St. George Day 1: Aspiration Trail and More

We left home Thursday evening after Ben was finished with work for the day, and arrived in St. George at about 11pm with Cat driving the entire way - on the Interstate - without stopping even once.  (Which, admittedly, was as much a triumph of the 6 bladders in the car as it was Cat's fortitude and determination to drive the whole way.)

Our first adventure on Friday morning was to do a short hike on Aspiration Trail near the airport.  I'd heard about this trail only recently and I was excited to check it out with the family.  It's unique because the trail is lined with painted rocks which run the gamut from inspirational to funny, from artsy to silly.  There were puns and pop culture references, song lyrics and famous quotes, and we loved looking at all the rocks as we walked.  We added a few rocks of our own, which we'd painted earlier in the week.

{and then the AP Environmental Science
student proceeds to tell me all about lichen)

Eliza's Rock

 

After lunch we went back to the hotel so the kids could swim in the heated (supposedly) pool.  Well, it might have been heated a bit, but it was still quite chilly.  The kids spent a lot more time in the hot tub than they did in the pool, but they had a blast and loved playing with the other kids.  (Ben, Cat and I enjoyed relaxing in the sun, staying dry.)

Early in the evening we drove to the Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm, a museum which "preserves thousands of dinosaur footprints right at the original site of discovery."  There, you can also see claw and tail marks where dinosaurs scraped the mud at the bottom of prehistoric Lake Dixie.  It was a really cool place and we loved seeing the dinosaur tracks and trying to wrap our heads around the massive amounts of information scientists are able to extrapolate from them - also the insane amount of work that goes into identifying and preserving these things.  It was really cool.

Our next stop was to visit Grammy's grave.  We had some quiet time together, and left a few painted rocks for her.  We miss her so much.

That evening we wanted to have a sit-down dinner to celebrate
Cat's soccer season but the restaurant had a long wait,
so we killed time by letting the kids play at a playground.