We visited downtown SLC yesterday. They have a courtyard located outside the Gateway Mall that is dedicated to the 2002 Olympic Athletes. This area had all the athlete's names listed among waterfalls. Beautiful! In the center of the courtyard is a fountain area in the shape of a snowflake that spurts water up into the air randomly and the kids run around in it having a blast! Every hour on the hour there is a choreographed water fountain display and (I guess) it is amazing! It was soooo hot that we (Rick mostly) didn't want to sit around and wait the 45 minutes to the next display. Oh well...watching the kids was really fun. Then we headed over to the Church of Latter Day Saints Temple (in Temple Square). If you don't already know this, Salt Lake City was founded by a Prophet of the LDS named Brigham Young in 1847. The community was founded by Mormons and continues to thrive today on that foundation.There's your history lesson for the day! Ha! We went on a tour and got introduced to a few of their beliefs and traditions. The Tabernacle is being refurbished and so we were unable to go inside. A little disappointing but we strolled throughout the square and took a few pictures anyway. Then we headed to the east a bit to see a couple other beautiful and old churches...one was the Church of St. Madeline. This was much more impressive, kinda reminded me of the Basilica in Minneapolis. Then around the corner to one of the oldest Episcapalion Churches in Utah. This was under construction too so we were unable to go in. They really take good care of their buildings here and even though much was being renovated it was nice to see the people here take pride in their city. It was Reeeeeally hot downtown (upper 90's) and so we headed back to the mall area and had a frozen yogurt to cool down and grabbed the car. We went into an area of the city (my brother told us about) that reminded me of the Summit Drive area in St. Paul. Lots of old style mansions (I found the one that WILL BE MINE!) and quaint victorian homes. Then we went over to my bro's house, introduced he and his wife to geo-caching and then out for dinner at a wonderful Mexican Restaurant where we laughed and got reaquainted. It's been a lot of years since we've seen each other so we had a lot of catching up to do and getting to know his AWESOME new wife (Sharay). Tonight we'll get pictures and spend another evening with them. Greg is cooking a brisket (which will take all day) and invited us and his good friends over for a meal and fun times. Tomorrow we leave for the Grand Canyon! We'll have to say goodbye to Snowbird and Salt Lake City. It will be sad but fun to anticipate what's ahead too. Well...enough of this chapter in the travel journal of R & C. Stay tuned for more fun! Love you all!
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