"Our Zion Christmas was captured with 656 digital photos and 22 short digital movies, and which are stored at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Christmas/061222-31_Christmas and http://www.walden3d.com/photos/SouthernUtah/061225-29_Zion_Canyon. This last Thoughtlet of 2006 is largely the story of these photos and movies with links to some of the key images and movies. Both Andrea and I were very concerned this Christmas would turn out to be a real downer for us and for you kids. However, it appears to have been a fairly positive experience for everyone. With the exception of Ben, Sarah, and Ethan in Calgary, we were able to spend time and share a meal with each of you and your families. And the Calgary clan was visited by Marti, and hopefully had a very nice white Christmas. The descriptions will be separated by the different days between Friday, the 22nd and Sunday, the 31st of December 2006.
Friday, 22 December 2006, was the start of our Zion Christmas. As mentioned in the previous Thoughtlet (0652.html), there were several e-mails back and fourth deciding on where to meet in La Grange, Texas for a pre-Christmas Eve dinner. We finally decided on Bistro 108 on the Square of Lagrange. Andrea and I picked up Rob at about 5:30 Friday after work, and we got to La Grange about a half an hour before Roice and Sarah and Sara Ellen. This gave a chance for Rob and I to walk around the square, and for me to take a 360o panorama of the La Grange Square lit up with Christmas lights. It was cool, and neither Rob nor I had on good enough coats. So we went back to the car, got Andrea and the computer, and went inside to sit at our reserved table and wait for the others. I pulled out my computer, downloaded all of the photos I had taken, and made a panorama photo while we were waiting (../061222-31_Christmas/DSC07442-7454.jpg). I think everyone was impressed with the results when we were all together. While the computer was out, everyone looked at 'Hu's in China' (../dsc07457.jpg shows Sara Ellyn, Sarah, Roice, and Andrea looking at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/05_JaredMelanie/061220_Vidor_CNN_Town_Meeting/Hu_s_on_First.wmv). The meal was fabulous. I had crawfish bisque and shrimp penne pasta. A funny conversation came up over dinner. It turns out Andrea and Marti teach the same student in Japanese and English respectively. Rob was telling how he told Marti about his Japanese teacher and that she had the same name, Mrs. Nelson, as Marti does. Andrea laughed and said this student is very hyperactive. He turned in an assignment and Andrea refused to give him a grade for the assignment because she could not read his writing. The student said, "That's the same thing my English teacher at Mayde Creek High School says. And she is named Mrs. Nelson, just like you." Andrea said, I didn't even want to go there, especially since I'm not sure if this student could handle the discussion. Sara Ellyn wrote Merry Christmas in French on the Bistro chalkboard (../dsc07459.jpg) and Andrea repeated this saying in Japanese (../dsc07460.jpg). A good time was had by all, even though Sarah had a cold and was not feeling very good. There was even a group shot of all of us (../dsc07463.jpg), which doesn't make it look like I've lost any weight (see 0636.html). Oh well! Rob drove back to Houston and I read Time magazine. I liked not having to drive.
Saturday, 23 December 2006, we slept in. Six of the rat traps in the attic had been set off, and there were four captures to dispose of. I worked on Thoughtlets a little bit, and we picked up Rob a little after 11:00 AM to go to Vidor. Melanie met us at Wright's Bar-B-Que with the kids (../dsc07464.jpg). Both Andrea and I really like the Bar-B-Que at Wright's. Then while Melanie ran some Christmas errands with Halle. Rob, Andrea, and I took Colby and Taylor to the elementary school playground (../dsc07471.jpg). Rob and Colby had fun on a little merry-go-round (mov07472.mpg). I accidentally caught Rob in a movie falling off of a dinosaur on two big springs (mov07477.mpg), and we had to recreate the event (mov07486.mpg). Then Rob got stuck in a tunnel (mov07488.mpg), but he got out (mov07489.mpg). I have labeled this series of movies 'gravity,' in honor of gravitation3d. We laughed about these movies whenever we showed them, which was everywhere we went during our Zion Christmas. Several folks told us they should be posted on U-Tube.
We spent the rest of the afternoon talking and watching Cars with Colby and Taylor. Halle is growing up soooooo fast (dsc07498.jpg). In the evening I took some photos of the Wright house Christmas lights (DSC07500-7501.jpg). Melanie and Jared were in a contest and they won. When I was in Utah I learned it is common knowledge you can tell how much a man loves his wife by the number of Christmas lights he put up for her. I guess this was pointed out because I have not been very consistent at helping put up Christmas lights. There is no question Jared loves Melanie. However, when we were in Cedar, Andrea and Matt took me on Leigh Hill to see a house with many more lights than the Wright's house (DSC07520-1.jpg). And the comparison ends there, because I think they told me she is a widow. When Jared got home from work, we took everyone out to dinner at 'Black-Eyed Pea' (dsc07505.jpg). Nice dinner. Nicer company. Wonderful evening. When we got back to the house we got my computer, my new slippers, and Andrea's new ear rings. Again Rob drove most of the way home. It was raining, and I drove the last third of the trip.
