Christmas (part 1)

Well it took a few days longer than I had said, but here is a bit about our Christmas trip.  But first a bit of a disclaimer... if we were near/passing through your home town, and we didn't stop and see you, particularly if you live in Utah we are very sorry but there were SO many people that we wanted to see and unfortunately we had a bit of a schedule to keep, there were lots of people we wish we had the time to visit but it just didn't work out.
So now, on with the story!

I guess I should start with the reasons we drove instead of flying in the first place.  There were a few reasons, the first and biggest being the fact that Dallin didn't want to fly because of all of the new security regulations, and I wasn't too thrilled about them either, so in true law school student fashion, we decided to protest!! sounds dramatic doesn't it, well it kinda was, I mean driving all the way across the country and back in December! We had several people question our sanity but we survived, more or less, so no harm done!  Now I wasn't totally sold on the whole stick-it-to-the-man reasons for not flying I mean going through security = not fun, but driving the 46 hours it takes to get to Yakima=not so fun either. The up side, and deciding factor for me, was the flexibility driving gave us.  If we flew we wouldn't be able to leave until the 23rd because that was the last day of my make up finals and I didn't want to risk missing a final, we didn't get any bad weather this semester so I was really done with finals on the 17th.  Also, we got to stop and visit so many people along the way.  We have missed our friends and family so much this past year and a half.  Last but definitely not least, I got to bring lots of clothes, at no extra charge, two pea coats (I thought about bringing three but thought it might be a bit excessive), and a whole duffel bag of shoes (no that was not excessive at all, it was necessary! plus Dallin's shoes were in there too).   So anyways on the 17th I went to my office Christmas party where we ate pizza, cookies, and played wii, and Dallin went to get snow tires and then we took off at about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, we live in DC which is the land of never ending and so unpredictable traffic, and true to form, we hit traffic as we left the city.  I swear someone watches every time we try and go more than a few miles outside of DC and diverts all traffic in our direction.  Anyways after about an hour we were probably 20 miles outside the city, and we got rid of most of the other disgruntled drivers and really started our trip.  We got through Maryland with no further incident, took a quick stop in Pennsylvania for a much needed bathroom break, snuck across the tip of West Virginia and then headed into Ohio.  It was dark through most of this trip so there really is nothing exciting to report.  We stayed just outside Dayton for the night and then got up early to get on our way again.

Dallin and I in front of the window where
Joseph Smith was killed

The next day (Saturday) was a little more exciting.  After leaving Ohio we went through Indiana, and on into Illinois.  We stopped at Carthage to see the jail where the Prophet Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith were martyred. It was freezing cold, but it was a neat experience.  It was really cool to see the old jail, the hole from the bullet that probably killed Hyrum is still in the door.  It was interesting to learn that a family actually lived in the jail as the keepers and that they trusted the prophet and other men so much that they let them have their bedroom instead of staying in the actual cell.

The bullet hole in the door

Carthage Jail

After leaving Carthage we drove up to Nauvoo.  We got there at about 3 in the afternoon and everything closes at 5, but we decided to try and get as much in as we could anyways.  We got to see the temple.  It really isn't very big, but it is so beautiful.  And the view from the hill that it sits on is amazing.  We were hoping to be able to go in to do some work, but we didn't really have as much time there as we had hoped, so we'll have to go back and do it another time.  We also toured Brigham Young's house, where we got to see the room where the apostles met after Joseph Smith was killed to decide what to do.  We toured Heber C Kimball's house, the bakery, the drug store, and another house, but we can't remember which one it was.  We tried to stop at the brickyard, but no one was there.   It was so cold and windy! It made us so grateful for our warm heated cars and for those pioneers who braved all of this before heaters and cars so that we could have the truth of the gospel!

Ok well I'm pooped, more later.  I would say tomorrow but we all know that would probably be a lie.