trip pit stop.
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