A Very Mormon Road Trip - Part II

I have an epidemiology midterm tomorrow.  I've done very little studying so far.  Naturally that means I should take more time from studying to share more stories from the road trip I took three months ago.  Makes sense, right?  On my first full day in Colorado, Sister Berg and I drove up to Echo Lake on Mt. Evans.  My car was really struggling with the elevation changes, but we made it.  Instead of driving up to the summit, we decided to hike up to Chicago Lake instead.  I had a slight bout of altitude sickness along the way including a few minutes where I couldn't hear anything which was a little terrifying, but I was okay soon after that.  We finally made it up to Chicago Lake and it was gorgeous!

We sat out by Chicago Lake for a long time as we chatted and fed the fish.  Unfortunately, even my Italian skin was overwhelmed by the effect of being in the sun at almost 13,000ft and I got a terrible sunburn.  I very rarely get sunburned and when I do it usually tans by the next day so when this one didn't tan right away I knew it was bad.  Fun fact: It's now almost November and my legs are still super tan.  The bad news is that I had sneakers on and the sun was hitting me only on one side so I have super awkward tan lines.  Oh well.  It was a great day and fun to get to spend time with Sister Berg as a non-nametag wearing person.  On our way home we got frozen yogurt and then when to dinner at Sister Berg's friends house.  Yes, we got frozen yogurt before we had dinner.  That's how it should be done.  After dinner, I got a text from Brianne saying that she was in Denver!  She had been on a road trip around the Pacific Northwest and Canada with her parents and they were flying out of Denver the next day.  So we decided to meet up with them to catch up for a bit and so Sister Berg could meet Brianne.  We spent quite a while talking to them and it was wonderful to catch up!  It was also fun to think about how the summer before, Brianne and I had been on a cross country road trip together and spent several awesome days in Denver. 

The next day was a wonderful one!  In the morning, Sister Berg, one of her younger brothers and I went to the Denver temple.  It was the second temple I've been inside (DC was the first) and it was really nice.  And very busy since it was the first day it was open after a maintenance closing.  It was such a nice morning and we had a lovely time.  We all went out for lunch afterwards and then Sister Berg and I went to visit another friend of hers.  After dinner that night, Sister Berg and her brother sang duets while their dad played the piano.  They are so talented!!  Seriously.  Like some of the best voices I've ever heard.  It was so great!  Later that night we made a fire and roasted marshmallows.  I like fire.  I guess President Monson and I have that in common.

Denver Temple

On my last full day in Colorado, we got up early and went for a bike ride to the Aurora Reservoir.  I literally thought I was going to die.  I think I could taste blood.  I tried to tell myself that it was because I wasn't used to the altitude, but if we're being honest, I'm just really out of shape.  But it was worth it once we got to the reservoir.  It was beautiful and nice to just sit out on the dock.  Later in the afternoon we explored downtown Denver for a little bit, but we had to get back after a few hours because Sister Berg was reporting to the High Council about her mission that night.  All I have to say is it was awesome to be there for that.  Especially because she taught me on her mission.  Thankfully, I was not mentioned at all...I'm sure I would have been awkward and embarrassed if I had been so I'm grateful that I wasn't.  Afterwards we went back to the house, played Frisbee, made s'mores and watched a movie.  I was so sad to be leaving Colorado the next morning, but I was also excited to get to Utah to see Megan!!

A Very Mormon Road Trip - Part I

Well apparently I'm terrible at keeping promises about blogging, but in the spirit of procrastination, I've decided to finally update about my trip this past summer.  The first day of my road trip began with me driving my cousin Jen and her then fiancé (now husband!) Steve to the airport after they had spent a few days visiting me in DC.  After dropping them off around 8:30am, I began the 1700 mile drive to Aurora, CO.  And so begins my very Mormon road trip!  (If you'd like to learn more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so you have a better idea of what I'm talking about in this post or just because you're curious, visit Mormon.org)

On that first day of my trip I drove for about 15 hours and NEVER got tired at all.  I think I was just so excited to get out to Colorado that nothing was going to stop me.  Sleep is for the weak.  On that first day, my first stop was at the Columbus Ohio Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Unfortunately, that temple is in kind of a weird spot and I would have awkwardly had to stand basically in the road in order to get a good picture so I don't actually have any pictures at all.  But you can always Google it.  After that, I continued on, stopping only for gas and food until I got to St. Louis Missouri.  I actually drove just past the city because I wanted to see the St. Louis Temple.  Ironically, the temple is next to, and basically on the campus of,  Missouri Baptist University.  I got quite a kick out of that because one of my best friends is Baptist and we like to chat about how sometimes Mormons and Baptists don't get along very well.  But the patrons of an LDS temple and a Baptist university are proving that Mormons and Baptists can, in fact, peacefully coexist!  What a shocker!  I pulled up to the temple around 10:30pm and, trying not to be super sketchy, parked my car illegally and got out to take some pictures.  It turns out that some other people had the same idea.  As I watched them taking pictures, I was obviously thinking, "What are they doing? It's almost 11pm!  Why are they here right now?"  Forget the fact that I was there taking pictures at 11pm too.  I ended up talking to this family and they asked if I was heading east or west.  When I said that I was going west, they assumed (correctly) that I was going to Utah.  It turns out that they had just come back from a BYU reunion in Utah and were headed back to North Carolina.  We chatted a bit about how I was going to visit Megan and how she had just returned from serving her mission in Ukraine and then we parted ways and I went to look for a hotel.  But the moral of the story is that the St. Louis Temple is beautiful.  I absolutely love it!


