300 Miles to Mow the Lawn

"I've got to mow the lawn," David insisted, in explaining why May 20-22 was the weekend to visit our house in St. George. Luckily, we also found other things to do! Dave visited his mom and learned that she is recovering well from her fall. We also checked out the new St. George airport and its museum of old airplanes and attended a concert in a spectacular amphitheater near Zions Park.

While at the airport, we ran into Grandma Spendlove's husband, Darrell Barrett, with his son. For Darrell's 87th birthday, his son bought him a 45-minute ride in a fighter jet! At the airport museum, David pointed out the Russian MIGs which flew during the Korean War...

and a T-33 jet like the one he flew when he went to Air Force boot camp in California in 1969.

There was also an unidentified jet which was just cool-looking.

We next visited the St. George Art Museum, which always has something interesting (as long as you are not too particular about what that interesting thing is). There were still life paintings by someone named Becker...

and a display on the relationship between African baskets and the sweet grass baskets woven by the African-Americans around Charleston, South Carolina.

The Art Museum has a beautiful setting, with flowers and a waterfall.

We enjoyed watching a wedding party pose for pictures.

Of course, we needed our fix of steak and baked sweet potatoes at the Texas Roadhouse...

and our fix of peanuts in the shell and cute waitresses in cowboy hats.

In the evening, we drove to Zions Park...

for a choir concert at the O.C. Tanner Amphitheater. The setting was spectacular. The concert of Frank Sinatra and Broadway tunes was light and diverting.

Somehow, in the midst of all those diversions, Dave even got some yard work done.

There was, as usual, church at the Coral Canyon ward. Since Dave and I usually forget to take church clothes with us on our weekend trips, I wore a vintage suit (skirt well above the knee) and shoes that had been stored in our St. George house for the last ten years.

And, on the way home, we stopped for ice cream in Lynndyl. Next time we'll have to Go Western and choose a big yellow pickup truck like this one as our rental car.

Going Back East

"Going back east" usually means a trip to Boston or New York City. Oakley and Moab, though, are quaint Utah towns east of Salt Lake City, and they were the focus for fun during the weekend of May 13-15.

Daniel Moreland and his girlfriend, Sammy, stayed with us on Friday and Saturday nights. Daniel is driving to Spokane to sell security systems for the summer before returning to college in San Marcos, Texas. Sammy came along from her home in Dallas to keep Daniel company. They proved (for Steve and Camille's benefit) that Dallas really is a 19-hour drive from SLC. We took Daniel and Sammy to the cabin on Saturday, since Daniel has great memories of summer weeks spent there with his mom, Joshua, Ben, and Charlotte. We then stopped for barbecued ribs and apple pie at the Road Island Diner in Oakley.

We read, on the menu, that the diner was parked in Providence, Rhode Island, for many years. Finally, it was bought by a Utahn and transferred west by truck.

Dave lay eight quarters on the table. Daniel and Sammy picked the eight tunes they wanted from the jukebox, and we talked together about the groups Dave and I recognized and the ones we'd have to be 20 or younger to know about. Daniel and Sammy laughed at Dave's and my story of visiting Saltair to see the view and nearly paying $40 apiece to hear the heavy metal group, Korn, which happened to be playing there.

Michael spent the weekend in Moab, another town "back east" of Salt Lake City. He ran the Red Rock Relay, a 70-mile run through the rock towers and arches near Moab.

Jody and Josh Kennedy put together a 6-person relay team, including Michael. They rode to Moab in a van painted for the occasion.

Aloha, Boston

Steve and Camille are moving to Dallas as soon as they sell their house. Dave and I are delighted that they'll be closer to SLC (19 hours by car, one short leg of a plane flight). We are grieving, though, that we won't visit Boston as frequently. Instead of saying goodbye to Boston, after our May 4-9 visit, we softened it to "Aloha," or "See you later."

Our first surprise, in visiting Lisa or Camille, is always how much the kids have grown and changed. Quiet, proper Mia is now quite the ham, posing for the camera as if it were an old friend.

Ezra ran to put on his favorite outfit to show me--the leather vest that his father, Steve, wore as a little boy.

Dave and I took Mia and Ezra to Friendly's for lunch and ice cream.

Ezra, at 4, can already find his way through the mazes printed on his kiddie placemat.

"Make mine mac'n'cheese."

Camille and Emilie joined us for sundaes.

Camille then deputized Steve as babysitter.

Dave, Camille, and I drove into downtown Boston to visit the Museum of Fine Art.

We were delighted with the Chihuly exhibit of huge, blown glass installations, which reminded us of Seattle/Tacoma, where Chihuly is headquartered and blown glass is a major art form.

We also loved the new American Wing.

We visited its three floors of art of the Americas, from Precolumbian artifacts to the world's finest collection of portraits by Revolutionary War era artist John Copley, to works by Whistler and Sargent.

We hurried home for Emilie's choir concert. The middle school group took high honors during a recent competition in New York City.

Camille, Dave, and I spent all day Friday visiting Block Island, in Long Island Sound, as Steve again supervised the kids. We took a ferry from the Rhode Island coast to Block Island, a remoter version of Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket.

The Block Island shore was dominated by quaint hotels and shops.

Of course, we needed mopeds for an island circle tour.

We passed picturesque lighthouses...

summer homes with their brambles, wood porches, and rock walls...

and stunning coastal views.

So many moments were camera-worthy.

We spent the evening in Providence, Rhode Island, enjoying the quaint Italian quarter with its restaurants and Renaissance chapel and tower.

We ate supper at Al Forno's, a gourmet Italian restaurant with a purple ceiling and a great view across the river to renovated factory buildings.

Camille ordered me the Al Forno Cookbook for Mother's Day and pledged me to share the recipe for tomato and sausage sauce.

On Saturday, Dave, Steve, and Camille attended the kids' games while I spent personal time with all the kids who had birthdays since I last visited. Ezra spent his birthday money at Learning Express on toy airplanes and bubble-blowing machines...

with we made yet another visit to Friendly's for ice cream and mazes.

Sophia bought a purple outfit at the American Girl store, as well as earrings for her doll. What would my thrifty mother think, I asked myself, seeing me spending good money for doll earrings? I answered my own question: the purpose of birthday money is to buy dreams, and if doll earrings do that for the birthday girl, they're financeable.

Sophia chose peanut butter cheesecake for her treat.

I made the trek back to the American Girl store again with Annelise, who also wanted some doll earrings...

as well as orange chicken, pad thai, and mango lassi in the multi-ethnic mall food court.

Emilie chose shorts, shirts, and blue nail polish from Delia's and Old Navy, and a frozen yogurt sundae.

Back home, the Real Men had fixed a dinner of Grandpa's famous hamburgers and corn on the cob.

On Sunday afternoon, after Church, we drove north for a picnic at Halibut State Park on Cape Ann.

We then drove to picturesque Rockport, where we huddled in a pastry shop on this chilly day for fruit crisp.

When we got home, there was still time for Camille to bake and frost a birthday cake for Annelise.

Before our plane left on Monday afternoon, we hiked with Camille, Sophia, Ezra, and Mia through a state park near the Ebert home.

We ate lunch at the Wayside Inn (lobster mac'n'cheese for me, a local specialty)...

before saying, "Aloha."