Rebekah Hope | Memories and Melodies from the Mississippi Coast: Summer 2015

When my sister, Sarah, and I left Utah in March (see previous blog posts), our friends told us about how pretty Temple Square is at Christmas, and how we should come for the Vocal Point concerts in December, and how much fun we'd have skiing...to which we replied, "That would be great! But we can't afford it!" So we left, not knowing if or when we'd be back. We told our friends they should come to the beaches in Alabama and Florida this summer,

and they said they'd love to, so we were all hoping that would happen...maybe.

Fast forward one month to early April. We realized neither our schedules nor our Utah friends' would work out for any of them to come to the South for a visit...and at the same time, we realized that some very dear friends of ours would be celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary (!!!) in California in early August. We also had the thought that ReMix Vocal Academy would be going on right around that same time, and we just might be able to see our friends in California and go to the ReMix concerts all in the same week. (ReMix is a week-long acappella singing summer camp that Vocal Point helps put on every year.)

We quickly made phone calls and had FaceTime chats and looked up flight prices and next thing we knew, our summer travel plans were set!

(We were thinking there would be no way we could afford the airfare, but Southwest Airlines has some incredibly low prices and we booked the whole trip--all three legs of it--for $600! We are so thankful for the Lord's timing and provision!)

So, the last week in July, we found ourselves at the New Orleans airport. We were so happy to be flying again.

We recreated a photo we took in March. :)

We waved goodbye to NOLA...

...and, a few hours later, said hi to San Diego!

When we booked our flights, we were sad when we realized we wouldn't have a long enough stop in San Diego to see our dad's cousin Alice. But when we arrived in San Diego, we found out our next flight had been delayed an hour! So I called Cousin Alice and asked if she might by any chance be able to drive over to the airport! She said, "Yes! Give me 20 minutes and I'll be there!" We ended up having only about 5 minutes to see her but it was wonderful.

Soon, we were back in the air over the beautiful California coast.

I'm pretty sure that's the Santa Monica Pier. :)

We landed in San Jose and immediately decided it's one of the coolest airports ever.

Our dear friends in California are a precious couple who we call Uncle Dale and Aunt Gladys. Not sure why we call them our uncle and aunt since they're our grandparents' age! Uncle Dale was my parents' realtor when they bought their first house in Salinas, California years ago! He and Aunt Gladys and my parents became close friends during the time they lived there. They've treated Sarah and me like their own grandchildren ever since we were born, sending us birthday and Christmas presents every single year. We couldn't think of not going to California to celebrate their 70th anniversary with them!

They live in a dear little house that's full of love and memories and things that are special to them.

The weather was gorgeous.

Sarah and I were twinsies with our TOMS. :)

Can you believe they're 90?! I think the California weather keeps them looking young.

Here they are with their wedding cake topper!

The second day we were there, their son, Mr. Larry, and his wife, Mrs. Deb, took Sarah and me down the coast to Big Sur. We loved seeing it when we were there two years ago and were so glad to go there again.