Weekend Trip to Mesquite

This past weekend Aaron finally had some time off of work so we decided we should do something really fun to celebrate all his hard work. So I had heard about this small town that was suppose to be cute and found hotel were we could stay. I also found the Valley of Fire State Park and thought that it would be really fun to go hiking in the morning. So we drove out to the park only to realize that it was mostly camping grounds and some neat national landmarks to see. Nonetheless, we were able to see some amazing ancient Indian markings. We got out of the car and still walked around the rocks. It was all red rocks, much like St. George and just as hot. We realized that we love Mt. Charleston even more because it's thirty degrees cooler than the desert. It was a lot of fun and the scenery was breathtaking. We spent several hours in the park and decided to head over to the small town of Overton that we heard about. Well were we in for a surprise! It truly was a small town with tractors riding on the main road and not a mainstream restaurant in sight. We kept driving thinking somewhere there would be a cute old fashioned downtown, but we never found it. We found a park and stopped to eat and let Ashton play. There we found one of our church buildings burned to the ground. It had been a very recent fire and we stood in awe knowing that the fire had to be set on purpose. The church looked a lot older and they had already built a new one down the street. It still made us sad to see the ruins.

After lunch we were trying to decide what to do. I realized we were only twenty minutes from Mesquite so we decided to be adventurous and stay there for the night. We checked in at the Casa Blanca hotel and while waiting for our room went to the swimming pool to play. They had an awesome pool with waterfalls and a water slide. Ashton ran up to it and wanted to go down by himself. He is not afraid of anything and swam around that pool for hours. There was a DJ there playing music and we sipped on our nonalcoholic daiquiris enjoying the sun and spending time together. It was refreshing to be at a family friendly hotel pool. We swam till Ashton was about to fall asleep floating in the pool.

After naps we got dressed went to dinner and decided to drive through the Virgin River Gorge since it was only five minutes up the road. For anyone who has driven to St. George, you know this is a beautiful drive. Aaron has never driven that far north so I knew he would think it was fun. The sun was setting as we were driving back through to our hotel. Desserts sunsets are beautiful and it made the end of the drive perfect. We had so much in just one day and it's always fun to explore other areas of the state of Nevada.