Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I'm so excited!  Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. I fly out with a great group on what will be a wonderful adventure, and true testimony builder!  I am needing to get to bed, so I will post my itinerary, and if you like, you can think of what I am doing on any given day.  I will write several blogs about it when I return!  We fly to Chicago, Frankfort, Germany, and then Cairo, Egypt.  Spend 2 days there, then to Petra on Saturday, and then into Jordan and Israel! There are 10 or more dear friends from St. George that I have known for many years who will also be on this tour!  Our leader is Dr. Clark Christian, a former LDS Institute teacher, and he sent us a book half an inch thick a couple of months ago, with history of all the places we will go -- pyramids, etc. etc.  Interesting sidenote is that my daughter Julie, with whom I live, has an older brother who many years ago was a Stake President in Boston, and Dr. Christian was his counselor in the Stake Presidency!  Small world!

I have had a dear cousin for 76 years, who has been an inspiration to me!  The small necklace hanging over her photo on display at the funeral has a story!  The pearl is unusual, in that it changed colors according to what she was wearing.  It was given to her by a male admirer, but for some reason, she wasn't interested in him!  She also had it fixed so the diamond from her mother's wedding ring was attached.  She wore it every day!  My mother, Ruth Allen Miles, had a sister just older than her, LaVern, who was Emma Lois' mother.  My aunt LaVern was such an unselfish person!  Their father, John Butler Allen, had died when they were young children, leaving their mother a widow with 8 children.  As they grew up, they were very close, and helped each other, with 6 of the 8 graduating from college, and becoming school teachers.  When my mother Ruth, who had a beautiful soprano voice, was in college taking vocal lessons, she worked in the home of her vocal teacher to pay

In this last entry about my Southern Caribbean cruise, I will show more pictures, and make a few comments.  I LOVED IT ! A few homes of many colors! Below is a lady at the Chocolate factory on Granada Island, and she was telling us how chocolate is made.  It first is in a large pod, probably 6 to 8 inches long, and when you crack it open, it has little white parts that taste a bit sweet.  I can't remember many details, but that part is dried, and then cooked, and then it goes dark brown.  I bought 1 chocolate bar, 60% pure chocolate!                        A group going into the ancient chocolate factory. On that same tour, we also went to a nutmeg factory.  The nutmeg is ground from what is inside the nuts.  The man below was our guide.  He explained the process of getting the inside of the nut to market, etc.  He told us that any of the ladies working would be glad for us to take their picture. This lady below was sortin