Jim Givens and His Parents - Joe and Christa Givens

These pictures are from the collection of my sister, Lenore Busby.

There are very few pictures of my father when he was young. These pictures were taken when my father was about 6 years old. It is cute to see him in dress up clothes.His father was a gold miner and I think the pictures I have of him I could count on the fingers of one hand. He died in a mine accident when my dad was 10. He had to find unexploded charges when all the charges didn't go off. One day he found one and it exploded and killed him. Grandma eventually married George Damron and that is why she was known most of her life as Christa Damron.

Milestone

With the addition of Laura and the Keith Family the entire "Givens" Clan is blogging. Maree's wish has been fulfilled! Hopefully this will help us all keep together more than in the past. I for one have enjoyed seeing what is happening around the family.
I have some goals to work on right now - training for my new calling and trying to continue digitizing all my genealogy. That helps in two ways - reduce the paper inundation around the house and to make it easier for me to have my genealogy with me 24/7 where ever we might go.
As I do this I will try to digitize a packet of pictures each day and post one or two to this blog kind of like a Family History Moment or a running family history of someone or something in the family. I hope you will like it.

Pioneer Day - July 24

Hey, in Utah this is THE big thing. I loved the news this morning. To quote, "The Pioneer Day parade is the 2nd largest parade in America following the Rose Bowl Parade and the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. You figure out the math - only in Utah. We were bummed by it because we are using public transit to get around - saving a ton of money and the transit is free - yes, free, in downtown. But with the parade the Trax trains weren't running and we are 6 loooooong blocks from the Family History Library so we talked the hotel shuttle into driving us as close as he could get which was 100 S and West Temple. Pretty good - saved a long walk. Even though the parade goes down 2nd East they stage it on West and South Temple so we got to walk past a bunch of the floats. They were really very well done.And when the day ended we got to see fireworks. We missed it on the 4th when we were in Canada. So this was kind of neat to watch out our hotel widow and see several shows at once.

Look What I Have

I did have one other object in coming to Salt Lake. That was to meet Bro. Darryl Nilsson the director of the World Wide Support (part time) missionary program. He isn't a mission president, this program is under the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission. Well that isn't the correct name but you know what I mean. Here is my official badge - even though I haven't been set apart yet so I am not "official" yet.

Genealogy and the Choir Again

The rest of the week will be devoted to genealogy (of course) and a little choir too. I won't bore you with the genealogy but we did get to see the Mormon Tab again on Tuesday night. This is the week of Pioneer Day (the 24th of July) and in Utah that is a BIG thing. The Choir is performing on Friday and Saturday nights in their annual Pioneer Day program, this year with the Osmond Family. This is historic too as it is billed as the last time the Osmonds will perform as a family. Well, we went to the rehearsal practice. Donnie and Marie weren't there but the other brothers were. That was cool.
Here are the brothers on stage. The one in the white shirt and dark pants came in a wheel chair - he obviously has had a stroke or something. The two on the ends are the ones that are deaf.

Off to Salt Lake City and Provo

We had a purpose in going to Utah. My Carter ancestors were pioneers in Utah and helped settle Provo. In the early days there many little children were buried in the cemetery there without headstones. They probably had wooden markers but they have long since decayed. The family decided to pitch in and pay for a respectable monument in their honor. I got to have a part on the program and did the dedication of the bench. It is very nice and is right next to Hannah Knight Libby Carter's grave. Since she is the matriarch of the Carter clan in Utah it is a very fitting location for the bench.Yes, check out the typo. You pay good money and include a typo. At least I wasn't part of that. It was fun to meet all kinds of cousins I have never seen before. That was fun.

On Sunday we went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing. (And I forgot the camera!) It was a historic performance of Music and the Spoken Word - it was the program that began their 80th consecutive year of broadcasting. They had a special group of Japanese-Americans there who were from an organization seaking reparations over being put in camps during the Second World War - the choir sang The Battle Hymn of the Republic for them after the broadcast. Of course Mom was in second heaven as it is her all time favorite song of theirs. It is interesting how touching it is to others. There were 4 visitors to Salt Lake in front of us - two couples - and all four were wiping away tears after that song.

