A Quick Get Away Retreat.

Les and I decided it was time to have a little break and do a close get away. Some times it's hard with Les's work and church responsibilities to get away for a long period of time like we'd like. So, Les made reservations for The Merchant of Venice at the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. We left Friday morning. We were feeling happy and relaxed as we drove along. I hadn't eaten breakfast and so Les stopped at a McDonald's in Payson so I could pick up something quick to eat as we drove but we decided to go in. I put my purse on the back of my chair as we ate. We finished our meal and headed down the highway. We traveled quite aways probably almost to Nephi when I started looking for my purse. My heart sank as I looked in the front seat and then in the back and realized my purse was still on the back of my chair back at the Payson McDonald's. Or hopefully that's where it was. Les was furious with me as I was with myself. I was sick, it had my cell phone, car keys, money not to mention credit cards. I was so afraid someone would have looked on the back of the chair and said, "Oh look what we have here, and look what's inside!!!" Les turned the car around as he cussed and ranted and raved. I took his cell phone and tried to call information for the Payson McDonald's to see if they would look and see if the purse was there but it just kept ringing and ringing. Les saying, "Judy, you make me so angry why do you carry that stupid thing around with you all the time? Why, don't you just leave it locked in the car?" Finally just before we got to Payson I got information and they put me through to McDonald's. I asked the manager if anyone had found and turned in a black leather purse. He asked my name and asked me to describe the purse, then he said that it was there. I felt a little better but knew I needed to check and make sure everything was there. Les dropped me off at the very BUSY McDonald's and I ran in. They gave me the purse and as I checked the contents, EVERYTHING was there!!! I felt so blessed. I had prayed all the way there that it would be there and everything would be inside. We left and I felt such a great gratitude in my heart for honest people. We traveled on to Cedar City. The play was spectacular. It has been a number of years since Les and I attended one of the plays but we both felt that The merchant of Venice was one of the best that we had seen there. I was not really aware of what the play was about and so we went to a 15 minute preview by the founder of the center Mr Adams himself. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's controversial tragicomedy's. Back in Shakespeare's day the Jew's were hated as they were in Germany at the time of the Holocaust. It is a play whose theme is centered around justice and mercy between a Jew and a Christian, the complexity of human kind, and the nature of forgiveness and love. If you get a chance to break away it is a great play and we highly recommend it.

I had never been to the Grand Canyon so the next day we traveled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. What a spectacular sight.

It is so beautiful but a little scary as you walk along the paths thats so close to the edge with nothing left to catch you if you slipped or fell but bottom below. On the way home there, and back, we came across the most beautiful field of blue flowers. It reminded me of the photos Jeramy and Rebecca took of their kids in the blue bells in Texas. It's hard to appreciate the beauty from my photos but it was such a beautiful field of flowers. We forget that we have such beautiful places to visit so close to home.