After a quick breakfast at Pat’s, we were on our way.

Since we had been so busy the last few days, we decided to make just a short trip to Mesquite and stay the night.  

We are still avid Pokémon Go players.  This was a community day and we spent three hours catching the creature of the day… Eevee.  The “shiny” Eevee could be “evolved” into various forms.  With the outdoor temperature in the triple digits, we spent the three hours inside the Virgin River Casino moving from machine to machine.  Multi-tasking is useful.

We stayed at the Casablanca Resort and Casino.  We did some gambling, had a nice dinner, and went to bed early.  BTW they have great $.75 hotdogs.  I had spicy relish added to mine.  Yum!

Tomorrow we’re off to Las Vegas for another visit with our friends Peggy and Cliff.

After all the activity of the last few days, today was very quiet.

We went back to the “Egg And I” restaurant for breakfast and then helped Ann and Pat run a few errands.  Later in the afternoon we went to the movies and saw “Christopher Robin”.  

We really enjoyed it.  Pooh and the gang were done amazingly well.  We found ourselves quoting lines from the show over and over… especially Eeyore’s.

This evening we stayed around Pat’s place.  I fixed spaghetti for dinner.  Later we taught Ann and Pat how to play Shanghai Rummy and they taught us how to play the card game “Five Crowns”.

Sadly we start our journey back home tomorrow.

Since the National Park opens at 8:00 a.m., we got up early and went in search of breakfast.  Luckily, the cafe next door was open and we charged ourselves for the day with coffee and food.  The drive to the park only took about 30 minutes and passed some interesting arches over the highway.  Arriving at the park early was great because we saw deer and other wildlife.

We walked from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point and viewed the iconic Bryce Canyon landscape.  The colors and shapes of the rocks seemed to change as we moved from one viewing point to another.

We stopped at the Lodge where we visited a few years ago on our Caravan tour and headed back to Fairyland Canyon for one last set of pictures before leaving the park.  We made a stop at a rock shop where I saw this beautiful Peacock Copper.  The colors come from the oxides of copper that form on the surface.

We were back at the Motel before lunch, so we ate at the Cowboy Smokehouse Cafe and then decided to head back early to St. George rather than staying in Panguitch a second night.  This change in plans allowed us to attend a production of The Prince of Egypt at the Tuacahn Theater with Ann and Pat.  The setting was wonderful and the parting of the Red Sea scene was especially impressive because of the water feature built into the theater.  It was a long day, but a great one.

After a great Breakfast at Ann’s we headed north for our trip to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Our first stop was at Cedar Breaks National Monument.  Cedar Breaks is a natural amphitheater which is more eroded than, but otherwise similar to formations at nearby Bryce Canyon National Park.  After about an hour we continued our trip towards Panguitch where we were going to stay during our visit to Bryce NP.  Along the way we saw this huge herd of sheep approaching the road and just managed to avoid getting stuck waiting for them to cross the highway.

We arrived at the town of Panguitch and checked in at the “Historic Panguitch Inn Motel” ( seen on the left hand side of the first picture below) for the night.  The town stretches about 1/2 mile along the highway.  Most of the buildings appear to be quite old.   As you walk along the sidewalk there are plaques that talk about the buildings on the opposite side of the street. 

For dinner we ate at the Tandoori Taqueria restaurant where they served tacos with Asian Indian flavors.   The tacos were great as was the Indian flavored Crème Brûlée.

Around the corner from the motel was a bronze statue dedicated to the “Quilt Walker”.  Due to the area’s high elevation, the settlers’ initial crops did not mature and the community suffered severely during the first harsh winter. At a crisis point, seven men left the community to seek flour and foodstuffs from surrounding communities. Heavy snow forced the abandonment of wagons and teams, and the men finished their rescue mission on foot, reportedly by laying one quilt after another upon the snow to maintain their footing.

After dinner and a little more sightseeing we headed back to the motel for a good night’s sleep.

After yesterday’s arrival, we had another full full day of activities planned.

First up was a visit to The Tuacahn Theater. This is an outdoor theater and was built using the naturally shaped rock amphitheater. Tonight’s show was a production of Roger and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella”. Ann and Pat have attended several shows here.

Next we drove through Snow Canyon State Park. The rock formations were very impressive. Pervasive throughout the park, are large fields of lava. These were created by several volcanoes in the area that are now extinct. The cone of one of the largest still exists.

Next up was a stop at one of the local popular pie shops in the town of Veyo (a favorite stop of Ann and Pat’s). Paul had a slice of Lemon Crème and I had, what else, a slice of “Volcano” pie.

We returned to Ann’s home for a little nap/rest before the night’s activities.

In the nearby town of Cedar City the famous Utah Shakespeare Festival has been taking place for 57 year.  That evening, we drove to Cedar City to attend a performance of The Merchant of Venice.  Before the performance, we ate dinner at Rusty’s Steak House.  Paul had a huge plate of ribs and chicken (I’m not sure how he ate it all).  And then it was on to the Festival.

Not only did we see the performance, but before the show we attended a preview talk describing the characters and plot of that evening’s show.  This talk helped us understand the action during the performance.  Next, we attended The Greenshow, a collection of songs, comedy and magic in the Italian style.  The Greenshow took place on the lawn outside the theater.  Finally, we found our places for the performance.   We really enjoyed the show and Ron was especially pleased to see a Shakespeare performance staged in traditional costumes of the period for which the show was written.  After our long day, we traveled back to St. George and had a great night’s sleep.