Lindsay was still here visiting and we decided to start our week with the 24th of July Parade. We learned pretty quickly that they do it up big time here in Salt Lake City.
This was the view right outside the front entrance to our apartment building. We learned that they were using West Temple Street as the
staging area for all of the horses and horse drawn carriages and cattle that were going to be in the parade. I am going to talk a bit about the parade, but have too many pictures to add here so instead here is a link to our album in Google Photos if you’d like to see them all…
https://photos.app.goo.gl/DxdGxhwqZctm3hyXASo we got past all of the horses and horse poop and longhorn cattle and made our way over to South Temple and State Street, where the parade starts. We saw some bleachers across the street that weren’t filled up so we decided to go sit over there. When we went to sit down this parade attendant guy came over and said, “Do you have tickets? These seats are only for those with tickets.” So we told him no, sorry, we’ll move. But then this lady in front of us who was with a friend and a couple of young children said, “How many tickets do you need? I have 5 extra tickets.” We asked if she was sure she wouldn’t need them and she assured us she wouldn’t, so we thanked her and got to stay on the bleachers. Prime seating!
We had to stand up a lot because a lot of the folks with horses or those with bands or military folks were carrying the American Flag, so here is a picture of us doing that. It was taken by one of our missionary couple friends from the MTC, the Watsons, who had even nicer seats than ours across the street from us. So we had fun at the parade, which lasted about an hour and a half, and then we headed home via the new plaza south of the Church Office Building so that Lindsay could see all of the pretty flowers and plants they have put in there, and then up to the Heber C. Kimball gravesite and then home. When we got back to the apartment we decided to go out to lunch and then to the new
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny movie. We just walked to the Trax station by the FamilySearch Library and took it over to the Gateway Mall. That’s where the the theater was. We hadn’t eaten before the parade so we were pretty hungry. We just wandered around the mall area seeing what restaurants were available.
We had seen just about everything and had kind of decided on
Costa Vida when I learned from a little sign near the escalator that there was a
Tucanos Brazilian Grill upstairs. Mom voted for meat! Me too actually, I was hungry, so upstairs we went. It was great! You probably know that they have an
all you can eat price. For that price they have this amazing salad bar and then they just keep coming by your table with tons of different meats…streak and chicken and shrimp…as well as grilled veggies and the
pièce de résistance grilled pineapple. If you keep that little wooden dowel thingy, you see there on the table, standing with the green side up they just keep coming by offering you more meat and pineapple. We kept it green most of the time and we ate and ate and ate. I had a huge salad with a bunch of shrimp. My favorite meat was the garlic steak. It had such a great flavor and was very tender. Yum! Mom liked the ribeye steak the most. She says it was like prime rib! But she really liked the pineapple.
So after that we went walking around the mall some more to let that meal digest, and found these fun wings on the wall. We learned that this mall used to be the
hoppin’ place in town, but since they have built the new downtown plaza it is dying off. Kind of sad. Mom thinks they should put in a bunch of apartments there and see if they can bring it back to life. Well, then it was time to be off to the movie. We learned that the theater we had chosen is one of those with the comfy reclining chairs, a first for me! I was hoping that after such a large meal and such a comfy chair that I wouldn’t fall asleep during the movie. I made it through! The movie was pretty good. I would say a
typical Indiana Jones movie, and was pretty entertaining. Afterwards we went home. During the ride back on Trax we learned that Lindsay had never seen the first Indiana Jones movie. So when we got back to the apartment we watched that one just for kicks.
Tuesday morning I got up early and drove Lindsay out to the airport for her flight up to Bellingham. She is planning to stay with Zoë and Aaron and Franklin and get a job there. I came home and went back to bed since I was tired. We then got ready and went into the library where we found out that they were short-handed…a ton of people were off on
leaves of absence (LOAs) and we had a bunch of guests in the library…so mom hopped right in to help and I had to run upstairs to help in
Memory Lane. When I got there I learned they weren’t very busy, so I grabbed our bag of videos and decided to digitize one of the vhs tapes that we have. I learned it was a tape from Christmas many years ago when we were in Elk Grove, right after my Mom had passed away. Unfortunately the tape was feeling its age and had a bunch of static lines in it, but I decided to keep going even thought it kept shutting off. Hopefully once it is digitized I can do some editing and salvage some of the good parts. We had a good day in the library and were able to close it down at 8pm.
