We've just returned from a family reunion in Nauvoo, IL, and although I'm exhausted from sitting in the car for several days (how can sitting make people so tired?) I'm not in bed. It's 11 pm and I'm at the computer typing. A sure sign of... something. I'm not sure what.
We drove to the reunion, and I was surprised at how very American everything was. I guess we've lived overseas so often that most of our vacations have been to "foreign" places-- China, Venice, Morocco, the Seychelles, etc. I'm used to looking out the window and thinking, "So that's how people live here. I wonder why they do that. Do they like that food? What do their houses look like on the inside?" This time, everything was so... normal. So American.
We drove through entire states of straight, striped rows of corn and fluffy green blankets of soy beans covering the hills. The white lines in the middle of the road wooshed past, past, past, past and on either side the blacktop was brushed by periwinkle blue and Queen Anne's Lace. There were small white houses and big red barns, Cracker Barrel restaurants and blue Rest Stop signs. The kids ran through a Prairie Restoration area and watched butterflies land on yellow cone flowers. We ate granola bars in the car as we listened to The Goose Girl on CD, and we stopped for icecream at a miniature golf place with a state penitentiary to the right and corn fields to the left, front and back. The sign out front said, "Please do not pick up hitchhikers." I wondered if that was a common problem.
Nauvoo itself was a lot of fun, and I was surprised. I guess I was expecting several dry tours of old houses with explanations of who sat in this room, what they said about it later, and how the furniture is not original, but the lack of air conditioning is. Instead we tossed horseshoes, hefted slate tablets (kids should try stuffing those in their backpacks) saw the pageant and several unexpectedly delightful plays, visited the temple, and... ok... Visited some old buildings. But they were really cool! (And air conditioned, too.) Our kids got to play with cousins and hold the new babies, and all in all, it was a very nice time.
On the way home we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio (by way of the Great Wolf Lodge-- an indoor water park) and I had an amazing experience in the visitor's center there. Several years ago I had a dream (very abbreviated version here) about a terrible storm. At the end of the dream I found a place where my family could be safe-- and I realized when I entered the visitor's center that it was the place in my dream where families could come to learn, to be together, and to be safe. I was truly amazed, and I walked through the small building and cried. Yes, the truths restored at Kirtland are real, and are very important for my family to know and understand. I'm so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. (And amazed that I can say that in public-- what a cool country we have.)
So now were home and back to vacuuming , errand running, folding laundry, fixing dinner and our own beds. Aaahhh.... vacations may be nice, but home is wonderful. =)
Book recommendation of the day: The Book of Mormon. If you haven't read it yet, give it a try and find out for yourself what was restored at Kirtland and Nauvoo. It's the ancient record kept by people who left Jerusalem in 600 BC and migrated to the American continent, taking some Jewish records and traditions along. And it's true, too.
We drove to the reunion, and I was surprised at how very American everything was. I guess we've lived overseas so often that most of our vacations have been to "foreign" places-- China, Venice, Morocco, the Seychelles, etc. I'm used to looking out the window and thinking, "So that's how people live here. I wonder why they do that. Do they like that food? What do their houses look like on the inside?" This time, everything was so... normal. So American.
We drove through entire states of straight, striped rows of corn and fluffy green blankets of soy beans covering the hills. The white lines in the middle of the road wooshed past, past, past, past and on either side the blacktop was brushed by periwinkle blue and Queen Anne's Lace. There were small white houses and big red barns, Cracker Barrel restaurants and blue Rest Stop signs. The kids ran through a Prairie Restoration area and watched butterflies land on yellow cone flowers. We ate granola bars in the car as we listened to The Goose Girl on CD, and we stopped for icecream at a miniature golf place with a state penitentiary to the right and corn fields to the left, front and back. The sign out front said, "Please do not pick up hitchhikers." I wondered if that was a common problem.
Nauvoo itself was a lot of fun, and I was surprised. I guess I was expecting several dry tours of old houses with explanations of who sat in this room, what they said about it later, and how the furniture is not original, but the lack of air conditioning is. Instead we tossed horseshoes, hefted slate tablets (kids should try stuffing those in their backpacks) saw the pageant and several unexpectedly delightful plays, visited the temple, and... ok... Visited some old buildings. But they were really cool! (And air conditioned, too.) Our kids got to play with cousins and hold the new babies, and all in all, it was a very nice time.
On the way home we stopped in Kirtland, Ohio (by way of the Great Wolf Lodge-- an indoor water park) and I had an amazing experience in the visitor's center there. Several years ago I had a dream (very abbreviated version here) about a terrible storm. At the end of the dream I found a place where my family could be safe-- and I realized when I entered the visitor's center that it was the place in my dream where families could come to learn, to be together, and to be safe. I was truly amazed, and I walked through the small building and cried. Yes, the truths restored at Kirtland are real, and are very important for my family to know and understand. I'm so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. (And amazed that I can say that in public-- what a cool country we have.)
So now were home and back to vacuuming , errand running, folding laundry, fixing dinner and our own beds. Aaahhh.... vacations may be nice, but home is wonderful. =)
Book recommendation of the day: The Book of Mormon. If you haven't read it yet, give it a try and find out for yourself what was restored at Kirtland and Nauvoo. It's the ancient record kept by people who left Jerusalem in 600 BC and migrated to the American continent, taking some Jewish records and traditions along. And it's true, too.
posted by Rebecca =) | 8:04 PM
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