Showing posts with label road trips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label road trips. Show all posts

Monday, March 20, 2017

Weekend in Fillmore

For the past several years Marilyn and I have spent opening weekend at the KOA in Fillmore.  Opening weekend was actually last week but Marilyn was busy and I, as you know, had lots of Spirit Week nonsense going on so we postponed our trip one week.  We have both been anticipating it for so long.  It was incredibly relaxing and, boy, was it needed.  We both drove down on Friday afternoon (Fillmore is about 150 miles south of Salt Lake) and settled in to our cabin.  We spent every day sitting on the porch reading, which I absolutely loved because I haven't had much time for reading lately.  We spent every evening sitting by the fire, which is my very favorite part of camping.  We stayed up late every night talking until the wee hours and Marilyn may or may not have thought there was a wild animal lurking underneath our cabin ready to attack us as we slept (we found out later that it was a tiny jackrabbit)!  One night we drove into Fillmore to have dinner at our favorite hole in the wall cafe called the Garden of Eat'n.  For some reason we both think that name is hilarious and we always eat there.  The waitress recognized us from last year and told us how cool it was that we could have a girls weekend every year.  I loved every minute of this trip and I'm so glad that Marilyn and I are able to do this every year.  I hope that this is the first of many camping trips this year.

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Shakespeare Festival 2016

I had only been home from my road trip with Sean less than 24 hours when I was back on the road to spend a couple of days at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.  I was really looking forward to seeing the new Engelstad Theatre and it is quite impressive.  The stage itself is very reminiscent of the Adams Theatre but the facility is state-of-the-art with restrooms, concessions, and a covered foyer.  I think it is amazing.  My very first play in the new theatre was Tuesday night and I couldn't have picked a better one!  I have been waiting for three years to see Henry V having seen Henry IV Part One in 2014 and Henry IV Part Two in 2015 all with the same actor, Sam Ashdown, in the lead role.  I was so excited to see the play where Henry earns his crown and it was amazing! After succeeding to the throne of England, Henry (Ashdown) learns that, under Salic law, he is the rightful heir to the throne of France and, knowing that a foreign conquest will solidify his popularity with the people, he begins war with France.  Weakened by sickness and outnumbered five to one, Henry rallies his troops for battle with the famous St. Crispin's Day speech (which gave me goosebumps) and, despite overwhelming odds, achieves a decisive victory.  He wins the throne of France and the hand of Katherine and thus begins the reign of one of England's greatest kings.  There were moments in this play that took my breath away, particularly the aforementioned St. Crispin's Day speech and when Henry hangs one of his friends from his wild days, and the performances were incredible, especially Ashdown (who has done an amazing job with the role of Prince Hal and King Henry) and Eddie Lopez as the Dauphin of France (so cocky).  I loved the giant wax seal with Henry's monogram in the middle of the stage as a representation of Henry's reign and I loved the large banners representing the English and French flags.  So dramatic!  The battle of Agincourt was staged very well and I especially loved the archers in the balcony.  This production was excellent and I highly recommend it!  Wednesday afternoon I saw Mary Poppins and it was a lot of fun!  It tells the well-known story of how a practically perfect nanny saves the Banks family.  The two leads, Elizabeth Broadhurst as Mary Poppins and Eddie Lopez as Bert, were outstanding.  The big productions numbers, "Jolly Holiday," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "Let's Go Fly a Kite," and "Step in Time," had very innovative choreography and colorful costumes and I especially liked the kites flying through the audience.  There were lots of children in the audience who were mesmerized by Mary Poppins flying through the audience (although the little girl next to me said that she was glad that it was over at intermission) so it is definitely one I would recommend for kids.  My last play on Wednesday evening was The Three Musketeers and I loved it!  D'Artagnan (Luigi Sottile) wishes to become one of King Louis' famous musketeers and joins Athos (J. Todd Adams), Porthos (Todd Denning) and Aramis (Tasso Feldman) on an adventure to save the Queen's honor from the unscrupulous Cardinal Richelieu (Peter Lohnes).  All for one and one for all!  This show was a lot of fun because of all of the sword fighting (even in the aisles) and I loved Ben Livingston's performance as the silly King Louis XIII.  This is another show that kids will enjoy.  Even though I was only at the festival for two days, I certainly enjoyed myself (and had my fair share of tarts).  Go here for more information.

