Observation Peak

This was like any other day hiking in the canyon for work. I chose Observation Point because it is probably my favorite of the main canyon day hikes. It is long, 8 miles round-trip and extremely scenic with great views throughout of Zion Canyon. I decided to add a bit extra to this hike since it was nearly my last day of work. I hiked over to the normal point but then behind me looked to see that the actual summit of the mountain I had been hiking up was there. Since there was no trail, on one typically went there. I was interested to see that on top there was a survey marker with the words Observation on it. Thus, this must be Observation Peak.

The views down canyon were not quite as good, but up canyon you could get a good look at the layer of Navajo Sandstone that was carved nearly vertically providing the home of the Narrows. Zion was such an amazing place of slickrock beauty. I had some lunch up on top and then went down. I was surprised to find on my way down that there was a campfire that had been left there.
I could only imagine how old this was because no one has been able to camp near Observation Point for a while. Either that or they were camping out of bounds. Either way I cleaned it up and moved on. Unfortunately it was not far until I ran into another obstacle to my hiking progress. Someone had written with white-out on the signs. I ran into two signs just like this. One near Observation Point and one at the junction with the East Rim trail.

This was strange for Zion. We often get scratched in or carved in stuff, but no white-out. I did my best to get it off with available tools which turned out to be water and concrete that was nearby. It took about ten minutes apiece, but I believe that at the end of it all, it looked back to 95% of what the sign once was. I continued on down and let law enforcement know about the graffiti. Turns out it was all over the park and the inscription had some tie to a gang in North Carolina. Somehow they made their way to Southern Utah. It was a good day to enjoy the park a bit before going into full time Dad mode. 

The Conrad

Well, I would like to have a great intrepid story to tell about the birth of Conrad. Unlike Zyla we didn't drive through a forest fire in the pouring rain in the middle of the night and run into a snowstorm before finally making it to the hospital. No, this birth was much simpler than that. It started with a wife ready to pop this child out. Zyla was born a few weeks early, but those few weeks early came and passed for Conrad. He was enjoying the comfort of his mother's womb.
 At this point the doctor's appointments became weekly. Then, they told us to come back after the weekend. So it was now Tuesday. I went to the first half of my work day, then loaded all our overnight gear into the car for Jacqueline's doctor appointment. He took one look at the nether regions and said, "Do you want to have a baby today?" We said yes, and it was across the street to the baby hospital. St. George has such a ridiculous amount of babies that they actually have two hospitals. One for all the sick people and one mostly for babies. We had a feeling that things would be different having a baby in Utah and we were right. From the very beginning, things were very business like. They got Jacqueline to her birthing room and immediately filled her with all sorts of tubes and monitoring devices. We could see from the monitor that she actually was already in labor.
 She just didn't know it yet. They asked her if she wanted the epidural. This time there was no doubt. Then they gave her the pitosin and a few minutes later she was in for the most intense pain of her life. The epidural couldn't come soon enough. Then it was off to a blissful world of a drugged up body where Jacqueline's main concern was the fact that she could not feel anything. Unlike the last experience where the anesthesiologist gave her a weak dose so she could still feel some things, this guy gave her no such hope. In fact, she kind of was on the verge of falling asleep, while I sat reassuringly by her side playing Angry Birds. Then a nurse came and to say, oh my you are ready to push. All of this transpired in 4 hours. Amazing. The same doctor who had seen her in his office 5 hours earlier came in to have her push. One, two good pushes and out came Conrad Tenzin Drake to the world.
 His first scream sounded like a mountain lion. As the excited father, I dutifully took lots of pictures most of which turned out blurry at best. They passed him over to Jacqueline and Conrad immediately decided to pee on his mother. I cut the umbilical cord then it was all the important weights and measures. 7 pounds 4 oz., 21 inches long. The rest of the night was a blur of baby movement. Grandma and Papa were out in the waiting with Zyla. They were able to come by once Jacqueline transferred to another room.

 I stayed in the room while Zyla went back with Grandma and Papa to spend the night at their trailer in Hurricane. The night was a mess of medical issues with Jacqueline and trying to get the baby to feed. I successfully got a few hours of rest and so did Jacqueline. By eight, they made sure Jacqueline got a good feeding in for Conrad and everything seemed good by 11 am. Zyla and Grandma were back.  A woman came by who took some professional pictures since Dad probably was not the best at it.

 Then it was the quick departure preparation. Jacqueline, Conrad, and I were out the door by 7 pm off to spend the night trying to get some rest in our own beds. We picked Zyla up on the way and for the first time we were a complete family of four.