The next day was our Pday. I had volunteered at church to help a lady in the ward move. They told me that she lived behind the Conference Center and if we went there at 8am we should see a moving van. So I went out to the corner to look for the moving van. While I was standing there I noticed this plaque. I began reading it and learned that it says that the
University of Deseret was established with 40 students back in 1850 right here on this corner. It eventually was moved a couple of times until it ended up where it is today as my
alma mater The University of Utah. We are back living in my old college. Pretty cool. I finally found out that the lady wasn’t moving
from the condo behind the Conference Center, but
to a condo there. So I drove over too her old house and helped load the van and then over to the condo to unload. Mom went for a walk and then to do shopping. After that she went to her class. I decided to go for a bike ride, even though it was getting hot outside. I just rode up the trail for a 28 mile ride. On my way home a young guy rode up next to me and started up a conversation. I learned that he had just moved here and was looking for good places to ride. I told him about the places I have ridden so far and he thanked me and off he rode. It was nice to have a chat with a fellow rider while riding since usually I ride alone. I got home and showered and we had to get ready to go into the library. Even though it was our Pday they asked if we could come in because they were missing so many people. So we went in and worked from 4 until 8pm. It was good that we did, because there were people from the Netherlands that we were able to help.
Thursday was our day to be floor leaders. We went in at 8am and did that all day until 4pm. When we got there one of our friends, Cordell Atkins, came up to Mom and told her that he had something up in the 3rd floor break room’s fridge. So after our shift was over
Mom went up to the fridge in the 3rd floor break room and found this long package wrapped in brown paper. I was in a meeting that ran long so Mom headed home and I got there about a half hour later. We were excited to learn what was in the package so we tore it open to find what you see in the first
picture. This wonderful spread of 4 different breads, 6 cheeses, 4 different meats and then piled on top was freeze-dried fruit, and nuts. Whoa! And all of that sat upon this beautiful bread/charcuterie board that Cordell made. Do you remember me talking about those boards that he makes the week that we did our summer zone social? We told him how cool we thought they were and he lovingly made one for us. We have learned that we work with some amazingly Christlike people.
Earlier in the week we learned that Brittany was coming to do a quick stay overnight on her way up to Idaho. Sadly, the husband of one of her college roommates was killed in an accident and she was going up to his funeral. She got in here very late, so we didn’t see her until the next morning. When she got up we learned that she had died her hair purple for girls camp, which she was in charge of for her ward. She had tons of fun things planned around the Disney movie
Hercules. She is very creative! She had some scones with us for breakfast and then headed off for Idaho. I went out for a bike ride. I need some time in the saddle so I will be ready for my
63 For 63 Ride next Friday, which is my birthday. Any guesses how old I’m going to be? Well I headed over to the bike trail and as I was going over the overpass on 6th North a big truck came up behind me. So I moved over further into the shoulder lane which was filled with rocks and junk aaaaand….you guessed it, I flatted. So I stopped at the bottom of the hill to fix my flat. I got the old tube out and the new tube in and when I
went to pump up the tire I learned that my trusty pump was not working. I tried a couple of times before I realized it was just not pushing air into the tube. Bummer! So I called Mom and she came to my rescue. When I got home I decided to order a new pump right away so that I can get one to carry with me for my ride next Tuesday. I need saddle time. When I looked it up on Amazon I learned that I bought this current pump 9 years ago. That’s pretty good longevity I think, so I am sticking with this pump. My new one is scheduled to come Monday.
We headed into the library a little earlier than usual thinking that we might be able to help, and sure enough as soon as we got there I was supposed to be steward, but someone came in from the Netherlands so I went to help them and the current steward stayed on the job. It was a fun couple with their daughter who were here vacationing in the US. I was able to get mom and daughter set up with an account, but dad’s work phone wasn’t allowing him to get texts or emails to verify his new account. So he worked with his daughter and I went back and forth between the
two of them. He was able to find a bunch of records for his family line since he had a fairly unique surname, but he wasn’t sure about actual people and dates. He said he would need to ask his mom for some verification. The mom on the other hand was a quick learner and we were able to find some great records as well as connect to all of her grandparent’s lines on
FamilySearch. She asked if she could print out all of the information she had found, and I explained that now that she had an account it was all “hers”, she could access it any time, she didn’t need to print it. But suddenly the thought came that she could print out a fan chart upstairs, but we were closing in 10 minutes, she would have to hurry. So she took off and as she ran to the elevators I yelled to her to ask upstairs for a fan chart. She came back just before we closed with a huge smile and a tube in her hand. She told her husband and daughter that she had been able to get three fan charts printed…one for her, one for the daughter there, and one for a daughter back in the Netherlands. It was so fun to see how excited she was. Netherlands for the win!
