St. George Trip Day 3

This weekend I went on a spur of the moment trip to St. George with Rochelle, Blake and Becca. We decided that because the trip was so jam packed with stuff that we should each take a day and blog about that one specific day. I, luckily, get Monday.

Monday morning I woke up, showered, and got ready. It was about 9:30, and I knew Blake would already be awake. Becca and Rochelle were knocked out on the living room floor and I texted Blake to let him know that I was going to eat breakfast, in case he was hungry. He promptly entered the living room. We ate cereal and danishes and just as Blake was hopping in the shower Becca woke up and joined me. When we heard Blake turn the water off I crouched next to Rochelle and sang her wake up song: Maroon 5's "Wake Up Call." She loves it. That was a joke. While Rochelle got ready we packed up our gear and cleaned up to avoid any unnecessary Sherri drama.

Our first stop was Dixie Rock. Yes, we had been there the previous night, but we were eager to spend more time exploring and climbing. Blake planked his little heart out, Becca took some wannabe senior pictures, I got stuck on my way off a rock and had to be helped down, and Rochelle sung her way around. The views of St. George were beautiful, as were the red color gradients of the rocks. The rocks were easy enough to climb and no heavy breathing or sweating was had. After spending two hours exploring we decided to go for some lunch, and not just McDonald's, we wanted a little piece of St. George. Enter Tina.

We found ourselves at the Wagon Wheel Diner, which was covered in pictures of John Wayne in varying degrees of manliness. Becca was in Heaven. We were seated and soon greeted by our little, round, Asian waitress Tina. She explained that the special was a cheeseburger and two sides for $5.99. We saw another table had cheeseburgers delivered to them that looked rather small and disappointing. So we asked Tina how big the burgers were (1/3 pound according to the menu) and she raised her chubby little Asian hands to show us how big they were (she exclaimed that they were REALLY big): the size of a large cracker. Blake, dismayed, ordered the club sandwich. The rest of us got burgers. Rochelle wanted sweet potato fries, which were a dollar extra. As were the onion rings. I'm not quite sure what two sides were included in the special to keep it at $5.99. Tina left us and Blake made art by tying together pieces of our torn straw wrappers. Rochelle, Becca and I entertained ourselves with the WEIRD books the diner supplied at each table: "How to be Humble" and "Geezerhood" to name a few. I think this place thought they were clever. They weren't. Our burgers were delivered and they were definitely bigger than the cracker size Tina had displayed with her doll hands. Blake was disappointed by his crusty club sandwich as he watched us eat our meat. We ate as the deer heads stared down at us from the walls. This was something else. As we left we spotted a basket full of Andes mints on the counter. I wanted one, but I saw a sign that explained they were ten cents each. Ten cents for a mint? For the tip I paid I should get a free mint. On our way out a member of our party exclaimed that they had grabbed three mints and asked if we had wanted one. I asked if they had paid for them, and the expression on their face let me know that they had no idea that they weren't free. They felt so guilty that later that night I asked my mom to take thirty cents back to this place. I ate one without shame.

Dessert was next on our destination list and we found ourselves at Twenty Five Main. All they had were cupcakes and they were not of the Sweet Tooth Fairy quality. So we left, and thanks to Blake's iPhone we found ourselves at The Sugar Cookie. Now, I don't go crazy over sugar cookies ever. But these cookies were light and fluffy and the frosting was so good! We ate our way to a sugar coma as the overly manly employee listened to me moan in delight. This is a must on a trip to St. George.

Next we headed for Snow Canyon State Park. This place was beautiful. And majestic. There were black lava rocks scattered amongst the huge, bright red, dung heaped looking red rocks. There were silver green bushes looming out like the sea covering the ground. The colors were mesmerizing. As we traipsed through the park we noticed more: the lime green algae on the black lava rocks, the lizards, the cacti. The rock mountains were so strange! They looked steep but they were formed like steps, and we walked straight up them. I convinced our party to walk over and up a nearby formation. Becca and I were in front, when she looked down the side of the rock and saw some nearby cacti. Her eyes got big, her white blonde hair shimmered in the sun and she exclaimed, "I want that cactus." Next thing I knew she was headed back down the rock and examining a cactus. As I hung out with Rochelle and Blake we watched Becca find a stick and literally dig a cactus out of the ground. We mentioned that we were pretty sure it was illegal and she simply stated that she knew, but she wanted the cactus. We ran back to the car, Becca holding the cactus by its roots and trying to shield it from other park visitors, and slipped it into the trunk.

We drove through the park until we came to a parking area designated for the sand dunes. This is what I had been waiting for. We took a short walk down a trail and found ourselves walking in pretty deep and loose red sand. We took our shoes off and came over a sand dune to see people scattered about as if it were a beach. They were in shorts, shoeless, and tossing Frisbees. Little kids were using sleds to slide down the sand hills. The next hour or two we played in the sand. We rolled down hills, we made tunnels, I got buried and made a sand angel. We laid in the sand, running our fingers through it and squishing our toes in it. It was the perfect afternoon with the perfect weather with the perfect company. I did not want to leave. But it was almost 5pm and my mom was getting off of work. So we reluctantly headed back to the car, sand in every one of our orifices. That was a joke. But no, really. Every orifice. Sand covered our faces and littered our hair. We took the scenic route out of the park and headed back to my mom's.

We all loaded into her car and drove to Don Pedro's. They set up two tables for the five of us. Four of us were in the booth and they tacked on an additional full size table with one chair for Becca. It was awkward and terrific. Eventually we pushed the table out of the way and squished around the bench. We sampled each others' food (a Blake tradition) and had a thoroughly good time. We got back to my mom's and took turns using the bathroom. We got beef stew and chocolate cake leftovers and piled back into the car.

Monday was Stewart free (thank Heavens) and full of food and nature. It was laid back and touristy and perfect. Our dreams were not haunted by visions of creepy dolls or explanations of why jokes were funny. We didn't watch any stupid movies or play any rounds of games that are almost impossible to win. It was the perfect day.

And so ends our journey, once again in Provo. Last night we got back together to upload our favorite trip pictures to Facebook. It's sad to be back. I keep hoping that I'll close my eyes and when I open them again I'll find myself barefoot in the sand dunes.

Blake's Day 1 Report