Tuesday, January 27, 2009

7 for 7

Kristen and Kimberly are my closest friends here, and conveniently live across and down the hall. On many an evening, I stop by to say "hey," study for bio, or eat the salad I picked up at the Blue Line Deli for dinner that night. On one such an evening, an idea formulated to make an adventure out of the upcoming weekend by visiting 7 of the 13 LDS temples in Utah. Mapquest was employed, a route planned, and on Saturday at noon, we were on our way!

The team:

The Navigator:
With four pages of turn-by-turn MapQuest directions in hand, Kristen guided us safely through many many towns of Provo. We missed a couple turns, but felt pretty good about our ability to work the grid system in our favor.

The Driver
I took the wheel for this excursion, and though at first daunted by my first experience on Utah's highways, I got the hang of things, and stick-shifted us safely up and down mountains, rainy and foggy roads, and I-15.

The Backseat Distributor of Snacks and Beverages
We put our Dining Plus loaded i.d. cards to good use Saturday morning and purchased a delicious array of road-trip appropriate snacks, including Ritz Bits Peanut Butter Sandwiches, Wheat Thins, Teddy Grahams, baby carrots, and M&Ms.

The Temples!
#1: Provo
We started with close-by Provo temple. I love knowing that this is where my parents were married and sealed together for eternity. This is where our family's life on earth began, and that is beautiful. (I like Provo temple at sunrise best, though. It makes Provo look so much prettier than it is.)

#2: Mount Timpanogos
#3: Draper
We missed the turn, and drove up the big, steep mountain for a while before finding a place to turn around and get back for a second try making the right turn.
We couldn't park and walk around, because the Draper temple is in open house, but we drove around, parked illegally in the neighborhood, and snapped a couple quick shots before driving away from the man on a walkie talkie who was looking at us suspiciously.

#4: Oquirrh Mountain

Notice the sunshine in these pictures. This was the only time we saw the sun all day, and it was wonderful!

#5: Jordan River

In finding a parking spot at the Jordan River temple, we drove past rows and rows of full spaces, only to see three open ones right up front! Thinking it was my lucky day, I prepared to pull into one of said spaces, when we saw this sign, designating the spot for a General Authority. Oops! We laughed at my pretentious parking attempt, and turned around for a spot in the back.

#6: Salt Lake
Before visiting Temple Square, we stopped in for dinner at the Lion House, which comes about as close to Mom and Grandma's food as possible here. I had roast beef, mashed potatoes, chicken noodle soup, and a famous roll. (I realize that roast beef and chicken noodle soup seems an odd combination, but I just took what seemed as close to Sunday dinner as I could get. It was so delicious. Mmm.)
What road trip (or any outing, study session, class, life) would be complete without a stash of Swedish Fish in my coat pocket? I shared, of course, and these little red fishies made for excellent post-Lion House snacking.
#7: Bountiful
It was getting pretty chilly by this time, but Bountiful temple was so beautiful.

The End


9 comments:

Susan said...

Great documentation! What a neat idea, and each one of them is really beautiful. I think it's so neat that you have friends that find joy in doing something of such good report!

And, I'm loving the necklace!!!

I feel as if I were right along in the backseat!

charlotte said...

I love your documentation!! Glad you had such a great mini-road trip

paws said...

Sounds like fun. It's amazing how many temples there are in such close proximity. I got a little nostalgic when I saw the Provo Temple. Lots of good memories there for me.

April said...

How fun! Did you go in an do work in any of the temples or just visit?

If you live in Utah long enough (like I did) you might actually do work (or see a wedding)in every temple. (Like I did!) This of course does not count the newest temples and I don't think I ever went to the Vernal temple, but all the rest.

Pretty cool to have so many temples so close. I love the big ones: SLC, Manti, St. George, Logan and even Provo is much bigger then it looks. I think there are like 4 or 5 floors.

It makes me miss provo so much to see all your fun adventures!! And I am glad that there are some normal girls to be friends with on your floor!! :)

Diana said...

That is an awesome outing. You guys are so cute. Lou and I got married in the Bountiful Temple. I am glad you made it up there although it was getting late and the weather wasn't the best.

michelle said...

What a great idea!! I've never seen all of these temples in person. I've never even heard of Oquirrh Mountain! (where the heck is it?)

I love your thoughts on the Provo Temple - they make me like it more. Mostly I love that this was something you and your friends wanted to do.

Denise said...

I LOVE this post! Even though you told me all about your adventure on the phone, I love reading about it and seeing the photo documentation. My favorite is the photo of you by the "General Authorities" sign.

I'm with Michelle: Where the heck is Oquirrh Mountain? Never heard of it. All of the temples are so beautiful, and I think it is so neat that you now have pictures of you and your friends by each one. I really like the picture of the three of you at the end.

I love you!

thepostproducer said...

Yay! Productive day! Your coat and umbrella are super cute! Swedish fishies are delicious! =) Did you take your car on those mountain roads? Trecherous.

Paula said...

Two things that might interst you on this subject - Rob and Misty live about a block and a half from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple - AND there is a spot up in the hills west of So Jordan that, with a little help from binoclulars, you can see all of these temples without moving your feet! Cool.
ps. I enjoy your blog!