Swiss Days Festival

One of the things we love about traveling around the country is going to local festivals.  So when we found out that the nearby town of Santa Clara was celebrating their Swiss Festival, we made plans to attend.  We even set that despicable alarm clock when we read that they had a community breakfast to start the day.  We should have taken a picture of the plateful of eggs, sausages and big pancakes, complete with milk, orange juice and fresh fruit.  It was quite a bargain for $3.

We have been going to food festivals all over Colorado (like the  Sweet Corn Festival and the Peach Festival), so we were hoping for Swiss food today.  Denisa was imagining Swiss cheese, while Mark was thinking Swiss chocolate.  We didn't see either.  But we did see the parade.  The only thing that resembled Switzerland was the oompah band in the back of someone's pickup, and this Swiss chalet float.

We also saw the old style fire truck, with the firemen throwing candy to the crowd.

There were old cars and tractors, also throwing candy.  As you can see, Denisa had her own space at the curb.  So when candy fell at her feet, she was compelled to pick it up.  Soon it became a game to try to fill Mark's pockets.  When he could no longer walk because of all the weight in his pockets, we were relieved that the parade was over.

If we have trick-or-treaters, we now have candy to hand out.  You can spot an opened Dots box and an empty tootsie roll wrapper, so there is some doubt that this candy will still be around by the end of October.

The crowds from the parade moved down the street where the vendor booths were set up.  We wandered through the booths, but again we only buy souvenirs that we can eat.  We are already taking home candy souvenirs, so we didn't buy anything today.

There were also people walking the parade route, giving away coupons and free samples.  Our favorite coupon was to Zeppe's Italian Ice and Gelato Store.  We had to redeem our coupons for free kiddy gelatoes before we left town.  Their version of a gelato is a layer of frozen custard, topped with your chosen flavor of Italian ice, and a generous swirl of frozen custard on top.  That was the largest kiddy serving we have experienced, and a very tasty treat!

On our way home, we drove by two more Utah state parks.  We have managed to use that state park pass enough to pay for itself this month.  We didn't take any pictures at Quail Creek Lake state park, tucked among the colorful striped mountains.  But below is a picture of Sand Hollow State Park.  They have 16,000 acres of open sand and trails, and we saw ATVs zipping across that red sand on this Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday we attended services at a little local church, and spent most of the day relaxing before our moving day.  We've been here at Willow Wind RV park in Hurricane, Utah, for a week, and really enjoyed the area.  We got a good send off our last night, as we watched the Blood Red Super Moon rise--another of God's wonders!