Snow Canyon State Park

We packed a lot of fun into the last day of our trip, and only some of it is pictured here.

We slept in a bit and said goodbye to our tiny house, stopped for some coffee and breakfast treats at this little shed in the parking lot of the local gas station, and then made our way to St. George, UT. We had some crazy fusion tacos for lunch, then spent some time trekking around Snow Canyon State Park. Depsite its name, this was probably one of the least snowy places we visited all week! Some cool highlights included a lot of pertrified sand, some old lava tubes, and just a great amount of varation in scenery over a 4 or so mile circuit hike. We finished up mid-afternoon and began our time zone jumping back towards Vegas, where we'd be flying out on the red eye. AJ fell asleep in the car, and so in a nod to the olden days when we'd spend considerable amount of time sitting in a car with a sleeping child, we drove through a Starbucks and found a shady spot to park in. As dinner time was approaching, we made our way to the Vegas arts district (we saw the strip from a distance but were avoiding it like the plague). AJ woke up just as we were parking, STARVING, so we popped into the first decent looking restraunt nearby which had a ridiculously long wait considering it looked half full? Reservations, I guess?

So with good will fading fast and crankiness amping up, we walked into a decent looking brew pub on the next block. Seemed like a reasonable menu, everyone found something they liked, but when we went to go find a table, they seemed largely reserved... for some sort of Purdue alumni gathering? Turns out we had acidentally "crashed" the Purdue v Michigan playoff game... whoops! Also hilarious since we couldn't care less about basketball, but we do have a fondness for the Maize and Blue... who were totally kicking Purdue's butt. So that was fun to slyly cheer for as we ate our burgers and GIANT soft pretzels. Found decent ice cream near by, walked around a bit then dropped the rental car back at the airport, made our way through security - AJ has TSA precheck from travelling with my parents last year, so they very bravely cleared security on their own while Wes and I went the "normal" route.

We arrived at the gate in plenty of time to sit around for a while and gather some last minute snacks. I think this is the flight we ended up in the exit row, swapping with some non-exit row able passenegers. We also took advantage of free gate checking since the flight was once again full, so less stuff to schlep around the airport with us. Flight back was a bit longer because we had to fly around some weather, also bumpier due to said weather, but everyone was a champ and survived. Landed at Dulles, retrieved Ivy, charged her up and got some coffee and breakfast snacks and made our way back to C'ville. Wes was so tired from not really sleeping on the flight that I actually drove the 2nd half of the trip home, so you know it was bad ;) Arrived back to a very happy Zelda and everyone took naps. WOOT!