We then jetted out of there because we were meeting the Hansens and the Bauers for dinner. Jacob Bauer was here visiting his mom and dad and was heading home to his brother’s house in Pennsylvania on Monday, so they wanted to treat him to some Hawaiian food before he left. They picked this place, Mo’ Bettahs because they said it was better than L&L BBQ. We learned they were right! They had very traditional Hawaiian plate lunches. Mom and I shared the ‘Ekolu, Da Big Boy, plate that had a choice of three meats. We got teriyaki chicken and teriyaki steak and Pūlehu chicken. It came with three scoops of rice and two scoops of Mac salad. That’s Hawaiian style right there!
Saturday morning Mom was busy making sourdough bread. We were having a
One Heart Gathering on Sunday, where they welcome new missionaries and say goodbye to one’s that are leaving. Afterwards they have a little potluck finger-foods social and our apartment building is in charge of bringing the food this time. Mom wanted to have sourdough bread bites with spinach dip, hummus with crackers and veggies and lemon bars. So she made three loaves of bread and a sheet pan of lemon squares so she would be ready for Sunday. Then we headed into the library at 10am. We again were short staffed so we filled in wherever needed, mostly doing ushering until lunchtime. After lunch they needed people to help with stewarding and floor lead, so we stepped in there. I was supposed to steward, but they needed someone to help with a lady searching for a Swedish
ancestor. So Mom took over floor lead and I went to do that. I learned that this lady had a letter that a man in Sweden had written to her grandmother telling about their family and where they had lived and she had some old family group sheets with some birthdates and places on them, but no sources, nothing to verify any of it. She wanted to verify dates and places for grandma and grandpa. So into the records we went. We looked and looked and looked, but couldn’t find a record for either of them. So I finally decided to escalate it to one of the specialists. We have a great specialist, Geoff Morris, who works in the library who does Swedish research, so he came over and said I could watch to see what he could find. But after just a few minutes I was asked to go help another lady with Swedish research. So off I went. Her goal was more difficult. She was trying to find the father of a man that was born in the late 1600’s. There just aren’t very many records that go back that far. But we search and looked and searched and came up empty. So I told her she ought to try doing an online consultation with one of the specialists, but she said she would just try coming in another day, but was very grateful that I had shown her how to search for the records. So even though we didn’t accomplish the goal she had, I learned that I still had helped. So it was almost closing time by then and I ran back over to see if Geoff had been successful. I learned that he had! He had searched for all of the different names listed in the letter that the lady had, and had struck out just like I had except for one name. A brother of the grandmother. He found his marriage record in a different parish, a neighboring parish to where the letter was from, and he was able to discover that her family group sheet had the wrong parish place and birthdate for her grandmother. Win for Sweden! He couldn’t find anything for grandpa, so that made me feel better that I couldn’t find anything either.
Brittany came in again late Saturday night to stop over on her way back to Vegas. We were only able to visit with her for a little while before heading off to church. When we got back it was all about getting ready for the
One Heart Gathering. We chopped veggies and cut up lemon squares and put it all on platters then loaded it all in our wagon to take to the JSMB building. We went out to the elevator and learned that it was not working. What?! So we had to carry a load down the stairs from our seventh floor apartment to the car, and then climb back up to get the rest. When we got back up we knocked on the Henkel’s door to let them know the elevator wasn’t working and Sonia ought to just plan to stay home since she just had knee replacement surgery at the beginning of the month. So we took our goodies to the building and I called back to see if Jeff Henkel wanted me to come get the goodies they planned to bring. He said yes. So I drove back to the apartments and found Sonia and Jeff coming down the stairs. She was actually doing pretty good with her crutches and her less-than-perfect knee. So I ran up to their apartment and grabbed their wagon of stuff and headed down the stairs, I just picked it up and carried it down. Jeff met me after just a couple of flights of stairs and helped me down the rest of the way. We loaded it all up and drove off to the gathering. It all went well and we got lots of compliments on Mom’s sourdough bread and spinach dip and Sonia’s fried chicken wings and all the other finger foods and desserts that everyone brought. Success.
While we were eating we learned that someone had come to the apartment and fixed the elevator. Hallelujah! I told Sonia that if it was still broken when we got back I was going to give her a piggyback up the stairs. She said, “Uh uh!”. But I was not going to have her try to go up 7 floors with that bum knee and crutches, so I am glad we didn’t have to try that.
When we got home we played Mah Jong with Terese Engstrom and her son Alex and then I finished this blog post. It is now 12:30am and I am heading to bed.
That’s what we learned this week.
Älskar dig mycket! (You can use Google Translate to figure that out)
BE GOOD.
Mom and Dad
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