The Anniversary Festivities

Our anniversary isn't until tomorrow, but we decided to take advantage of free babysitters when we could and celebrated last weekend. It's the big number 5 (5 years? How on earth did that happen?) so we decided to do a bit more than we have in the past, and we left Julia behind. My sister and her husband came down to watch the little tyke over night and we high tailed it to Zion.

We stayed Friday night at the Desert Thistle, this cute bed and breakfast in Rockville. I'd never done a B&B before, and I actually found the experience to be very enjoyable. It felt a lot like staying with family, they were so friendly and accommodating. The hostess kept apologizing that they couldn't upgrade us to the anniversary suite because someone had already booked it, and Clark and I had to keep telling her that we really didn't mind getting what we paid for and nothing more. And our room was quite nice. And breakfast in the morning was delicious - it kept us full for the whole day of hiking. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to stay close to Zion. It wasn't terribly expensive either, you see a huge drop in price when you look at Rockville as opposed to Springdale. Totally worth it.

Friday night we went to Oscar's for dinner and had their garlic burgers. Clark got the Murder Burger, and I got the regular Garlic Burger. Instead of regular fries they serve sweet potato fries - yum! Good eats, right there.

Saturday morning we headed up the canyon and decided to hike to Observation Point. You take the trail towards Weeping Rock, but instead of going to Weeping Rock you go to the right. And then at the next fork in the trail, you turn left (going right takes you to Hidden Canyon, which we've also done and enjoyed). And then you go up and up and up! You go through a slot canyon, and up a cliff, and then you go along the cliff for a while until you hit this amazing view of the canyon. It was seriously breathtaking. I'm really glad we didn't take Julia with us because a) it was long, and b) it was windy. Oh, and then on the way back down, the clouds rolled in and we got snowed on. Yeah, snow. SNOW. In Zion in April! But you know, it was actually really fun. Don't worry, this is Utah, it was sunny skies again by the time we got to the bottom.

And by the way, I'm thinking the gym is really paying off. We got to the top of the mountain, and I felt fine. I certainly didn't feel like I had just climbed a mountain. Of course, my legs were jello by the time we got to the bottom, but my lungs did just fine. Oh, and let me just say THANK YOU to Kim and Patrick for watching Julia. We had a nice night away, and I'm sure you had fun playing with your darling niece. Here are some pictures.