We ended up having a Pontiac Vibe for a rental (same thing as a Toyota Matrix). I'm glad AM got the RAV4, because the Vibe drives worse than her Focus did. Once we got the car (which is a quick process), we got on the 15 heading north to go to Springdale, UT. It took about 2.5 hours to get there (~ 150 miles), and the winds were little bad, but overall it was nice. I like road trips where we just talk most of the way.
When we got into Springdale, we checked into the bed & breakfast. It was a really nice place called the Novelhouse Inn. We stayed in the C.S. Lewis room because AM loved the Narnia series. The owners, Ross & Norma, were very nice people that we enjoyed talking too. They've had the place for about 10 years, so they have some interesting stories about the area. The assistant met us at the door and checked us into our room. After that, we went for lunch at the Pioneer Restaurant. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything special either. After lunch, we stopped at the ice cream shop next door and tried some of their fudge. We ended up getting a quarter pound of Oreo fudge and a quarter pound of White Chocolate & Macademia Nut fudge. Good stuff.
After we had done that, we then went back to our room and got what we needed for hiking (my camera, her backpack, and appropriate clothes), then headed over to Zion. For the first day, we decided we would do a warm-up hike to get us ready for the rest of the vacation. Since we already knew what a couple of the trails were like, we did the Upper and Middle Emerald Pools trails again. Because we are just now coming out of winter, there was a lot less color than the last time (last time we had a beautiful array of fall colors on the trees). However, while there was less color, there was a lot more water. The waterfalls were absolutely gorgeous. The waterfall at the Upper Emerald Pool actually still had some snow behind it (permanently shaded area), creating a really nice effect.
For dinner on the first night, we went to a place called "The Spotted Dog". They have the most excellent chicken salad we've ever had. Blackened chicken, spinach, romaine lettuce, cabbage, mandarin oranges, walnuts, crumbed blue cheese, and raspberry vinaigrette. All of the flavors from each combined to form a great medley. For the main course, I had lamb shank and AM had a rather exotic meat loaf with beef, elf, and bison. After dinner, we decided to go to a desert place called Dolce Vita right in front of the B&B we were staying at. The owner's name was Roslyn, and it turns out she is Ross and Norma's daughter. Very nice person, with a lot of life and seems genuinely to like people. I had the hot chocolate (which she makes the mix herself), and AM had some tea. We both also had a dish called "Wild Lovers Delight". It had a huckleberry mouse in the middle that was divine.