Day 11

Brett slept through the night!! Up at 6, which was really 5 because we are now in Pacific Time, he was ready to go! Sophia slept for another hour while Lance moved all of our things out of the shower stall, to use it for the first time. Not an easy endeavor but much better than our option to take showers at the stinky gas station up the street where George and Renee ended up going.

We ate a quick breakfast, got reorganized and headed north towards St. George, Utah to meet up with Becky, Izabella, and Wes. Another beautiful drive up and over the canyons.

We made a few stops, for gas, for lunch, and bathroom breaks. One place we stopped had mounted animal heads all over the place. Sophia was very curious why there were dead animals on the walls. She didn't really like to get close. She only liked the bear carved out of wood. I fell for the rattlesnake eggs in the envelope trick. I knew they weren't real but I went to open the little envelope and there is this little contraption that has a wire, a rubber band and a washer, that when you twist up the washer in the rubber band, and open the envelope, it shakes against the paper and sounds just like a rattle. I must have jumped a mile!

We took the road that travels through Zion National Park. George got both cars through with his badge but we had to pay a fee to go through the tunnel because the trailer was too big. One of the tunnels through the park was built so long ago and was only meant for the cars of the times. I think they said they started construction in the 1920's. It was over a mile long through rock. Very impressive. Only one direction of traffic is allowed through at a time. We finally made it through to the other side of the park where we waited for Becky, Izabella and Wes to arrive.

Sophia was so excited to see Izabella and to give her the Alaska magnet that she picked out from the last gas station we stopped at. We all loaded in the motor home and re-entered the park.

We wanted to go for a little hike so we loaded the kids with sun screen, filled our water bottles and caught the next bus up the hill. I finally found a hat for Brett! He didn't want anything to do with it at first but I think he quickly realized it was keeping the sun out of his face because he left it on for the rest of the afternoon.

We stopped along the trail to cool off by the water. The girls had a blast.

They loved chasing all the lizards on the trail. Renee caught sight of a river otter building a dam so we stopped and watched him for a while.

Our mile and a half hike took us to a museum where we sat in the air conditioning to watch a 20 minute movie about the park. There was a montage of all the animals you can find in the park and Sophia was so excited and made sure everyone on the room knew “they weren't dead ones!” After being scarred from seeing all the dead animals on the wall earlier in the day. It was ten of 7 by the time it was over (back in Mountain time zone) and the kids were starving!

We caught the bus back down to the visitors center and found a nice little restaurant with a salad bar. We headed down the hour drive to St. George, Utah where we found a Super 8 for Becky, Izabella and Wes that let us plug into their laundry room to power the AC in the motor home. I don't think we could have slept out there last night without the AC!