Girl's Weekend Out

Along the way of the Trail of Angels hike.

From the top of the Trail of Angels hike.

Carlos took this picture of us at the bottom of the 'chains in the rocks'.

From the bottom looking up at where we had just been - and I made it up that high???

Brynn went up into the narrows and took this picture.

When Brynn found out that Carson was going to be sent to Texas to help restore power after Hurricane Ike, she decided it was time to take a chick trip. Ken was in Alabama so we started to devise a plan.

We talked about going to San Diego to see Grandma and Grandpa Miller, but that was pretty hard to pull off on such short notice. So, we ended up heading south instead to celebrate my birthday.

We left after she got out of school on Friday afternoon and got to Cedar City about 11:30. Not a lot of rest that night - I swear the guy in the room above us must have weighed a gazillion pounds and I'm not entirely sure he ever went to bed - you could hear every move he made.

The next morning we headed to Zion's National Park. The last time I was there was when I was about 8 years old - that was back in the days when you could drive all the way through the park. I don't remember a lot, but I do remember the tunnel. Now you take a tram through the park - kind of a nice thing so you can look at the sights, not the road.

Brynn's friend Jason had recommended a couple of hikes to go on and naturally Brynn wanted to take one of the toughest ones. I think the one we took first was called Trail of Angels - and by the time she got to the top, she was pretty close to heaven. At least the views were heavenly. I might as well have run the Top of Utah marathon (which was the original plan for the weekend) for as much as a challenge as it was for me. I made it almost all the way to the top - but made the mistake of looking down after the first set of chains. A note about those chains - I understood Brynn to say that the chains would be on the outside of the trail and the rocks on the inside - but, oh no..... the chains were hooked to the rocks and nothing else between you and the edge of the rocks. With about 1/4 mile to go, I decided I had gone as far as I could and found a nice rock to plant myself on while Brynn went on. (I promptly spent the next hour watching people get to the top of the first set of chains, look at what was ahead, and turn around and head back down.) One guy went flying up the mountain as sure footed as could be, but he scared me to death. Imagine my surprise when he came back down the mountain with Brynn. What a great guy! Carlos was the epitime of kindness to everyone he came across. He hiked down the mountain with us, telling us about his family who was still in San Diego, his new job, his hiking adventure and he told us that he was attending his first Sacrament Meeting the next day. (I was kind of relieved that it wasn't Fast Sunday!)

After a bit more hiking we decided it was ice cream time and found a spot on the huge lawn area by the lodge and gobbled down smoothies. We decided it would be a fun family trip to bring everyone down for a couple of days - there is something that everyone could do.

Our last adventure was for Brynn to hike up the narrows for a bit. I had gone about as far as my right foot was going to let me (thank goodness for the shot in the my foot or I might have had to bag hiking all together) so she took off by herself again. (Sorry sis, I did the best I could and I know its a bummer to hike by yourself.)

That evening we headed to St. George to see Les Miserables at Tuachan amphitheatre. If you have never been there - it's a fabulous facility and they did a great job with the play. Our personal favorite moment of the play was during a town scene where the duck wouldn't cooperate and had to be taken off the stage, the pig dragged it's owner off stage when the war began, the goat didn't necesarily want to be there but at least the draft horse cooperated.

What a fun weekend and one we will remember for a long time.