Rebekah Hope | Memories and Melodies from the Mississippi Coast

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Summer 2015 | California

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.

The famous Bixby Bridge

"Let the lower lights be burning / send a gleam across the wave / some poor fainting, struggling seaman / you may rescue, you may save."

We had a scrumptious breakfast at the River Inn!

No, you're not seeing things. Those really are Adirondack chairs in the stream!

As we traveled back up Highway 1, the fog cleared and we were able to see more of the coastline. It's so beautiful!

(Come to think of it, this picture may have been taken on the way down there earlier that morning.)

Seeing road signs like these made it seem more real...places like this do exist, not just in pictures! :)

We asked Mr. Larry and Mrs. Deb if we could drive over to Monterey Bay, and they happily obliged.

Lover's Point/Asilomar Beach

We drove by the Monterey Bay Aquarium on our way back...we loved seeing it two years ago!

I love the architecture on Cannery Row.

The Salinas Valley truly is America's salad bowl. Fresh vegetables and fruit (mostly lettuce and strawberries) are grown all over.

Aunt Gladys painted these! That's the Lone Cyprus at Pebble Beach.

Here we are! It was a short but wonderful two days with them. How thankful we are to have them in our lives!

Next stop: Utah!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

A Sunday Afternoon at Temple Square | Salt Lake City, Utah

With the exception of driving through Hurricane and St. George as we left the north rim of the Grand Canyon two summers ago (click The Grand Trip Out West tab for more about that!), we had never been to Utah before our trip in March. The night we got to Provo, we asked our friends for ideas for things we could see and do in the area. They all answered, "Go to Temple Square!"

Early in the afternoon that Sunday, as Sarah and I were about to leave the church we'd visited in Lindon, we got a text from Bryce, "Hey, do you want to come to Temple Square with me this afternoon?" Of course we wanted to. Bryce's friends Jeff and Emilee joined us on our drive to Salt Lake City for an absolutely beautiful afternoon.

It was fun to drive by Thanksgiving Point since Vocal Point has performed there in recent years.

The first place we saw when we got to Temple Square was the Salt Lake Tabernacle (also known as the Mormon Tabernacle). It was a little smaller than I'd thought it would be! One of the sister missionaries gave us a demonstration of the acoustics - wow. We loved listening to a recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" and sang along - all of us on the same harmony part!

Jeff served a mission in Sweden and was so happy to talk to a sister missionary who was from there!

We spent several moments of quiet reflection at the Christus.

(Yes, that's snow on the roof of the Tabernacle! It had snowed earlier that week, but the weather when we were there was perfect.)

Kyle and his friend Krissy joined us for a short while. It was so good to spend some more time with them before we left!

I've always loved beautiful light coming through windows, and the light streaming into the lobby of the Conference Center was gorgeous.

The entire stage is moveable and can be configured many ways - they were already getting it set up for General Conference, which took place about a month after we were there.

Take note of those skylights - you'll see them again later, from a much different angle.

The Conference Center seats 21,000 people!

We had a wonderful tour guide who shared with us many fascinating details as we walked through the building.

The Utah State Capitol and the historic McCune Mansion, as seen from the roof of the Conference Center.

Remember the skylights? Here they are! Since they're directly above the stage, they're covered, so the light isn't reflected down (with a prism-like effect) onto it.

(Thanks, Bryce, for the picture!)

Thank you, also, to our tour guide for this picture of all of us!

There were a few patches of snow here and there that hadn't melted, and this was on the roof of the Conference Center. Living on the Coast of Mississippi, we get snow "once in a blue moon" (aka about every 10 years, and even then, only an inch or two), so yes, I had to take a picture of it. :)