A Pharmacy Conference in St. George.

Nick had a pharmacy conference in St. George, UT.  I thought it sounded like a good excuse for a vacation!

Rather than staying at the Marriott this time, I decided on a more budget-friendly option; and booked a condo through VRBO.

I made the reservation at the beginning of January.  I started to get nervous when it was 10 days before our scheduled stay, and I hadn't heard anything from the owners.  Turns out, the condo was sold the week before our stay, and the new owners were very inept, when it comes to customer service.  It was not a pleasant experience.  Up until the moment we arrived at the condo, I still was not certain that we'd have a place to stay.

The condo we booked was at the Sports Village.  In the VRBO listing it said that the complex has 3 pools, and a playground.  I guess, technically, this is true.  But one of the pools was a hot tub.  And the other was a kiddie pool that was 2 feet deep, and the size of two bathtubs put together.

We spent a total of 15 minutes at the pool.  Definitely not a selling point!

The condo was dated.  Functional, but dated.

The next time we have to go to St. George for a pharmacy conference, I will pay extra to stay at the Las Palmas condo complex.  It was across the street from where we were staying, and looked a LOT nicer.

So, Nick was in class all day.  This left me with kids to entertain.  St. George, fortunately, has a lot of nice parks.  We visited several of them.

One morning, I took the kids to the LDS temple in St. George.  We wandered the grounds, and took in the beauty.  I tried to get a picture of my three little ones.  But never could get one where they were all looking at me, at the same time.

I did drag the kids shopping with me, at the outlet mall one day.  None of us enjoyed that outing.  I bought a few things at the Children's Place.  But that was the end of it.  My kids don't like to shop.  They must get that from their father.

I did a little research online, to find places to eat; but that search didn't turn up too many "must try" places.  On the way to St. George, we stopped in Fillmore, and had lunch at Cluff's Drive-In.  That was good.  In St. George we found a wood-fired pizza place, called Rigatti's.  It was A-MAZ-ING!  We ordered pizza there twice on our trip.  It was the highlight of our trip!

Beyond that, yes we were boring.  I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch one day.  At least this McDonald's had a good play place.

Cohen could get on this slide, and slide down all by himself.  He found it very entertaining.

The kids did really well in the car.  Cohen surprised me, and probably was the best behaved of my children!  We had a nice time, and we all enjoyed the sunshine.  I told Nick (more than once) that I could certainly live in St. George.  Nick's response?  That he would much rather live in a rainy/lush place (ie-Seattle), than a desert.  I guess we won't be relocating south any time soon.