Sunday, 24 December 2006, was like most Sunday's. I taught the Christmas lesson to my Primary Class. This is the last Sunday I teach these kids. I will miss them! Oh well! I expect some of them will be like Shannon Conners and Melanie (former Nelson), and will always treat me as their teacher. Rob came over in the evening for dinner and for a couple of games of scrabble. He beat both times, and Andrea and I took turns coming in second. I read the Christmas story, and it was truly a Zion Christmas. Rob also brought back my book, "Understanding Comics," by Scott McCloud. This is a first class philosophical treatment of the art and science and history and philosophy of comics. About 10:00, Andrea and I started to pack. I wrapped an Egyptian pyramid I had been given by a vendor and left it on the living room table. As Andrea was walking by, she said "What's this?" I sat down, picked up the camera, and suggested she unwrap it. The minute long (41.5 MB) movie I took is at mov07507.mpg. I had spent the afternoon writing Andrea a letter, with the intention of attempting to change the script by which she is talked about by family members. After almost 8 years, I have come to realize my perception of Andrea is much different than some of you. Thus I share my thoughts of this Sunday afternoon and evening (Andrea_061224.html), with the hope of changing the script by which she is talked about in our family. It was pretty obvious to me I have not done as good a job as I need to in regards to investing in her emotional bank account, for even though these thoughts have always been there in the background, I realized from her strong positive reaction, I have not done a very good job of sharing these thoughts with her anywhere near regularly enough.
Monday, 25 December 2006, we were up about 4:00 AM Houston time. Andrea had several zip-lock bags of candy canes, chocolate kisses, and other assorted candy. It was fun watching people's reactions as she gave away the candy at Hobby Airport, Phoenix, and the Salt Lake Airport. It started when we got on the shuttle bus at Hobby. There was an older couple on the shuttle bus, and they were obviously not comfortable traveling. When she gave them each a candy cane, she said, 'I realize you have been taught not to take candy from strangers, and it is still in it's original wrapper.' I piped in, 'And there is no one stranger than Andrea,' which got a good laugh from everyone on the bus. Especially when Andrea came right back with 'Takes one to know one.' I slept some on the plane, between the times Andrea was talking to my neighbor. On the way from Phoenix to Salt Lake Andrea sat in the middle, and so there was not nearly as much talking. When we got to Salt Lake we went by and dropped off Rachel's Christmas present and saw the house where she lives (dsc07509.jpg).
Then we went up to Joshua and Audrey's house where we had a gourmet feast. Joshua was the cook (dsc07510.jpg), and Audrey was the perfect host, very excited to be showing the new May granddaugher, Bobbie Sophia (dsc07511.jpg). It was fun to look at the cat scans of the baby, and to feel the excitement. Since I have stopped calling you kids on Sunday evening, I have lost keeping up on some of this excitement with some of you. Oh well! I continue to believe I can not force a relationship, and it will only last if you want it to. Joshua's work is amazing. He built this beautiful box out of anodized aluminum, and had hand traced a detailed border of China on it. Reminded me of my Infinite GridSM or culture map creation work, which I have spent hours and hours and hours and hours tracing boundaries. The photos he took on our trip to China (0616.html) are spectacular. I would have liked to spend a couple of days looking at photos and talking. However, we had committed to be in Cedar Christmas Night, and so we took off about 4:30 and headed south. The sunsets on the 4 hour drive were spectacular. However, I didn't stop the car, and the digital photos are all out of focus. Sara Ellyn called from Colorado to wish us a Merry Christmas. Some others told me they called, and we did not get the calls nor the messages. We stopped and saw Aunt Sara, Uncle Des, and Brian (dsc07519.jpg). They seem to be doing very well, and are excited about their plans. Brian is staying at their new house on the Golf Course, and they hope to sell their house of second West this new year. We also went by and saw Grandma Shirts (dsc07523.jpg). She was very pleased with the Penguin someone had given her for her front entry. It can be dressed for Christmas, Easter, or any holiday. I also took photos of the photos she has on her wall. I wish my six kids had a relationship history with Andrea's four brother's kids. They are all really good people, and as little interaction as you have had, you will never have the opportunity to take advantage of them as Uncles, Aunts, and cousins. Oh well! After visiting for a while, we went down to the dorm and picked up Matt. He had a great big bag, which I later learned only had enough cloths for one night. It is hard for me to understand this. Oh well! I was tired by the time we got to Zion Lodge, checked in, put our bags in the room,and hit the sheets, which was at about 1:00 AM Utah time.
