Brigham City Peach Days and Labor Day Picnic

Liberty Park in Salt Lake City is a beautiful park near downtown. It's not nearly as large as Central Park in New York City but nonetheless a great place with lots to do including a small lake/pond, aviary, pool, volleyball or just take a walk around the place and people watch. We went there for a very an outing with missionaries from the British Zone on Monday, Labor Day and enjoyed a delightful picnic.  We had an "old timers" karaoke sing and shared stories about a pioneer ancestor's occupation. The weather was cool and perfect, couldn't have been any nicer. Our missionary friends made a nice substitute for our family who are far away.

Entrance to Liberty Park

Lots of good food!!

Homemade lemon pie

Elder and Sister Murdock

Sister and Elder Garrett

Sister Latimer and Sister Long

Sister Haddock and Elder Matthews

Sister Giles and Elder Wright

Sister and Brother Larson and Byde

Elder and Sister Carbine

Elder and Sister Wallis and Elder and Sister Wright

Elder Young and his wife

Group shot of those attending the Labor Day Picnic

Friday night we went to the 30th Anniversary O.C. Tanner Gift of Music Concert.  We had requested tickets through their lottery system and didn't get them so we ended up standing in the stand-by line that night.  We had no trouble getting seated and felt really fortunate to be able to attend the concert.

James Taylor and Mack Wilberg

The collaboration between James Taylor and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir - two iconic figures of American music - was many years in the making, Taylor revealed at a press conference Friday afternoon aththe Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

Taylor, 65,   has been a widely acclaimed performer and writer since bursting on the scene in the late 1960s. At the press conference, he noted that many of his songs are suited for choirs.

"My music has followed a number of different directions and to a certain extent I'm chorale-focused in my music," he said. "I've always worked with four and sometimes five other singers, and there’s a chorale aspect to my music that has been with me all along and has been growing. Some songs really want to be performed by a choir."

After rehearsing “That Lonesome Road” with the choir Thursday night, Taylor said he turned to Wilberg and said, “This song has died and gone to heaven."

On Saturday we drove to Brigham City to participate in the Peach Days Festival and Parade.  Not only did we enjoy a GREAT parade but we enjoyed a walk down Main Street and visited the quaint shops. We then attended a melodrama at the Fine Arts Center.  We had a peach shake (YUMMY) made at Bert's in downtown Brigham City.

As you can see from the pictures below, we were sitting right across the street from the Brigham City Temple during the parade so that made a nice backdrop for many of the pictures.

This cute girl was the Jr. Grand Marshall

One of many dance groups

What else but a great float about Family Search

Hats off to FFA

Civic Improvement Club's float was very nice!

Cute little train made from barrels

Old Timer's Band

This was just 1 of about 5 dance groups represented

What's a parade without a marching band?

All Aboard

Pear trees on the back side of the Brigham City Temple

Some of the flower beds around the Temple

Side of Brigham City Temple

Fountain on the east side of the Temple

No one got sprayed where we were sitting (we were at the very beginning of the parade)

Cute little old police car (right out of the Andy Griffith show)

Horse-drawn hearse (no bodies inside)

The money dog

More fun parade characters

Beautiful Rose and the melodrama cast

There was an old car show as part of days activities and several of them "drove" the parade

This guy was too cute!

Never saw a piece of equipment quite like this

Walmart's whale (was also in the Salt Lake parade)

Dedicated to nursing services

Tumbling on the back of a flatbed

What's a parade without a few fun clowns - these were riding carousel horses!

Pulling a handcart

The Pirate Ship

A great place for a sandwich and to buy some FANTASTIC bread, we stopped here for lunch

A musical version of "The Ballad of Porcupine Joe, or a Gold Bar in the Hand is Worth Two Gold Bars in the Bush" was the title of the melodrama. In traditional melodrama form, author-director Geri Garfield created a scenario worthy of cheers and hisses from the audience. Rose, a beautiful Brigham City girl, whose father owns the Gold Bar Bank, faces the typical storyline perils.  In the end, of course, Mr. Goodfellow saves not only the the Gold Bar Bank (and the fate of the town), but also wins the hand of the beautiful Rose.

The hero, Mr. Goodfellow and his beautiful lady, Rose

The villain and his accomplice

On our way home we drove State Route 89 down through Perry, Utah and bought a bushel of peaches that had been picked that very day. Peaches are one of my most favorite fruits and we just couldn't resist some good, Utah-grown peaches; that alone was worth the drive up to Brigham City. The peaches had been picked that day and were so sweet; just need a nice big freezer to be able to save them for the winter.

Peach is about 4 inches across