The Temple

Oakland Temple, my 35th temple, view from our apartment at Temple Housing

view from our balcony at temple housing

on the grounds at the Oakland Temple

Rebecca and Lizzie on our balcony

on the bridge in front of the Oakland Temple

Rebecca at the Oakland Temple

Lizzie at the Oakland Temple

me and my daughters at the Oakland Temple, 2017

inside the Oakland Temple visitor's center

The Christus in the visitor's center

Lizzie was excited about the long white limo that pulled up and lots of people hopped out to take photos. I think it was for someone's quinceañera.

2017

In 2017 my girls and I went to Advanced Suzuki Institute at Stanford University. As part of our trip, we went to Oakland to attend the Oakland Temple. It is located at 4770 Lincoln Avenue. I was so grateful that this temple has patron housing! We stayed one night in their patron housing, which is close to the temple and has a beautiful view of the Oakland Temple on the deck. My favorite part of the Oakland Temple is the beautiful grounds outside! While we were there we saw a large group of people taking photos for what I'm guessing was someone's quinceanera. They pulled up in a long white limo and everybody hopped out and started taking photos on the beautiful temple grounds. There is a little creek that runs down the length of the grounds, and a small bridge that goes over the creek. The flowers are so beautiful there! And the visitor's center is very extensive and interactive. We toured the visitor's center in addition to doing baptisms. My daughter Rebecca told me that she thinks the Oakland Temple might be the very most beautiful temple she has ever been to! The temple was also very busy, but the temple workers were very nice. Lizzie was not old enough to do baptisms, so she stayed and watched videos in the visitor's center while Rebecca and I went in the baptistry. There were so many other youth there that after we did baptisms, and before we did confirmations, I left the baptistry to go check on Lizzie in the visitor's center, and when I came back, Rebecca was still in line for the confirmations. It was one of our most special temple experiences, though, and my girls get really excited whenever we talk about it.

The Trip

We drove from the center of Wyoming all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back on this trip! My girls got into the Advanced String Institute at Stanford University, to study violin for a week. We stayed in the dorms at Stanford and absolutely loved exploring the campus, in addition to our wonderful week of classes and concerts. We attended 9 different Suzuki Institutes over the years, and this one was our favorite! During that week we walked to every corner of campus, took lots of photos, and just enjoyed exploring. We ran into some missionaries on campus and talked to them for a while. That would be a fun place to serve a mission! Staying in the dorms meant that we were very close to everything. We ate in the cafeteria, we enjoyed looking at all the old buildings and houses. It might be my favorite campus that I have ever explored.

Since we were less than an hour from San Francisco, we decided that while we were out there, we would fit as many tourist attractions into our trip as we possibly could! On the drive out there, we drove past the Salt Flats, we saw the Tree of Utah, we stayed in Reno one night and did baptisms at the Reno Temple before continuing on our trip. We also stopped at the Sacrament Temple, but it was closed for cleaning so we were only able to walk around the grounds and take photos outside. We'll have to make another trip to go inside that temple!

After Suzuki Camp we drove to San Francisco and walked on the Golden Gate Bridge. We toured Alcatraz and Angel Island. We visited China Town. We rode on a couple cable cars. We walked on the steep San Francisco streets. We visited Fisherman's Wharf and saw the sealions. We stayed at a Holiday Inn in downtown San Francisco (that charged an arm and a leg to park our car there!). We didn't leave San Francisco until it was getting dark, and we still had a very long trip ahead of us. We were driving through the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the pitch dark when we passed a sign marking the site of the Donner Party tragedy. Rebecca had ordered oatmeal at the McDonald's drive-thru as we were leaving San Francisco, and the windy roads in the mountain range made her start to feel sick. She threw up into the paper McDonald's bag, and this quickly leaked all over her lap and the car. Since it was pitch black and the middle of the night, I did not dare to pull over. We pushed forward, and finally reached our hotel in Fernley Nevada at 2 a.m. I hurried into the hotel and asked for cleaning supplies to clean Rebecca's seat. I told Rebecca to go in our room and shower. There was only one employee at the Best Western Hotel in Fernley, Nevada where I had reservations. After I cleaned the car, I went to check on Rebecca in our room. She said that the toilet didn't work. I went back to the desk and told the attendant, but she said she didn't have anyone working maintenance until morning. She said there was one more room she could move us to, so she gave us the keys. We grabbed all of our things and went to the other room, but when I entered it, I could see bedbugs crawling all over the beds. I quickly left the room and told the attendant. She did not seem surprised. She had knowingly put us in a room infested with bed bugs!! So our only option was to stay in the room without the working toilet. If I hadn't been so completely exhausted I would have just loaded the girls back up and driven to a different city, but instead we just put up with the awful room and asked the hotel for our money back the next morning. I had booked the room through an outside website, so the manager told me there was not any compensation they could give me. I left a very, very negative review on their website. I wish so much that I had booked the same Hampton in Reno that we stayed at on our way there, but I mistakenly thought that we could drive farther than Reno on the way back. I have learned my lesson! Paying for a decent hotel, despite the driving time, is definitely worth it! And don't ever again stay in Fernley Nevada!

It was one of our very favorite trips, followed by one of the very worst endings we could have had! But we did make it home safely, and we did have a fabulous time! It is quite the story to tell now!

Rebecca with her master teacher at Advanced Suzuki Institute at Stanford University

the Golden Gate Bridge

view of the Golden Gate Bridge

little tunnel by the parking area

Golden Gate Bridge

visiting Fisherman's Wharf

walking the steep streets to China Town

Lizzie was afraid of all the pigeons. Rebecca had fun scaring them away.

riding the cable car

inside the cable car

the dorm we stayed at on Stanford University

the elders serving on Stanford campus

ice cream on campus

Stanford University campus

My girls are big fans of High School Musical, so any time they saw any sign of where Gabriella was during High School Musical 3, they got very excited!