Our journey from Mountain Home, Idaho to Salt Lake City in Utah would only take four and half hours. We planned to check in to a hotel in Salt Lake City by 3pm and tour the city for the rest of the day.
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An interesting fact at one of the rest areas on Interstate 84.
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We came to Utah last year too to visit that Arches National Park on that welcome sign.
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However, this was our first time entering Salt Lake City via this route, I-84.
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We visited Salt Lake City during our last summer roadtrip too but we only visited the Great Salt Lake. So today, we planned to get to know the city itself.
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The skyscrapers of this capital city of Utah looks nice against the mountain range.
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Upon checking in to the hotel and performing our prayers, we went out to tour the city and looked for halal restaurant nearby. My frozen food packs were all gone by now and we were left with sardine cans, Kandak's tuna packs and lots of instant Indomee packs.
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The city was founded in 1847 by a group of Mormon pioneers led by their prophet, Brigham Young. That's the famous Salt Lake Temple at the Temple Square with its six spires.
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We passed by Church Office Building, the headquarters for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is surprisingly one of the Fortune 500 company!
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Yeay, Garmin brought us here! We had a good lunch at this restaurant, Indian Market and Grill but it was not as tasty as the one in Milwaukee.
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Since this city is famous for the LDS Church, we made a point to tour the Temple Square. They decorated well this place with its beautiful landscape and gorgeous flowers.
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In front of the Salt Lake Temple. This is the absolute center of Salt Lake City--streets are numbered based on their location to this point.
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As we were walking around the Temple Square, we were greeted by many friendly Sisters who offered to take picture of us.
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They were all dressed in skirts and kept on telling us that there was free guided tour at every 15 minutes. Kids remarked that all these sisters were smiling all the time!
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Their gardens were well kept and pretty impressive!
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Nauvoo Bell, the original bell from church in Nauvoo, Illinois where the religion was founded, transferred here due to religious persecution.
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Assembly Hall.
We were taking pictures while waiting for the guided tour to start. |
We were first brought into the Tabernacle, a hall known for its acoustical qualities. Choirs and sermons are given without microphones but can be heard even at the back.
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An 11-foot marble Christus statue in the Visitor Center.
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This is how they imagined Adam and Eve in Eden.
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The tour ended at the North Visitor Center with a short video presentation about Mormon family values. We had to explain a lot of things to the kids about Islam to eliminate confusion, yet allow them to see the different beliefs.
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We later continued our walking tour of the city.
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We were somehow tempted to tour the city on the horse-drawn carriage. I guessed it was time to pamper ourselves after all the hiking at the National Parks. heh.
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That's our tour guide and driver. He brought us around town (passing by the Convention Center)...
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... and the Salt Lake Temple...
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...in the middle of the city streets among the traffic when we were joined by another horse carriage.
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Passing by the first fire station in town...
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...and into Memory Park (or Memory Grove)...
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...where people like to take wedding photographs...
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or simply find serenity...
to be continued... |
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