A day in my shoes ...: March 2013

Since the beginning of January, Bryce has been saying he wants 'sun' and warm weather. this was a daily occurrence... For valentines day, I came up with this smart idea to take Bryce to st. George. I would be able to give him what he had been asking for, for a month and a half. Welllllll to make a long story short... hot wire sucks! They really got me good. after hours, and I mean hours, of fighting with them over them booking a hotel room that wasn't even available, I was able to get my money back. I was really sad that I could not give Bryce what he had been asking for. My plan failed miserably! Since I had been on the phone 6+ hours fighting with hot wire I decided to tell Bryce what was up. I guess things work out better that we didn't go. The weekend we were scheduled to go was beyond busy. I had 3 people from work go down there and Bryce had a co-worker down there and it was so busy that they couldn't get in to eat at a restaurant. It was the first weekend that was nice down there in months, there was conventions and it was a holiday weekend. Fast forward 2 more weeks - I jumped on to hotels.com and saw a great deal for a hotel. This was on a Monday... I ho-hummed over it until Wednesday. I decided that it was the perfect weekend... a perfect 75 degrees, no conventions, no holidays and no pre-arranged plans for us. I went ahead and booked our hotel and got going on packing things. I had our bags to pack and went shopping for some 'snack' food to eat on the way down. Friday came and I could not get out of work fast enough. Bryce even got home 3 hours early from work. When I got home we threw our stuff in the car and headed south.

The drive down there was long. We had to stop and get gas and dinner. It was too dark to be able to see where the warmth had hit. The only thing we saw on our way down was snow. We got there about 830, checking in to our hotel and called it a night. We talked about all the things we could do and places I had picked out to eat. Our hotel package came with more than a continental breakfast. They had hash browns, eggs, french toast, doughnuts, bagels, waffles, fruit, all kinds of drinks and much more. I am not for sure if it was the fact that we were up super early or that it wasn't that great of a breakfast but I hardly ate anything. Bryce had eggs, hashbrown and a morning ritual of oatmeal. When were done we headed back to the room to change and get going for the day. With the warm weather - even at 8 in the morning, a light jacket was beyond warm enough for me. We changed , grabbed our water packs and snacks and headed across the street to grab stuff for lunch.

After we grabbed the few things we needed, we decided to head over to snow canyon. Neither of us have really been to st George so we were not for sure what we were in store for. When we got to snow canyon, we decided to drive to the top and work our way down. I did not expect to get to the top of the canyon 8 minutes later but we did. so we hit the parking lot at the top and what turned into 'I just want to see what is at that point over there' turned into us hiking 3 different trails. Did I mention that we did not pack sunscreen??? By this time it is almost 1 and there was nothing that we could do about it. Something that was only suppose to be a minute turned into 4 1/2 hour hike. By the time we made it back to the car, we were starving. and I was burned.

There was a small area in the canyon that had a few tables. We got there before the crowd. As soon and we starting eating - everyone showed up. after lunch we decided to head down the canyon to go grab some sunscreen for my already burned shoulders. As got towards the end there was a parking lot that Bryce wanted to check things out.... that 'check things out' turned into us hiking all the way back up the canyon to where we stopped before lunch. By this time I was already toast - so why rush. There is rock everywhere. tons of places to climb, all different kinds of trails. When we got back to the car it was 4 and we were hungry again. We decided to head back to the hotel, get cleaned up and head to an early dinner.

After dinner, we did a little window shopping, and by now my legs were sore. Neither of us had hiked that much in a long time. after about an hour of window shopping, we headed over to get dessert. By this time we had gotten so much sun that it was cold even though it was still 60 degrees outside. After ice cream, we headed back to the hotel with plans to hit the pool but the only thing I hit was the bed. I don't think I even remember getting in to bed.

The next morning, Bryce wanted to go to a dinosaur museum and go to a Mongolian BBQ place for lunch. I didn't think much of it so we took our time getting going. We headed over to breakfast, which was better but I only ate a bagel. We went back to our hotel room and packed up. When we checked out it was still really early and neither place was open. So we headed towards sand hallow to check it out for future trips. Only Bryce didn't stop at the exit... he kept going and before you know it we ended up at Zion's national park. It has been a really long time since I have been there that it doesn't even look like the same place. We drove up the 'non- senic' side through the tunnel to the east entrance and back down. Just before we went through the tunnel there was a hike. The board said that it was a mile round trip - when we got back to the car it was over a 2 mile hike round trip. This hike I did not like. We were on the side of the rock without anything to keep you from falling over a 300 foot drop. Who does that??? well apparently alot of people. over half way through - as we are walking along the cliff that is literally a half a foot to my left - we come around a bend to see a 'bridge' out of wood. Only the bridge has nothing below it but the drop off to the scary ravine. My first response was 'hell no!' and I told Bryce I would wait for him to finish... only the problem was - where I was at there was no where for people to pass. So I would have to go back down part of the pathway by myself on the side of a cliff or continue on. This is something really difficult for me. I have dreams of falling off cliffs and I can feel my body hitting the bottom - where ever the bottom is. It is horrible to feel/see that. Bryce almost lost his hand as I was crossing that bridge but I did it. eventually we got to this amazing lookout over Zions... was it worth it? yes. Would I do it again? Probably not. going back, there was this cloud of doom hanging over me. Had we not been hiking on a cliff I probably would have ran all the way back just so I could be done with it. again, Bryce almost lost a hand on the way back. I am surprised I didn't break it. Once we got back down we jumped in the car and headed through the tunnel. You are not allowed to stop in this tunnel. It is very narrow and very dark. Luckily we had no one behind us so we broke the rules and stopped a few time for pictures. only for a brief second though.

After the tunnel we then headed up the 'scenic' drive to check it out. By the time we were hungry again it was close to 3 so we headed out of Zions and found the only place open to eat. The place it is called 'wildcat willies'. Let me tell you that this is the best food I have ever had in my entire life. Bryce even agreed. It is about 1/2 mile before the entrance to Zion's and if you ever get a chance to stop... do it! I got this amazing salad and Bryce got a BBQ burger. For being a tourist place it was just the right price. but if it was just in the city - it would have been overpriced. By the time we got done eating it was near 430 and we needed to head home. We got home just before 830 that night and we were already ready to go back. Once we hit beaver, it rained all the way home. we both already missed the sun. This trip was a much needed trip for both of us.