Family Day and Graduation - Part 1 of 3

(I've been working on this post for a few days now and it has turned out to be very lengthy, so I'm splitting it up a bit.)

On Tuesday Nov 2nd, I flew from DFW to Columbia, SC (Thanks Mom & Dad for the airfare tickets). I got there a little before noon and had a few hours to kill before I could check into my hotel. So I got in my rental car, a Nissan Versa (it was a good car, but would never buy one) and drove to Fort Jackson. In order to get on base I needed to get a pass and thankfully they offered passes the day before all the festivities. Upon getting my pass I headed towards my hotel to know roughly where it was in relation to the base and found a Chick-Fil-A and decided to stop for lunch. It felt so surreal knowing that I was just within a few miles of my hubby. Well, once I got my food I asked for a phone book and looked up the Columbia Temple address. Got back in my car and found the the temple, which was only 15 minutes away. By the way, I love our TomTom. I would have gotten lost with out. Once I arrived at the temple I really wished I could go in. I don't have temple clothes and the temple is pretty small so they don't rent clothes. I was actually surprised on how small it was. In any case I could still walk around the grounds and found a nice little bench to sit on. Just being on the grounds you can feel the Spirit so strongly. After about an hour the cold was too much and I decided to try to find the LDS bookstore near by. Turned out to be directly across the street. I walked around the store very slowly trying to pass the time and found two items to buy. A cookbook of recipes 2 people and a novel called Turning Hearts by Deanne Blackhurst! I was so shocked to see my maiden name on a book that I just had to buy it. I'm sure we are related somehow, but I don't recognize the name and neither do my parents. After leaving the bookstore it was past the time that I could check in my hotel so I head straight there. I finally got in my hotel room after a small mix up at the front desk, mostly because the person's English was not very good. I was pretty tired so took a nap, then woke feeling hungry. I didn't want fast food again so I tried driving around looking for a grocery store, my hotel room had a fridge and microwave, and after while had to go back to get the TomTom. There are so many trees in SC that it was hard to drive around looking for stores. Finally found a Wal-mart, got a few things then went back to the hotel. It was a little weird staying in a hotel by myself, but it was good and I am so grateful to even have gone. Brett got his phone back and we were texting the whole day. It was good to converse with him. Finally around 10 I went to sleep and slept pretty well.

To be Continued...