The St. Louis Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The next morning I woke up bright an early, had a great chat with the woman at the hotel reception desk who told me she was proud of me for getting such a good education, and then I headed to Kansas City, MO.  When I arrived in the KC area, my first stop was Liberty Jail, where the prophet and founder of the LDS church, Joseph Smith, was imprisoned for several months.   It was such a cool and powerful experience to be in the place where a prophet was imprisoned and to learn more about what he and the other prisoners went through and how they persevered with faith.  From there I went to the KC Temple which is also gorgeous!!  I ran into a couple who had been at Liberty Jail with me as well and we chatted for a bit.  They told me I should go to Adam-ondi-Ahman, but it was too far in the wrong direction so that will have to be on my next trip!  After that I went to the Visitors Center in Independence.  There's a TON of church history associated with that site so you should look it up if you're interested.  I chatted with a sister missionary briefly, but only spent a few minutes there because I was eager to get out to Colorado.  I did get to see a first edition of the Book of Mormon though! 


Liberty Jail



Kansas City Temple

Several hours later I finally made it to Aurora.  The reason I went to Colorado was to visit Sister Berg, one of the missionaries who had taught me when I was investigating.  She had just gotten home from her mission a few days before I arrived so I was basically her surrogate companion as she adjusted to life as a returned missionary.  My first night there I got to meet her wonderful family and we all just hung out, chatted, played card games and it was really nice.  The fact that she was wearing jeans, didn't have a nametag on and was being called by her first name (Laura) was only slightly overwhelming haha.  We also realized that she and Megan were in the MTC choir at the same time!  After that I finally went to bed and got some much needed rest (after two straight 15+ hour driving days, sleep was no longer something for the weak) before a big day of hiking the next day!  More to come about my very Mormon road trip over the next few days!

The Epic Cross Country Road Trip Comes to an End

Two countries,  twenty-three states and over 8,000 miles after it began, our epic cross country summer 2012 adventure came to an end.  After New Orleans we breezed through Mississippi and Alabama and didn't do anything in either state, but instead just drove through straight on through to Niceville, FL.  We spent the 4th of July in Niceville with my aunt, uncle and cousin and then drove back to Brianne's house near Tampa, bringing our trip to a close.  It was an amazing summer and I would do it all again if I could.  There aren't enough great words to describe the awesomeness of the trip so I'll just all the posts I previously wrote peak for themselves. 

I promise I will eventually write about my trip to England, Wales, Spain and Morocco, but in a few days I will be embarking on another epic road trip adventure.  On Sunday I will begin my trip to Colorado, Utah and Arizona!!  It promises to be an awesome adventure and a wonderful chance for me to visit some of the most incredible people I know.  I've never really gone on a trip where I was more excited to see people than I was to experience the place I was visiting.  This trip is going to change that.  I could care less what I do while I'm on this trip...my main priority is to spend time with some of my favorite people in the entire world.  I cannot wait.  And I promise to update this blog more faithfully than I did on my last road trip :-)

Way Down Yonder in New Orleans

After we left Houston, I was so excited to get to New Orleans!! Brianne had been to New Orleans to see the Gators play in the Sugar Bowl and she was not excited to go back.  She kept telling me that the city was just dirty and gross.  Well, I'm glad I didn't listen to her because she was definitely wrong.  It's very apparent that she's never been to NYC if she thinks that New Orleans is dirty.  I LOVED New Orleans!  I thought it was just great!  I totally felt like I was in Europe when I was in the French Quarter and I loved every minute of it.  When we got there our first night, we found out that we'd been upgraded to a better room in our very quaint and charming hotel.  It was great!  We spent the majority of the next day in the French Quarter.  We explored the French Market, had beignets at Café du Monde (they are to die for!! So delicious!!), walked along the waterfront, bought postcards, went to the Saint Louis Cathedral which is the oldest continually operating cathedral in the country and which was absolutely beautiful (and very enjoyable for the theological scholar in me) and then we went to the aquarium (the penguins were easily the best part!).  It was a super busy day, but so worth it.  I would definitely go back to New Orleans in a heartbeat.  On our way out of the city we drove through the Garden District and admire the beautiful houses!

In the French Quarter

French Market!

St. Louis Cathedral

St. Louis Bible...absolutely stunning

Houston, we have a problem (sorry, I had to do it!)

