Ironman 70.3...at Bryce Canyon!

 St. George hosted the Ironman World Championship in May, the St. George Marathon in early October and now the Ironman 70.3 Women's/Men's at the end of October...and each time they close down the streets in our neighborhood for the events which culminate just down the hill from our house at the Town Square.  We don't mind the St. George Marathon so much because it's on Gen. Conf. weekend and we just stay home and watch conference.  But these other two are much more as far as closures up here and around the whole downtown area go. They even closed school on Friday because buses could not run.  So we left town Thursday evening after work and went over to Bryce Canyon NP for a little get away.  It was wonderful!  We ate at home and then left and arrived in time for a bit of evening and bedtime.  We stayed at the old Ruby's Inn.  We had a great room.  

Friday morning we slept in and then had the breakfast buffet that came with the room and it was great.  Then we went to the Park Visitor's Center where we watched the Park film and then spent pretty much the whole day driving the view point road and seeing each one and doing a little hike also.  We brought our lunch and ate at one of the view points, in the car, because it was a little too chilly to eat outside.  There was frost on the car windows in the morning and we needed long sleeves and jackets most of the time.  Snow had fallen a week or so ago and made it very pretty.  That night we had the dinner buffet and it was so good that we ate way too much!  Afterwards we sort of laid around feeling full and ended up watching a really good movie on BYU TV and then taking a little inside walk around the facility.

Saturday morning we slept in some and again enjoyed the buffet and then got an early start on the Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop hike down in among the Hoodoos' in the canyon.  It wasn't crowded at all at the beginning because of our early start.  We had to wear jackets and gloves, but once we got moving we were just fine.  SO VERY BEAUTIFUL!!!  Toward the end it was a bit more crowded, but still great.  After that we headed out and took the scenic route stopping at the Shingle Creek rest stop, one of our favorites, near Orderville, to eat a picnic lunch.  We had to wear jackets, but we sat in the sun and did fine.  Then we headed to Zion NP and did the Narrows hike and met some people from Whales.  We had walked near then on the trail and talked a little and then more on the shuttle.  She had completed the Ironman Women's the day before and there she was out hiking the next day with her husband and kids.  Crazy!  It was a beautiful, but very different, hike in Zion.  It was super crowded there.  We got home after all the hoopla was over and had dinner with Bean.  It was a great, relaxing little trip for Paul and me!!!