Tuesday morning, 26 December 2006, the blinds were drawn at Zion Lodge, and it like midnight in the room when the three of us woke up at almost 10:00 AM. We went over to main building to eat breakfast. There was a half-hour long line, and the buffet was good. In fact, each of us commented it was better than the buffet in Nauvoo (0648.html"). I took a 12 photo panorama in front of the main building (DSC07534-45.jpg), which started documentation of the Zion Canyon portion of our Zion Christmas.
The first thing we did was head out for a hike. We were going to go on a trail we had not been on before, and I took a wrong turn, choosing the high road instead of the low road. The first ramp up was pretty icy, and when all realized we were going to Emerald Pools, and started back down, it did not look like fun going down that ramp, and Matt said, let's just go to Emerald Pools. So we did. It was one of our nicer hikes. It was a beautiful day, and I took a nice two photo panorama of Matt against the the mouth of Zion Canyon (.DSC07547-8.jpg). I ended up walking quite a bit faster than Andrea and Matt. Maybe waking 54 flights of stairs most days at lunch is good for me? The first several groups of people we saw on our walk were from China. I anticipate the is the beginning of the future. Too bad I have not used all of my trips to China to learn Chinese! When we got to the lower Emerald Pools, the Chinese family there had pulled a giant piece of ice out of the pool. We got a photo of Matt holding this ice (dsc07555.jpg). I took a four photo panorama looking back at the main canyon from the lower pool (DSC07556-9.jpg). Then we hiked up to the upper Emerald Pool. Andrea did not like me mentioning that one of my few memories as a Boy Scout was hiking to the Upper Emerald Pool, having a leader sit at the top of the pass going down into these pools and guarding the way, while the rest of us went for a skinny dip in the pool. I seriously considered doing this, and breaking through any ice there, like Thoreau on Walden Pond, if there was no one around. There were Chinese folks around, it was cold, I didn't have a towel with me, and I didn't follow through on these thoughts. We tried to take a photo of the three of us, and it only caught me running and blocking out Andrea. A Chinese man arrived and took our photo (dsc07564.jpg). While we were standing there two large icicles, several feet long, fell from the cliff in back of us, creating booming sounds echoing in the valley. It was quite sobering, and certainly puts into perspective how dangerous the Zion trails can be when ice is melting on the overhanging cliffs. I took a three photo vertical panorama of the cliff in back of the Upper Emerald Pool (DSC07566-8.jpg), which shows a row of small icicles dropping down from an ancient maximum flooding surface (a close-up of this interval is at DSC07577-80.jpg). One of the Chinese was a Post-Doc in Chemistry, and he asked why the rocks were colored as they are. I explained the red is from hematite, a type of iron oxide, and the black was from magnesium. I also pointed out that the water forming the icicles was coming directly from Iron County (see 0618.html), which had no meaning to him at all, but had a lot of meaning to me. One of my nicest panoramas was 5 shots of the Upper Emerald Pools (DSC07571-5.jpg).
On the way back down the mountain, I got a very nice photo of the Middle Emerald Pools (dsc07585.jpg). There was an interesting vertical panorama created looking back up at the Upper Pool (DSC07587-9.jpg), a more realistic vertical panorama of Matt coming through one of the rock crevices the trail follows DSC07591-3.jpg), and nice six photo panorama of Matt and Andrea looking at the Lower Pools (DSC07594-9.jpg). I took a series of photos with dead tree branches overhead, which created interesting ghost effects when the panorama software got hold of them (DSC07602-14.jpg). There is a better looking 7 photo panorama of this same general area (DSC07608-14.jpg). I took a nice three photo panorama looking down at the Virgin River (DSC07617-9.jpg), a three photo panorama looking at the white Navajo Sandstone above the river on the south side of the canyon (DSC07620-2.jpg), a wonderful two photo panorama showing aoelian (sand dune) cross-bedding across about 15 Milankovich 20,000 year cycles (DSC07623-4.jpg), and a six photo panorama of cross-bedding above the Virgin River (DSC07627-32.jpg). I love this part of the country, and was pleased to hear Andrea exclaim at one point, "I'm ready to move home." This statement is symbolized by a photo of the three of us on the bridge coming back across the Virgin River (dsc07625.jpg).
