Day 2

Day 2 started off with a yummy breakfast (fruit and yogurt parfait for me and omelet for Morian) and then a drive to Zion National Park. Well technically, right outside the park. We met up with a guide from the Zion Mountain School to go rock climbing. We ended up going up near Kolob Canyon (I think) just outside the outside boundary of the park. We weren't exactly sure what the weather was going to be like and unfortunately, we were a little under-dressed. We were in the shade almost the whole time and it was windy so we were cold in our shorts. Thankfully I had brought my jacket and our guide had an extra one for Morian.

This was the first rock we climbed.

 Our guide (I can't remember his name!) explaining to Morian how to belay him while he climbed up and set up the rope for us. 

 And up he goes

 Then it was my turn! I've rock climbed before (on actual rocks- not an indoor wall) but it was 9 years ago!

 Yea, I made it!

 Morian went up next- he just zoomed right up! I have a video of him climbing but it's too big to load. Bummer.

 He made it to the top!

Here he is coming back down:

This is the second rock we climbed. It was pretty high and tucked in behind another rock.

 Here Morian is standing at the bottom and you can just barely see our guide at the top middle of the picture. And he wasn't even all the way to the top yet!

 Once again I went first. We had to do some climbing backwards.

 Okay, even though I'm totally embarrassed about it, I'll admit that I didn't make it all the way to the top on this one! I was almost there, but I go to a part where it was like straight up and there was only a vertical crack for me to use to hoist myself up higher. I just couldn't get a good enough stronghold to get me up any higher, so after standing there with my hand stuffed into the crack for like 5 minutes, I finally gave up.

 Morian's turn

 After we finished climbing, we ate lunch and then we took the shuttle to the gates of the park, only to find out it cost a lot more than we were expecting to get into the park, so we just went back to our B&B. The race was now in full swing in town so we had some major detours to take to get back to our place. Frustrating! But we made it and decided to go swimming. The water was freezing so we didn't actually swim, or even last in the water too long. 

We ate dinner that night at Olive Garden.