Catch up - August 22nd - 25th

 August 22nd was a travel day from City of Rocks to Salt Lake City, Utah.  We caught up with some friends from Grad school that we haven’t seen in about 15 years.  Thanks for the visit Hal & Carol.  

August 23rd was a catch up day and prep day for Brian and Julie’s visit, so exciting laundry, food shop, clean.  Then airport pick up and some much needed sleep after late nights visiting.

August 24th we did two unique activities that were found by Julie.  Thanks, Julie.  We did a crater swim and an art trail.

The crater swim/soak was at Homestead Crater.  It is a geothermal spring hidden within a 55 foot tall beehive shaped limestone rock.  The water temperature is constant between 90-96 degrees and a depth of 65 feet.  It was a very relaxing hour.

We then had a nice lunch at the resort and headed to Art on the Trail.  This was a one day event by the Arts Council.  You walked along a trail and along the way there were different performers.  There was a cellist,  a piano/singer duet, ice skaters, a poet, a couple of craft artists, and a trapeze artist.  So you would walk along with the guide and then spend a few minutes listening/watching each persons talent.  The ice skaters were interesting because it was obviously not ice weather, so they “skated” on this surface to just give a taste of their moves.  

The trail was very pretty, had a nice little brook along parts of it.  Even saw a couple of trees that had been gnawed on by beaver.  

August 25th we ventured into Salt Lake City to Temple Square and toured the Tabernacle and Mormon Convention Center and learned about the Temple which was closed for renovations.

The Tabernacle was a gathering place for Mormons that was built between 1863-1867.  It was built with acoustics in mind.  There were no microphones, but you can hear a pin drop if you are all the way in the back and it is dropped on the podium.  They did a demonstration where they ripped paper, dropped a pin and dropped a nail and you could hear all of them from the back where we were standing 170 feet away.   This facility sits 3,500 and has 260 chairs specifically designated for the choir.  The organ has 11,623 pipes.  The other interesting fact is everything was made of pine, even the pillars, which were just painted to look like marble. 

Silver dome building is the tabernacle

The convention center was built because they outgrew the tabernacle.  The convention center seats 21,000.   Two missionaries provided a tour of the four floors of the convention center.  There were many pieces of art throughout telling the mormon story.  They had a model of the Temple and explained what each room of the temple is used for.  It was interesting to learn about another religion.  

We then had a chance to listen to an organ recital in the convention center.  I do not have any statistics for this organ, but as you can see it was mighty.  

We then went and had a nice meal at Benihana.

They had a purple drink on the menu I just couldn’t resist ordering.  It was super yummy in addition to being my favorite color.

til next time…