We went back to our room at Zion Lodge, which had no television (yea!), and each took a shower and got cleaned up. Matt and Andrea played Uno while I worked on downloading, rotating, and building panoramas of the photos I had taken. We left for Cedar City about 5:00 that evening. On our way out of Zion Canyon I stopped the car and took a five photo panorama of some of the mountains, which I later edited so it looks like it was taken as one photo (DSC07637-41_edited.jpg). Pretty neat! On the way back to Cedar City one of Matt's friends called and asked what he was doing. Matt told him we were going to dinner and a movie, and we ended up inviting him, and after he called back, another friend to join with us and Grandma Shirts. We dropped off Matt at Appleby's when we drove into Cedar City, went up Leigh Hill and picked up Grandma Shirts, and joined Matt and his two friends for a nice dinner. Good kids. Both Andrea and I were very pleased to see Matt has this quality of friends. I guess we were surprised because he had very few friends in Houston, and we never figured out how to help him in this important area of his life. Another nice meal, and another shot at undoing the weight I have lost. So after dinner, we went to see 'Night at the Museum,' and I bought a bag of popcorn to top off the large dinner. I was surprised neither Matt, nor his friends were interested in eating popcorn. I guess I'm the one that was hypnotized with subliminal messages about popcorn when I was a child? Grandma Shirts said this was the first movie she had been to since a year ago when we were there, or maybe it was when Andrea was in Cedar City. The is movie good. Not excellent, and kind of on the 8-12 year old level. It was a nice evening. Andrea and I did not get back to The Lodge in Zion Canyon until about midnight.
Wednesday, 27 December 2006, we made up for getting in late by sleeping in again. I took a couple of photos of the place where we ate breakfast, and one out of focus photo of our breakfast for this morning (dsc07643.jpg). After breakfast we went for another walk. It was misting as we left, and quite cloudy out ahead of us. We each had coats and gloves, and so we were not worried about it. Maybe we should have been. We saw half a dozen deer, and all of my photos of the deer were out of focus. Oh well! As the rain moved in, it hid the mountains farther away, and I got some great photos of the mountains in Zion Canyon, with hazy distant mountains, almost like Joshua's photos of the karst topography in Southern China (dsc07651.jpg, DSC07652-8.jpg, DSC07659-65.jpg, DSC07672-6_edited.jpg, DSC07677-80_edited.jpg, dsc07681.jpg, and DSC07686-91_edited.jpg). Two photos I particularly like are dsc07684.jpg and dsc07685.jpg. Maybe I could get a job working for Joshua? Based on how muddy it got, how much ice there was on the trail, and how quickly the rainwater collected into sufficiently high flows to cover the rubber portions of our running shoes, I'm pretty sure I could not get a job as a tour guide. It seemed like we walked a long ways, climbed some pretty slippery and steep slopes, only to find ourselves at a sign that said "Loop Trail 2 1/2 miles." It was raining hard enough and we were wet enough by this point that we decided to go back. And when we came to a fork in the trail, which we had missed on our way in, we took it. It went down to where the horse corrals are. The good news is there was a bridge across the river here. The bad news is there was a hundred feet of trail that was pure mud we had to walk through to get to the bridge. Oh well. I got some great photos.
As we came out of the Sand Beach Trail, some other people were walking in from the main road, ready to go for a hike. A little while later they came back out and got in their nice white car, having gone no farther than the other side of the bridge. We crossed the road, and went on the short hike to the overlook of The Court of the Patriarchs dsc07704.jpg). I am only putting links to the two edited panoramas taken from here (DSC07705-10_edited.jpg and DSC07712-19_edited.jpg), and each of the photos that went into these panoramas are some of my best photos. As we walked up the road to The Lodge we saw a herd of wild turkeys (dsc07721.jpg, and my hands were so cold all four photos are out of focus. Oh well! By this time the rain had abated. I took a photo of Andrea walking along the road in front of me (dsc07727.jpg), and a zoom of the mountain over her right shoulder (dsc07728.jpg). When we got back, and while Andrea was taking her shower, I took a panorama of the view off of our balcony (DSC07729-38_edited.jpg). Don't you think this would be a great place for all of us to get together and have some fun?
As we left Zion Canyon on our way to St. George on Wednesday evening I took a panorama that showed the canyon and a giant beautiful house that has been built to give optimal views of the canyon (DSC07739-45_edited.JPG">DSC07739-45_edited.JPG). There are certainly more places in Southern Utah than just Red Cove to build a prototype community for the 21st century.
Aunt Luana called me on Christmas morning, while we were on the airplane. So we drove right to her place in Bloomington. It was great to see her and Uncle Lloyd, and to catch up. I took a four photo panorama of the Christmas Scene Aunt Luana had made overlooking the golf course from their living room (DSC07746-9.jpg). We had called Paul on our way to Bloomington, and he said Kate and her sisters were trying to decide what to do. About two hours later Paul and Kate showed up at Aunt Luana's and Uncle Lloyd's with Grant and Ella. The kids loved the snow scene (dsc07750.jpg). We showed everyone Rob's gravity movies, from what seemed like months before, and "Hu's in China." And before long it was time to leave, and I caught one photo of Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana in their new big mirror as we were leaving (dsc07754.jpg).
