“All work and no play makes Jack (and Jill?) a dull boy (or girl?)!”
After all the excitement of Thursday I took Friday off to see some of the sights of Salt Lake City. My friend Pegg left Naperville for Park City last year and it was super to meet up with her in the morning and set off for our day’s adventure.
The Radisson where I am staying is one block from Temple Square. It was a little grey and gloomy but dry and not too cold.
We had a map to find our way around and started at the North Visitors’ Center where we had a private screening of Legacy, showing the westward trek of the Mormon pioneers. It certainly filled in some of the gaps in my spotty knowledge of the LDS Church. Lots of mud and misery on the journey to Utah.
There is a thirty minute organ recital at noon almost every day in the Tabernacle so that’s where we headed next. I really enjoyed the program which started with a fugue from J.S. Bach, included the Irish favorite Danny Boy and ended with The Liberty Bell March by John Philip Sousa, better known as the theme tune for Monty Python!
The colored lights changed with each piece.
We decided to join a short guided tour with two delightful sister missionaries and headed to the South Visitors’ center where there is a model showing the interior of the Temple which is not open to the public. The girls did a great job of explaining all the different rooms inside.
Then we headed over to the Assembly Hall built in 1882 as a meeting hall for the local congregation.
Inside is another, smaller organ,
lovely stained glass windows, commemorating the sago lily whose bulbs kept the first settlers alive their first year,
and pretty ceilings, also depicting the sago lily.
Finishing the tour we wandered around and took a few more pictures of the Temple exterior.
The Temple was constructed between 1853 and 1893. Before the railroad was built it took 5 days to bring each granite block to be hauled from the quarry to the building site.
The fountain between the Visitors’ Center and the Temple.
There are lots of flower plantings around the square.
Stately irises.
Pretty pansies.
Bright Californian poppies.
Time for lunch!
We walked up to Market Street to enjoy a leisurely meal at the Market Street Grill. The dessert was as good as the waiter told me it would be!!
Just time to walk back down Main Street for a brief stop at the fabulous Harmons for some healthy groceries to stock my in-room fridge…
The triangular Wells Fargo building is spectacular.
I always like to take pictures of interesting reflections and the TRAX light rail train going past was an added bonus!
No problem meeting my 10,000 steps target on the FitBit on Friday!
I finished the day with dinner with Ebony in the hotel restaurant. Back to work on Saturday?
