Gardner Village

On our way out of town, we stopped in Gardner Village. There was once a mormon pioneer village on the site of this now charming shopping area of mixed old and new buildings. It was a fun place to walk around and wander in and out of shops. The mill building is a large store/restaurant that looked worthy of a try if we had not just had a big meal at the Lion House Pantry at noon. We got a loaf of delicious bread in a little bakery that we enjoyed on our picnics for the next few days.

One last note on Salt Lake City: there is a light rail system, as well as the bus system. And there is a fairly large area downtown where it is free to ride either of these. We rode the light rail for the fun of it.  I will admit that the maps were somewhat confusing and we relied on a heavily tattooed and pierced young man to kindly assist us to know when to get off. 

Cathedral of the Madeleine

I had seen pictures of the Catholic cathedral in Salt Lake City and knew I wanted to visit. For sure, the Mormons own that town--rather the state of Utah--but apparently there are a few other faiths practiced there. This place of worship is both holy and drop-dead gorgeous. The structure was begun in 1900 and completed nine years later.

However, much of the interior was created about 1917. This shows the colorful view toward the altar. My pictures do not do it justice.

The huge stained glass windows line the side walls.

The rose window below can be seen on the front of the cathedral. It was up with the huge pipe organ in the balcony.

 Inspiring paintings of Christ are under the windows. Even the frames were works of art.  I was struck with how distinctly Hispanic-Indian he was depicted and how even cacti were worked into the scene.

The visit was particularly meaningful as it gave me a beautiful place to continue my prayers for a dear friend who was undergoing a five-hour surgery that day at Shands Hospital in Gainesville. She is a devout woman who was raised Catholic. 

This website has a wonderful 360 panoramic camera view of the cathedral.

http://www.utcotm.org/panorama/Madeleine_swf.html

Mailbox Monday: Coconuts

The Beehive House

We toured the Beehive House, the former home of Brigham Young, built in 1854. He served as the President of the LDS, as well as the territorial governor. Utah is known as the beehive state. The term was coined to describe all the activity of carving a place to live from a very uncooperative land.

The home has few of the original furnishings, but it is period-correct. It is a large home of twenty-four rooms, built to house his large family. He is reported to have had fifty-five wives. This was his bedroom.

Here is the music room.

He and at least one of his sons were both master woodworkers. They made these beautifully-carved, beehive newel posts. 

The son also made this partition in the foyer.

This is the formal dining room. There was another for the family.

The exterior was covered with flowers..

When we finished the house tour, we went next door to the Lion House Pantry for lunch. It is also part of the Beehive House, but so named because of the carved Lion over the door. 

It is a charming and popular cafeteria and bakery where the food is prepared fresh each day. 

We enjoyed a good lunch there.

More SLC

It was a good decision to stay downtown so we could walk around in the cool of the evening and the next morning to see some more of the sights without having to search for parking. Here is the state capitol as seen from our ninth floor room.

Further around we could see some of the LDS buildings.

This is the main temple, seen above from our room and below from the ground.

It is not open to the public.

There are flowers everywhere.

I was interested in how one of the LDS office towers was reflected by the windows of another tower. 

The tower reflected is this one. It is contains only LDS offices and is taller than our state capitol.

This is just a peek in an older LDS building. That is a grand piano on the left.

We enjoyed the wind-powered sculptures around.

The one below was a giant fishing fly.

There are lots of fountains downtown. These were lined up for several blocks. 

This little creek had nice trout swimming in it.

We walked through a glass tunnel over a road. The glass was etched with leaf designs.

 I have mentioned before that I am easily amused, but what I found on a rack did not amuse me.

The fine print reads, "Salt Lake Utah." 

Granted it was for sale in a gas station. But, seriously, who would buy that? And more to the point, who would WEAR that? I thought it showed appalling taste. 

Provo and SLC

On the way to our stop for the night in Provo, we took a badly needed supper  break. It was Saturday night and we did not have many options, so we had to sit and wait for our number to be called. While we were waiting, I called the hotel to tell them we would be arriving late. The clerk said not to worry and that she would have our room warm and ready for us. I thought, "Warm? Who wants a warm room?" Well, although we had hiked in Zion in broiling heat, it was in the mid-50s when we arrived at the hotel. It was a surprise to watch the car thermometer drop ---and continue to drop as we drove. The following morning, we did laundry at the hotel and drove around Provo to see BYU. Young Mormon families were everywhere, making their way to church.


Continuing north on the interstate, we stopped in the outskirts of Salt Lake City at a fancy outlet center. While it was mostly outside, there was a long section that had a high roof over it, but it was entirely open on each end. In the middle was a huge gas fire pit. Pots of flowers everywhere also added to make it a beautiful place. We ate lunch there.

Back on the road, we found a street parking spot downtown. With very few exceptions, the stores downtown were closed on Sunday. Since it was too early to check into our hotel, we walked around Temple Square.

Now honestly, when I first started planning this trip, I did not give much thought to Salt Lake City. After all, I'm Methodist, not Mormon. But the more I looked, the more I found of interest.

Here are some images from Temple Square. This is the Assembly Hall.

The  pipe  organ inside:

The rose in the ceiling:

Windows in the rear of the building:

In the courtyard are fountains, gardens and statues. The sign below describes the remarkable history depicted in this sculpture. 

This is the auditorium, build with perfect acoustics in mind. Reportedly, a pin dropped at the pulpit can be clearly heard at the back of the hall, 170 feet away.

Another huge pipe organ and this time, also, a choir loft. 

These marble columns were just gorgeous.

I was disappointed that no concerts or public practices were taking place while we were in town.