Thursday, July 9

 I wanted to get up early to check on raspberries in the garden and there really aren't ANY. They are coming, but the plants are small. and there's a lot of bug damage. But Rachel had picked peas on Wednesday afternoon, and I found a few more, so we ate peas and carrots on Wednesday night with our dinner. 

Thursday was packing and heading to California with Rachel. It's a Grandparent trip with just Rachel, age 11 and 11/12ths. About.  I'd wanted to leave by I am, but it was much later because it puttered in yard, then showered, etc. 

We decided to do the Temple open house first. Perhaps that was a mistake, as we had HOURS of wait time. And traffic was so awful! There are too many people in Southern California. Just too many people and too many cars. 

We found the parking garage with the shuttle to the temple. This was a tiny portion of the line.

The line wrapped around the Temple's outside. 

And by the time we were out, it was wrapped even FURTHER around the exterior and the groups were larger.

Never was a word said about being quiet or reverent inside the building. 

But it IS a lovely edifice. I love the many windows, the odd angels in juxtaposition to the curving floral shapes of the instruction room designs and elsewhere. The diamond -shaped rooms with exterior windows. 

 There's a large FLOATING spiral staircase! They still have an atrium ( or perhaps two), open to the outside sky, but glassed in on the upper floor. The spires/ towers are so impressive to gaze up and up and up into. 

We were able to be seated and briefly instructed in an instruction room with the other guests. So many guests! Hundreds of thousands have come during these three weeks. Armies of Missionaries and volunteers serve many shifts daily to manage the crowds of people. It's an impressive undertaking for sure! 

Here's a typical FAIL at a selfie.

Then I asked an Elder nearby to please take our photo. Much better.😊

And some that I took before, while we waited in line. I guess one or two subjects is my limit.

After, we ate at about 9 pm at Chick-fil-A and the temple was right across the freeway from us! But we'd had to take a shuttle from the temple to the parking garage about a mile away, then drive BACK to the Temple neighborhood to eat all while avoiding closed roads due to road re-surfacing. 

It was a long crazy day of a LOT of traffic. And we have another two days of it. 😋

Needless to say, we slept pretty darn good that night because we were all SO stinkin' tired! Well, *I* was. 

We have spend two nights in this hotel room as I type this on Friday night, and we have not even turned on the TV once.