It's been a long day, even though it's only 3:45 p.m. local time.

Of course that local time is in Utah - with me. I'm on vacation this week, and I thought I'd share a few of my experiences with you. Unfortunately for you, there haven't been too many sights seen so far on this first day.

Our flight left Minneapolis at about 9 a.m. central time and arrived in Las Vegas at about 10 a.m. Pacific time after just over a two-hour flight. They played "Breach" during the flight. It was pretty good.

As soon as we walked outside of the airport (which was full of slot machines), we felt a furnace blast of hot air. If was already near 95 degrees and it wasn't even noon yet.

We took a shuttle to the car rental place, and while the girls signed all the appropriate papers, the guys watched part of "Shrek" in the lobby.

We're in some sort of Ford SUV, and it's pretty nice. It doesn't have a navigation system, and we got lost once between Vegas and our final destination of St. George, Utah. Along the right way, though, we drove through some very barren landscape that made me realize how deadly it would be to get lost in the dessert sun. There were some beautiful smaller canyons and a few neat mountain-esque peaks.

Now I'm in a hotel in St. George. We decided to use today to investigate the hotel's outdoor pool area and to stock up on supplies for our excursions this week. The tentative schedule is to visit the Grand Canyon on Tuesday and finish up the week with the more difficult hikes through Zion National Park -- through an area known as The Narrows and to Angel's Landing.

The pictures are from the plane window and from the car along our road, but there will be better pictures tomorrow!