I was relieved because we were finally finished packing and emptying our townhouse. I was excited for our road trip and the adventures ahead of us.
Those feelings of anticipation were mixed up with the sudden pushing through of the feelings of sadness, loss, and uncertainty that came with leaving our new home in Utah that I was finally beginning to feel settled in. I had struggled to plant roots in this new place and it seemed that just as they were beginning to take hold, I found myself pulling them up without a clear vision of where I would soon be attempting to plant them once again.
It's a strange mix of thoughts and feelings, but the anticipation and excitement for the road trip quickly took over as we bid farewell to our beautiful, big, snowy mountains and then excitedly took in the warmer scenes of brown and then red rock as we drove further south.
Hours later, we arrived in St. George Utah. We checked into the MyPlace Hotel and took in our hotel room with its in-room kitchen and the view outside our window of the white St. George temple up against the contrasting red rock behind it. We had heard about St. George Utah and I loved the idea of being able to drive from snow, for 4 or 5 hours, and arrive at warm temperatures and palm trees!
Our first stop in St. George was to WalMart but it did not disappoint, with palm trees and pink blossoming trees in the parking lot. The girls built a tower of stones and decorated it with blossoms to leave their mark before we moved on with our adventure.
The first thing on our St. George bucket list was to visit some red rock. We didn't have a ton of time in St. George, and couldn't fit Zion National Park into our itinerary so we hit the local Pioneer Park to get a taste of the beautiful scenery there and to do a bit of hiking. I'm not sure these photos do the red rock justice. Here they look more sandy than red, but in person they were definitely red. Someday I'd love to return and visit Zion or Bryce Canyon or Arches.
Our next stop was the temple. It was stunningly white and I loved the palm trees around it! Then we met an old roommate of mine from my days at BYUI in Rexburg, Idaho. My dear friend Jen who now lives in St. George. It was so good to catch up with her and to meet her daughter.
We spent two nights in St. George and tried to get our most important bucket list items into that time before moving on with our journey. Our next stop would be Las Vegas which we had visited once when Talia was a toddler but she has no memories of that trip. We once had a layover at the Vegas airport and spent some time walking around the airport until we could see some of the Las Vegas strip from a window so we could show the girls. This time we wanted to take the opportunity to visit some of the impressive hotels and tourist attractions there and let them see some of it up close, in person.
Wow! Pioneer Park looks breathtaking! We've never been to Utah, but that is some gorgeous red rock. Hopefully it wasn't too blistering hot in March? I just watched the vlogs from Johnny and Iz Harris about their visit to Zion and how they hiked through "Subway" there. Incredible.
ReplyDeleteNo, it was lovely weather in March- we loved it! I bet it's crazy hot now though. I'd love to get to Zion someday!
DeleteWow! That red rock is stunning.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it cool? I love getting to see different areas & their unique landscape features!
DeleteWhat is it about HOTEL POOLS that kids love just so much?! We have to leave an entire day to the pool when we stay in hotels. Our last Seattle trip we even asked for a late check-out (noon) so she could get in another few hours of swimming.
ReplyDeletehahaha SO TRUE! I was the same way as a kid- we LOVED it when our hotel had a pool. It was so exciting!! :)
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