Hiking in St. George. March 6-8,2022

 

This is Ross & Lorna Uibel's nice winter home.

Karen & I arrived Sunday evening 06 March 2022.

Lorna took us hiking in Snow Canyon State Park.

A fun trio for sure! Getting started on Padre Canyon hike.

 The spot where we rode to with Vern.

Super cool to see Snow Canyon from above & to hike it below.

Off the paved path onto the sand and rock of Snow Canyon.

A fine trio of lovely ladies!

Originally called Dixie State Park, it was later renamed for Lorenzo & Erastus Snow, Utah pioneer leaders.

Karen enjoying the rocks & views.

The view into St.George from our lunch spot.

The view of where we came from at lunch.

Some of the unique formations. Love it!

Karen playing! Gives one an idea of how big these formations are.

The trio near the formations.

Navajo Sandstone is the predominant rock in the park.

We covered about 7.5 miles on our hike. After Padre trail, we took a short 2 miles hike to Johnson Canyon which was a sheltered Canyon of willow & cottonwood, winding through lava flows and red rock to an arch spanning 200ft. This was the only place I saw water, very little water.

On the way home to Lorna's we stopped at a Funeral Home and saw this bronze. "Come unto Me." I think it is beautiful.

Monday night we had Mexican with Kelly & Julie Strong. We jibbered and laughed for the evening. Oh I am loving my trip to Utah this March!

Tuesday 08 March was an E-bike ride in Zion's National Park.

It was a bit chilly, so we have a few layers. Look! It's great!

Now we are a foursome and it's great!

Angel's Landing is there behind me. It's a famous hike to the top of that rock. Can I say? E-bikes are the best! I loved having the extra help up the road! I just may have to seriously consider adding an E-bike to my list.

Zion's National Park is a place I want to revisit. It is beautiful here and there is so much to see and do.

Grateful for good friends that know how to show a gal a good time. Grateful for such beautiful things to explore in nature.

Grateful for the ability to see, feel & experience these neat things.

Blessed in so many ways!!

Karen & I spent a few hours in the car. We left Lorna's place Wednesday 09 March,2022. Drove to Dylans house for the night. We got our test to enter Canada at Walgreens in Riverton, UT. Thursday 10 March 2022 we jumped into the car to head North. I am grateful for Karen's company on this trip, she made it so much more interesting than if I had traveled by myself. We stopped for supper in Great Falls, MT around 5pm. The other thing that I am so grateful for is the fact that we didn't hit the herd of deer that was crossing the road at dusk. I saw them just in time, braked and I think the last deer left a few hairs on the right headlight of the car. So blessed that the roads were bare and dry. Blessed that there was no one behind us when I had to brake so hard. Just so blessed that we had such a great trip and a safe trip!

Riding Adventure in St.George, UT Mar4-6, 2022

 Vern Parker was generous and let us stay with him for the weekend. 

Vern with his nice mare on his 2.5 acre lot in St.George. Vern's house is down the street from the church. It is odd to me to have the animals right there in town.

A view of his property from the back, near the Virgin River that runs behind his place. He has a very nice barn. It is a nice set up for the snowbird Vern Parker.

View of his property from the deck of the house.

Entrance to Vern's house.

View of the kitchen.

View of the living room from the kitchen.

A very nice home, Karen and I had our own bedrooms.

This is what we came for, Riding! Vern's friend Jim provided horses for  Karen & I. What was interesting to me is that we loaded the horses after we walked through the backyard of the home onto the street into the trailer. I'm used to getting horses from the barnyard. Jim had very nice horses. I appreciated his generosity and company.

Off we go. It was a chilly start, so I'm glad Vern had an extra jacket in the truck. Lots of rocks and sagebrush. Loved the view.

Vern called this The Lipstick Ride, I guess it's his way to say it wasn't too crazy. I thought it was difficult enough, lots of rock for the horses, but they didn't slip. It was so different from what we ride up here. I could be a snowbird pretty easy I think.

