The last time Matt and I had a little getaway by ourselves was March 2020 right before the coronavirus decided to change up our lives. This month, Matt had some time off, and we wanted to go to New Orleans, but we couldn't bring ourselves to travel outside of the state and to a busy urban area yet. We also knew that our trip wouldn't be as fun due to some closures of things we would otherwise do as first-timers to NOLA. So, back to Southern Utah it was!
We got a cute "casita" which was attached to the back side of this house in Ivins in the Encanto community near Tuacahn and Snow Canyon State Park. It was comfortable and well appointed. We loved the surrounding views! We took advantage of the nice walking/biking path and enjoyed invigorating morning walks.
The only real plans we had for this trip was to go to Zion National Park, eat at some recommended Female Foodie restaurants, and go see our first movie in a theater in 9 months (a Tom Hanks movie called News of the World). We did all of those things and had a great time! We also had hopes to finally play some pickle ball but we couldn't ever locate the neighborhood court (I guess we could have asked someone but we didn't). Also, we tried twice to sit in the neighborhood hot tub, but there were people already in it which was a deal breaker.
Oh man, we sure had some good food on this trip. I only took one picture at a restaurant and that was at our final one which was on our way home in Cedar City called Centro Woodfired Pizzeria. Female Foodie said it has the best pizza in the state, so we had to try it out. It was pretty great. Of course, not as great as the pizza we had in New York City, but still awesome and yummy!
Here's the list of other places we ate at during our trip.
Riggati's Woodfired Pizza in Washington, Xetava Gardens Cafe in Kayenta, Angelica's Mexican Grill in St. George, The Crepery in St. George, Thai Sapa in Springdale just outside of Zion NP, and Mad Pita Express in St. George. There's still 4 or 5 restaurants that we still want to try down in that area.
This was our second time to Zion NP. We chose to hike Emerald Pools since last time we were there it was closed for repair. It was a beautiful hike even though the water levels were low and the green foliage was gone for the winter. Zion is truly amazing any time of the year. It was extra nice that we could drive ourselves around the park and not have to get on the shuttle buses that has to be utilized at busier times of the year. An added unexpected bonus was having two fighter jets fly overhead near the end of our hike. The sound was amplified through the rocky canyon. So thrilling to hear and see! The next time we go to Zion we are planning on putting our brave faces on in order to hike Angel's Landing.
We continued home the long way and drove up Highway 89 through small towns like Panguitch, Richfield, Manti, and Ephraim. We were out in the middle of "Nowhere, Utah" and saw a sign for Butch Cassidy's boyhood home. Matt loves Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, so of course we had to check this out. We flipped around and went back to this cute pitstop just south of Circleville, Utah and took a look around. It was fun to imagine what life must have been like living out there in the late 1800s.
Another fun trip with my best friend. Here's to a bunch more in 2021!
