Saturday, July 11, 2026

7/11/2026 Saturday

 We had breakfast at our Best Western Hotel in The Mission Bay area on Clairmont drive. We packed up and went to Old Town, which was very close.

We didn't make it into a 10 am tour, but we DID find free parking in their lot at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center and got a 10:20 a.m. appointment for the guided interactive tour.

Here we are, ust waiting around on the front porch. We read and sat in comfy rocking chairs in the nice cool breeze. And posed in a small covered wagon.





Then our tour started. It was really cute and Disney-esque, I thought. There were talking pictures in frames, we moved room to room, experience to experience "with" the Battalion. It was well done. I learned at lot! It was about 40 minutes long.

Window frames in this room held the screens where the characters spoke to us or our guide. 

We learned about their conscription, the families, their route, their pay, their uniforms, , their trials and their faith and perseverance.

Then we saw some exhibits and artifacts, then moved outside to pan for gold!

Fun! It's fools gold, but still fun to do😄.



Information about brick-making, digging wells, and general info. 











Here's the old- time photo they took for us ( and emailed it, the new-timey way!).

Then it was time to go home to Utah.

Goodbye California Freeways and Traffic!!

Hello red hills of Southern Utah!


We told Rachel that she needed to practice smiling when her picture was being taken because it made her look like she was having a miserable time with Grandma and Grandpa Liebhardt on our Grandparent trip with her. I gave her lots of practice on our little trip. So much driving! 


But she was a really good sport and hung out in the back seat of Grandpa's big red truck all by herself and never complained about how long the drive was. 
And I finally captured a smile over the back of my seat! 
Thanks for being a good sport, Rachel! ❤️

She also put up with hanging out with the older grannies and played some games. Donna said she caught on right away.



The Sunday after our return from California, Robert and Janet were heading back to Provo, so they drove Rachel up north so Nick could pick her up there. 
And on Monday, we hung out with Mom and Donna.
Tuesday morning Donna went back to Georgia.


1 comment:

Kaylee said...

Thanks for taking Rachel and documenting the trip so well! She did have a good time, even if she doesn't know how to smile in pictures ;) Great smile captured at the end, though!