Salt Lake City

Our drive to Salt Lake City started later than anticipated as we had to do a few errands before we could get on the road.  Once we got going the drive was absolutely incredible.  We drove straight through the mountains and it seemed like the view around every corner was even better than the one before.  The lack of guardrails was still a bit disturbing although much less so than it had been at 12,000 feet on Trail Ridge Road.  Along the way we stopped in Georgetown, CO making that the third Georgetown I've been to in the country (DC, South Carolina and now Colorado).  Georgetown, TX and Georgetown, KY are next!  It was a super small town and we only stopped long enough to take a picture with the Georgetown sign and buy alot of candy, but it was definitely worth the brief visit.  As we crossed into Utah, the landscape changed drastically as we began to cross open, barren land with rocky hills and cliffs and nothing to see for miles.  It was spectacular.  I loved looking at all the cliffs.  As we got closer to Salt Lake City, however, the mountains began to become more green and the scenery was just beautiful.  We drove by Provo and I was hoping to see the BYU campus, but we couldn't see it from the highway and after a long day of driving we were eager to get to our hotel and rest up for the next day so we continued on to SLC.

 

LDS Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah

Salt Lake City, or as Sarah has dubbed it, "Mormon Central," was incredible.  I was very, very excited to get to SLC to see Temple Square.  After spending a summer in England with a bunch of incredibly nice BYU students I've learned alot more about Mormonism and I think it's super interesting and I love learning about it.  Plus, Mitt Romney is Mormon! Romney 2012!  We began our day in SLC by heading right to Temple Square.  Even the visitor's center was awesome.  In one of the visitor's centers they had a model showing the inside of the temple.  Since non-Mormons aren't allowed to go into temples, this is as close as I'll ever get to the inside of one, but I desperately wish I could go in.  It is absolutely gorgeous.  There are five or six floors and a bunch of different rooms that are all used for different things.  My favorite rooms were the baptistry, which is where baptisms are performed for the dead, and the celestial room which looked beautiful.  After checking out the rest of the exhibit in the visitor's center, we headed outside to see the temple.  I was so, so excited to see it and it was stunning.  There were people everywhere willing to answer questions and give you information and they are all so friendly.  There were also a bunch of wedding's going on so people were taking pictures everywhere.  Brianne didn't want to get in their way so she went somewhere else, but I was too excited about seeing the temple to care.  Of course I took a million pictures and then went and explored the gardens and some of the other buildings.

I saw the LDS Headquarters building, the Conference Center, the Assembly Hall and the Tabernacle which is where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs!!  Then I went into the other visitor's center which was also awesome.  They had tons of artwork, various exhibits explaining different aspects of Mormonism and one of the coolest rooms I've ever been in.  This room housed one thing: a giant statue of Jesus.  But that's not the cool part.  The cool part is how the room was designed.  It was a circular room that was painted to look like the night sky and since I really love astronomy I thought it was pretty awesome.

Overall, Temple Square was the highlight of my time in SLC.  I'm pretty sure that I could just sit in Temple Square every day for the rest of my life and be very happy.  Hopefully I'll get a chance to go back because I really want to take a tour of the Conference Center since I didn't get a chance to do it this time.  After we left Temple Square we headed to the Great Salt Lake.  It's absoultely massive and it was pretty cool to see.  After that I went to the Utah State Capitol building and took tons of pictures.  The views from the steps of the capitol as fantastic.  You can even see the temple from there!  Next I made Brianne go to the "This is the Place" monument.  I have to admit, I had never heard about this until I looked up things to see in SLC, but essentially it's a monument at the location where, in 1847, Brigham Young announced, "This is the right place" that the LDS pioneers should settle.  After seeing the views from there it's not hard to see why that was the place.  It's such a beautiful area!  If only there was an ocean in SLC, I could move there tomorrow.

 

After going back to the hotel for a little while to book our hotels for the next few nights, we headed back to Temple Square to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse!  They were actually rehearsing in the Conference Center as opposed to the Tabernacle so we got to inside a gigantic room there to hear them.  They are so good!!  It was so exciting to be there on the night they rehearse!  They do a live broadcast called "Music and the Spoken Word" every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.  It is the nation's longest running network program and has been run continuously since 1929!  That's over 80 years!!  I would have stayed in SLC for days, but after a very full and busy day there we had to head out for Yellowstone the following morning.  I really cannot wait to get back though!



Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal (tried to upload
a video but it wouldn't work)