Road Tripping: Historic District Water Park

When the sun is shining brightly in a crisp blue sky and the long, warm days of summer sweep in there are few things that can cheer the spirit quite like splashing about in some water. Whether it's going to Wet n' Wild or out to your nearest river with an inner tube and six pack, or even a sandy beach if you're coastal like that, there's something inherently pleasing to the soul about submerging in the cold waters. In this case, we weren't really submerging ourselves so much as splashing a bit, but we definitely made a point of it to get our shoes off and get our feet wet. I even made my way out to the fountain for a minute, but I felt self-conscious being the only adult in such a child-oriented area, so I got a quick misting and moved onward. There's tons of art in this park to check out, so we tried to take a moment for each one to appreciate the artistry and talent. Most are related to play and fun,  or fantasy and adventure, which makes sense in a park, though we found one that seemed a little suggestive? Maybe not. I was surprised to see it included in such a public area, but I'll leave it up to you to decide. 

There are three or so semi-distinct areas with running water open to the public in the park, though there may have been others we missed. They're all pretty close together, and as kids from a city afflicted by drought we were a bit surprised to see just how much water was running through the park. It wasn't an unpleasant surprise, and access to water like this makes any city much more livable and enjoyable in my experience. While it would be nice for Vegas to have more areas like this, it's not really realistic or responsible with our current climate situation. I'm curious to see what the future of Las Vegas will hold, but this post isn't about Vegas! The people we encountered were pretty friendly here, and when one little boy became fascinated with the areas we stopped to check out ("Oh, you're taking photos here? Must be special!") his mother laughed and apologized for his meddling. Families and flowers abounded, and it was overall a lovely pitstop on our trip through the area.  

Road Tripping: St. George Historic District Walk

💗Happy fourth of July, my fellow Americans!💙

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 What better way to celebrate our country than by reflecting on one of our towns, so similar yet so unique to so many others throughout the USA?

 Our great big shiny arachnid friend is here to greet us all, as is toss-the-baby-statue! Okay, technically it has another name ("Flight time", which arguably isn't much better), but come on. Toss them babies! Aside from the potential nightmare inducing gargantuan spider and the baby-chucking statues, this little district in the St. George metropolitan area is quite lovely. We found parking right in front of the great big brick building and were able to explore the surrounding area on foot comfortably and readily. There's a giant guitar tucked away, along with a carousel, TWO different water-park play areas open to the public, and lots more art nestled in among the trees as well.

We also happened upon this little pavilion, in the public park, which warns against loitering. Antho astutely pointed out that there's no other real point to these little buildings but to loiter, unless you're specifically having a wedding or some sort of event. I mean, I get what they're really saying- they don't want homeless people congregating here and making their pretty little park look bad or something. We saw a guy posted up with a guitar when we were making our way back to the van. We're not bothered too much by that sort of thing, but given how many kids were scampering about I suppose some parents might get their hackles raised at the sight of a man loitering...in a public park...but I digress.  If you don't want to sit in the shade, there's a giant iron-wrought guitar to check out! It seemed like there was some sort of carnival or fair going on during the day we visited (and school had just let out for summer) so there were a lot of families out taking advantage of the great weather. Even so, parking was a breeze!

If you ever find yourself cruising down this particular stretch of the I-15, I'd recommend taking an afternoon to cruise around St. George. I don't know if I'd want to move there, though it's supposedly the fastest growing metropolitan area for 2018, but it's certainly nice to visit. There were a lot of super cute little restaurants around, too, so you wouldn't have to look too far for a tasty bite to eat to refuel before you hit the road again and resume your own personal adventure. There's plenty of hiking nearby, too, if that's more your jam. We weren't really prepared for anything too arduous, but this walk downtown warmed us up for a bit of a hike later on, so check back in a couple days for that post if that's more your speed. 

