Dave and Gretta: October 2015

Visiting Michael Flindt in Rexburg

What a fun day! Dave and I drove to Rexburg, Idaho, on October 24, 2015, to visit our grandson, Michael Flindt, at BYU-Idaho. Michael is a freshman majoring in computer science. We have spent time with Michael and his family many times, but we haven't had "alone" time with Michael in quite a while. He was delightful--eager to show us around the campus and tell us about his life as a college student, interesting, accommodating, and appreciative.

We spent nearly an hour walking through the campus. There were many new, attractive buildings for BYU-Idaho's 20,000 plus students. The Engineering Building, where Michael takes most of his classes, is above. A favorite spot for all of us was the beautiful botanical gardens. I also enjoyed the displays about former presidents, who include several of my relatives, including George S. Romney and Henry Eyring. I have also recently learned that my Hamilton relatives were early settlers of Sugar City, Idaho, which became Rexburg. Michael has lots of ties to Rexburg.

After our tour of the BYU-Idaho campus, we shopped for groceries with Michael at WalMart.

Dave checked out "Yelp" to find a good restaurant, so we could treat Michael to lunch. We followed our GPS to a barbecue place with four stars, but all we could see was a gas station. Dave called the barbecue restaurant, and a server said, "We're inside the gas station." The barbecue was great, despite its humble surroundings!

We dropped Michael off at his apartment and told him how much we're looking forward to seeing him again this Christmas.

Goblins and Snowmobiles

What can a 65-year-old and a 68-year-old do for Halloween? We headed for Frightmares at Lagoon, of course. First, though, we went to Weller Recreation and then to the cabin to resolve the future of our snowmobiles, a sensitive issue. The date: October 17, 2015.

Dave's first position was that the snowmobiles would be sold, since it was too expensive to pay for a shed to keep them in, and he didn't like using them, anyway. His second position was that we could keep the snowmobiles, but that they would have to sit on our cabin property under a tarp all winter, and that he wouldn't use them. See snowmobiles under tarp, below.

Dave's third position was that we could pay for the shed, put the snowmobiles in it, and he would participate in a snowmobile party at Christmastime.

We (I) had high hopes of riding Cannibal, Lagoon's newest roller coaster, with cars that not only fall straight down, but curve under. It was not to be. It started raining as soon as we reached Lagoon. The line for Cannibal was two hours long, and the people in line didn't budge, despite the downpour. I love roller coasters, but that was simply too dreary. We agreed to come back on October 30 to visit the seven haunted houses at Lagoon and to try, once more, to ride Cannibal.

President Ravindran of Rotary International

Rotary International has more than one million members worldwide, including me. I have been a member of the SLC club since the early 1990s. October 16, 2015, was an exciting day, because President Ravi Ravindran, president of Rotary International, addressed the Utah clubs. He was in town as a speaker for the Congress of World Religions at the Salt Palace. Rotary presidents frequently come from foreign countries. President Ravindran is a citizen of Sri Lanka, a major tea producer, and his company is one of the largest sellers of tea bags in the world. President Ravindran spoke about Rotary International's many charitable initiatives, including obliterating polio. I was impressed with his intelligence, modesty, and wit, and with his obvious competence in managing Rotary as a world organization.

Salt Lake's International Children's Choir provided the music. Their singing was good, but their costumes were even better--richly embroidered and embellished folk clothes from around the world.

Shakespeare and Landscape

We drove to St. George, the weekend of October 10, 2015, to enjoy fall in Southern Utah. We also had tickets to two more plays at the Shakespeare Festival. The sky was blue and the days were cool and beautiful.

The plays, "Dracula" and Shakespeare's "Two Gentleman of Verona", were as memorable as all this season's plays have been. One of my goals, this year, has been to learn more about Shakespeare's comedies and to like them better. I read both "Two Gentlemen of Verona" and a critique of it before seeing the play, and that make all the difference. I found the play witty and thought-provoking. Horror is not normally Dave's and my thing, but, again, the Shakespeare Festival can take any subject matter and make it captivate. We were intrigued by the Victorian view of science and religion which were embedded in the play.

Dave and I never tire of the scenery between St. George and SLC. The view from our home towards Pine Mountain is a study in blue, red, and sage. As we descend from the mining town of Eureka into the Utah Valley, there are miles of sagebrush, but also the gray/turquoise Utah Lake and the Wasatch Mountains of home.

A Moveable Feast

The Saturday of General Conference started out magnificently, with a rainbow spanning both sides of the road to our cabin. We watched morning and afternoon sessions of Conference with Mike and Heidi, pausing in between for lunch at the Gateway Grill in Kamas. We had high hopes of Camille and the Eberts joining us at the cabin on Sunday for the morning session of Conference and a very traditional, roast beef dinner.

It was not to be. The TV at the cabin began to malfunction during the Priesthood Session of Conference on Saturday night, so we moved people and food back to SLC. It was a treat to have Grant join us from BYU, while Spencer attended a session in the Conference Center downtown with friends.

We heard great counsel from all the speakers, and we especially enjoyed hearing from the prophet, Thomas Monson. There were three new apostles. President Monson seemed weak and fragile, so perhaps the current changes are not over.

Camille and her children joined us for Sunday dinner, between the morning and afternoon sessions of Conference. Camille has devised Conference traditions that are so compelling that the children wanted to rush right home after eating! Camille said something about Conference bingo, with M'n'Ms as markers....

Dinner was as traditional as the speakers--roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy, green salad, hot rolls, and Camille's apple cake.

Annelise took pictures as I worked with the food. She is becoming a talented photographer.

Park City Glitz and The Real Thing

"How much fun can we have in Park City without buying anything?" we asked ourselves. Park City is an alluring place, full of art galleries, high end clothing stores, and fancy restaurants. We spent a delightful few hours, on September 26, 2015, ogling the $500 cowboy boots and the $5000 paintings.

We did stumble once, in adding to Dave's "cute hat" collection. It was a Victorian number with an attitude.

We avoided the most expensive restaurants, settling for a Japanese bistro with a bit of style. My shrimp tempura was excellent, although Dave's arugula, beet and goat cheese salad was more style than substance....

After all the Park City froth, we appreciated how basic and real our little Pine Mountain cabin was. We savored the sunset, which ignited the golden aspen.