Family Reunion - Before The Gathering

 Months and months of waiting to get to this day.  We are on our way to Utah for my family reunion.  I cannot express how excited I am to have all of my children and ALL of my grands together for the first time in many, many years. 

The trip begins with parking our car in an off-site, new-to-us location.  We are fortunate and catch a shuttle right away.  As we arrive at the terminal and pull up to stop, I assume we are closer than reality and take a tumble out of the bus.  What a great beginning.  We made sure to give ourselves plenty of time, which is good, and have a bit to wait.  The sad part is that we couldn't get a direct flight so round one will take us to Phoeniz.  It's been awhile since we were in this area.

From Phoenix to St. George.  Almost there.

Crossing over a portion of the Grand Canyon.

Hello St. George.

This is our only chance to check out a local brewery so a quick stop happens.  

Silver Reef  is a great little brewery and also functions as a distillery AND they are involved in wines too.  It's a one-stop shop.

Still in the process of expanding, the small tasting bar works just fine for now.

An in-shop store can fill any need one has.

The beer is delicious and a pleasant atmosphere makes it a place I would love to stop at again sometime.

Jen's gang is here now, too, so we meet up for lunch at Rigatti's wood fired pizza.  

With still more time before  we can check into the house, we split up and head out to our own interests.  First up is Scrap Apple Quilts and this is the Quilt Shop LINK to see all I did.

A drive through the historic center of St. George is next and the first building I spot is the Tabernacle.  It is currently being used as a children's museum.  Brigham Young's purpose in building this tabernacle was to provide an ornament to the city.  It's 3-foot thick basement walls of hand-cut limestone bear individual stone cutter marks.  Roof trusses were hand-hewn and the twin spiral staircases with balust rades were also hand-carved.  The ceiling an cornice work were locally cast, but the 4-faced clock was made in London.  The building was started in 1863 and completed in 1871.  What a wonderful piece of history.

Up the road just a bit stands another piece of history here.  In 1865 this building began as a wine cellar to house the wines used in the LDS Church's sacrament offerings.  By 1880 an addition created the t-shaped design conducive to theater and quickly became the Social Hall.  By the early 1900's, operettas had grown in popularity and it became a full-time opera house.

The Opera House served as the cultural center of the community from 1875 until the 1920's.  The original t-shaped building seated 300 persons and a mechanically adjustable, sloping floor afforded an excellent view of the stage.

In 1930, it was sold to the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company (U&I) and used as a sugar beet seed factory until the late 70's, at which point the company was shut down and the building closed.  It was placed on the national register of historic places in 1991 and fully restored by 1996.  It is now part of the Pioneer Center for the arts.

Another building (Warehouse 3) was added in 1934 to the property as the company grew.  This building is now used as a Museum.

Just down the road a bit sits the St. George temple.  It is currently undergoing a huge restoration so we were unable to get very close but it is still beautiful and an amazing piece of architecture.  It was completed in 1877 and was the first in Utah.  It still stands very majestically against all the red sandstone of the area.

Now, it's time to go and meet up with the rest of the family.  Woohoo!!!  I can't wait.