Karleen Came!

Two years ago, Jan Noyes, Karleen's and my good friend, cooked up a plan.

  

Jan was in the U.S., visiting from Belgium, where she and Dave were living then, and she had never been to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.

She contacted Karleen and I about when she would be in St. George and asked us if we wanted to go to three of the performances of the Festival with her.

Karleen has moved to Eagle Mountain from Ogden to be near her daughter after her husband, Joe's, passing, so she came and stayed with us and Jan had arranged to stay in a condo with her son.

We had so much fun - we were close friends in Ogden and were in a little dinner group that got together every month. We were delighted to be with each other again!

We had enjoyed it so much, Karleen and I decided to make it an annual event (Jan recently moved to Texas and is invited anytime!). So, last year, Karleen came in September and we went to all three fall plays. 

As we did this September. Yaah!

Roger picked her up from the St. George Shuttle on Monday, September 24, just in time for lunch. I prepared a pesto and chicken pasta salad and we had coconut cream cake (it's a poke white cake with sweetened condensed milk mixed with coconut cream poured in the holes, then frosted with light Kool Whip and shredded coconut) for dessert.

We talked our heads off all afternoon, catching up.

We surprised her by inviting some Ogden mutual friends for dinner.  I recently posted about Kathy and Jim Jensen recently moving to St. George from Ogden (they were in our dinner group, too), and Mindi Johnson, who used to live in our ward in Ogden, lives in our branch. Karleen and I were her visiting teachers. We love her! Phil, her wonderful husband, was out of town.

We barbecued marinated flank steak and had mashed potatoes, corn, summer tomatoes with garlic bruschetta and a roasted pear and toasted almond green salad. Kathy brought delicious dessert from Kneaders.

 What a great couple these two are! Jim was Karleen's bishop after Roger was released. We have been going to a Book of Mormon class with them taught by our beloved Wayne Brickey.

Mindi's got the best laugh ever!

Next morning, we took the long way to Cedar City. Roger had to conduct some business in Panguitch, so we drove through Hilldale and Colorado City, checking out the Polygamist communities, had lunch in Kanab, then drove on scenic Highway 89 to Panguitch, then by Panguitch Lake over the mountain to Cedar.

The leaves are changing in the mountains and it was gorgeous!

 We had dinner at Milt's Stage Stop, one of two well-known restaurants up Cedar Canyon, the other being, Rusty's. Kay and Ken told us about Rusty's, and we have had yummy food there, with them and a few other times. We tried Milt's when we first moved to St. George, didn't love it and haven't been back, but I kept hearing about it, so we decided to give it another try.  They have a good salad bar, which we enjoyed, and we decided that they are about sixes.

Then we went to see, Les Miserables. Though we have all seen it several times, including on Broadway, we thrilled to this performance. The music in it is so glorious and the voices were outstanding.

Roger took our pic by posters of the three performances that we saw. On Wednesday, we came back to Cedar City for the matinee of Stones in His Pockets, then saw Hamlet that night.

On the way to Cedar on Wednesday morning, we got off I-15 and drove through Kolob Canyon to show Karleen.  It was a beautiful day!

We had a tasty lunch at Sonny Boy's Barbecue, then went to Stones in His Pockets, a  two-man-show comedy/drama that was masterfully performed, tragic and funny all at the same time.

We had a couple hours after the matinee, so Roger took us on a drive high atop the mountain above Cedar City.  He's been curious about how people got to their homes that we can see high up on the mountain from I-15, so we found the road and drove there.

The mountainside was gorgeous!  When we got to the top, we found the dirt road to Kolob Reservoir and the one to the LDS Girls' Camp.

Roger stopped the car several times to take pics of the beautiful scenery.

As we did last year and the year before, we had dinner at The Garden House.  They have such good homemade soups and yummy salads.

We were so excited that it was Fred Adams, the founder of the Shakespeare Festival, who gave the pre-show briefing outside of the theater for Les Miserable and Hamlet. 

His knowledge is so vast and he is a master of presentation.  His info really enhanced our enjoyment of Hamlet.  This play is so famous and Roger and I had never seen it.  
Some of the famous quotes that come from it are:

To be or not to be: that is the question.
Something is rotten in Denmark; 
This above all: to thine own self be true.
Not a mouse stirring;
Neither a borrower nor a lender be . . .
Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
That it should come to this!
What a piece of work is man! . . .
The lady doth protest too much, methinks!
Brevity is the soul of wit.
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.
And it must follow, as the night to day, thou canst not then be false to any man.
In my mind's eye

. . . and several others. 

It is amazing to me how many turn of the phrase quotes we have heard our entire lives and didn't realize that they come from Shakespeare.  I majored in English in college 100 years ago, and my proudest grade was an A in a Shakespeare Histories class.  It was the only Shakespeare class offered the quarter I needed to take one, and I learned a lot about European history studying King John, King Henry IV and King Richard III. But I always wished I had studied Shakespeare's Comedies and Tragedies. Now I have a chance to see them come to life!
Fred, your idea to keep Shakespeare alive in Southern Utah for all of the world to see is brilliant!

Next morning, we just hung out in our home, then went to lunch with Roger at Player's Grill for their wedge salad.  Karleen had emailed us before she came, telling us she wanted to treat us to that salad, having had reoccurring memories of it's deliciousness ever since we had it last year together! It is one of Roger's and my favorite lunches.

Then we dropped her off at the shuttle, having thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

Can't wait 'til next year!