After spending a few days in San Antonio, we headed on to Houston.  Really the only thing I wanted to see in the area was the Space Center because I am obsessed with all things NASA, astronomy and astrophysics related.  If I wasn't afraid of getting lost in space and thought I could handle the experience of multiple G's without vomiting, I might have been an astronaut.  Alas, I am not an astronaut and we no longer have a shuttle program so there's no point anyway.  But I digress.  The Space Center was super cool.  We took a tour, saw rockets, shuttles and other cool projects they had going on at the time.  We checked out the exhibits they had as well and I'm sure I acted like a five year old giddy with excitement.  I also bought some souvenirs which was money well spent.  After we finished there we trekked on to New Orleans!!

Home of the Alamo

After our amazing experience at Carlsbad Caverns, we drove through what is possibly the most boring, desolate place I have ever seen in my entire life -- West Texas.  There was literally NOTHING to see for hours and hours.  It was terrible.  But we finally made it to San Antonio where we spent a few days with some of Brianne's family friends.  San Antonio was awesome!!  It's just a really cool city. 

The first thing we did in San Antonio was go to the Alamo.  I've gotta admit, I was less than impressed.  We waited in line for awhile and once we got inside there wasn't much to see.  Also, I don't really know much about the history of the Alamo so maybe that's why I wasn't as interested as some other people.  But the architecture of the buildings within the complex was very nice.

 

 

The next thing we did was head down to the San Antonio Riverwalk.  The Riverwalk is a network of walkways along the San Antonio River that are lined with shops and restaurants and all sorts of fun things to see and do.  We took a really neat boat tour and even got to see the spot where they filmed part of "Miss Congeniality" which was so cool because I absolutely love that movie!!  After the Riverwalk we headed to the Tower of the Americas where I met someone whose husband was from Rhode Island and whose daughter was looking at Georgetown for college.  Small world.  The next day, we decided to take a break from the heat (naturally it ended up being the one day that was a little rainy and cool) and head to Schlitterbahn, the best waterpark ever.  Schlitterbahn has won the Golden Ticket Award for best waterpark every year since 1998 AND it is consistently featured on Travel Channel's show about the best/most extreme waterparks in the world so naturally I've wanted to go there for years.  And it was awesome!  The park is huge.  There are actually 2 sections -- the old, original part of the park and an entirely new section which is basically a separate park in itself.  We didn't have nearly enough time to go on all the slides so I will definitely need to get back, but I'm so glad I finally had the chance to go!! 

Along the Riverwalk

 

Does this look familiar?

 

 

 

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns is one of the coolest places I have ever been in my life.  To get to the main section of the caverns, you need to go about 800 feet underground.  There is an elevator you can take down, but I was not about to take an elevator 800 feet underground in a cave (re: my irrational fear of elevators).  Well, it turns out that my refusal to take elevators unless absolutely necessary was a great thing because instead of a boring elevator trip down into the caverns, we were able to hike in via the natural entrance.  The natural entrance route brings you down into the caverns via the Main Corridor.  Along the way we got to see Bat Cave, Devil's Spring, Green Lake Overlook and the Boneyard, all of which we would have missed seeing if we had taken the elevator down directly into the Big Room route starting point!  It was so amazing to descend into the earth and watch the entrance grow smaller and the light emanating from it grow dimmer until eventually it could no longer be seen.  It was a fantastic experience!

Here are some fun facts about the thing we saw as we descended into the cavern via the natural entrance.  First we walked through the bat cave which is where the majority of the caverns bat population lives.  We then passed into "The Twilight Zone" which is the portion of the cave that is between light and darkness.  There is enough natural light before the twilight zone to see without the use of artificial light.  Immediately after the twilight zone, it would be pitch black without artificial light.  As we headed down into the dark portion of the cave, we entered the Green Lake Room which is one of the scenic rooms in the cave.  Apparently, back in the 40's they tested the caverns for use as a fallout shelter and used the Green Lake as an indicator of how safe they were.  They tested a nuclear bomb somewhere and waited to see if ripples appeared in the lake -- none ever did.  Pretty cool.

When we finally got down into the Big Room, I felt very satisfied with our decision to hike down via the natural entrance and things just got even better from there.  The Big Room is INCREDIBLE.  It's the largest chamber in the caverns (4000 feet long, 625 feet wide, 255 feet high) and it's the third largest chamber in America and the 7th largest in the world!!  It was absolutely amazing that you could be 800 feet underground and feel like you're in a vast open space.  Definitely one of the coolest places I've ever been!

We saw so many amazing things inside the caverns including The Bottomless Pit (which is actually about 140 feet deep), the "Rock of Ages", the "Temple of the Sun", Mirror Lake and Devil's Spring which was one of my favorite parts of the caverns.  If I'm ever back in New Mexico I would definitely go back to Carlsbad Caverns.  Definitely worth seeing.

Natural entrance to Carlsbad Caverns

Descending into the caverns!

Getting further underground

Hiking back up to the surface