Today we head out for the Utah State Capitol situated a a very high hill. This is the most beautiful building I have seen in a good long while. The entire building inside and out is marble. It was designed after the US Capitol. After seeing the FL state capitol in TLH this one puts it to shame. The entire building is open to visitors without having to go through security lines to ruin the look. There are wonderful murals of the Mormons moving West painted on the walls and ceiling. Even the elevator was made of marble and glass. After looking around to our fill we depart for the Temple Square. The walk down was nice because it was going down the hill. After 3 blocks we come to a beautiful block with the Temple as its centerpiece and various buildings around the square. The flowers are in bloom, water is running in the fountains, all is right in the world. We look around and go into the South Visitors center and take in how the temple was built. The Mormons put in a lot of backbreaking labor to get it done. We walk across the square and get stopped by some female missionaries that want to tell us all about their religion and the different buildings in the square. We talk for awhile and then move on to the Assembly Hall and then the Tabernacle where the choir sings with an organ that has 11,683 pipes. We move on to the North Visitor center which tells the story of Mormonism through vignettes and statues as well as 2 one hour films. We play around with the family history computers by looking up my mom and my older brother both who died within the last 2 years. They were both in there as well as millions of others going back about 100 years or more. After that we decide we are hungry so we head back to the car which we left at the state capitol. We have to walk at about a 45 degree angle up 3 blocks to get there. Utah is no place for a flatlander like me to drive. We must have gone over at least 4 blind hills today.

I tell PTCC that we will eat when we get to the Olympic Park. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and they were doing road construction so where the GPS wanted me to turn there was no way to do it. So after 3 tries of finding it we gave up and headed to This Is the Place.

It is a state park where it details the journey of the Mormons and the community they built once they were here. We visited several of the buildings that had interpretive speakers in them. We visited a family cabin, shave shop, mercantile, hotel, stable, blacksmith and the schoolhouse. They were having a big March of Dimes event so we were lucky we didn’t get there early because it looked like parking would have been a problem, since cars were parked all over the curbs. We talked to the young lady who was in the schoolhouse for awhile about the settlement and how they grew crops.

After that we decided to give the Olympic Park one more try. PTCC finally saw the cauldron we were looking for. It was just a matter of getting there. After one more go around we finally make it into a parking lot. It looks like the former Olympic Stadium now belongs to University of Utah. The flame stand was there but there was no flame or water running down it. And the Olympic Arch looked kind of sad as well when it’s not turned on. Hopefully the University lights them up for their games in the stadium. PTCC and I went into the building and saw a short movie about the 2002 Winter Olympics and then walked around and looked at the displays in the lobby. After that we decided we’d had enough for today and went home. Our Nuvi took us down this very industrial path to get us back to Redwood Rd. I really thought we were being lead down a wrong path but it worked out in the end. Stopped in the office to check to see if my birthday package had arrived, but not yet. I will have to wait until Monday it seems.

PTCC couldn’t wait to get to the office to play on the computers so LCC took a short nap and then went to the office to see if PTCC wanted to swim. The temperature is still around the mid 60’s but the sun is shining so it seems hot if you are out of the wind. So I sat near the pool while PTCC swum and then we came back to fix dinner and end our evening.