We went over to Russel Shirts' office to visit him, where my camera stopped working. I did get it working well enough to take a picture of a photo of Peter Shirts on Russell's desk (dsc07757.jpg), and of a piece of art work from Dan Growler, an Indian who we both knew from Cedar High School (dsc07758.jpg). Too short of a visit, and we did not get to see Aunt Marilyn. We went from Uncle Russell's office to see Carole Hulet, and she was not home. So we stopped to see Uncle Tony and Aunt Buela (dsc07759.jpg). Uncle Tony was sick. While there, both Heather and Carole called back, and Andrea arranged for everyone to meet at the Pasta Place, where I had my first Christmas dinner with Mom after the divorce (../9751.html), when Roice called from Singapore, and there were emotions thicker than Dixie sorghum. This turned out to be a very nice dinner. Heather looked great (dsc07760.jpg), everyone loved looking at Rob's gravity movies and "Hu's in China," and we all ate too much (dsc07764.jpg). I had penne pasta shrimp. Needless to say we were once again quite late getting back to The Lodge in Zion Canyon.
Thursday, 28 December 2006 Andrea was still full, and did not want to eat any breakfast. So I went over to the buffet alone, and had my regular Zion Christmas omelet, sausages, biscuits and gravy, fruit, and orange juice. There were 6 Pakistan men gathered around a computer in the waiting area very intent on something. I couldn't help but wonder what web site they had access to, and whether it had anything to do with terrorism. My camera had stopped working and was giving an error message that looked like it was going to be a major problem. I took the computer over to the lodge, checked e-mail, responding to a note from Joe Roberts about his continued wavering commitment to invest in Dynamic Resources, and did a Google search on the error message. There were several folks who had the same problem, and the solution seemed to be to give the camera a sharp thump with your hand. The alternative was to send it into Sony, not have it for several weeks, and to not have a guarantee it would ever work again. So I tried hitting the camera sharply, it worked, and I continued to take photos the rest of the week.
Zion Canyon is isolated. There is no television, no radio, cell phones do not work, the only place to access the Internet is in the reception area of The Lodge. There are newspapers. It was either from Uncle Russel or from a newspaper we learned Gerald Ford had died. The first picture I took after thumping the digital camera was in memorial of President Ford (dsc07766.jpg). It was so late by the time I got the camera working, that Andrea and I just went to the lobby of The Lodge and waited for Paul and company. Finally I went back up to the room and called his cell phone. It took longer to fix their car than expected, and they were just leaving. Kate's sister, brother-in-law, and nephew came in a separate car. I went back to The Lodge and continued to read "Understanding Comics," proceeding to fall asleep, which is how Paul found me when they arrived. We drove to the end of Zion Canyon, and went on the Virgin Narrows hike with the kids. It was fun. The kids were particularly cute (dsc07773.jpg, dsc07775.jpg, dsc07779.jpg, dsc07780.jpg, dsc07789.jpg, and dsc07823.jpg). Andrea was talking to Grant, and he asked why the river was green. She said, "You should go talk to Grandpa, he knows things like that." Grant replied, "No, he just knows about rocks." Out of the mouths of babes! And to top it off, often, especially when in an environment like Zion Canyon, I wonder how much I actually do know about rocks.
I also got some nice panoramas of this part of Zion Canyon (DSC07767-72.JPG, DSC07782-7.JPG, DSC07792-5.JPG, DSC07796-800.JPG, DSC07811-2.JPG, DSC07814-21.JPG, DSC07827-32.JPG, DSC07833-7.JPG, and DSC07838-51.JPG). On our way out of the canyon, to go to Cedar City, I stopped and took a panorama of The Great White Throne DSC07852-9.JPG, which includes a nice close up of the same dsc07859.jpg, and a different type of vertical panorama showing the moon over the canyon DSC07860-1.JPG).
It snowed 18 inches in Cedar City on Wednesday, while we were walking in the rain in Zion Canyon. However, there was not even any snow on the side of the road at the Black Ridge, where you finish climbing up from St. George and drop into the Great Basin. However, by the time we got to Cedar City, there was snow everywhere. For instance, look at how much snow was at Grandma Shirts' house (dsc07865.jpg). However, we picked up Grandma and Matt, and made it over to Aunt Sara and Uncle Des' new house on the Cedar City Golf Course for a feast (dsc07870.jpg), and what turned out to be Aunt Sara's birthday party (dsc07871.jpg). Uncle Des and Brian liked the digital photos I had taken (dsc07873.jpg), at lease based on how long they looked at them. Paul and Kate gave us a great new photo of their family to put in the Living Room. We gave Grant his Mississippi boat (dsc07877.jpg), and he seemed to like it. Ella did not seem to know what to think of her corn cob doll. Oh well! We went downstairs and played while the grownups played Cerebrum. Grant and I caught three crickets and threw them outside in the snow. He had the the most fun doing this. Paul and Kate had a test for the sex of their expected addition before they left St. Louis, and they had the doctor put the results in an envelope and opened it on Christmas day. We learned they are expecting a boy (dsc07879.jpg). So with Joshua and Audrey's girl, we will still have an even number of boy and girl grandchildren. Ella liked walking around with a bucket on her head (dsc07883.jpg), and we had a tea party in a little room under the stairs downstairs where Aunt Sara teaches violin. It was a very nice evening. I think Grandma Shirts and Matt both had a good time too. Sometime during the evening Aunt Luana called and asked Andrea and I to dinner on Friday night, and also invited us to stay with them. We have enjoyed staying in Zion, and we needed to leave early on Saturday morning to get to Michael's wedding reception at Thanksgiving Point, so we decided to save one night of the Zion Lodge bill. Once again Andrea and I arrived in Zion well after the registration gate closed. Turns out we did not pay the $20.00 entrance fee once, for the 4 nights and 5 days we were in Zion Canyon, and I did ask at reception if we needed to make arrangements, and he said "No."
