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.
Panning for fool’s gold entertained the kids much longer than the wise expected.
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.
The Concord coach was designed to carry up to 12 people with each allocated a whopping 15 inches of space.
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.
There are many photo opportunities at Frontier Homestead for those so inclined.
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.
Frontier Homestead’s collection includes Cedar City’s oldest surviving brick home, a working sawmill, and several train cars.
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.
The Kolob Canyons are finger canyons hedged by brilliant 2,000-foot cliffs.
Although Cedar City was uncomfortably hot throughout our stay, we relished this wistful and entertaining return to a familiar tradition and familiar people.
Once a year, you get a day older but receive credit for a whole year of maturity. It’s not quite right, but the discrepancy comes with some perks. The festivities for my birthday this year took me from my backyard to the top of a mountain and from speeds above 35 MPH to under one. Yes, birthdays can be a beautiful blend of diverse delights… and endurance training.
In 2002, the ski jumping, bobsled, luge, and skeleton competitions were all held at the Utah Olympic Park. It still serves as a main training site.
My birthday occurs during a busy time of the summer. Therefore, it often gets forgotten amidst travel and holiday plans. Those who make it a priority gain elite status in my heart. My sister is one of those. In the days leading up to my birthday, she took me and some of the other family females out to brunch. Then, her clan came over for a backyard meal around a cozy fire.
Kessler Peak is situated between Mineral Fork and Cardiff Fork.
Jason is the ultimate birthday spoiler, though perhaps not the ultimate cook. He bravely attempted to make some sort of cinnamon bun from scratch for my birthday breakfast without any of my help. The recipe was labeled easy online but will never receive that designation from him. They turned out more puck than bun. He consulted his friendly household food scientist afterward, and the problem was quickly deciphered. He had substituted volumetric measurements for weight measurements. I appreciated his thoughtful gesture even if I didn’t consume too much of the outcome.
God’s Lawnmower, a ribbon that runs the length of the entire north side of the mountain, is a notorious avalanche area that regularly claims lives.
Dense buns weren’t Jason’s only birthday plan. He took me to the Utah Olympic Park for a tour of the facility and a zip line tour. I loved learning about the history and operations of this venue, which was built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. Isn’t all new knowledge fascinating?
Mining in the Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons occurred between 1867 and 1976 with silver and lead being the primary minerals of interest. This miner’s shelter is a remnant of those days.
The zip lines at the Utah Olympic Park make use of the gully the park is situated in, zooming seven times across its gap. The first line is the longest at about 1,500 feet and moves fast enough to make your eyes water. Other lines range between 550 and 800 feet in length. My birthday was a busy day for the park. Even though we had a reservation, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get on the first line. After that, the zipping zipped. The zip line system at Utah Olympic Park isn’t as sophisticated as some of the others we’ve been on. You have to grab a rope on the adjacent line as you come in. If you miss it, let’s just say you will feel rather silly about the amount of effort required for the line operator to heave you in. Maybe not high-tech but still high fun.
You pass two mine shafts heading up Kessler, the second of which is a direct drop.
The next day, Jason correctly guessed I’d appreciate a magnificent challenge as part of my annual reminder of our ever-aging state. For what better way to feel like a babe than ascending a 30-million-year-old rock? In Kessler Peak, we thought we had a short trek. Kessler Peak is one of the most prominent mountains in Big Cottonwood Canyon at 10,403 feet, but the trail to its apex is only 2.3 miles each way. An online guide we read said this journey takes 5-7 hours to complete. We got a good laugh out of that. Seven hours to hike 4.6 miles? What a joke! It took us six hours and 55 minutes. I guess the joke is on us. Fortunately, since we started at 2:45 PM, we only had to use headlamps to light the last 10 minutes of our expedition.
The top of Kessler Peak supplies ample views of the Uintas, Hidden Peak, Mount Raymond, and Clayton Peak.
Why the dawdling pace of less than a mile an hour? This path climbs over 2,900 feet. With a grade of 79% for long stretches, it takes more time to go down in some places than up. The last 1.5 miles are particularly sheer and unforgiving.
If you can conquer a peak on your birthday, you aren’t older than dirt yet.
What did we think of the hike? The view from the summit is remarkable and our favorite of the peaks we’ve climbed in Big Cottonwood Canyon. However, although the trail is easy to follow, there are no signs indicating you are on the right path. I’d not recommend this hike without a downloaded map that includes GPS as some offshoots are more worn than the main route. A branch 1.8 miles from the trailhead, which leads nowhere, baffled us. Without the help of a map, we might have been wandering the hillsides clueless for quite a while.
Kessler Peak was by no means the most daunting mountain we’ve summited, but we still had a few nervous moments on its exposed edges.
My birthday this year held memorable activities, people, settings, and workouts. Many thanks to my considerate and adventurous husband and thoughtful family members for the assorted commemorations of another obligatory trip around the sun.
A decade or two ago, Woodlet was a happening color. A decade or two ago we were unwittingly happening too, which is how we happened to end up with external doors in that popular shade. Now, that hue is part of the Millennial Collection and must be special ordered. Yet, it was still part of our house’s palette until earlier this year. Is that what led us to finally recoat our doors? Ah, no. It wasn’t dated tones that set us about this task but flaking paint and rusting metal. We did seriously consider repainting in the same out-of-style color, a color we never liked in the first place. However, at some point, we correctly concluded that was a dumb idea. So, here’s how our doors went from brunet to blue and the wisdom we have gained from our brushing experience.
Online DIY websites and the experts at the home improvement store assured us that repainting a door is a fun day project, and our front door would be finished and reattached by evening. Hmmm…. I feel it my duty to bring some reality to the internet. This was no day project, and I’m not sure “fun” applied either. Although we did paint two doors instead of just one, most of the delays were from layers of paint drying. Therefore, adding on an extra door didn’t contribute much to our extended timeline, and my complaints remain legitimate.
With shedding flecks and a spot of rust, our side door was in desperate need of a new coat.
After some internet and store searches, Newport Gray from Valspar, a hue which contrasts our stucco, ended up our selected color. I’m sure it will be unfashionable in another 10 years and probably still on our doors. We had two nephews helping us for the first seven-hour stint of this job thinking we would be able to complete it, but we didn’t even come close. Why did it take so much longer? Online authorities said only one coat of paint would be necessary after the primer. Wrong. White primer under blue paint meant two coats were required. It only took an hour for the primer to dry but four hours for each coat of Newport Gray. On a related side note, doors take more time to paint than their size would suggest.
Since it took us a few days to complete this undertaking, the timing turned tricky. We couldn’t just leave our house doorless; one of us had to be home when the doors were off. Also, we had to plan appropriately so coats would be dry by bedtime, and our dwelling wouldn’t be holey overnight.
Newport Gray is blue. Go figure.
In the end, we spent 50 man-hours on this endeavor, not exactly a “day” job. However, despite the time involved, it wasn’t a complicated task. It might have taken forever and a day instead of just a day, but it would have been hard to mess up. So, if you are up for a long but easy chore, painting doors might be your thing. For the record, notwithstanding my pseudo-whining, we were happy with how our doors turned out and would do it all over again.
By the way, if you are still wanting to paint your doors after my gentle warning, make sure you pick days when the weather isn’t too scalding. Apparently, wet paint does not mingle well with temperatures above 90. We chose a day when temps were in the low 80s… and then spent two more such days.
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