Thursday, July 7, 2016

Zion National Park

Since we drove to St. George after visiting the Grand Canyon, we decided to drive through Zion National Park on the way home.  It is one of my very favorite places on earth and Sean had never been there.
Even though it was the Fourth of July, it was not as crowded as I feared (after our fun in the Grand Canyon).  We went pretty early and found lots of parking.  Sean really liked the tunnel (we always honk the horn when we go through a tunnel) and he loved climbing the rock formations.
I have so many memories of taking road trips when I was Sean's age, especially to Zion, and I hope that he has fond memories of this road trip with his crazy aunts!

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Grand Canyon National Park

On Sunday we drove from Farmington, New Mexico (where we spent the night) to see the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.  It was about a five hour drive to the South Rim.  We had originally wanted to walk along the Skywalk but we learned that it is a five hour drive from the park entrance and that it cost $80.00 each!  We decided to stay at the South Rim instead.  It was unbelievably crowded (I may or may not have had a small meltdown trying to find a parking spot) but we were able to have lunch and see a viewpoint near the Grand Canyon Village.
It is very impressive (almost worth all of the trouble we had getting a parking spot).  We ended up going on the Desert View Drive on our way out of the park and we were able to stop at every viewpoint.  We should have done this to start with!
It was a little bit stressful at first to visit the Grand Canyon but it ended up being a good day.  Go here for more information.

Note: While we were driving through Arizona I noticed a sign for the city of Winslow.  Marilyn and I got really excited and asked Sean to pose on a corner.
He thought we were crazy until we played him "Take It Easy" by the Eagles.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Four Corners Monument

A couple of weeks ago Sean mentioned, completely out of the blue, that he wanted to visit the Four Corners Monument where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado meet.  He had learned about it this year while studying U.S. geography and knew all kinds of interesting facts.  He mentioned it several times and, being someone who is always up for an adventure, I said that we should go there on a weekend road trip and Marilyn agreed.  I'm not entirely sure that I meant it when I said it but Sean definitely thought I meant it and told his parents that Marilyn and I were taking him on a road trip!  How could we disappoint him?  Marilyn and I decided that if we were going to go down south we might as well hit up a few other noteworthy attractions and go over the Fourth of July weekend (when Marilyn had some time off).  We left early Saturday morning (because Sean thinks it is more fun to start on a road trip in the dark) and made it to the monument in about six hours.  It is in the middle of nowhere.  In fact, we made several wrong turns!  It costs $5.00 per person (when we read up on the monument we learned that they only take cash so we were prepared).  You are allowed to take pictures but you have to wait in a line.  We got there at just the right time because after we had taken our pictures, the line stretched out to the parking lot!  Sean wanted a picture of him touching all four states so he did a push-up (his leg is barely in New Mexico).  There are all kinds of stands around the monument selling Native American crafts and they only take cash!  Sean was a little bit disappointed that they had sold out of these beautiful bows and arrows (he's really into archery right now) but he did find a key chain.  There is really not a lot to do here except take your pictures and browse the stalls (we were there less than an hour) but Sean was fascinated.  This was his very favorite part of the trip.  Go here for more information.

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Memorial Day Weekend 2016

Memorial Day is the official start of summer so Marilyn and I decided to spend the weekend at Bear Lake.  We had so much fun!
We stayed at the KOA in Garden City and this was our cabin for the weekend.  Both Marilyn and I spent some quality time sitting on the front porch reading.  It was so relaxing!  On Saturday my Mom and Dad drove up and we rented a pontoon boat for the afternoon.  It was so much fun!  My Mom does not like boats and, initially, she didn't want to go with us but she let herself be coaxed on board.  Marilyn is terrified of water and doesn't know how to swim but she eventually drove the boat.  I'm telling you, it was so much fun being out on the water and the weather was absolutely perfect!
On Sunday Marilyn and I spent the day at the beach.  We drove to Bear Lake State Park in Idaho because it was a little bit out of the way so it wasn't very crowded.  We ended up at North Beach and we basically sat on the beach and read.  It was fabulous!
This was such a wonderful start to the summer!  
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