Friday, 29 December 2006, we got up earlier than other mornings this week. And by the time we ate breakfast (watching a herd of 5 deer walk past the window where we were waiting), packed, cleaned up, and checked out of the Zion Lodge it was about 10:30 AM. We went down to the new Visitor's Center, which neither of us had been to before. I took panoramas of an air photo of Zion Canyon (DSC07890-1.JPG, and of the view from outside the Visitors Center DSC07897-902.JPG). I also took stereo pairs of models of Zion Canyon to see if I could create images for the stereoscope in the Reading Room. Then we went on a hike neither of us had been on before called Watchman Trail. It was a great hike. It wasn't too hard, and the scenery was beautiful. It was a little bit muddy in a couple of places, and not too bad. I took nice photos of geology (dsc07903.jpg, dsc07904.jpg, dsc07905.jpg, dsc07909.jpg, and dsc07951.jpg), an interesting vertical panorama (DSC07906-7.JPG), several nice panoramas (DSC07911-30.JPG, DSC07931-6.JPG, DSC07940-2.JPG, and DSC07943-8.JPG), and a couple of photos of Andrea and I in front of the scenery (dsc07937.jpg, dsc07938.jpg, and dsc07939.jpg). This hike reminded me of our honeymoon, and all of fun hikes we went on. Coming back down Watchman Trail I took a panorama of the ridge we walked up on (DSC07952-8.JPG), and got 4 photos of people up on top of the ridge (dsc07961.jpg, dsc07962.jpg, dsc07963.jpg, and dsc07964.jpg).
When we got back to the Visitors Center Andrea wanted to go for another hike along the river trail called Pa'rus Trail. I was tired and not excited about walking, and I tried to not complain. It was in the sage brush, and I'm glad it wasn't in bloom, or my allergies would have been in full bloom. I took three nice panoramas (DSC07966-70.JPG, DSC07971-3.JPG, and DSC07974-9.JPG), a photo of a pretty snowy canyon which would have been fun to explore (dsc07978.jpg), and a photo of Andrea looking at the scenery (dsc07979.jpg). And thus ended the Zion Canyon portion of our Zion Christmas.
We got to St. George about 4:45 and drove to Heather's work. On the way over, Andrea and I had an opinionated discussion about the relative locations of Lake Meade and Lake Powell. She thought Lake Mead was further up the Colorado River than Lake Powell. Oh well! Aunt Luana called and said the Country Club was all booked up, and so it didn't matter what time we got there. Good, because we were not going to make 5:00. We stopped at Heather's work, and she got us a pass and white coats so we could go in and see an example of the work she does (dsc07981.jpg). Advanced stuff. Definitely impressive. She is testing the acidity of different batches of vitamins and other products. Fairly long process, which reminded me of chemistry lab at the University of Utah. I didn't do very good in chemistry lab, and so I didn't want to be reminded. Oh well! Heather seems happy. She seems competent at what she does. And she is excited about the possibility of going back to college to get a Master's degree. We each got a nice hug, and the visit felt good.
We left her work and drove directly over to Uncle Lloyd's and Aunt Luana's. We ended up going to Outback up on the northwest corner of town against the black hill they cut a big gap through for the freeway. They were very busy and so we waited in the car and talked. Yet another great meal. We even shared a bloomin' onion, although I think I ate most of it. I really do enjoy being with Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana. I wasn't sure why they called and invited us to have dinner and to stay with them. I think they enjoy us, and I got a hint during the conversations they were making sure things were OK on a couple of specific fronts. They asked the wrong question (Did you get ...?), and I answered the question they asked (Yes.), and they seemed satisfied life is fair, when actually fairness is not a principle (../0009.html, ../0013.html, ../0041.html, ../0141.html, and Andrea_061224.html). Otherwise it was a wonderful evening, catching up, telling stories, and talking until it was past time to go to sleep.
