Them’s the Breaks

Our first real drive of the trip (the trip doesn’t start until you have all the drivers, after all) was a short hop over to Cedar City, Utah, one of our favorite vacation destinations from our Walker family vacations. Why, you ask? Because every summer Cedar City is home to the Utah Shakespeare Festival! And really, what child wouldn’t love that? Kamiah and I wouldn’t know the answer to that because we were the children that did love it.

Cedar City is also near Cedar Breaks National Monument, which we headed up to just as soon as we checked into the hotel and got Romeo situated. We assumed he wouldn’t want to come because we were planning a two-mile hike and physical activity isn’t really Romeo’s thing. Cedar Breaks is great because it’s a smaller, less crowded version of Bryce Canyon National Park. If you’re not sure what that is either, then just look at the pictures below and you’ll see why this place is so great.

We discovered upon arrival that I could get a one year pass to all national parks, monuments, and forests because I’m active duty military. This may be the greatest perk I’ve gotten for my service!

Thank you Park Service!

 We have dozens of pictures of Kamiah and me in front of National Park/Monument signs as children. We'll just add this to the collection.

Yep, them's the Breaks. We don't remember if Dad said that or not, but he certainly would have if he'd thought of it. And he probably did.

Sid's photo skillz at work. 

 Kamiah admires the view as we take a break on the hike. We were 10K ft up - there were several breaks along the way.

Sid loves nature. 

 I like this one, so suffer through it.

 Sid conquers nature. I find this less disturbing than the loving nature.

 Fluffy marmot, or "Cedar Breaks Mountian Goat" as the sign told us, at the overlook we hiked to.

Kamiah takes a cartwheel picture everywhere cool we go. I think she does it just to rub it in that I couldn't do a cartwheel to save my life. Still, cool shot!

 Shot from the Visitor Center and overlook

After the Breaks, it was time for the main attraction in Cedar City: the Shakespeare Festival. Sid was, of course, excited to see The Merry Wives of Windsor. We tried to get him fired up for the play with a trip to Ye Olde Gift Shoppe (pronounced shop-ee) and then the pre-play Greenshow, featuring period-accurate entertainment but he just didn’t seem to get into the spirit.

Sid and Me with a statue of Falstaff, who featured prominently in the play we saw.

For the record, Sid did later admit that he enjoyed the play.