Our generous host Vern Parker.

Jim, Vern and Karen

What a view! So much fun!

Karen is starting to like these fine animals.

Karen & Dixie, still a bit chilly, but no snow, no wind, I love it!

Karen's selfie, looking down Snow Canyon.

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Dixie Dee. Love the view!

Video for the extent of the view. Loved this day very much!

Vern

Overlooking Snow Canyon

A great Friday March 4, 2022

Just leaving our lunch spot.

Karen's selfie with her trusted Steed.

Saturday 05 March 2022, Vern took us touring. One of our stops was the Mountain Meadows Massacre site about half an hour north of St. George. We gained a bit of elevation and it snowed/Hailed on us. Oh man that hail was small pellets that hurt! We didn't get a chance to truly take this site in due to the weather. A dark mark on Church History for sure.

I don't have any pictures, but we also visited the St. George temple visitors center. We had a sweet young missionary from Arizona tell us about the Centre. She bore a sweet testimony of the gospel.

We also visited the Brigham Young Winter Home, I found that very interesting too.(I think I should do history tours in retirement.) Finally we visited the Jacob Hamblin Home in Santa Clara. All very interesting and fun to think about what it would have been like to settle Utah and surrounding areas.

We went to church with Vern on Sunday. Sunday evening we left Vern's for Lorna and Ross Uibel's home in St.George, not far from the airport.

Coronado, CA 28 Feb - 03 Mar 2022

Marilee invited me to Coronado to visit while they were down there this winter. I said " Yup, I'll be there! Thank you very much!" I'm always glad to be out of the cold and snow whenever possible. 

On the plane to Coronado

Karen Alston said she was up for a road trip to the USA for a couple of weeks. So we rented a car and drove to Salt Lake. We stayed with her son Dylan in Riverton, UT for a couple of nights, Feb 25th and 26th. It was nice to spend time there. We listened to Ashley speak in church on Sunday (She did a good job!) and then we drove to St. George, Utah, stayed with Vern Sunday night and he drove us to the airport to fly to Coronado Monday Feb 28,2022.

San Diego airport waiting for Marilee to pick us up! 

Straight to the beach we went and decided to JUMP!

Karen enjoyed the look on my face in this photo!

The trio in front of Hotel del Coronado. 

Pacific Ocean at Coronado Island, CA

We are having fun tonight! 

Bird of Paradise

Bike ride on the Strand.

It's warm here! No wind! Perfect!

The Trio on the Strand. San Diego in the background.

The Pacific Ocean is to the left and the bay is on the right.

We biked 25 miles.

The evenings were spent playing Rummykub!

"Alexa, play 70's mello!"

Many laughs and lots of singing while playing!

Enjoying the Beach

Relaxing on the beach.

 I'm grateful to Marilee for sharing this with Karen and I.

We found a nice Italian restaurant.

Oh, this was FUN! 

Brad let us take his golf cart to the Mexican Restaurant on our last night in Coronado. I got to drive, Marilee & Mark are in the back due to car seats on the second row. It was a blast to cruise the streets of Coronado in an open air vehicle and not be cold!

02 March 2022, our last evening with the Cahoon's in Coronado. Mexican of course. Mark & Marilee were the best hosts for us. I get to drive us home in the golf cart, can't wait!

The Trio in their "Stay Salty" T'Shirts at the orange tree in Marilee's little court yard of her home in Coronado. 

The Trio at the last lunch before heading out to the airport. All good things must come to an end (I guess). A fun little 60's style malt shop of sorts. Coronado is where Karen found me a nice leather belt for $18 in a vintage shop. I have to admit the the question I have now is: "Why do I live in Canada in the winter?" 

I hope to be back to Coronado Island. I enjoyed my time with Marilee, Mark and Karen in California. Thank you so much for being willing to share with me. Stay Salty Coronado!