James is FIRED from making hotel accommodations for us! Some sales guy on hotels.com talked him into getting a room at the Coronada Inn in St. George...don't EVER do it! I can't believe this place is legal! I wanted a place where we could honestly fit the six of us and have a nice pool to swim in. Wow...the pool so scary that I don't even think the druggies who lived there would use it in the 100 degree weather! The microwave was duct taped together. I wouldn't allow my kids to sleep on this "hide a bed", and the décor was just entertaining. The funny thing is I looked up this place to give an online warning, and it was hilarious to see what other people were saying about their room that looked just as quirky as this one. It's not one of a kind!
This "art work" is actually a puzzle hanging from the ceiling. The mirrors has fish and sea shell decals all over them. The room was sweltering when we got in there at 9pm, so James set the cooler to 65 degrees which froze me in the middle of the night. But, I didn't want to use the blankets because the sheets weren't even clean looking! I couldn't wait to get out of there in the morning!
The most absurd thing in the room though had to be the beds. We had 2 queen beds that rocked from side to side if two people weren't laying in them! I was too scared to investigate underneath the bed...but how could both of them be like see saws?! James actually got a video of me flopping down on an rocking the bed because it was so ridiculous . Needless to say, it was not worth $50, and don't ever stay a $50 hotel!
We did enjoy our time at beautiful Pioneer Park after we made a quick exit from the nasty hotel. The kids loved climbing all over the rocks, and I loved taking tons of pictures. Once again though, my skills don't do the red rocks justice!
For some reason, Blaze is obsessed with binoculars currently We thought this hole in the rock resembled binoculars, so I asked Paul and Blaze to curl up inside as if they were eyeballs.
James really enjoyed playing with the camera trying to take action shots of us all jumping. This is a good one, but too bad I'm covering up the St. George temple in the background.
We couldn't miss a trip to the St. George Temple grounds and visitor's center. This is where my parents, me, Paul, and Andrew were sealed when I was 5 years old. I remember it pretty well...like Andrew crying the whole entire time and I felt so nervous watching the temple workers try to soothe him and nothing worked! My Gran Roberts had made me a white eyelet dress, and I had white shoes, tights, and hair bows to match. We learned a little about the building of the temple here, and how they made the foundation on top of lava rock which protected it from an earthquake. Brigham Young was truly inspired!
We stopped for a tour at Brigham Young's winter home and learned all kinds of interesting facts about life back in his time. The people were used to hard oaks and cherry to make furniture from, but down in St. George there wasn't any available. They would make furniture out of readily available pine, and then an artist would paint the wood to look like oak, cherry, or even marble for a fireplace mantle. It looks pretty amazing! I think I'd love being a tour guide there someday :) We learned how St. George got it's name, which is quite different from what I'd previously though. St. George was a huge man who crossed the plains with his family and thought he was doing them a favor by eating all of the potato peels and leaving them the good tasting white insides. In fact, he was doing them no favor at all as he soon realized that the pioneers were dealing with scurvy from lack of vitamin C which is contained in the peels! He later went and planted potatoes all along the pioneer trails to insure there was healthy food for those coming behind him. And then they nick named him a St., and named the town after him.
I've been seeing and hearing all about Swig, in St. George, so we just had to stop to get a cold treat there. As told online, there was a huge line of cars waiting for flavored sodas, sugar cookies, and "shaved ice". Of course, we had to try the shaved ice to compare it to what we had in Maui. No comparison, but it still hit the spot on that hot hot summer afternoon! And I have since made the copycat Swig sugar cookies...we like them a lot!
We also stopped at Cove Fort, the home of Ira Hinkley who was President Hinkley's grandfather! I could have stayed for hours asking the missionary questions. I'd love to read the journals of those who lived at Cove Fort to find out more information about how they lived and what they did. When the church purchased the fort back from a family in the 90's, they had store logs and jornals to tell them what exactly was in each room etc. So, the place is full of very expensive antiques! I asked if they have security there at night, but they don't need it because no one can get past the surrounding walls made of lava rock! It was so interesting to learn of President Hinkley's heritage, and our tour guide said that's been his favorite part of his mission there...seeing what kind of family raised an incredible prophet of our day.
