Steak, Salt Lake, and BYU Saturday Afternoon Football

 

The first week in November, Jim and I took off for Utah for another week at the Family History Library.  Our first night there we stayed in Draper with Art and Rhonda before taking off for Salt Lake the next morning, and had an incredible dinner with the most incredible steak we have ever eaten – ANYWHERE – EVER. 

 Rhonda and Art are quite a team when it comes to putting on a meal you wish would never end.

Grilling a melt-in-your-mouth steak like this really is a perfected art.

  

I’m so sorry you couldn’t be there. 

 When I looked out our side window in Salt Lake one morning and saw this, I scrambled for my camera and went charging out the door.   On my way out, I called to Jim to come hold open the front door to the building, (which was only used as an exit and was just a few feet from our room and kept locked),  so that  I could get back in without having to go all the way around to the entrance and up several flights of stairs.  In my rush, I completely forgot that I had just showered, had soaking wet hair, no shoes nor make up on, and had changed pants and no longer had the room key in my pocket.  I also didn’t realize that Jim had just left his key on the dresser, and the front desk wouldn’t open until 8 a.m.,  which it wasn’t yet.

The good news was  that we didn’t actually freeze to death and I was able to get some lovely shots.  The bad news was that the front desk person with a key to our place was VERY, VERY late for work.

 

Being forced to stop and smell the roses had its benefits. The conference center across the street was dressed to kill.

The new Church History Library next door somehow had them blooming even at this time of year.

The red brick building there is “The Kimball”, the site of Heber C. Kimball’s old home, and a great location for our time share, as it practically sits on temple square.

 We spent all day Saturday in Provo with Jim patiently walking the streets rather early in the morning, while I got my hair cut.  The walk afterwards to Lavell Edwards Stadium was breathtaking.  It will be noted that there are “His” and “Her” reasons why we time our trips to Salt Lake for the spring and for the fall. 

This would be a “His” reason.

    

 I actually didn’t mind seats in the end zone.  There was plenty of action going on down there.  Heaps (#9) has just handed off to an unidentified flying football player.

 And flying cheerleaders are always fun to watch.

 Heaps is now passing off to Di Luigi (#10).

Heaps has just passed it, but beats me what happens next.

This ended up being a great catch from clear across the field which caused much joy and rejoicing most everywhere.

Joy and rejoicing can be very noisy with 65,000+  people.

 Every time our team made a touchdown, the Army ROTC shot off a cannon.  I wish they would’ve warned me the first time.

Then a group of them would run out and do one push up for every point the team had scored up to that time.

Personally, I thought they were as much fun to watch as the football players.

The BYU Football players were merciless. 

I felt so sorry for these guys.  By the end of the game, one of the cadets was struggling to make it to that 55th push up.

 

We had the most wonderful day wandering around campus, eating at Bajios, shopping at the bookstore, investigating new buildings, visiting others, and even stopping off at the place where we both took American Heritage as Seniors,  (which officially jump started our month-long courtship), discovering a whole new walk along a creek with waterfalls, huge rock features and bridges, attending a BYU Women’s volleyball game, and ending the evening with ice cream at “The Creamery on 9th.”

We weren’t expecting to see anyone we knew so far from home, so it was a fun surprise to run into some fellow Waltons -- Scott and Elisha and Amy and her fiancée, Chris 2.0,  at the Wilkinson Center.

There is only one place to be on a Sunday morning in Salt Lake.

After the filming of “Music and the Spoken Word” ended, they announced that we had an unexpected visitor.  We’re clear across the Tabernacle from him, and my zoom can only do so much, but it was exciting to have the prophet there.

If I were drawing up plans for heaven, it would look an awful lot like this.

 

Another crack at trying to get a picture of us as a couple.  We kind of waited for someone to take our picture that looked like they might be able to handle a camera and get us in focus.  The first potential prospect we saw coming down the sidewalk had a massive camera and a swagger.  I thought for sure he would know how to take pictures with equipment like that.  Lesson learned:  Never judge a photographer by his camera.  A much older gentleman walked by.  We decided to ask him, and really, with what he had to work with, we were happy.

 

 

We visited the South Visitors’ Center to see the new replica they have created of the Salt Lake Temple.  “Amazing” is such a lame word.

It’s impossible to be anything but astounded at the incredible detail.  They’ve placed the replica in exactly the same orientation as the temple behind it.

 

Every time we attend the Salt Lake Temple, we wish we could look at a map to see where we actually are as we move from room to room.  To heck with maps. 

I wish I could’ve got a close-up picture of the room where the First Presidency and Quorum of Twelve meet every Thursday morning, but you can see it up there below the Assembly Room.  It even has a white organ and the same pictures on the wall. 

The world room.

The Assembly Room.

The detail on the side of the temple.

The Celestial Room.

I couldn’t believe they had even copied the same  flaws in the granite blocks around the Big Dipper. 

I loved the lighting in the turrets.  What an opportunity for non members as well as members, to see the inside of this historic Temple. 

What a wonderful week—almost like a visit to heaven and back.