So Wednesday after work we packed up my cute little Corolla and headed out. We never seem to get on the road early enough for my taste, but since it gets dark at 5:00 now it didn’t really matter when we left.
The weather in Ogden and Salt Lake was not too bad. It started getting a little snowy and wet in Utah County, and by the time we got to Nephi it was definitely snowing. This was sad because I hate going over the passes in the snow. So we pulled the weather up on the phones and hoped that it would be OK farther south. It wasn’t bad enough to scare us off yet, so we kept going – knowing very well that we may end up spending the night in a fancy hotel in Scipio or Fillmore.
The weather was yucky all the way down. We made it over the passes going at a comfortably slow speed. I am glad my Matt is such a good driver. I knew he would do what he needed to so we could be safe. We were happy to pull over in Cedar city and take a break. It was snowing pretty bad there too, but we needed to get out of the car and relax a little (and I had a bad cold, so we stopped to get some Kleenex). Back on the road it was all downhill from there and we made it to Mesquite safe (a few hours later than we planned, but safe).
I was zonked out with my cold, so I went to bed but Matt stayed up to talk to his dad for a while.
The next morning we slept in. Ahhhh- that is one of the best parts of vacation! We were not sure what we wanted to do that day, but I had read that it was free admission into National Parks for Veteran’s day, so we made the decision to drive up to Zion’s. We got a pretty late start, and by the time we got into the park it was about 3. We knew we were not planning on any serious hikes that day, so we were OK taking it slow. We did the emerald pools (which is one of the first ones you get to) and it was nice to get out and hike around. By the time we finished that it was getting darker and we knew we didn’t have much chance to see anything else. We took the super short drive up to weeping rock and that was it. The day was over. The sun was down by about 5:00! Oh winter!
On our way out of the park we encountered a very stubborn deer. He was just standing in the middle of our lane. We waited behind him for what seemed like 10 minutes before we finally realized he wasn’t going anywhere and drove around him. Silly deer.
We stopped in St. George on our way out of Zion’s to do some shopping. I had a 30% off coupon to Old Navy and we found a bunch of t-shirts for Matt for about $3 each. Very nice. We had a nice dinner and then took in a movie before heading back to Mesquite. (we saw Red. Matt had been wanting to, and it had good reviews, but it was only OK).
Friday we slept in again before heading out to the Valley of Fire. It is a Nevada State park located between Mesquite and Las Vegas. To get there we drove through the Moapa Valley. I have to admit I was blown away! I had no idea that there were so many people living in what I thought was just the middle of the desert. There is a high school and a community college and lots of houses. It was a cute little area. Soon we made it into the park and had a good time walking around and taking pictures. It is a small place, and we were able to see pretty much everything we wanted to in the few hours that we were there.
The park closed a sunset, which was 4:30, so we got out of there early. We headed back to Mesquite and looked around for a place to have dinner. The casinos were crowded for the weekend and the buffet was marked up, so we didn’t do that and instead found a little Mexican restaurant that ended up being pretty good. We went to another movie, this time we saw Unstoppable (I think that was the name). The train movie with Denzel Washington. It was good. I think that both me and Matt liked it – which is rare .
Saturday we slept in again. Then we took some time to hang out with Matt’s dad and watch the U of U lose to Notre Dame (bummer). Then we headed out for a fabulous night in Las Vegas. I wanted to go to Freemont Street. I have never been there, but I heard good things about it, so I was excited to go. Matt was more skeptical about us having any fun, until we got there. It was so much fun! Like an amazing little street festival! There were lots of people dressed up so you could take your picture with them (for a price). There were artists and street magicians and it was just a lot of fun. We walked around there for a couple hours then headed in to the Strip. Matt had purchased us tickets to see Mystere by Cirque De Soleil. We picked up our tickets from the discount ticket place (totally awesome!) and then went to the buffet at Treasure Island. That was nice! We got it discounted along with our tickets and had a good time. They had really good food – cook to order pasta – their own pastry chef making desserts. I just wish I could have eaten more!
Then we went to the show. I had never been to a Cirque De Soleil show before, and it was awesome. It took me a minute to really get into it because at first I was trying to have it fit a plot line – which it doesn’t. It is just a circus – and an amazing one!
The show was really good and then it was time to drive back to Mesquite and get some good sleep before our drive home.
Sunday was sadly the day to go home. We took the morning slow, but soon we had to pack and get on the road. We were lucky with the weather until about Fillmore, where it started to get wet. The roads were busy, but not as bad as we have seen before. We stopped at a little diner in Fillmore and got hamburgers and shakes. It was pretty good. We may have to make a tradition of that. It was rainy and snowy all the way home from that point, but we made it safe! And that ended our Super fun mini-vacation!
2 comments:
I love your pictures! Makes me want to take a mini vacation, RIGHT NOW!
The Valley of Fire looks cool. I will have to add that to my list.
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