Archive Adventures

Hooray for work days that entail going up to Salt Lake and hanging out at the state archives and having fun with your mom! Yesterday was the best work day ever. Mom and I went up to SLC to the Utah State Archives to check out some Camp Floyd pictures. Unfortunately the pictures weren't quite what I was hoping to find, but it was still a very worthwhile trip--and you never know what an archive has until you check. The Utah State Archives is housed at the old Rio Grande station that was built in 1908. It is the coolest building ever, and I have decided that I want to work there someday. If I had my druthers, I would work for the Utah State History Administration, which has its offices at the top of the Rio Grande building. I'd need to work my way up the figurative ladder of historical professions before that would be a possibility, but that would truly be an awesome place to work. Train stations are such cool buildings, and I think it's great when they are preserved and used for neat things like museums, archives, etc. Another really cool train station is the Union Terminal in Cincinnati where the Cincinnati State Historical Society is headquartered. Union Station in Chicago is cool too--but it's a little questionable in some areas. The train station in Mattoon, IL is a really neat building, but it needs some serious, serious, serious help. Anyway, the Rio Grande station is totally cool. Mom and I ate lunch at the Rio Grande Cafe which is a fun place that serves tasty Mexican food.

After our archive adventures, we took a little excursion to one of our favorite places: Gardner Historic Village. Archibald Gardner, around whose mill said historic village is built, originally had a mill at Camp Floyd back in the day! I'm learning that pretty much everyone in the world has a connection to Camp Floyd--but nobody has ever heard of it before :-) They still had their cute 4th of July decorations out at Gardner Village, and Mom and I had a fun time going around to the different shops.

Then we headed over to Jonathan's Jewelers to pick up my wedding band! I am so excited about the wedding band--because it is both beautiful and very significant to my family. It was the diamond band that Grandpa Farnsworth gave to Grandma Farnsworth when they were married. Grandma later had it attached to her engagement ring, and when it was later removed, the base of the wedding ring kind of came apart. So Mom and I took it to Jonathan's, and they repaired it, polished it up, and it looks as good as new. It looks really beautiful with my engagement ring, and it will be fun to wear the set after Greg and I get married! The only problem yesterday was that they said the ring would be done by 2:00, but when we arrived there at 3:00, they hadn't even started on it yet. So, we had to wait around for a while, but they were very apologetic and nice to us. While waiting, Mom and I went to Taco Bell and tried one of their new mango-strawberry Fruitista Freezes--it was the best slushie drink ever! So we had a lot of fun adventures in Salt Lake--it was great just to get to spend the whole day together!

I think I have acid reflux problems. I've had two acid reflux attacks in the past--but the last one was clear back in September 2007. I thought that maybe my problems had gone away, but unfortunately the acid struck again last night. I was getting ready for bed when I started to feel the unpleasant burning in my chest, then I felt like I needed to throw up, and I basically had the dry heaves until 2:30 in the morning. Zero fun. After eating almost a package of soda crackers, I was finally able to go to sleep--but yuck! I am not a fan of acid reflux. I'm not positive that is what my problem is, but I'm quite sure. Hopefully it will go away today. Mom, Dad, and I are getting ready to head to St. George today to visit Grandpa and Grandma F. T., which should be very, very fun. I haven't been able to see them since I got home from school, so I'm excited to spend the weekend there!