Day Twenty-Four - Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day!

The day dawned beautifully in Salt Lake City - sunny, blue skies, fluffy while clouds, a soft breeze, and predicted to have a high of 73. All of the above came to be!

We began our exploration of Salt Lake City with a drive from our hotel near the airport through a modern light industrial and warehouse area, and on through the Latino and African-American communities, and finally into the downtown area of the City. We sought out the state capitol building and found another extraordinary setting for the capitol. The building itself is similar to the United States Capitol, and the grounds are vast, green, well-manicured with flower gardens and several memorial statues. And of course, the beehive - symbol of industriousness of the people. Also near the capitol is the original refurbished city council building which now serves as a welcome and visitor center for the capitol building compound.

We took a short drive up into the hillside behind the capitol and enjoyed magnificent views of the city as well as an opportunity to appreciate interesting architecture - traditional and modern - in the area.

Then we headed to the Temple Square to visit the facilities of the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The Square contains the Temple which is not open to the public as well as several other facilities that are available for touring. We stopped at the North Visitor Center and got directions to the Family History Library. We found the volunteers at the Library to be most helpful. A volunteer is assigned to any first time visitor to provide an orientation to the resources available for genealogy research. We spent an hour looking for Harold's great, great, great grandfather on his father's side and his grandfather on his mother's side. We did not find either, but we got a great orientation to some of the resources that might help us find them on another, more lengthy search process. As we were leaving, another volunteer steered us to the directory of affiliated sites that are connected to the Library for follow up. Our own Preble County District Library is one, so you know where we are headed when we get home!

We walked over to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (an old hotel refurbished for offices and other functions) for lunch. Alas the restaurant on the tenth floor was not open but the volunteer there invited us to look around and there we got tremendous views of the Temple Square, especially of the Temple itself. We found a restaurant at a downtown hotel and had lunch and then went back to Temple Square for a short tour conducted by two young women missionaries who found it very difficult to deal with us but who were very gracious and sincere. We visited the Assembly Hall which originally was built as a church but is now the site of concerts and meetings, and we stood outside the Temple for a bit of education about the Temple's purpose and use in the Mormon faith.

We attended the 2PM organ concert in the Tabernacle. We had missed an opportunity to attend a concert by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir yesterday when we were traveling from Reno, but at least we got to be in the Tabernacle for a musical performance. I was surprised that the facility was not as large as I expected it to be, but the stunning organ and the choir seating both were easily recognizable from the many pictures we have seen of the Tabernacle.

After the concert we returned to the Visitor's Center for a short walk through and then we proceeded on with the rest of our own self-guided tour to the campus of the University of Utah. It is a large campus with a large medical center and associated school and clinics. Apparently school is out for the year because the campus seemed quite deserted even for a holiday.

We treated ourselves to another tour of some neighborhoods near downtown and saw evidence of urban renewal projects for housing and retail and entertainment. We saw the courthouse square including the old courthouse and the new courthouse. We saw several schools at all three levels of education. And eventually we returned to the hotel, had a cup of chai tea and rested - and blogged. We'll have dinner across the street at a local grill and spend the evening repacking our clean clothes into the suitcases, hoping they all will fit again!

We like Salt Lake City. It is a beautiful city with broad streets and beautiful vistas of the surrounding Wasatch Mountains. We did not have time to spend any leisurely hours at the Salt Lake beaches or at any of the Olympic venues, though we did see the Olympic Square at one point today. Everyone we met was very friendly and most accommodating. We saw people from all over the world and heard missionary tour guides speaking to tourists in their native languages. And of course it was the perfect day for touring so that affects our enjoyment of the day. Tomorrow we are off to Ft. Collins CO via I80 northeast through Utah and into Wyoming to Cheyenne and then down to Ft. Collins. We are looking forward to seeing our family there!