Fall Colors, Rugby, and the Opera

This last weekend my parents and I took a trip over to St. George. The journey over was one of the longer drives I have ever been on. We decided to take the "scenic route" and so it took us twice as long to get there. We left Blanding and went up through Hanksville, then to Capitol Reef, then we made our way over Boulder Mountain. I was starting to get burned out with this long drive, but that is when we hit some great fall colors. The higher we climbed on Boulder Mountain, the brighter and more vibrant the colors became. We stopped at a rest stop near the top and took a few pictures of the scenery. After coming down off the mountain we wound up at Cannonville and went to see Janice. We had never been to her new house, so we stopped in to see her. It was nice to talk to her for a bit. I was really suprised at how big her house was though, that thing was huge. After visiting with Jan for almost an hour we hit the road again. A little farther down the road we made it to Panguitch. This was a particularly exciting for my dad, because it is where he grew up. We drove around town for a few minutes while my dad checked out a few familiar spots. When we got going again we made it to Parowan, which was our stopping place for the night. We met up with Farley and Tina in Parowan and spent the evening together. We went to dinner then went and played pool in the lobby of our hotel. After that Farley, Tina, and I went swimming. It was supposed to be a heated pool, but the water was pretty chilly. It was a lot harded getting in that water than it was hopping in the pool in Mesquite two weeks ago.

The next morning we got up and finished our journey to St. George. We spent most of the day just hanging out and taking it easy. We did a little shopping, and got to see a movie. We went and saw Forever Strong. It is a movie about the Highland Rugby team. I didn't think I was going to like it, but it was a really good movie. After the movie we went and ate at Texas Roadhouse. We had a great meal, and I had one of the most tender steaks I have ever eaten. It was amazing! After dinner we went to the hotel and relaxed for about an hour before heading to Les Miserable at the Tuacahn Theatre. It was really neat seeing it out in the open with the canyons as a backdrop. It was a little different than the last time I saw it, but it was still well done. We got back to the hotel around midnight, then Farley and I headed for Mesquite to try our luck on the slots. It was a lot of fun to just hang out with Farley, plus I won $3o! By the time we got home it was like 3:00, so we were both really tired. The next day we had breakfast together and then headed for home. It was another long drive, but it was worth it. Well, here are a few pictures to enjoy.