Don't Forget to Pick Me Up at the Airport!

The drive to Las Vegas was long, and uneventful. We stopped in Murrieta for some In and Out. I waved at our school's resource center which was just across the parking lot, but no one was there to wave back at 7:00 p.m. We listened to David's music, and every once in a while, I'd say "I know this song. I play it during the warmup in my Math class." or "This song is played at all of our school dances." We also enjoyed some good conversation as I asked David about life at Biola and his love life. We arrived at our motel a little before midnight. Aside from the fact that there were no towels in our room and no refrigerator, it was a decent enough stay, and breakfast was yummy.

We slept in since we had no where to be until 9:15 p.m. when Joe's plane arrived. We made a quick stop at Ethel M. Chocolates and did the self guided factory tour. We saw a worker packaging caramel apples, and that was enough to inspire me to buy one when we got into the gift shop! 

The drive to Salt Lake City was another long drive made even longer by road work, two serious car accidents, and some heavy rain. All of this happened while David was driving, poor guy. Every time we thought we  would make some headway, something else would slow us down. David ended up driving over 300 miles of day's  450 mile drive. The landscape of Utah is much prettier than Arizona and Nevada. There is a lot of emptiness in all three states, but at least there is some green in Utah. Along the way we saw turn offs for past places we've visited like Zion National Park, and Bryce Canyon National Park.

Eventually we made it into Salt Lake City, but much later than originally anticipated. So all we had time to do was eat dinner at Bruges Waffles and Frites and a quick walk through Temple Square. Bruges was much smaller than I expected, but the food was tasty. I wasn't feeling too adventurous or hungry, so I just had a Ricky Burger with frites (fries) and split it with David.

It was a handmade burger with BBQ sauce and crispy onions on top. David got the Bruges Favorite which was a sweet dense waffle with strawberries on top and a scoop of what looked like ice cream, but was sweet cream. It was delicious!

Temple Square was nearby, so after driving around the block several times with no success finding street parking, we finally parked in an underground parking structure, ready to pay the $10.00, but the attendant told us that it was free for the day. So that was nice. We parked under an LDS conference center which was just across the street from Temple Square.

It had a cool waterfall that had different levels with walkways that went across the front of it. I asked David to go up to the first walkway, but the stairs/ramp were closed. Temple Square is a 10 acre block containing the Temple and several tabernacles, two visitor center museums, a family research facility, a round  theater/conference center, gardens and more. We did a cursory walk through the visitor centers. The buildings were beautiful and the exhibits very well done. I had hoped to learn more about the history of the church's trek to Salt Lake City, but the centers were more focused on a mixture of the prophecies of the Old Testament and those of Joseph Smith along with how the Temple was built and the work of the LDS church around the world.

We had checked the flight status of Joe's plane and it was supposed to arrive at 9:15, so as Temple Square was closing at 9:00, we headed back to car. David checked the status again, saw that the plane had arrived early. Good thing the airport was so close! Before we left San Diego, Joe kept reminding me that I needed to remember to pick him up in Salt Lake City. Just because I forgot to pick up my father-in-law from the airport one time, and left my parents stranded at the airport for several hours another time, he seemed to think I might forget him too. Fortunately, I'm a better mother than daughter, but our tardiness did prompt a phone call from him asking, "Where are you guys?"

Two more hours of driving and we arrived in Pocatello, Idaho around 11:30 p.m.. I was in bed by 12:15 a.m., but the boys stayed up reading and writing until after 1:00. We're off to breakfast and today's adventure.

We're all writing this trip! Check out my son's blogs.

David's blog: http://favoritesonsspiels.blogspot.com
Joe's blog: https://joesage.wordpress.com