Salt Lake City

I’m really good at telling lies.  For example, I told any of you who are willing to read my rambles that I would keep up with this blog as we traveled.  Ha!  Then, I told you that I was only a few days behind and would soon get caught up.  Ha!  Ha!  THEN, I told you that I’d at least finish the Salt Lake blog on our Sunday drive home.  ALL WERE LIES!

Well, I’m going to give it my all (unless this is a lie) to finish up the story of our journey West.  I left off with us arriving in Salt Lake.  Krista and her family live in Sandy, which is a little south of SLC proper.  I was really amazed with the mountain views in the SLC area.  It seemed like no matter where we went or where we turned our heads, it was natural beauty.  

Krista took us for a hike that Tuesday morning.  She promised us a “short two-ish hour hike”.  No big deal, right?  What she failed to mention was that it was STRAIGHT UP.  She kept saying that “part of” the hike was like a stair-master.  This might have been true for a true adventure-seeking outdoorsman like Krista, but for two out-of-shape Kentuckians unaccustomed to thinner altitude air, it felt like QUITE the challenge.  However, the view from the top was incredible.  Once again, everywhere in Utah has an amazing view!

After our trek down, we grabbed lunch at a local pizzeria and chilled at Krista’s house for a bit before heading back out.  She works at a climbing gym in Sandy and was able to show us the ropes (puns…I love them) for climbing.  Ian and I haven’t been on a climbing wall since senior year of high school.  (We love to tell the story about how I, a tiny little girl with no upper body strength, climbed the highest on the wall during the senior retreat.  EVERYONE was amazed.  ….until Ian Reed had to go and blow by my record about ten minutes later.  Grrrrr…) I forgot how exhausting climbing is.  It requires a lot of muscle groups that I really don’t have.  Plus, putting on that harness and having someone be in charge of “holding you” if you fall made me a little nervous at first.  I had to remind myself to NOT look down during the first climb, and I was a little quizzical when I reached the top and Krista said to “relax and let go.”  It was still a ton of fun!

That night we met up with Sarah, a friend that graduated from St. Mary with us.  She cooked us dinner, and we got to meet her step-son, River, who is only the cutest kid ever!  She suggested that we hike Donut Falls the following day. River asked if Donut Falls is where donuts fall from the sky.  I knew I could be friends with this kid at that moment.  

The following day we decided to do a couple of touristy things before meeting Sarah for lunch.  We drove to the actual salt lake to see it.  It…looked like a lake.

Then we drove back into Salt Lake City proper to visit Mormonland!  Temple Square was incredibly beautiful.  As we approached the temple area, we saw a bride with her wedding party and awww’d.  Then we saw another bride…and another…and another.  As we walked around the building, I think we saw about seven or eight total, which confused us.  How could so many people get married at the church on the same day?  Luckily, there are plenty of Mormons around to ask!  Many of them are “on mission” in Temple Square and walk around helping tourists and spreading the faith.  We were approached by three different groups that morning.  The first group simply handed us a map of the area and asked if we had any questions.  After we had walked around a bit and saw all the brides, we asked the second group about that.  They explained that the temple, unlike our Catholic church, is divided into multiple rooms, and there are several “wedding rooms”.  A bride will select which one she wants, and that’s where the family and friends will go to have the ceremony.  The third group of Mormons that approached us was the most religiously driven.  They started off very kind, asking about our trip, if we like SLC, what brought us to SLC, etc, but then they VERY skillfully slipped in bits of religion.  We eventually had to pull ourselves away so that we could meet Sarah for lunch.

After lunch, we drove to Donut Falls, which Sarah PROMISED was a short hike.  It was enjoyable.  However, the water was too high, so we couldn’t approach the “donut” area (where the water falls through a hole, giving it its name).  Ian crossed part of the river, but I didn’t want to go too far since the rocks were slippery.  

That evening we made our way back into the city to meet another friend, Kayla, who just so happened to be in SLC the same time as us.  We finished our tour of Temple Square with her by visiting the Tabernacle (where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs) and the convention center.  Security at the convention center is a little…weird.  In order to go to the top of the building (where there is an excellent view) you have to take a tour guide who walks you through the building and tells you a little more about the Mormon faith.  Yay!  The top of the building was pretty could.  As we walked around, it was easy to forget that we were on the top of a building since there were thirty foot trees, green meadows, and flowing water.  The views weren’t too bad, either!

On Thursday when we left SLC, Krista’s mom allowed me to dress in a bee suit and play around with her bees.  I had told her that my grandfather and grandmother raised bees for a bit, and she showed me each hive, explaining how they made honeycomb and how to harvest the honey.  It was really cool.

Finally…on our way out of town we stopped in Park City, where the ski/bobsled/luge/etc events were held during the 2002 Olympics. It was fascinating to realize that thousands of people were crammed into that spot watching the world’s best athletes compete.  Ian and I decided to ride down the alpine slide, and in order to do so we had to take a lift to the top of the mountain.  (As we were taking the lift and passing by the ski jump site, I realized how crazy the ski jump event is.  THE HILL IS SO FREAKING STEEP.  How can anyone do that without completely killing themselves?)  The alpine slide was awesome.  Careening around curves while sliding down the mountainside is definitely something I recommend doing.  After we reached the base of the mountain, we walked around the Olympic museums before heading out of town and into the next state that I’ll blog about…Wyoming.