For many years, my family visited the Utah Shakespeare Festival every summer. It was our annual vacation. As an adult, I have returned to this event more than a few times but never as a primary destination with the bulk of my family along. That all changed as life briefly became almost ordinary last summer, and a large portion of my relatives traveled to Cedar City to appreciate drama, some neighboring attractions, and each other. Now that I have set the stage for this excursion, let us dive into the plot.

Jason and I attended three performances during this trip. Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare’s shortest work, was our first. This lighthearted romp makes a good introduction to Shakespeare. Two of the younger members of our group, and Jason, welcomed that. The next afternoon, we saw the heart wrenching but hopeful musical Ragtime. On our final day, we watched Pirates of Penzance, which is always a crowd favorite with its catchy tunes and silly banter. The Utah Shakespeare Festival does a tremendous job with their quality productions, and these were no different.

In addition to our bardly devotions, we spent a morning at Frontier Homestead State Park. Frontier Homestead is dedicated to Cedar City’s early days as a mining town. It contains antique buildings, historic artifacts like stagecoaches, hands-on activities, and replicas such as a blast furnace. We lingered until our sweat slicks were charted waterways.

Another day, after stuffing our faces with as many types of pizza as possible, a group of us went on a hike up the Timber Creek Overlook Trail in the Kolob Canyons portion of Zion National Park. The Kolob Canyons don’t get the traffic the main section of Zion does, and the views from the Timber Creek Overlook Trail, which extend all the way to the Grand Canyon, are more than worth the mild one-mile effort.

Being at the Utah Shakespeare Festival took me back to my teenage days. The nostalgia was potent though a lot had changed. It was strange to see the old Greenshow area and the Adams Theater, a replica of the Globe Theatre, shadowy and quiet, but my family’s presence made their silent shapes seem less like ghosts. Those relatives continued to make up for the months of separation by chatting in the hotel’s firelit courtyard until midnight or 12:30 every evening.

Although Cedar City was uncomfortably hot throughout our stay, we relished this wistful and entertaining return to a familiar tradition and familiar people.