Just a few updates.
Mom and I went on a long drive up and over and around the mountain. We wanted to see, or rather I wanted to see, the vacation rental that I put a deposit on for our not so little the part Family vacation in 2023. It is at the Zion ponderosa ranch resort. It is north of Zion National park, off of highway 89. Plus another highway. Plus another road. It is way out of the way. But, not much different than where we were 2 years ago. All the roads are paved. That was so much fun to get all of our kids and all of our grandkids together in 2020. This place that I put it deposit on is called Peace of Zion. That's a lovely large five bedroom home with lots of things to do in the area. It should be a lot of fun. I didn't take any pictures of that, however.
We drove on through the East entrance of Zion National park. It was crowded. The last time I drove through the East entrance of Zion, I was with Mike while we were hunting for camping places in 2020. There was nobody in the park. Nobody. We didn't even pass anyone on the roads! It was the height of the pandemic in May 2020. This trip, with my mom, was quite different. We had a 20 to 30 minute wait to get through the tunnels! But we saw this really cool Big Horn Sheep standing on the hill above us as we were pulling through at long last. Some guy behind me had the nerve to honk at me because I had to slow down/ stop briefly and take a quick picture. It had only just came into view! I wasn't going to miss that opportunity. We didn't see any other wildlife on our long drive through the mountains. But we did see lots of horses and cattle. It was a pleasant drive. A lovely fall day. Not too hot, not too cold. We drove through Orderville, and Glendale, and Zion, and Springdale. I really wanted to stop at the Bumbleberry Inn and have a slice of bumbleberry pie and eat in their quaint little old timey restaurant. I was sorely disappointed. It does not exist anymore. The bumbleberry inn is there. There's a little cafe restaurant thingy and there, and a fancy- schmancy bakery. But it wasn't the same as their old restaurant. I wanted the old one. I was very disappointed. Everything else in town, restsurant-wise looked like you would have to have a difficult time parking and getting into it and we were getting tired and cranky. I had brought snacks, which was good, since we were gone for such a long time. We ended up in Hurricane. We ate at Dairy Queen. Sometimes familiar food is best. Who needs bumbleberry pie anyway, right? We drove on home and both were very tired.
More recently, today Mike and I participated a little bit in the inauguration festivities for Mindy Benson, the 17th President of Southern Utah University. Mike worked with Mindy's father, Kenneth Benson, who was over student affairs at SUSC. Back in the '70s. You know, "nigh unto 50 years ago." The entire community is so tickled that Mindy is the new president. She has been serving as interim president since our last one left for a different job a year or so ago. She has deep roots in our community, and is so well loved. Plus she's very smart and very accomplished. She will do great things for our university, I'm sure. Mike and I did not attend the actual inauguration convocation/meeting, because I felt like a nap was more important. ( Our 4:45 a.m. alarm for an early Friday morning Temple shift comes RREALLY early!) But we did go to the celebration afterwards. It was out on the library quad and featured quite a lot of food. And music. The food was quite yummy and we had some fun visits with some friends from the library and friends from town, and friends from our ward. Then, as we were waiting to give Mindy our congratulations, Mike ran into a former classmate at susc in the 70s that he served in student government with. He and Jim Young had not seen each other for 45 years+. It was a sweet reunion, and Dave and Debbie Taylor were there also. So that made it extra sweet. Mike and Dave see each other all the time. But the three of them served in the student government together.
After that little area on the lower quad, we headed up to the hunter Conference Center / alumni Center to meet with former student body officers, etc. Lots more people to visit there. And lots more food! I was pretty stuffed. But we made another stop into the basement area of Old main where we were told that they had a prize winning charcuterie board. It definitely was the biggest we had ever seen. And it did have a lot of really good food on it, so we sampled some of that too. Then we rolled ourselves out of Old Main and on to the upper quad where Forever Red was taking place. More food!! But I was done with food by then. This time we just strolled by the food trucks and booths and looked. We walked past and sometimes in between the games that were going on. You know, bounce houses, slides, food trucks, cornhole, axe throwing... We interrupted quite a few things. Since it is dark, they had large spotlights and it was hard to see past those frequently and difficult for old people to stumble across lumpy lawns. But we managed. There was a Neil diamond tribute band, but we were not impressed. Mike has seen Neil Diamond in concert, and this guy didn't sound very much like him. Maybe a little, and he was certainly old enough to look like him. He did have some enthusiastic groupies down in front of the stage that were fun to watch. I think, that since the university is now 12,000 plus students, it's harder to hold events like this and have them feel as fun and intimate as they were when they started them 10 years ago. Now there are crowds and masses and mobs and such long lines that you never get anything done.
We left early in the evening about 8:30 p.m., stuffed to the gills, and happy that we had gone. It was fun to visit with fellow community and former community members. Happy Inauguration Day.
Oh, we are not done with the food. There is a pancake breakfast by the alumni association tomorrow morning. We plan to attend that as well. :-). Oink oink
Too bad I can't Photoshop these two of me, Mike and Mindy and pick the best of the two of us. ( The other bad one is way down below..) Mindy always looks good. Eric loves Mindy, too. She taught some of the classes he took...we'll, at least one.
Popcorn, cookies, petite fours. We brought home some treats to share. Eric's coming up tomorrow to watch the game and bringing Matt. And I made a gallette today, too. Peach/ raspberry. Yum.
Above. Mike, Jim Young, Dave Taylor. You should have SEEN the huge hugs they shared upon meeting. So sweet. Fun Fact: Jim knows my friend, Hali Nielsen Newbold ( former favorite student worker in Library that I still keep in touch with). She was a counsellor in a school where he was an administrator in Mapleton(?). Small world. And Hali's now living in Mapleton, about a mile from Jim and his wife. Mike LOVED seeing Jim again. We see Dave and Debbie Taylor all the time, but this was a treat.
I need to perfect my selfie skills. Still.
