Day 1 – Zion National Park, UT
After leaving Los Angeles early in the morning and making the mandatory stop at the Mad Greek in Baker, we arrived at Zion in the late afternoon. We wasted no time checking into our hotel and taking the park shuttle to Zion. While there, we hiked to the Lower Emerald Pool. Cam wasn’t exactly in the hiking mood, so he rode piggy back a lot even though the path was mostly paved. After we left the park, we had dinner at Zion Pizza & Pasta Co. in Springdale, UT.
Day 2 – Zion National Park, UT
After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we once again took the shuttle to Zion. We traveled all the way to the deepest part of the park and hiked along the Riverside Walk. This time Cameron had much more energy (maybe too much) and had no problem keeping up.
Later that day, we did another short hike to Weeping Rock before stopping off at the Zion Lodge. We then headed out to begin our drive up to Salt Lake City.
Day 3 – Salt Lake City, UT
This was a very busy day. In the morning we stopped by our old appartment at 4117 S. Highland Drive in Holladay. We also stopped by the old Audition Systems (Aurant) showroom where Chris used to work.
After our trip down memory lane, we visited with Britt’s Grandma Faye (mom’s side) and took her to breakfast at IHOP. Grandma Faye’s dogs loved Cameron and made sure they licked his face off every chance they got.
We then took a short detour to the museum at Hill Air Force Base. We thought it would be nice for Cameron to stretch his legs and get his wiggles out. If you ever get a chance, the museum is one of the nicest I’ve seen and free!
After the museum it was off to Tooele, UT to visit Britt’s Grandma Walker-Brown (Dad’s Side) and Grandpa George. We had a nice dinner of BBQ hot dogs and spaghetti! Once again, their dog loved Cameron and the two had a great time together. After our visit it was off to Alpine, UT to stay with our good friends Roger & Dawn Hill and their five (soon to be six) kids.
Day 4 – Alpine, UT
Today we spent the day with our good friends, the Hill Family. Brittney, Dawn, Boston, Cameron, Amber and Loma took a trip to Thanksgiving Point to keep the kids entertained for the day. Chris, Roger, Christian, and Grant took a trip up the canyon to the Mt. Timpanogos Wilderness Area. Once there, we went on an off-road excursion in Roger’s Yamaha Rhino side-by-side. What a blast that was! The scenery was amazing and the ride was fun and bumpy!
When we reached the top of the mountain and started to head back down, the side-by-side didn’t want to start. We put it in neutral and coasted about half way down the mountain trail. When we couldn’t go any further, we decided to have a quick prayer to ask for help. Our prayer was answered and the side-by-side started right up. We were able to get all the way back to the truck with no more problems. Needless to say, they side-by-side was dropped off for service.
Later that day Roger treated us to some great pizza and homemade root beer at The Brick Oven in Provo, UT. It was a fantastic lunch! We then all met up again for desert in the evening and stayed up pretty late. The next morning it was time to hit the road and go back to L.A.
Day 5 – The Long Drive Home
Driving the 700 miles from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles can be done in about eleven hours with moderate stops. We figured with Cameron it might take us around 12 hours. Well, to our surprise, it took us around 17 hours to get home. We left around 7:00 AM and arrived home around midnight.
Everything was great until we made it to Vegas. From Vegas to Primm, (state line) it took us three hours to go 30 miles. It was nuts and almost apocalyptic. People were driving their cars off-road in the desert just to get past the 2 mph traffic jam. Once we arrived in Primm, things were even worse. It took us almost two hours just to use the restroom, get gas and pick up McDonald’s to-go. The traffic still bunched up and crawled through a couple of mountain passes. It also came to a screeching halt three miles on either side of Baker. Don’t know why, just a lot of cars. But after Baker the traffic was great. It was like everyone disappeared. Weird!
Overall it was a fun trip, but exhausting. We definitely should have taken a couple of more days just to slow things down a bit and relax. Maybe next year!?