Road Tripping: St. George Historic Downtown Drive

Driving through St. George is pleasant, from our experience. We encountered minimal traffic and were able to find parking quite easily in the historic district. It's a lovely little area that, perhaps not all that surprising given its name, has a long history behind it that the locals are pretty proud of. These buildings comprise some of the very first to ever be erected in the area. Luckily for us, the area and significant buildings therein, are lovingly maintained. It's all been engineered to be eminently walkable, too, with parks and public art to make the journey more interesting. As a couple of Vegas kids, our hometown was in the high 90s or low hundreds by this point in both the year and the day, but the climate was much milder which meant the stroll was exquisite. It was warm, yes, but more like 80-something degrees, a level of heat that allowed many children to go scampering barefoot across the sun-baked cement at the nearby water parks without burning their little tootsies. I'm not sure what my favorite aspect of this area was, because there was a lot of nice things to admire. The public space was very well manicured and maintained, with little garbage floating around or lingering in untended corners... which, in most large cities, seems like an unavoidable sight. The mild climate allows a wide array of different plants and blossoms to flourish and it's noticeable in the gardens' cornucopias of color.  

One of the first things we noticed, aside from the giant sun-glistening spider standing above the roadway (one of many, many roundabouts in the city), was a bronze (I think?) statue of some older kids flinging smaller children. I know that it's meant to look like a rousing, carefree game of childhood fun but it also reminds me of that statue in Oslo, Norway, where there's a dude being attacked by babies. That's one of the cool things about art, though- it's always subject to interpretation. Just look up your favorite movie on Rotten Tomatoes to prove that point. What to one person looks like a game, is another person's "fling the baby!" 

Road Tripping: St. George, Utah

St. George, Utah, was our first stop in the lovely state. It's a beautiful little town in the Southwestern region of Utah, tucked in near to the Pine Valley mountains who glisten with snow in the winters. The picturesque little town was rated the second-fasted growing metropolitan area in 2005 and by 2018 it's jumped to first place. I guess people have forgotten about all that radioactive fallout that drifted downwind from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site and fell predominantly on the area... To be fair, the last major spike in radiation seemed to sync up around the timeframe of the incident in Fukushima, so it's probably safe. Just keep an eye out for Deathclaws when you're out in those mountains...

Our first impressions of the area were that it was a cute little Southwestern small town. Further explorations helped to cement this idea more deeply, though we did witness an incident of domestic violence along the roadside next to the hotel pictured above. A man was sitting on the brick wall and a woman was slapping about his face and shouting... charming. So, it's certainly not an untainted paradise, free of human woes and suffering. The demographics veer predominantly Caucasian, with roughly 87% of the population, and almost 71% of the population are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Given the Church's history with racism, including a rally from The Book of Mormon to be "a white and delightsome people" 

( 2 Nephi 30:6

“…their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.” - source) 

and a history of excluding darker skinned members from participating in certain rituals and rites, it's not entirely surprising that the demographic veers a certain direction. The passage quoted above has since been adapted to read "pure" instead of "white", but given the recency in which the book was written, it's unlikely that a translation error occurred. Who knows. These days the LDS Church tries to paint itself as inclusive and welcoming of all members, including the LGBTQ+ on their own official website, maybe times are changing. After all, this little burb is rapidly growing and change is inevitable.

Road Tripping: Drive in to Utah

Despite being one of our closest neighboring states, I can't say I've visited Utah all that much over the years. That being said, I have to admit I was a good bit excited to be heading that way with Antho during this road trip and we were rapidly making our way into that area. We didn't have much time, unfortunately, as we had obligations back in Vegas that would prohibit us from staying overnight, but that didn't mean we couldn't at least spend an afternoon exploring! We managed to get quite a bit done in that afternoon, too, from climbing atop a massive boulder and looking out over a cityscape, to finding wild mushrooms growing in a park with lots of art, a carousel and a water park! What we saw of Utah was really quite beautiful and seemingly reflected that esteemed idyllic small-town family life, though you might not guess that from the initial drive in. It looks very much like the preceding miles of driving in that it's a long stretch of tans and greys with subtle yellows and greens scattered throughout rolling desert hills. From time to time you'll see an outcrop of rocks jutting from the sands and pebbles and shrubs, offering a stark contrast to the otherwise same-similar landscape. Sometimes those stones are bright red, others they're deep purple or soft grey, all depending on their unique compositions and mineral contents. 

These features unify the area visually and give inspiration to a catalog of names that are recycled throughout various municipalities in the Southwest. Red Stone, Red Rock, anything rock or stone related tends to be pretty common, as are names of prominent historic explorers of yonder year. Clark, Lewis, they got a lot of street cred (or at least streets named after them) out this way.