First Day Off. Sunday, May 1

As the sun came up over the mountain ridges on Sept. 30, 1852, Richard Harrison proclaimed that the time had arrived and ordered an ironworker to take a pole and tap the furnace.  As he did, a small stream of molten iron came belching out.  The crowd began to dance and cheer, shouting "HOSANNA," as the first iron poured from the furnace.  Before nightfall, Harrison and the tree others were on their way to Salt Lake City to carry the good news and a bar of pig iron to Brigham Young.

The continental breakfast at the Stratford Court can be a rather decadent experience.  Preferred company breakfast includes coffee (of course) and the make-your-own-waffles supplemented with almond butter, yogurt, bananas, and honey.  Add a little sugar flakes on top and you're golden.  It's always entertaining to be seen bringing your own condiments down to the breakfast room.  Tacky, maybe.  SF left-coast reflective, extremely.   No shame in our game, though.  We like to eat.

Sunday was very much a Sunday.  We took a late morning stroll through town to check out a small carnival set up at the end of the business district on Main Street.  There's the local cafe complete with couches and a grand white piano on a raised stage and inside entrance to an adjacent bookstore.  Small clothing stores, a few restaurants, the town gym, and barbershop where the pleasant 33-year old owner can fix a self inflicted haircut for a fair price.  Pass Lin's grocery (where our name was in lights!), the Dollar Tree, and the new barbecue restaurant.  Continuing on, we past the main green space that sits next to the new library, the old barbecue restaurant, now with "For Lease" posted on the door, and the well kept cemetery with the usual rows of stones adorned with plastic memorial flower kits that can actually be purchased up the street in a special section at Lin's. 

The town opens up here, making room for the Iron County Visitors Center and a pioneer museum.  The museum is closed on Sunday but the visitor center is open 7 days a week and can be a very nice place to hang out.  Rocking chairs and coaches, lots of reading materials and even a special room with an interactive touch screen guide to recreational opportunities in the area.  Cedar City rests in an optimal spot for exploring some of the country's most beautiful wildness: most noteworthy Bryce Canyon, Zion National Park, and the Grand Canyon.  The city was originally settled in late 1851 by Mormon pioneers originating from Parowan, UT who were sent to build an iron works.  (It was named after the abundant trees that happen to actually be Junipers).  The iron works closed in 1858 though iron mining continued until the late 1980's.  The 20's brought the railroad connection that set the town on the map as a tourism gateway.  The town has banked on this as best it can ever since.  Now dubbed "Festival City USA," Cedar City hosts the annual Utah Shakespearean Festival, Neil Simon Theatre Festival, the Utah Summer Games, and smaller local events like Groovefest.  We haven't quite gotten our brains wrapped around why, for a "festival city", circus at the local theatre may be shunned – aside from the fact that not many people knew we were here. 

Carnival not open till noon.  Oh well.  We headed back to Lin's to forge for a lunch spread laid out back at the hotel room.  A loooong nap for many of us followed by the inevitable trip to Walmart for Mark, Abby and David.  It's a cliché, but what you think you want or need and why you went often has little to do with what you end up loading in your car.  The first distraction came before even pulling into the parking lot – PUPPIES! Baby beagles being sold out of a card board box at the entrance.  Dad was sitting in the passenger seat of the family car with door open, just now giving the precious squirming puppies their inoculations while Mom and daughter were all grins placing the dogs in any seduced hands that strolled by.  We had to stop.  Bella needs a Beagle, no?  No.  We managed to get out of there in less than two hours, but barely, with items checked off the list and a spider plant instead of a dog.  It was the right choice.

Half the group went to Don Miguel's, a great Mexican restaurant ¾ mile up the road, while the rest took advantage of JB's well equipped kitchen set up in the hotel room.  Shut the day down by watching and over analyzing the recording of one of Saturday's shows.  Then, of course, got absorbed in the Obama's speech that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Ladin.  When we departed CA, the world was a-gaga over the royal wedding, many of us have been transfixed and closely following the reports of the tornadoes in the southwest, and now bin Ladin takes the stage as he's been permanently taken out.  The word keeps spinning and we all carry on.  

Experiencing iron history.