A Weekend Away

Wahooo!  I was able to get away with Justin for three days, four nights.

It's a long story, but Mom and Dad drove down to watch the kids (thanks!) even though their car was glitchy.

Tina dropped me off at a shuttle (thanks!) in Draper that drove me to St. George where I hooked up with Justin.

Oh What a Feeling!  While Justin was at work, I slept in, grabbed sweet potato fries and a smoothie at Burger King, found a grassy knoll and parked my butt down to absorb the sunshine.  I was reluctant to leave my perch, but I walked down a street to find a man made lake with lavish mansions dotting the banks.  

I witnessed a wedding on the lake from afar, cheesy wedding at that.  

Oof.  Temples are the way to go.

 A night on the Strip.  Top right picture:  in the bottom right of it, it says "If it's in stock we have it!"  We thought this was hilarious.  

Stopped at Trader Joes to buy my favorite Pineapple Chips; Five bags.  Not enough.  Ate at Kahunaville.  Way too loud and the food was terrible.  They gave us a deep fried cheesecake because my teriyaki was so gross.  But the cheesecake was equally gross.  And if you are wondering, Justin backed me up on both counts, and he likes everything.

Thoughts on the Strip:

Thumbs mostly down.  

Maybe I'm too sensitive but, slutty stuff all over the place.  Gross.

The Bellagio fountains were awesome and it was impressive to see what man can make, but three hours was too long for my burning eyes.

 The next morning, we stopped at more bike shops on our way to Zion National Park.  We bought a season pass, hoping we'll get to more National Parks.  We got there late but were able to do a sunset hike on the Watchmen Trail.  No pine nuts for us.

Found a free campsite right outside the park.  Lucky for us, the people up the road had a friendly dog that would come over and stick its head under our rain fly.  I hate dogs.  

When we got up, Justin found a couple goat head thorns that went all the way through the ground cover, and tent, which was probably the reason our self-inflatable pads were flat = aching hips all around.

Our plan for the day was to hike part of Zion Narrows.  First we stopped at a ghost town called Grafton.  It has been redone so not creepy or ghosty.  One of the homes was open in the basement so we took a look around, but spent only a few minutes there.

   We dressed how we thought appropriate (which we were) and rode the shuttle to the trail.

Top right picture is before we started.  

It was hard to plunge right in and walk in the river, at an icy 51 degrees, but we did.  I found a tree branch to use for a walking stick which I'm glad I had.  My favorite part of the hike was heading up Orderville Canyon.  It was more narrow, more intimate feeling, not as much water, and no other people.  The Narrows was teaming with people.  We were rarely alone.  And most of them had their dslr's and tripods.  We took my phone.  And most of them had rented gear from town.  I asked and it cost $35 a day.  Ouch.  Our clothes and shoes worked just fine, thank you very much.

 Bottom right is after the hike.  Still alive, although after the hike we heard they are considering closing the hike due to high levels of ecoli in the water.  Puke.  I wouldn't have gone if I'd known that.

Feelings on The Narrows:

Not recommended.  If you like to hike with dozens of other people, your hip flexers to scream from wading through water, then go for it.  I found our hike by Goblin valley much more fun and exciting.  Only a handful of people, much better "slot canyon" feel, not walking through water, no up and back but a loop, and more fun when you needed to figure a way around or over or through areas.

It felt so wonderful to change pants, socks, and shoes when we got back to the car.  When I took my shoes off, I had oodles of sand that had molded under my feet.