Burger and Fries

I guess this franchise is all over the states, but does your Five Guys have fry sauce? Ours does.

Celebrating 60 Years

Washington County Fair, $3 parking + $5 if your child begs you to allow him to walk on water + $2 each to enter the animal education area (which includes petting zoo, and a pony ride, and a glimpse of the largest pig you ever saw). Other opportunities to spend money: camel ride, bumper boats, and of course, fair fare.

Highlights: sampling the salsa and cookie contest entries, viewing work of local artists, locally grown produce, and the animals

Parts

Haven

 

This is pleasure. This is adventure. Red cliffs tower above you. The Virgin River runs near your camp. The last thing you see after brushing your teeth and walking in the starry night back to your site are bats, "butterflies," your two-year old daughter insists. You go to sleep in the evening and it's warm. At some point in the night or early early morning the wind picks up and you waken long enough to pull up a cover. When sleep fades, you wear a jacket while you cook breakfast until the moment the sun comes up over the cliff, bright and already hot. 

A good morning trail in Zion is Riverside Walk. One mile on a stroller friendly path takes you to the mouth of the Narrows. My husband and I continued up through the river nine years ago and saw the narrows, a kind of quiet you never forget; you wade in the river, in the shadow of rock walls that scrape the sky. This trip we are a family, three little ones. We stop at the end of the trail, let the children splash in the river with their daddy, and defend our lunch from squirrels. The mile back is difficult for our five-year old, typically resilient. I think it is the heat. We drink water all day. They play in the river by our camp site after dinner.    

For easy to strenuous hikes, restful camping, beautiful nature, great photo opportunities, have I mentioned this is one of my favorite places in the world?...

Zion National Park, Springdale, UT (a 50 minute drive from our apartment in St. George)

$25 for a 7 day pass, $50 for a year pass, $80 for an inter-agency year pass

The Circle Game

St. George Carousel at Town Square, approx. 100 West 100 South

Not so much into spinning around and around myself, but my children loved it. Their dad got on with them.

$1 Adult, $0.50 Child

Library Card

St. George Branch. 88 w. 100 S.

Our five-year old was excited to get his very first library card. Story Time was good and appeared to have the same CD of children's songs our library in Tucson had and the same pattern for story time: a story, a song or two, another story, repeat.

For myself, a $1 barely used hardcover copy of Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking (an odd read at this time of transition in our life, but a great find).

P.S. Remember to bring swimsuits for the little ones on hot summer days...the splash pad is right behind the library.

New in Town

Our family has moved from Southern Arizona to Southern Utah. Now we begin to explore our new home, the city of St. George and the surrounding area. A woman we met outside the school district office said, "There's nothing not to like about St. George." Well, aside from some dead and dying cockroaches in our new apartment, so far so good.