We drove home to TN in two long days.
We made good time and listened to "The first four years" (a continuation of little house on the prairie) and "Where the Red Fern Grows" as well as part of "Tom Sawyer".
We didn't stop to see any sights, only stopping at Lincoln, NE long enough to sleep and then on again. America is a big country. Someday we will ride it by bike. (Bucket List item #10).
We lost an hour coming back to Central time, its not a pleasant thing.
We should send out a special thanks to all who hosted us on our trip, especially my mom. We also regret not being able to see so many of our friends. We focused this trip mostly on family, but recognize that we need to return more often. We hope in the meantime that this blog will keep you somewhat up to date on our happenings and hope you will reciprocate by starting a blog of your own (or sending us the link to your blog if you already have one.) Reading others blogs has been one of our great joys.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wedding
AM’s brother JRR was married Friday. It was the second marriage for both he and his fiancé. On Thursday evening, we had a dinner for all of AM brothers and sisters. to meet his fiancé. AM spent all the day getting food ready for the dinner. J&HR drove up from California with their two twins, which was really exciting, as we hadn’t seen them for a long time. AM’s adopted mother and father also came, so it gave our kids another chance to meet them. Perhaps the most surprising thing is how grown-up J& PM's oldest daughter M is. She has become a very personable and vivacious young woman.
The wedding was held in the beautiful backyard of J’s fiancé’s sister. The weather was perfect, not too hot, but no moisture either. J& SL and many of their adult children and their families came, as well as J&PM and their kids, J&HR and their kids, SR and her daughter K, as well as AM’s parents. So it was a nice little reunion. J and M were married with ME and one of J and H’s twin daughter acting as flower girls/ring bearers
WALL-E
ME, SAM, and Belle got together one last time, along with JP and JA to watch Wall-E. As always Pixar delivers, but this tale is a bit more stark and stylish than other Pixar films, so while the four year olds sit thru it, I can’t tell if they enjoy it as much as Ratatouille or Cars. I find the film brilliant. The film uses many of the visual themes from 2001, a space odyssey, which I finished reading on the way to Utah, so of course this fits in perfectly. There is probably a 20 minute section of the film while essentially wordless, but beautifully unfolds the premise of the story. Its themes of loss, the dangers of overconsumption, idleness, and waste, the need for love, and the spirit of stewardship over the Earth are all off course favorites of mine.
Timp Cave
JP and SS decided that a short easy climb to Timp cave would be just the thing to cure their tired legs. While the parking lot was all full, there were still walk-up reservation times for tours available with not too long a wait. Hikers are given an official start time 1.5 hrs before their cave reservation time. We started at our appointed time (11:20 am) but found it only took us 45 minutes to ascent to the cave. It’s a lot shorter than I remembered it as a child. Fortunately, the tour group at 12:20 had two slots available so we didn’t have to wait all the way until 12:50 for our tour. The cave has not changed, but of course the park service continues to modify its approach to the cave and every tour guide is different.. Although at first we seemed to be rushing thru the cave, by the end we had settled into a good rhythm. The cave really is quite fantastic and competes very well with all the caves we have been to in the Southeast, even if it is relatively small.
Visit to Grandpa’s.
We visited with Grandpa for lunch and a game of Triomino’s. JA wins handily. After hearing that it hasn't been doing very well it was good to see that he has been doing better. Getting quite old of course, and I think he has a hard time hearing conversations very well, but still a great story-teller. I focus on having Grandpa tell about growing up in Moab, as I know that our kids have not heard any of these. I can't seem to find the pictures we took, maybe they got downloaded somewhere else.
Back to Zion’s
Our final day in Zion’s is relatively short. We all hike the ½ mile roundtrip to Weeping Rock and then we drive up to Checkerboard Mesa to get views from the top of Zions. We then drive home, mostly without incident although our “out of fuel” gauge comes on as we try to make it back to the land of cheaper gas in Utah County before refueling our gas-guzzling minivan.
On our way home we also stop off to visit one of the people who went to graduate school with me. It was a great visit and we envied their awesome house.