Nathan planned a trip and he was so excited for it! He asked if I would go with him to Cedar City to the Shakespearean festival and then on to St. George to see a play at the Tuacahn Amphitheater. He had me book the hotel nights with separate rooms and he planned the rest. We planned this even before we got engaged so we had something to look forward to while the virus raged around us. As time wore on and more and more things closed or got cancelled, eventually both our shows cancelled or postponed to next year. (We are going to have SO MANY free dates next year from events being rescheduled!!) This was Nathan's trip and I didn't want to deny him any fun, so I didn't ask him to cancel the trip and decided to wait for him to decide if he wanted to go still or not. He did the same thing, so we both ended up agreeing to keep our weekend trip away! He thought it would be good to get me away from the things that stress me out. Which kind of works, it was definitely an escape for a couple days.
So off to sunny St. George we left during a month of record heat temperatures! On the way down we stopped in Cedar City for lunch to eat at Cafe Rio and drove over to see the new Cedar City temple. Luckily, even with the grounds closed off, you can still walk around it in the parking lot. It looks so pretty from outside.
After arriving a little over an hour later at our destination in St. George we checked into our hotel rooms at the Red Lion. Nathan and I had rooms next door to each other and we decided a nap was well deserved! Driving wipes you out, even when it's an easy drive. After our nap we hung out in my room while we decided what to do that night and Nathan suggested the botanical garden.
The botanical garden was beautiful and had something like 3,000 desert plants, all of them with name plates! I'm a big supporter of xeriscape landscapes and reducing water usage in your garden, so it was cool to see how they designed the use of desert plants. They also had these awesome swings that we had to sit in and just relax. It was also crazy hot, like 102 so by the end of our time at the garden not even an hour later, we were parched and melting into the sidewalk. We subsequently made our way to the nearest grocery store and bought a whole basket of water bottles. hahahaha.
The following day was our one full day in St George. We decided to go visit the local art museum which also was in this cute square with old Pioneer buildings including an original cabin that was moved to this location, the original opera house built in 1875, and a little garden area and statues. I really enjoyed this place because it was charming and had historical architecture. The art museum had original etchings and copies from Rembrandt and I bought a Jane Austen pencil bag in the gift shop as my donation. The opera house was closed, as well as the ice cream parlor, but we did get to see inside the cabin.
Our favorite part of the trip though was the St George Dinosaur Discovery Site museum! It had a display of the single largest expanse of solid rock containing dinosaur footprints. I felt like the place was good for adults and for children. It had information to interest everyone. They shared information about how the prints were discovered, the process for excavation, and how the prints were made. The land used to be marshy so not only were footprints saved, but water ripples in the sand from the giant lake that used to cover much of the area around St. George.
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