Saturday, 30 December 2006, we got up early, showered, repacked, and Aunt Luana was already up and had made raisin oatmeal, muffins, fruit, orange juice, etc. It was hard for me to leave the comfort and love I find in Bloomington. Especially, as we drove off and I realize we did not go next door and say hi to Claude and Kathleen. The ride to Thanksgiving Point was uneventful, other than Matt not feeling well, deciding to not going with us, and not answering his door nor his phone for a while. He did answer the phone as we were driving out of town, we went back, and Andrea got to see him and say goodbye. As we drove out of town I took a photo of Cedar Valley and Dad's farm covered with snow (dsc07987.jpg). The moment, which the photo does not capture at all, reminded me of the snowman I built on Dad's front lawn the Christmas before he died, and specifically of the time-lapse video I made of the snowman melting over the next few days, with captures of my Dad between the melting. I got a nice photo of clouds hanging over the freeway in the Beaver Mountains (dsc07988.jpg, Andrea captured the snow at Scipio Pass, approximately where resurrection camp was (dsc07989.jpg). For those who have not read Grandpa Shirts' book "A Trial Furnace," I will quote the quote from Parley P. Pratt's journal for the 23rd of January 1850:
I also took a couple of photos of a semi-truck painted orange under the word YELLOW to send to Jay Leno, along with the photo of the green sign of Orange Bank in Vidor (dsc07991.jpg), and we were held up for about 45 minutes because of a really bad accident on the south bounding side of the freeway just before we got to Spanish Fork (dsc07992.jpg). Other than the thoughts and emotions represented by these photos, the ride to Thanksgiving Point was pretty uneventful.
Thanksgiving Point is big. There are a lot of buildings spread out over a lot of space. Andrea explained to me that the wife of the Word Perfect founder invested their money to create Thanksgiving Point, which was a good thing since that oil well went dry. We laughed about the signs leading to the right building which said "Brown-Shirts." I had on a white shirt and wondered if I would be out of place. Rachel arrived shortly after we did. When we went inside we met Aunt Nadine (for those who don't know, Grandpa Shirts' sister), Uncle Robert, Uncle Steve and Aunt Jill, their oldest two kids (Aubrey and Mavanee), and Grandma Shirts. Upstairs were Uncle Russell and Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Randy and Aunt Katherine, their kids (Brian and his wife Brooke, Caitlin, Peter, Kristen, and Erica), and, of course, their oldest son Michael and his bride to be Natalie Brown, her Mom and Dad and brother, and all of the family and friends. First class all the way. I said to Rachel, 'I feel intimidated by Randy's family.' She laughed with me. My photos are OK, even though they are out of focus. Oh well! Robert's photo of the Shirts clan was much better, and I numbered it so it fits in the sequence (dsc08012_Shirts_clan_061230.jpg). There was a fabulous meal, introductions, talks to embarrass (Michael taught himself to read and told his parents about it at the Denver zoo when he said, "Let's go see the North American Mammals!"), opera singing, violin playing, and an original song sung by Michael to Natalie. I wish all 10 of you could have been with us, as the only way you will ever come to know the new side of my family is to be at events like this. It truly was a wonderful addition to our Zion Christmas. Michael and Natalie were getting married a week later in the Detroit Temple.
After the festivities, we drove Aunt Nadine home. I changed out of my suit in the car while Andrea walked Aunt Nadine into her house. When we sent Christmas cards out, I had written no the Staheli kid's card that if there were time we would come by and visit and take them out to dinner on Saturday night. There was time, and so we drove down to Spanish Fork and visited with them. Logan showed me his room and the stuffed turkey he shot (dsc08021.jpg). I got an out-of-focus photo of the four kids and Grandpa and Grandma Staheli (dsc08022.jpg). Wesley was going to a Young Women's New Years Eve eve activity, and Grandpa and Grandma had some other things to do. Madison, Logan, and Carley went with us to Carley's favorite restaurant, Chuck-A-Rama. It was fun and we had a good visit. I think the kids appreciated our caring about them. From here we drove to Rachel's place (dsc08030.jpg), where we hung out, looked at the ugly giant dog that was visiting, talked, looked at "Hu's in China" and Rob's gravity movies, and enjoyed each other. It was midnight by the time we checked into City Creek Motel on North Temple.
