East meets West

For the first ten years of my life, my sister and I were it. If I wanted a playmate, she would be the one. If we went on a family vacation, it would just be our parents and the two of us. I remember the day she packed her bags and left for college. Ever since, except for a short stint in Millcreek, we have lived too far away from each other. This past summer Lisa brought her four boys and two darling girls home for July. They graciously coordinated their vacation with our trip West, and specifically with Jonathan's baptism.  We were the beneficiaries of their efforts to vacation in Utah; we spent a day in the Uintahs with them and then a long weekend in St. George. I don't know what it is, but there is just something about cousins, and our time with the Flindts was no exception.

  

Lisa's family stayed up at my parents' cabin for a week and they invited us to visit. Our day began with a hike around Mirror Lake. For us, it has become an annual tradition, and hop scotching across small streams, skipping rocks, picnicking under pine trees and wading over to small islands is all the more fun with our cousins from Seattle.

We cooled off at the new pool in Kamas. The kids floated in the lazy river, raced down the water slide and splashed in the dumping buckets and spouting streams of water.

Mom and Dad met us at the cabin for a BBQ in the evening. With Dad on the grill and mom tossing the salads and cutting the fruit, dinner on the back porch of the cabin, with the Uintahs surrounding us, couldn't have been better.

The next weekend, the Flindts joined us in St. George. We spent our time exploring "Dixie" and cooling off in the pool. 

On our first day together, we found a little hike called Red Bluff. The hike in was short and picturesque. In late spring, I am sure that this spot is nature's water park. There are three pools that stream one to the other, over mossy sandstone, creating a water slide. The pools were not full enough for us to enjoy, but we did find a nearby pond that had enough water to swim in, cliff jump into (level 101), and build sand castles around, for those less daring. We brought a little picnic and enjoyed a couple hours of play.

Our next excursion was to Zions. I had told Jonathan about hiking the Narrows and he absolutely had to do it. The complete 17 mile version was not possible, with babies in tow, so Jonathan settled on a hike up from the bottom, with a short distance through the water. The older kids immediately jumped in the river and floated down, over and over. Fortunately Bryce, Sophia, Alyssa and Ezra were content to stay back and toss stones in the current. On our way home we stopped at the Bumbleberry Inn for huge slices of Bumbleberry pie topped with gigantic scoops of vanilla ice cream. For me,  this was a favorite stop in high school over our annual spring break trips and I hadn't been back since. I wondered how I could have forgotten such a culinary  gem in Springdale!

On our last day together, we fit in as much swimming as we could, toured the Jacob Hamblin House stopped at the St. George Temple Visitor Center and ended the day with Blue Bunny ice cream and an evening at the new water fountains on Main Street.

We can't wait until our next adventure with the Flindts. How about in Seattle or Boston? 

Celebrating our Heritage

In Utah, the 24th of July is a holiday, unique to any other state. People take the day off work for picnics and BBQ's, a huge parade marches through downtown, runners, who have prepared for months, race down East Canyon in an annual marathon and fireworks can be seen bursting over the city as soon as the sun goes down. The reason for the holiday? It is the historical day on which the Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. Each summer as we return home to Utah, we look forward to this celebration. 

This year, to add depth to the festivities, we learned about the Kirsten American Girl character and the time period during which she lived. She was a pioneer from Scandanavia, who crossed the plains in a covered wagon in 1854. We had grand plans for this "unit", like a tour of the Beehive House, preparing a pioneer meal and visiting the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum. We found ourselves limited on time, so we were content with an abridged agenda. 

Our first outing was a visit to Temple Square. We walked around the grounds and stopped at various bronze statues of Pioneers and their hardships. I retold the stories of the handcart companies and the seagulls that ate all the locusts that were destroying the fields. We watched a short movie of a Pioneer girl who, when caught in a rock slide with her brother, had faith and was protected. We then wandered through the visitor centers, soaking in the happiness that this place always seems to bring.

We spent a morning reading Kirsten's World, a non-fiction book about life on the prairie. As I turned the pages, the kids made an "I spy" list of things that they thought they would spot while we visited This is the Place Heritage Park, a living museum of a recreated pioneer village on the benches of Salt Lake City. We assigned a point value to each item, depending upon how difficult it may be to find.   

Later in the morning, with our lists in hand, we arrived at the village. Immediately we were immersed in pioneer life. Families dressed in bonnets and calico dresses, cowboy boots and trousers with suspenders, milled about their jobs. I underestimated the excitement that the kids would have for our I spy game. They pointed out covered wagons, log cabins, chickens, a school bell, bonnets, a wash board, a feather mattress and a chamber pot. The best part of our adventure was that we were able to participate in chores and crafts, experiencing life as a Pioneer for a day. 

 

We stamped leather in the tannery. . . 

churned butter in the Heber C. Kimball house. . . 

 

scrubbed, dried and ironed the laundry. . . 

visited the barber for a close shave. . . 

and rode horses (How exciting this was for Sophia who loves horses! She has been talking about Lucky ever since!)

