Vacation or Bust

Feb 26, 2011

This is not the most facinating vacation post I have ever written. It was our most un-Carl Farvemann like vacation day ever. It was a very snowy boring day on the road. I didn't take a single picture. I should have, but I didn't. I do intend to write another post for tomorrow with pics. I promise this long drawn-out series vacation posting will get better each day for those of you who are reading this and care.

When we left we thought it might be more bust than Disneyland thanks to the weather. We were scared spitless when we saw the weather forecast for the days leading up the trip. We were back and forth about whether we could even leave today and arrive safely.

About 10 pm we got a forecast saying that the bulk of the southern Utah snow wouldn’t hit until after noon. So we kicked our packing into high gear and got everything ready so we could leave by six in the morning and caravan with my brother Ryan.

We set our alarm for 5:00am. That time came and went and either the alarm didn’t go off or Steve turned it off in his sleep. I woke up at 5:45am talking to my brother Ryan on the phone. I was standing up in my bedroom talking when I woke up. He asked me if we were ready to go to which I said yes, but then I woke up and said er….no. I just woke up. We’ll be about a half hour.

We truly and magnificently got ourselves showered and dressed, packed the cooler ate a little breakfast, woke the kids, changed their clothes and packed them out in 30 minutes.

There was a good six inches of snow when we left. We met up with our caravan and headed out. The roads were slushy until we got passed the Utah County line. Then it was pretty much fine. We did have a few tense moments around Fillmore, but nothing to sweat bullets over. As always, the fear of doing something, in this case making a long car trip in snowy weather was way worse than actually doing it.

The kids settled in and enjoyed the new inflight entertainment duel screen DVD system we purchased from Costco the week before.

We made several potty breaks along the way and listened to some complaints from the backseat about how long this trip was taking. It was easy to settle the complaints when I told Alyssa that when I was her age I didn’t even have a seat of my own to ride in on long car trips let alone a movie to watch with my own screen directly in front of me. When I was a kid, since I was the youngest, I sat on the cargo in the back of our station wagon or I rode on the floor of the car. And I liked it that way. I didn’t get my own seat until I was 8 or 10 years old (seriously) when we got the Caprice Classic Wagon with the third row (facing backward, you’re jealous I know).

Between Cedar City and St. George I saw a small cemetery. As I always do, I pointed it out and told Steve that I heard people are dying to get in there (one of my favorite and best jokes). A few minutes later we were passed rather recklessly by a hearse, I guess they don’t have much to lose. Steve told me that he heard people were dying to get in there as it passed us. I laughed so hard we almost had to make another stop. Steve thought maybe they were driving recklessly to drum up business.

Anyway…we pulled into my Uncles vacation house which we rented for the night. It’s a nice house we had a great time exploring it with the kids, opening every door and closet. It’s available for rent for anyone interested in a swanky 4 bedroom house right next to Sand Hallow Reservoir. It’s also just few minutes in the car to enter Zion’s National Park.

We were surprisingly hungry but we had plenty of food thanks to my ample kitchen preparations. We rewarmed some pre-cooked ham fried rice I had made on Wednesday. Delicious and easy.

Next we let the kids watch some TV while Steve took a nice nap in the comfy king bed. I must admit I was drifting in and out of sleep while “watching TV” with the kids.

There is a really fancy 2 headed glass shower in the house so I took advantage of it during our down time. It was very refreshing. I am a bit of a shower snob, and I really really liked this one. I may make Steve hire someone to remodel our bathroom to replicate it.

Our friends arrived about three hours behind us and after unwinding a bit we made our 4th failed attempt to eat at the Bear Paw Waffle house. We try to eat there every time we're in St. George, but it always has a magnificent wait time when we arrive and then closes at One O'clock. Steve really likes breakfast and it’s his dream to eat here. Oh well maybe next time. Maybe not.

We ended up eating at Denny’s where the food was actually good, but the service was the worst ever. We ended up waiting for our check so long the kids were going ape crazy and we just had to leave so we got up and walk toward the door when the waiter finally presented us our check.

One the way back to the house, we stopped at the outlet mall at the Children’s Place where we picked up some cute little things for cheap. Steve also bought himself some things. Not at Children’s Place though. He went to Van Husen and found 5 new dress shirts. WOW! That is a big deal. The man has a very hard time finding clothes that fit him. He is very oddly shaped (Cotton Hill). I'm not sure if you've ever noticed that. In our 7 year marriage he has probably bought fewer than 5 new shirts altogether, so this was a big deal.

Then back to the house for a much needed rest. We had a big day ahead.