Our Morning at the BYU

Having nothing pressing, actually nothing at all, on our calendar today, I decided to drive to Provo to visit the Brigham Young University with Emma. One nice thing about living in Draper is that we are now halfway between Provo and Salt Lake. I've a soft spot for Provo and the BYU campus and now it's only 20 miles away instead of 40. So off we went. We parked at the bottom of the steps on the south end of campus, close by where I used to live. We walked by my old apartment and I told Emma I used to live there. "Let's go in!" she said. "Nah, we don't know anybody there." "Let's go in!"

So Emma rang the doorbell and a fresh-faced student answered the door.

"Hello....I used to live here (choke)...30 years ago. May we come in?" She said sure, and so we went in and chatted for awhile. Her name was Lindsay. She was very hospitable. She took a picture of us in her kitchen.
I remember my sister Julie visiting me in this kitchen once. We sat at the table and I think I wadded up something and tried to make a basket into the garbage can but didn't make it because it was precariously overflowing. I remarked, "I live in filth and squalor." It was touching to see that in 30 years some things don't change...


(Permission to take picture of garbage cheerfully granted by Lindsay.)

I asked Lindsay what her major was, and she said, "Music. Piano." "No kidding," I said. "I was a piano major, too." "No way!" (etc.). "But I got my music degree from Portland State." "I'M from Portland," said Lindsay. "No way!" (etc.) So seeing we had several things in common we talked for awhile longer.

We walked over to the botanical gardens at the bottom of the steps.


Saw a tight little group of young ducks.

And then we walked up the 147 stairs. I climbed these stairs a year or more ago and remember my lungs feeling like they were going to explode. This time around was much better. Seemed kinda easy. Maybe it's the new hip (thanks, Dr. Mariani).

We headed for the BYU Bookstore, because I knew there would be many attractive features that would interest Emma. Here are some of the things you can find at the BYU Bookstore.

Insignia apparel for teddy bears

Flags of many nations

Candy

Kitschy religious objets d'art

Modest summerwear

(Why wear one layer in 90 degrees when you can wear three?)

Sanctioned reading material

(I realized after I took this that my nephew's book is on the far right; the blue one. Sorry I didn't center it, Tony.)

Free magazines

BYU Creamery ice cream

Emma resisted the ice cream and chose a bag of blue and pink cotton candy.

She lounged on lush BYU grass...

...and saw a Costa Rican stone ball

Then we wandered back the way we came and climbed back down the 147 steps.

Fed the ducks some cotton candy (probably a nice change from all that infernal bread).


Even saw some turtles on a log.

We loved our morning in the rarefied bubble that is the BYU campus.