My favorite part of the trip (aside from watching the kids frolic) was going to afternoon tea at the Grand America Hotel with my mom and sisters. It was so elegant, with little sandwiches, desserts, and even harp music. (The harpist was Elizabeth Smart -- poor girl, everytime someone recognizes her she must think, why didn't they recognize me when I was being paraded through the streets of Salt Lake by the freaks of the week?)
Another great highlight for me, of course, was having lunch with Elder Ballard and Elder Quentin L. Cook and going on a tour of the new Oquirrh Hills Temple with Elder Cook and Elder Walker, the Seventy in charge of all temple construction. This was in conjunction with a really amazing symposium at BYU on Sacred Space. I got to introduce Terryl Givens' talk and meet Richard and Claudia Bushman. All these brushes with celebrity, and the only time I lost it was meeting Claudia Bushman ("Omigosh! You are my HERO!!!" Fortunately, she was cool about it.)
The opportunity to talk with so many Mormon notables was definitely unique, but I'm hoping we can use our free tickets to come back to Utah soon for more tea and cousins.
