California Adventures

You know, trying to live a blog-worthy lifestyle isn't as easy as I would like, but Catherine and I have been working hard to generate some cool stories for everyone. I don't have any pictures with me (boo!), but I'll add some later.

The Salt Lake Temple has been closed for annual maintenance but opened up on January 29 - just in time for Ward Temple Night. We had an excellent experience at the temple, but Catherine and I were the only people in the 7:00 session from our ward. . . what the??? It turns out that the majority of the ward does the 4:00 session in preparation for a 6:00 dinner at the temple cafeteria (???). I must confess I'm not a connoisseur of temple cuisine, but I'm not sure I can relate. Then again, it is a Geriatric Ward of sorts. . .

Back to the world of spontaneity - my brother-in-law, Travis Cook, called me and asked me if I wanted to go to California with him when we were driving home from the temple on Tuesday night. Twenty minutes later, my bags were packed and I was heading South to meet him in Draper. We made it to St. George by 2:30 AM, slept until 8:00, and we were swimming in the Pacific Ocean in Newport Beach by 1:30. I have a personal rule that any time I'm by the ocean (regardless of the month or weather conditions), I have to take a dip. This can get nippy at times (Portland in early February was pretty cold), but it was a beautiful 57 degrees in Newport and the water was great!

Travis owns a car dealership and we went down to attend their luxury car auction in Riverside. I don't know if I can accurately portray what a car auction is like, but here it goes. Imagine a HUGE parking lot with 2700 luxury cars. 600 BMW's, 450 Mercedes Benz, 400 Land Rovers, 400 Porsche, and a variety of Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley, Maybach, Maserati, Aston Martin, along with Infiniti, Acura, Audi, Volkswagen, etc. Now, imagine 8 lanes of auction lines decked out with Auctioneer's desks, plasma screens for vehicle data, and giant speakers for each lane. 40 to 50 potential buyers surround every car running through the line. You see the Ferrari of your dreams pulling up slowly to the front of the lane, and in literally 20 seconds you have either emerged as the winner or loser. If you ever had a difficult time viewing your car as a commodity, watch three 2007 BMW 335xi's sell in under a minute. There goes $120,000. Everything about the auction is pure and utter chaos!

We had a great time at the auction. We bought a beautiful 2007 Range Rover and a 2006 BMW X5. Screaming deals on each. I tried to find an Infiniti G35X, but the selection wasn't that great. We made the mandatory stop at In 'n Out Burger for the Double Double Animal Style and were cozy in our own beds by Thursday night. I've gotta say, there's nothing that recharges the batteries like a spontaneous trip to California - I highly recommend it if you can. Good times!