30 Hours to Catch the Next Flight Out

We got back in the evening of the 16th of July (7:30) to be more exact and had until 11:00 AM on the 18th to get in the car to get back to Sacramento and catch our flight to Salt Lake. Guess what had to get done in between. Here is a portion of the laundry that needed doing.Isn't blogging great? You can even blog about dirty clothes. Actually we did one thing while there. We went with Laura and the kids to a little water park that the city of Yuba City has. They don't have a lot - a real competition pool, a play pool (real pool), one real water slide like you find in a regular water park and a water park jungle gym with little slides, etc. for the kiddies. I forgot to take stills but did take video - unfortunately I have no clue how to put it in here. Another skill to learn.

Back to the Lower 48 States!

All good things must end. The end began with a 4:45 date to put our bags outside the room and a 5:45 call to get on the shuttle to the airport. We had a three part flight out - 8:45 from Fairbanks to Anchorage, then from Anchorage to Seattle, and finally Seattle to Sacramento - arriving at 7:30 PM. What a long day of travel.

While flying to Anchorage we flew right by Denali and the pilot didn't even mention it. I guess it is an everyday thing up here.With this we say good-bye to our most glorious vacation. Hope you enjoyed seeing it on our blog.

Fairbanks - Last Full Day In Alaska

Our last full day in Alaska started with a bus drive to Fairbanks. I took this shot of our tour guide, Lane. He was really wonderful and earned his money doing all the paperwork that keep us going and organized. He was from Idaho and knew about Givens Springs!We again got to see Denali - even all the way up to Fairbanks - over 120 miles away. We were very bless in this since only 30% of the tourist to Alaska actually get to see it. We saw it on at least 3 different days. This isn't a good picture - we were too far away and my camera isn't the most advanced or with a big telephoto lens.
Entering Fairbanks we stopped to view the Alaska Pipeline up close.Sign posts - I can't resist them. Note just 22 miles to the North Pole and only 198 to the Arctic Circle. It never really got dark here - even after the sun went down at 11:30 or so. It stayed more like twilight than dark until 3:30 or so when the sun began to come up.
Lane also gave us his famous good-bye waves in front of the statue in Fairbanks. I think this is an Alaskan thing. The statue is in the part where the city was founded.After lunch in Fairbanks we took the Discovery Riverboat Ride on a paddle wheel boat - Discovery II. We stopped to visit with a musher at his dog camp, entered another river, and stopped at another recreated Indian village. It was really well run. We learned about reindeer, their homes, sled dogs, and making of Indian clothing. The clothing exibit was Mom's favorite - she wanted this parka. Thankfully it wasn't for sale.We arrived at our last motel at almost dinner time. Our "little" room was actually a converted pipeline workers' digs. It was over 700 square feet - had a huge living room with two couches, big TV, full kitchen, dining room, big bathroom, large bedroom with a huge walk in closet. Too bad we got so little time to be there.

These we cabbages they were growing at the motel. The Alaska record is a cabbage of 95 pounds!I practiced running a sled for the next Iditarod

Denali Park Day 2

Today we had to be on a bus at 6:05 AM!!!! We took a 9 hour plus Wilderness and Tundra Tour of Denali Park where we traveled by bus 65 miles back into the wilds of the park. Denali is a generally undeveloped and unimproved park. No trails, only 5 or so camp sites. Almost no improvements so it can be considered true wilderness. It rained most of the day, and since most of the trip was on gravel roads, the bus and windows were constantly covered in mud. The poor driver had to clean the windows at every stop. That was great but within a minute the windows would be covered over again.
Wildlife - we saw all kinds of wildlife. We saw hares, foxes, bear, Dall sheep, caribou, and elk. Most of the time the wildlife moved to fast or were too far away for me to get a good picture. Here is a bear we found sleeping it off in the tundra.Back in "town" after our exhausting trip we did a little shopping. Town is all of a block or two of stores along one side of the highway. The building were all linked by a boardwalk. The pillars holding up the overhang were a covered with burls and were quite unique.