We cared for the sheep, goats and cows. . . 

created sand art pictures in an Indian woman's log cabin. . . 

ate lunch at the Huntsman Hotel (I'm not sure Sophia liked her food) . . . 

 bought penny candy at the ZCMI mercantile. . .

 and eventually wore ourselves out!

Recently I was talking to one of Emilie's friends about a book that she was reading that had pioneer characters. I mentioned that in Utah we had visited many different pioneer sites and museums. She was very curious about the interesting history of Utah and historical sites there. I was reminded how lucky we are to have come from an area that is so rich in American history, and how fun it is that it is not the same American history that is so common here in Boston.          

1764

In July, during our Ebert family vacation to California, we took a side trip to the new American Girl store in L.A. I had already committed myself to using the American Girl historical eras as themes for some of our outings in Utah. So, while at the AG store, I bought several non-fiction historical books to supplement these adventures. I selected books that would correspond well with our existing plans in Utah. One of the obvious choices was the Kaya series. Kaya is an American Indian character who lived during the middle of the 18th century in the Western United States. How perfect! We had a week planned to spend in Southern Utah, authentic Native American country and I could naturally weave the Indian theme throughout our excursion. In Southern Utah, we could have enjoyed American Indian culture just by stopping in a gift shop or even sitting in my parents' St. George house, to some extent. However, I decided, since we are now New Englanders, we would embrace our opportunity of being in the rugged West and dive deep into the Western American Indian culture.  

And what better way to do this, than to take the kids to the Grand Canyon?

I woke up early one morning, set the navigation system and loaded the kids in the car.  With books, a few snacks and pillows to nap with, away we went.

Stop #1: Pipe Springs National Monument

I saw a historical marker sign on the highway and was suddenly curious. We pulled over at Pipe Springs and found ourselves almost two hundred years back in time. Pipe Springs is a natural spring that served as a watering hole to desert inhabitants for hundreds of years. First the Indians camped at the spot and then the pioneers used it as a fort.  A Navajo Indian woman greeted us and spent part of the morning showing us Indian games, cooking, and herbal medicines. She shared her customs, both ancient and modern. We then toured the fort, which still has one of the first telegraph wires intact as well as a restored bishop's storehouse, which was used to hold the food for the pioneers building the St. George Temple. The kids fed Texas Longhorns and wandered around the garden, which was full of melons soaking in the dry desert rays and huge sun flowers that dwarfed us. We couldn't have been more excited about our spontaneous side trip!

Stop #2: Jacob's Lake

Over hamburgers and shakes, I took advantage of the Native American art surrounding us. We talked about the weaving, beading, sand pictures and silver and turquoise jewelry that adorned the walls.

Stop #3: The North Rim of the Grand Canyon

As soon as we had one glimpse of the stunning views of the North Rim, I immediately knew that our adventure was well worth the drive! I hung Ezra on my back in his Kelty pack, clutched Sophia's hand and threatened Emilie, Jonathan, and Annelise with their lives if they ran, hopped skipped or jumped along the trail, or worse, off the trail. We started our journey along the rim. Gingerly, we made our way out to a ledge. (Which, for the sake of the grandparents' trust and consolation, was fenced in every direction!) It was a clear day and we could see the jagged canyon expand for miles and jut deep into the earth's crust. What a tale we would have to tell of our days in the Wild West! One bonus for me was enjoying the rustic ambiance of the North Rim Lodge. Huge log rafters supported towering windows looking over the canyon. Worn hikers lounged in wooden rocking chairs on the stone porches, sipping cold drinks, with their packs teetering against their dusty legs.  Somewhere along the way I have fallen in love with old hotels. I would add this grand lodge to my list of favorites. 

Stop #4: Indian Jewelery

No Native American experience is complete without a nice piece of Indian jewelery. And from my girls' perspective, purchasing it at a roadside stand added to the fun!

Although we dedicated this day to our "Kaya experience", there were several "extra-curricular" activities throughout the summer which enhanced our "study" of the Native American culture. 

Eating Navajo Tacos with friends in our Millcreek Neighborhood was a favorite! 

Learning about Petroglyphs in Capitol Reef National Park was impromptu but certainly fit nicely into our theme. (Proud to say, my New England children schooled the rest of the group on identifying these ancient images. How did they know what the scorpion, ladder and rain images looked ike?) 

Spotting Cliff Dwellings in Escalate took us back in time. 

In Utah, at almost every turn, one can be immersed in American Indian culture. I remember almost yesterday, as it seems, taking the kids to Mesa Verde, enrolling them in a Native American camp at the Museum of Natural History and going with them to a pow wow at the Festival of the American West in Logan. I am often reminded that their memory fades over time and now their local history includes Pilgrims, Revolutionaries and the American Literary Movement with authors like Thoreau, Hawthorne, Emerson and Alcott. I look back on our summer in Utah as not only precious friend and family time, but also a great opportunity to contrast our new life in the East with our rediscovery of the West.