Reality Bites (Day 4)

Today we woke up, ate breakfast and left the camp to drive into Zion National Park. It started off a little rocky. The kids were obviously tired, Faith was already complaining about EVERYTHING and the drive took a lot longer than we had expected. Plus  it was really hot and my unrealistic expectations (that three tired kids ages 7, 8, and 11 would be wowed and excited to view more red rocks and red mountains and would be excited to take 3 hikes in 100 degree weather) didn't meet the reality (three tired kids asking, "do we have to hike" and "why can't we just stay at the resort and go to the pool" and "we better be at this waterfall soon!" and "it's hot and my legs hurt and I'm hungry and I'm thirsty and can't we do something else????).  

Zion is huge and, as it turns out, is only accessible by shuttle. By the time we got to the park all parking at the visitor center was full so we had to go into Springdale and park and then take a shuttle into Zion and then take the actual Zion shuttle to anywhere we wanted to go in the park. By that time it was already noon and everyone was hungry but the lodge was busy and expensive and my high expectations had us doing several hikes today and not stopping for lunch until we got back to Springdale. (I already admitted these were unrealistic expectations, right?) and I wasn't ready yet to give up on those expectations.

Anyway, we got off shuttle number 2 and started a very short hike to Emerald Falls. By very short I mean VERY short. Hardly can call it a hike. It was 1.2 miles round trip. The park was busy and the trail was crowded and I remembered why national parks are so challenging- oh yeah... the crowds. And although I appreciate that the parks are made accessible to everyone, it is annoying to be stuck behind a slow moving group of very old people or very out of shape people or a 30 person tour group from China or a big family holding up everyone else on the beautiful bridge because they wanted to get a photo shot without others in the frame.  Remember, I already said I was cranky. I know this feeling I was having wasn't nice and wasn't PC and wasn't pleasant but I wasn't feeling pleasant or pc or nice during this short walk. The kids didn't really want to be there and although it was absolutely stunning to look at, the crowd and heat were kind of unappealing to me, too, but being stubborn I was determined to get to the damn waterfall. We got there. We stopped for about 5 minutes, debated going further, and then turned around and walked back down. 


This is where I got even crankier and stalked ahead of everyone else, wondering quietly and angrily to myself why my children weren't more excited to be there (while, in reality even I wasn't really excited to be there...) and Brian walked behind with the kids, holding Faith's hand and quietly singing old favorites like "The Alligator King", "Stewball", and "Puff the Magic Dragon". He knew I needed my space and knew I needed to work out the discrepancy between my unrealistic expectations and my current reality. Listening to them sing and turning around occasionally to watch as he and Faith walked hand in hand down the trail, my mind calmed and my heart got lighter and I made an important decision: As soon as we reached the lodge there would be ice cream for everyone. As the saying goes, "money can't buy happiness, but it can buy ice cream, and that's pretty close".  

Seriously, even though I did decide the ice cream thing in this moment, I also decided that if what we all really wanted to do was go hang at the resort and be at the pool and do the resort activities, then that was what we were going to do. I wasn't going to force "The Peterson Death March" to all points in Zion. We got that ice cream, took the 2 shuttle trips backs to where our car was parked in Springdale, got a quick lunch, and headed back out of the park. 

The best thing about our trip in to Zion was probably the car ride. The views were beautiful and awe inspiring and the 1.1 mile tunnel through a red rock mountain was pretty unbelievable. There were even huge lookout windows carved into it.  And we got to drive through it twice. The kids loved that. We listened to more of the poor Baudelaire orphans' fate and arrived back at our camp in time for a late afternoon nap, a turn on the mini ATV's,  a brief billiards lesson from Brian for Tanner and Faith, a walk to see the horses, and some time at the pool. 

Tonight the boys are back in the Rec Barn playing ping pong and making new friends. Brian and I are reading our books and Faith is watching a movie on the iPad. Nope. It's not what I envisioned for my time at Zion National Park.... but I got to see what I wanted (even if most of it was out of the car or shuttle windows) and everyone ended up happier and better rested.