Sunday, 31 December 2006, we woke up and got ready in time to walk down to The Conference Center ad to watch Music and the Spoken Word (DSC08032-3.jpg). In case you don't know, this longest running radio show on radio , started on 15 July 1929. This particularly program was number 4,035. Guess it puts my 536 and counting Thoughtlets in perspective. I have been in The Conference Center before, and never down as close to the front. It is really amazing to look back up at the balconies. These are the largest free standing balconies and supporting the largest indoor single event center in the world. The facility holds over 22,000 people (DSC08034-6.jpg). That is half of the population of Cedar City. In fact, during the practice and the program I found my mind wandering, and I wondered what would happen if different Mormon settled towns were given a date and invited to have everyone born in that town attend one of these broadcasts, with a tribute given to those towns - towns like Logan, Ogden, Bountiful, Orem, Provo, Spanish Fork, Price, Vernal, Moab, Cedar City, and St. George. And I realized this is just one of those many good ideas which will never go anyplace. Oh well! The program for the broadcast read:
We were early, and heard the choir practice "Climb Every Mountain." It seemed very appropriate for all of the mountains in front of me. I didn't realize it was a practice until Andrea told me. There were two missionary couples from Cedar we talked to. One of the, a teacher who taught at the High School with Andrea, and his new bride sat by us. His bride was strikingly beautiful, and after learning Andrea and I were only married in 1999, opened up about how hurt she still is that her husband left her for someone younger and more beautiful. My heart wept. I have tears as I recall the pain she expressed. Then we heard the program for real, the choir sang "Climb Every Mountain" again, and I resolved to continue to pursue my dreams. Then they announced they needed to rerecord the last song again, and for a third time I listened to "Climb Every Mountain" by Rodgers and Hammerstein:
As we walked out of the massive room, the words and music echoed in my mind. When we got out in the lobby there was a choir of missionary sisters singing. As I watched them and listened to them, I had the strongest feeling come over me that Rachel needs to be singing in a missionary choir like that. When I mentioned it at dinner that night, Rachel told me "Absolutely not!" It was fun to listen to the Sisters sing. They did a good job. Andrea was up meeting them after they stopped. We met a Sister Heineger from Zollikofen, Switzerland who knows Annette and Marcel (0624.html). Andrea talked to a Japanese Sister, and she is from Nagoya, where Andrea spent most of her mission.
We went outside and walked over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. On the way I got a nice shot of The Conference Center (dsc08039.jpg), and of the Salt Lake Temple (dsc08040.jpg). Andrea had in mind there was a church meeting in The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, while I was recalling my date with the friend of Harold and Joyce Burnham, Merry Mabbett (../9830.html), who was in that ward. It turns out it was the same Ward, The Ensign Stake 18th Ward, and we did not meet Merry. However, both President Hinkley and President Faust were in attendance and were acknowledged. I wrote two possible stanzas for Prime Words based on the Sacrament Meeting talks:
Andrea was in stress mode after Sacrament Meeting, and refused to decide what she wanted to do next. So we went over to Temple Square and went through the two Visitor Centers. I took what will hopefully be stereo photos of a model of Jerusalem at the time of Christ, a panorama of the nativity scene (DSC08043-4.jpg), a stereo pair of photos of the Christus (dsc08046.jpg), photos of the statues of the restoration of the Aaronic (dsc08048.jpg) and Melchizedek Priesthoods (dsc08049.jpg), and a vertical panorama of the Assembly House (DSC08050-1.jpg). Then we went over to the Church History Museum and I got stereo photos of Joseph and Hyrum Smith's face masks and photos of early Cedar City as related to the Iron Mine, and welfare services. Both of us enjoyed the paintings related to the handcart treks, and both of us felt like Andrea's painting in our living room is as good or better than any of them.
Sunday evening we went out to dinner with Rachel at Marie Callender's (dsc08058.jpg). One last great dinner on our Zion Christmas week. We were in the restaurant for several hours, just talking and enjoying each other. It is really nice when these times happen, and I firmly believe they can happen more often. After dropping Rachel and the quilt fabrics from Grandma Shirts for Audrey, who was out of town with Joshua's family, we drove back downtown. Andrea wanted to drive around Temple Square and look at the lights. They were so nice, that I walked back down to temple square from City Creek Motel and took several photos (dsc08059.jpg, dsc08060.jpg, dsc08062.jpg, dsc08063.jpg, dsc08065.jpg, dsc08067.jpg, dsc08068.jpg, dsc08069.jpg, and dsc08071.jpg). Andrea stayed in the motel room and watched a rebroadcast of the special fireside for Young Men and Young Women from The Conference Center from earlier in the evening.
The next morning we were up early to catch the plane to Houston. We sat by a missionary going out to Raleigh, North Carolina. He was wired. He had been up since 2:00 AM, and when he fell asleep, he was fast asleep. However, when he was awake, he talked constantly. He was interested in my profession, asked some questions about it, and so I found a piece of paper, and using concepts from Scott McCloud's book, which I brought with me to reread, I drew him some cartoons describing exploration geophysics as a profession. He asked for my card, and it will be interesting to see if in 10 years he becomes an exploration geophysicist.
It was nice to be home. Everything was as we left it. And to think back 10 days earlier, we almost didn't come on this trip, and had we stayed in Texas would not have experienced this most wonderful Zion Christmas."
