Monday, August 3

Just to let you know, Mom published Sunday's posting, and I'm publishing yesterday and today. Yesterday, we visited Zion National Park, a truly beautiful place. It was named by Mormon settlers for its heavenly appearance. A lot of the natural features in the park were given religious names as well: there's the Great White Throne, Angel's Landing, the Three Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), and more. What makes Zion so different is that it's so huge and majestic in a simple sort of way. Anyway, we got up at our leisure, and left to visit the park around 11:00. We entered the park, and drove 12 miles to the visitor center. When we got there, the place was packed. It had a huge parking lot, and almost every space was filled with vehicles! We finally got a parking space, and went to eat lunch outside. Afterwards, we boarded a shuttle that took us through the park, and past several cool places. We got off the bus at Big Bend, where we could see Angel's Landing, The Organ, and the Great White Throne. We also took a stop at the Temple of Sinawava, and we proceeded down a trail that led to a river where we could cool our feet off. We stayed there a while, and one of my twenties nearly floated down the river! After our refreshing respite at the river, we headed back towards the visitor center on another shuttle bus. Once we got back, we got back in the truck to head home. Zion simply was amazing, a truly heavenly place. Once we got back, Philip went up to get some firewood. We started the fire around five, and got out some hot dogs and Bratwursts to cook over it. The food was great that night: eight hot dogs, two bratwursts, some macaroni and cheese, and asparagus. That really concludes yesterday, so yesterday's closing will be in Japanese: さようなら、お休み!