ShepAlder Temple #46: Vancouver, B.C.

This weekend, Josh and I made the deceptively long trek to Vancouver, British Columbia in order to visit our 46th temple. We've been planning a trip since the dedication in 2010 (I mean, it's only a state and a quick border crossing away, right?) but, like with Medford, things just never seemed to work out. Since we are t-minus 4 weeks from our move, we decided this was the perfect time. (It wasn't, but, like Tim Gunn insists, we made it work). 

It's funny, because from pictures I assumed that the VBC (Vancouver, B.C. shortened for my sanity) temple was huge but when we got there it seemed much smaller. But then on the inside it seems much bigger. Generally I judge the size of a temple by three things: the presence of a cafeteria, clothing rental, and a chapel/ordinance waiting room. VBC has all three, though in much smaller sizes than, for instance, Portland. 

After you go inside, the dressing rooms and ordinance rooms are upstairs. For some weird reason, this is among my favorite dressing rooms. Maybe because there are some nooks and crannies so I felt like I could get a locker without having to fight people for a dressing stall. It's weird how I judge my various temple experiences. It also smelled really good-- like my family's summer house when I was growing up. 

There are two major things that sets this temple apart for me. First of all, there is a landscape mural in the ordinance room (which I always love), and it features both the deer and what I assume is some sort of Canadian elk (?), who are all kind of hanging out in the woods. But they are going about their business, and maybe the artist was worried that people sitting in the room would get a little skeeved by what might seem like elk and deer staring them down, which means that all I noticed was paintings of elk and deer bums. The second thing is that we spent nearly half an hour talking with the temple worker at the front desk about the Temple Riders-- a group of church members that ride their motorcycles to visit the temples. I think that's cool and I'm wondering if there are any other groups that organize around visiting temples around the country.

I didn't realize how weirdly stressed I am until I saw the pictures from the temple. In every single one, my face looks contorted. It was also raining. Depressing.