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Temple Talk
In my world geography class we often talk about current events. In my 9:00 class this morning we talked about floods in Venice, droughts in Southern Africa, using toxic plastic trash as fuel to make...
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Vegas Cup and Temple
Last weekend we ventured south for yet another soccer tournament in Las Vegas (actually Henderson at Heritage Park). Will's Utah Storm team competed in the top division of the Vegas Cup which brings in...
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National Parks
A few years ago I got the National Park virus. I wanted to visit and explore as many as I could. I bought a shirt with a list of all of the parks on the front that I could check off. Now I have...
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The Great Back East Mortorhome Trip of 1969
In the summer of 1969, when I was 12 years old and just out of seventh grade, our family went 'back east" on an epic motorhome road trip. I kept a daily journal with illustrations and post cards of our...
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Man Made Wonders of the Great Salt Lake Desert
Yesterday in an epic 13 hour drive we circumambulated the Great Salt Lake looking at a variety of man-made wonders.The first big wonder was Metaphor: the Tree of Utah (aka the Tree of Life) created by...
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The Great Quarantine/Isolation of 2020
So far Marie has made 19 facemasks for us to use (and we do) in our outings.Back in January in my political geography class during our weekly discussion about current events, we talked about how the...
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South Chicago Stories
In September 1985 I moved to South Chicago to start my PhD program in geography at the University of Chicago. While I had lived in diverse places like Jakarta, Jerusalem, and suburban Washington DC,...
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Roads Less Travelled By
During our months couped up at home, I dreamed of post pandemic road trips. I hoped, before Joel's mission intermission was over, that all five of us could venture north to the national parks of the...
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Rewriting rewritten history: some thoughts on monuments and flags
The Robert E. Lee Memorial in Charlottesville, Virginia (April 2019)I am not a southerner. I am a geographer who likes to read the landscape. Two years ago I ventured forth in New Orleans, Louisiana...
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Almost
Will's Utah Storm Team almost made it past the semi-finals to the finals yesterday in the Utah Invitational Tournament. If only one of several dozen shots on goal from Storm had gone in and the ending...
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For BYU students in need of help
 For the start of a new school year, the BYU Geography Department prepared this resource for BYU students needing help in dealing with issues of sexual harassment, racism and discrimination. Our hope...
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A gold medal day
 Will's Utah Storm Premier 04 team won the Mayor's Cup today. The team played Tuesday evening in Kaysville and won 2-1. Will made a nice assist for a score by Marco. Saturday morning in Farmington...
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Colorado Cruising
  It was a full and fun four day road trip along many new roads (for me) in Colorado. First stop was the Colorado Monument outside of Grand Junction. It was the first of many delightful surprises along...
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A History of Indonesian Instruction at BYU
In 2001 after a 20 year hiatus, foreign LDS Missionaries were once again granted visas to serve in Indonesia. The first foreign missionaries were from Canada, Germany and Australia. After a few years,...
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Blue Skies
Doris Day Blue skies Frank Sinatra - Blue Skies 1941 Tommy Dorsey OrchestraIrving Kaufman - Blue Skies (1927) (with the complete original lyrics)Blue Skies by Irving BerlinI was blue, just as blue as I...
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Ascension and Crash Corner
Today we walked southward along the crest of the Mount of Olives. Our first stop was at the Dome of the Ascension. It is now a Muslim mosque, but once upon a time it was a large Byzantine church with...
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A Saturday Drive
The leaves were raked and the Christmas lights up so I decided to take a Saturday drive through some new territory and towns.Took I-15 to Nephi and headed west to Leamington and then south to Oak City....
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A 2020 Thanksgiving
 Thanksgiving in this crazy COVID year of 2020 bucked many a tradition. For starters it was just us three that gathered. Sadly, this was the year we lost our last parent (Marie's wonderful dad) so the...
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Christmas Star
Nice views of the "Christmas Star" on this winter solstice day. It is actually Saturn and Jupiter in the southwest sky in near alignment to look like one bright star. It's been 400 years since the two...
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Colorado River, Sonoran Desert and Will's Soccer
This year, Will's Utah Storm Soccer team opted to play in the prestigious Phoenix Presidents Day Tournament. Because of COVID gathering restrictions in Phoenix, the tournament shifted southward to Casa...
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