We spent the morning repacking the car before we picked up "Aunt Edna and Cousin Eddie." We needed to clear out the back seat so they had room to sit for the next 12 days.
Upon arrival at the airport, we parked and found our way to where Richard and Sharon would be coming out. Dean had made his "Aunt Edna and Cousin Eddie" pick up sign. Finally, Richard and Sharon came around the corner and had a good laugh at the sign. We had totally thought we would see Richard dressed as "Cousin Eddie", but he surprised us and came as Richard.
We loaded into the car and headed out to get them something to eat since they had been traveling since real early in the morning and had gone through several time zones. We went to In-N-Out and they got burgers. From there, we went and got the van washed. It was so dirty, but seemed to be a useless battle to keep clean on this trip.
With a clean van, we began our adventure with "Aunt Edna and Cousin Eddie." We headed to Temple Square. After all, we were in Salt Lake City and it was a must see. We arrived at Temple Square and went to the North Visitor Center to get our bearings. We looked at the exhibits there and were amazed at the variety of mediums used to portray their beliefs. It was very interesting!
Next, we walked through the complex. The Temple was absolutely elegant. It is not open to the public, but the architecture was exquisite. The Temple is only entered by qualified Mormons who work hard to prepare themselves to be able to enter, and within its walls, they make covenants that they believe bring them closer to God.
We then went to the Tabernacle which was open to the public. The large, unique building was very beautiful. We observed members cleaning and preparing for a major event. Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had died two days before our visit. The building was preparing for his memorial service. The chandeliers in this massive building were being lowered from the vaulted ceilings, vacuumed and light bulbs checked before being raised back up into position. The windows were being cleaned multiple times with multiple tools. The pipe organ filled the entire front of the Tabernacle. It was quite the production.
From the Tabernacle, we went to the Assembly Hall. This was a smaller, very ornate "chapel" area. It, too, had a pipe organ in the front, but it was not nearly the size as the Tabernacle's pipe organ. A young woman from Germany answered some of our questions about the building and explained some of the features. There was a beautiful spiral staircase that only went from the second floor upward. The intricate flowers adorning the ceiling, trim, and other areas of the building had a significance to the survival of the early Mormons. The extremely interesting fact we learned was that the builders of the Assembly Hall used fragment rocks left over from the building of the Temple to construct this building.
We walked back to our car and drove a little bit around the area. The State Street road was very long and had a cool eagle arch over part of it. We drove a little further and found the State Capital Building high on a hill.
Park City was our next destination. We drove over the mountains and went to this Salt Lake City Olympics 2002 Venue City. It is a quaint little town, reminding us of Gatlinburg, TN with its unique shops along both sides of the street. We were hoping for an interesting place to eat, but there weren't many choices. This was a definite winter resort area with its ski slopes, ski lifts, and other sights relating to winter. We enjoyed strolling the street and shops along the way as well as seeing some of the venue spots of the Olympic games. There were some interesting sights, like a Rolex city clock and a shoe tree.
Still hungry, we drove back to Salt Lake City and ended up back at Texas Roadhouse. It sounded good to Richard and Sharon and we knew where it was. We got back to the hotel and got "Aunt Edna and Cousin Eddie" settled in their handicapped accessible room. It had a push button like many of your public doors have which will open up the door automatically. We had never seen one in a hotel room that would open your room door. Of course, we all had a good laugh to think they were given a room with this feature their first night out. We would have loved to say we set them up for this, but we couldn't take credit! It definitely made for a good laugh and a great way to head off to bed. Day one with our "tag-alongs" had been fun!