The "Salmon Bake" was the one real restaurant in town and it was excellent. I had the best salmon I had in Alaska.

Denali Park Day 1

Again we took another train ride. This is an image of our car. We had plush seats upstairs - like first class seats in a plane, a wraparound dome to look through, bar service, and a dinner on the lower deck. It is a nice way to go.Again - beautiful scenery everywhere we looked.Here is a scene of our motel building - again plush furnishing and right on a river bank.Well, what did we do with the rest of our time? We went river rafting in category 3 to 4 rapids. The higher number due to the temperature of the water (34 degrees). We were in full body wet suits that actually assist in your flotation, if needed, and of course a life vest. The actual ride was somewhere between exhilarating and frightening depending on the condition of the river. All in all it was a most interesting experience. Lisa, our guide, didn't look like she could handle a boat like ours but she was more than capable. She is a college graduate with 5 years of rafting experience in New Zealand, Wyoming, and here in Alaska. OK, I can handle white water but I am not, repeat not, sky diving or bungee jumping. Don't even suggest it!

Talkeetna, Alaska and Mt. McKinley

Today we rode the train again to the tiny town of Talkeetna, Alaska (pop. 700).

Today though was the first day of the the Annual Moose Drop Festival with about 10,000 people from all over Alaska, and a few hundred travelers on these tours here by happenstance. They celebrate with a parade, breakfasts, sales of moose statue made for the parade, and the famous Moose Drop. Moose are constipated in the winter and when they poop they leave little pellets. The locals "harvest" them, dry them, paint them, and shellac them. Then 3,000 are sold at $5 each as a fund raiser for the local VFW branch. (In fact all the events help them.) The pellets are lifted up in a bag and released to fall on a target. The closest one get the owner $1600, and so forth for 11 places. The furthest out also gets a prize. Alas, we didn't win.

Oh well, we got to take a bush plane (a De Havilland DHC-3 Otter), a 12 seater, up to see Mt. McKinley up close.We first flew past our lodge.

The local name for McKinley is Denali, meaning the Big One, in the native tongue. We couldn't see the summit from the ground as it was too cloudy from the south side so we flew around to the north side to get this beautiful view. Denali is over 19,000 feet high, the highest point in the Americas.

We then landed on Ruth Glacier at the 13,000 foot level. At this point we were standing on 3,500 feet of ice. What a view and experience. There is a little landing strip here with bush planes landing and taking off every few minutes. We were very lucky as only our group and the one before us were able to land there that day. Conditions are often unstable here and landings not suggested. The last picture is Mom with our pilot.

Seward to Anchorage

The morning we had to say good-by to our ship, The Radience of the Seas, was a sad occasion. We had really enjoyed our trip to Seward. Seward itself is a fishing and tourist town. There is more to it than we could see from the ship, but not a lot.We drove by coach from Seward to Anchorage - about a 2 1/2 hour drive through the mountains, along lakes, and along ocean inlets to the big city of Anchorage.

This is the 2nd largest city in Alaska. We were left off in time to eat lunch before going to the Alaskan Indian Discovery Center.They even had a welcoming committee for us.Where else are you going to see glacial ice on the street as an advertisement.The flowers were just beautiful. I can't think of a place with more beautiful flowers.

We were beginning to move north as this sign signifies. Check out the length of the day.Anchorage is the start of the most challenging sporting event in the world - the Iditarod sled race - as this statue commemorates at its starting point in downtown Anchorage.After lunch we went to the Alaskan Indian Heritage Center where all 5 of the major groups of Alaskan Indians have recreated villages showing their ways of life. Interestingly - no igloos - mainly homes made of wood covered up by dirt or log houses.Here is downtown and our hotel and downtown Anchorage.

Ray - Our Stateroom Steward

One of the highlights of the whole sailing adventure was Ray, our stateroom steward. He was most personable and seemed to really care about us. He always had a pleasant thing to say to us and loved to joke around. He was from Costa Rica and has a wife and child there. He gets two months off every 6 months of work.
He loved to leave little towel figurines in our stateroom. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph his best - a hanging monkey. Here are the rest. See if you can guess what they are.