St. George, how I miss thee

Okay, finally! I can blog about or trip to St. George.  You all know how this works. I'll take it a day at a time. 

Chase helped me pack all the bike stuff.

He is pretty organized huh?

finally on our way, after much car preparation.

It was super windy and cold when we left SLC.

THE NEXT WEEK IN ST. GEORGE....

Saturday we got up (don't worry, it wasn't too early) and got ready then went to breakfast with  our good buddy, Dan. (sidenote: stupid Budget Inn mislead me into believing they had free continental breakfast, which to them apparently means a 1 day coupon for $1 off any Denny's menu item.) After breakfast Dan showed us around town.  We stopped at a bike shop and we did some shopping at the outlet stores, yes we found some pretty good deals. 

When Dan had to go to work we took a nap :D and then we went to the St. George Arts Festival!  It was really cool! The weather wasn't sunny but it was still probably in the high 60's and I proudly wore a skirt and flip-flops!

There was an abundance of art!  Everything had an artistic touch to it. Even that statue there has a ANTM kind of look (google it.) We didn't buy anything, even though we saw a lot that we liked, because it was all pretty expensive, as they tend to be at these things. They also had numerous different food stands and stages with different performing artists. I almost didn't take any pictures but Chase convinced me to go back and get the camera and, of course, I'm glad I did!  He knows me so well!

Do you SEE this guys hair??? loooooOoooong!

Sunday was Easter Sunday (don't ask why we planned a vacation over Easter...it wasn't really on purpose...) so we found a nice little church to attend and everyone there was very sweet! After that we went mountain biking...MY FIRST MOUNTAIN BIKING TRIP!!  It was scary but I actually enjoyed it a lot! Once I got past being terrified of getting hurt it was pretty fun to go up hills and back down them and over rocks and I expected to fall -I mean CRASH (chase told me to call them crashes because it sounds cooler) because Chase kept warning me that I probably would so it wasn't a big deal.  And people kept telling me not to hesitate and just be confident and go for it and what do ya know? they were right!! yahoo! 

Later that night our good buddy Dan cooked us a delicious steak dinner! With Cheese jambalia and veggies!!  It was the best thing we ate all week! And after dinner we shopped for dessert and a movie then we ate the dessert and watched the movie...well, I slept.  It was a really fun day!

For the first time we went on the Bloomington Microloop (also heard it referred to as bearclaw poppy...?)

This is dessert! Spankings: microwave cookie dough for 45 seconds then add ice cream and whatever else. We opted for magic shell. SO good!

On Monday we took the car into the mechanic because it was acting funny. It had been acting funny for awhile and, of course, we MEANT to take it in before we left but never got around to it.  It was just acting curiouser and curiouser!  So we took our bikes on the back of the car to the mechanic then rode around town and back to the hotel and then we did some hot tubbing and some napping until they called us to get the car.  After we rode back to get the car we went to watch Alice in Wonderland, enjoyed it then spent the rest of the night relaxing and watching America's Funniest Home Videos (greatest show ever made.) This was the rainy day so we didn't go out and do any mountain biking. I'm not complaining! I heard it snowed in SLC...  :S

Tuesday we checked out of our hotel in St. George and packed up to drive to Arizona but did some Mountain biking first, naturally. This time we went to Barrel Roll and a kind of steepish, up hillish, side winder kind of trail.  This trail was a lot more intimidating than the last because it was narrower and was really rocky and there were all these frightening thorny plants that lined the whole trail!! When we started out I couldn't help but think to myself "crashing might be a little more painful on this guy..." AND IT WAS!  I had to warm up to that confident, brave, couragous, power-over-it-all stage.  That's what Chase kept telling me on the super rocky parts "you gotta stand up, lean forward and power over it!"  And I did.  And I got better at it I think as the trail went on.  I never quite got the hang of going up hill around a sharp turn, whew! but I certainly wasn't ashamed to walk my bike a little and Chase was very patient with me. :)

Once we made it to the end of the trail, which was on top of a big hill (some might call it a mountain) we had a wonderful picnic and looked at the view! (Side note: lunchables are so good.) then we started back and that was when I big crashed. In my defense, I WAS going downhill, over rocks around a sharp turn. Normally I would have walked my bike down that kind of obstacle but I was feeling invincible! ...I am not invincible.  After that I took it a little easier.  I still had a good time :) Once we got checked in at our hotel in Page, AZ we showered and ordered in some food and watched more, you guessed it, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS! It was ANOTHER good day! :D

 

yes, this is my big crash proof.  I don't do a whole lot that allows me to be hurt so this is pretty freaking hurt for me. :) 

photo shoot at the hotel!

These are the pictures from Wednesday.  Our Grand Canyon day.  Okay, please keep in mind that this is our first vacation besides our honeymoon that was completely planned for us and all inclusive.  We made some silly mistakes and maybe weren't as prepared as we could have been.  For instance, the Grand Canyon is a HUGE national park...and I only planned 1 day for it...silly mistake #1.  Silly mistake #2: I didn't really make any plans for that day.  We focused more on what we would do and where we would go in St. George. The Grand Canyon day we just figured would work itself out apparently.  Silly mistake #3: we didn't get directions to the GC.  I printed out mapquest directions from SLC to SG(which is pretty unnecessary...it should just say I-15S) then from SG to AZ then back from AZ to SG then back from SG to SLC. 

...This story could be very long. Instead, I'll just say that we drove for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time the wrong way then we drove back for a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long time the other wrong way. (dear Arizona, your signage sucks.  But kudos on your ability to hide the Grand Canyon. I am impressed.) Anyway, we finally got there about 45 minutes before the sun went down.  The silver lining is that we got to see the sunset ,which was kinda pretty. 

Is the Grand Canyon marvelous? yes. 

Is it worth an all day drive?  not really. 

It's a canyon, but bigger.

Driving...

....driving...

...driving...

we did take a stop to do a little shopping.  I got this awesome ring from a nice Navajo woman. Real silver!

then we kept driving...

these are from the drive home.  I appreciated their artisticly abstractness. :)

The next day we drove back to SG. (yes Chase has done all the driving thus far and yes he was getting pretty tired of it.) Once we checked into our second hotel in SG we got our bikes and did some more mountain biking!!! (I guess I didn't get any pictures of this day...or the next...)  We went back and did a second trail off the Barrell Roll and then did the micro loop again too. It was a lot of fun, again. After that we did some shopping for a special sister-in-laws birthday with Dan and then watched some home zombie movies and then we slept. 

Friday, our last day in SG, sucked.  We were supposed to hike Angel's Landing in Zions but I woke up that morning and just didn't feel like it. Although I just wish we had done it 1) to prove that I could, some people seem to think I couldn't, and 2) we were just cranky at each other all day and the endorphines would have been good for us.  I think Chase and I really aren't good at vacationing for more than 3 or 4 days.  After that we just are ready to be home and back to our routine I think.  So Friday wasn't great.  We woke up feeling happy and bright though, ready to go home for sure!  :D

What I learned on this vacation:
1) Don't expect Arizona to help you get anywhere
2) Don't plan a vacation for more than 5 days
3) "Economy" means small
4) the budget inn lies and won't save you money on free breakfast
5) I love love love St. George (and, yes, I get that it's hot in the summer)
6) Mountaint biking is fun