Wednesday, March 26, 2008

It's a zoo around here.

Okay, stupid title for the post.

The Hogle Zoo is across the street from This Is The Place Monument, and we spent a nice day cruising around and looking at the animals. I'm not sure Zola noticed all the critters running around, but she liked the stroller. I'm going to go ahead and guess that her favorite animals were the bats, since the Bat Cave was dark and cool and she could see the motion of bats flitting around in their little glass cage.

Zola was not impressed with the Zebras. (Zola caught some Z's at the Zoo's Zebra pen. I'm an alliterative genius.)



Elephants are pretty cool.

But the fake one seemed just as fun for Z. and her cousins to look at.

Jana's Asian twin lives at the zoo.


Clyde Frog (one of Zola's favorite toys) was pretty happy with this sign.

This leopard is going after a big chunk of meat we saw the zookeepers place in the tree.

Zola and mom.



Mandy, Mom, Z. Can you see the giraffe head on the far right? Every party has "that guy" when you're trying to take pictures.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Welcome to Utah. This is the right place.

Zola is visiting Utah this week. We took advantage of a beautiful spring day to visit This Is The Place Monument. This site commemorates the arrival of the Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, and those who came after. The spot provides a great view of the valley and somewhere around here Brigham Young told the first group of settlers, "This is the right place."





Zola is descended from Anson Call, a prominent early Mormon pioneer. This bust of Anson was recently dedicated up at the site, but it doesn't really give any information about him. Too bad, Anson. You are almost famous.

See any resemblance?

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Postcard from Patty Ray

Patty Ray sent Zola a postcard from Ojai. We wish we were in California. I guess we'll just have to settle for a taste of cardstock.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Harmony, PA

Zola and dad went up to Harmony, PA on Tuesday to check it out.

Well, it's really called Oakland now. Harmony was absorbed into the Oakland Township some time ago. [Can you find Zola?]


We're not really into the Mormon hajj tradition. It's great to visit important church history sites, but the over-commercialization of this part of LDS culture makes us a little uncomfortable. We live close enough to Harmony, though, to make it a day trip. It is actually pretty cool. Although it's not much more than a couple of grass fields, it's well maintained. There is no visitor center, nor were there any missionaries there to pressure us into giving them cheap referrals.

The place was empty. We had it all to ourselves - just the bronze Aaronic priesthood statue and the foundations of Joseph Smith's first home as a married man. Across the street is the site of the house where Emma grew up, and up the road 300 yards is the cemetery where Elizabeth and Isaac Hale are buried, all just a few yards from the river. It was nice to be able to walk around everywhere - very few fences.







In early 1828, Joseph and Emma Smith built a little house on this spot. Besides this one paver that Zola is playing on, only a bump of a foundation survives. In this spot - smaller than our one-car garage - Joseph translated a good portion of the Book of Mormon and received several revelations (notably D&C 4). Those events (among others) set in motion a lifetime of work that took him through several states and made him the leader of a large body of people and several cities. Whether or not you consider him to have been a prophet, I was impressed by the effort it must have taken to envision all that from this simple little homestead.





A few hundred yards away, behind this fence, is the foundation for the Isaac and Elizabeth Hale home - where Emma grew up and where she met Joseph while he was rooming with the family.


Emma's parents are buried nearby.




The Susquehanna River is only a few yards from the two homesteads and the cemetery.





Although the LDS sites were tranquil and we spent a great hour wandering around and enjoying our snacks, I was really affected by the absolute squalor of Oakland, PA. The place is white-trash hell. Directly adjacent to the cemetery is a large junk yard, and beyond that is the most pathetic trailer park I've seen in a long, long time. The place just oozed poverty and despair. It felt like a third world country - quite a difference from the manicured, Stepfordy atmosphere that normally greets a visitor to a LDS church site. I know Emma put up with a lot, but eloping with Joseph might be the smartest thing she ever did, just to get out of there.

Varia

Just some random pictures we had on our camera. Hope Mimi (and anyone else) enjoys them.








After Jen gave us the idea, we decided to try a little paper-ripping party. That magazine is toast.