Salt Lake City to Laramie, Wyoming

We started our day at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Scott and I are now well versed in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS). I just wanted to see the square out of curiosity, you know. I'm a history major, it's Utah, I love big churches no matter the denomination, I just wanted to check it out. We parked at a meter and had just enough change for 1 hour. I figured that would be plenty. The first thing we came to was Brigham Young's home, Beehive House. We went in and they told us they were just starting a tour to come on in and join. We did. Three "sisters" took us through the home. To begin the tour they sat us down and explained to us the basic beliefs of LDS. That Mormons believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, and also in other worldly prophets like Brigham Young. That "the prophet" told his followers to go west, so the pioneers set out with Brigham Young...from where I don't know...and once they crossed the Wasatch Mountains he looked down at the Salt Lake Valley and said,"This is the place." And so two days later he laid the cornerstone for this massive temple.... And, SHAZAM!... Salt Lake City, Utah became the world headquarters of LDS. Brigham Young was also governor of Utah territory. Hence the lavish house I guess. Here is his sitting room where he entertained....At the end of the tour, the "sisters" sang us a song and handed us all cards to fill out with all our contact information so that they could contact us and share more of the Book of Mormon. I left mine blank. We then went in the visitors center. It was full of video's and displays of happy smiling people explaining the Book of Mormon and had "brothers" and "sisters" roaming around ready to whisk you off into one of the many small rooms to sign you right up. When Scott worked for a newspaper in California he once did a story on the Church of Scientology. He went to their headquarters in San Jacinto, CA(where he met John Travolta) and said he had to leave because everyone was so happy and eager for you to join them that he was afraid. Today after we escaped the visitor's center he said he had the exact same feeling. It was a bit much. After our experience at the visitor center we walked down and poked our head in the Tabernacle. The choir was not there, but it is a beautiful building built in the mid 1800's with unbelieveable acoustics. I just kinda figured that the belief that all of Utah is Mormon was a stereotype. After visiting, I'm not so sure. We've driven over lots of Utah this trip and all the state highway signs have the highway number in a beehive because Utah is the beehive state. I never gave much thought to why until we visited the Beehive House. Apparantly the prophet Brigham Young said that you must work, learn, and play. Keep busy as bees. We went to the state capitol, which is a beautiful building... However, it's stuck off by itself at the base of a mountain. I went in the state run vistor center because I was going to get my dad something. Inside the gift shop was not a SINGLE book, brochure, not even a postcard with the capitol on it. Everything in the capitol gift shop was the temple and Temple square. I hope no one takes offense to my account of our day in Salt Lake City, it was just not what either of us expected. The people were all very nice and they live by some great moral standards and philosophies...and we were a huge hit with the "sisters" because we had so many children!

After we left downtown we headed out to the Great Salt Lake. There is not a darn thing "great" about it. It was the nastiest, smelliest, slimiest place I have ever set foot. Patty....remember shell beach??? Ten times worse! I took this picture at the visitor center before we went to the beach and discovered how gross it was....As we were getting out of the car to walk out to the water and older gentleman from Germany was on his way back to his car. He said,"Better take your suits because the water's great!" (They must have some really nasty water in the lakes in Germany is all I have to say.) It was a nice warm day, so I put Mandy's swimsuit on her and Grace and Thomas put on theirs. The German then yells, "Be sure and take your shoes!" Hmm. It was like half a mile to the actual water from the parking lot. The first several feet were really loose sand. I mean really loose, as in take a step and sink ankle deep. The next several feet were loose sand with razor sharp rocks that got under your sandals and pierced the soles of your feet. Then it became very solid and dry. The sand has so much salt in it that it dries really hard and sounds like your walking on glass. It looked like that scene from Star Wars where Luke Skywalker lived as a boy and Obewan went to find him.Finally we began to reach the wetter sand. This was where we encountered the flies... The pictures don't capture the disgustingness (is that a word?) of it. I thought at first that the wind was blowing black sand around my feet they were so thick. So we finally reach some water. The water itself was warm. There was a very shallow area and then a narrow, rocky beach and then the deeper part of the lake. Thomas and Scott were skipping rocks and Grace was playing in the sand. Then Scott suggested we walk through the shallow part and check out the deeper part. We had to walk about 50 feet. We had read that the bottom of the lake is about 3 to 4 feet of salt. Nowhere did they mention that 3 feet of salt, mixed with a bit of sand and some alge was SO SLIMY!!! This is where I'd had enough.Thomas and Grace ran through it as fast as they could. Mandy just kept walking and saying,"Eww gross" every 10 seconds. I made it to the other side and Thomas and I looked at each other decided we were going back where we were. It was like something out of Fear Factor. You don't have to worry when your in the water though. The water in the lake is 6 times saltier than the ocean and the only thing that can survive in it are brine shrimp and algae. There are about a bejillion seagulls that live here on Lake Nasty because of the shrimp. Did I mention the whole thing smells like somebody died? If you EVER think you want to visit here, call me and I'll do my best to talk you out of it. Seriously....nasty.

After we cleaned up as best we could we headed out of Salt Lake City for Laramie, Wyoming. Scott and I both decided that we did not much enjoy Salt Lake City and don't feel the need to return. Perhaps we didn't see the right stuff, do the right things, or perhaps it's late in the trip...I don't know. If you've visited or lived here and think it's Nirvana, I apologize.

The further we drove today the prettier and cooler it got. Wyoming is definately my kind of place. This is the only other state I've been to where the sky is as big as it is in Texas! The drive was so pretty. I said as much to Scott who replied, "Yes it is. Not a tree in sight, but it's still pretty." And it's true, there weren't alot of trees, but lots of rolling green hills with herds of cattle.

I'll give a prize and name recognition on the blog to the person who can tell me what the heck these things are along the highway. They go on for miles, they are made of wood. Sometimes they are at an angle with the highway and other times they are parallel. Our guess is it has something to do with the snow up here.

It was a long way in the car and Thomas and Grace did great. Mandy on the other hand, not so great. She's tired of her car seat and had started putting her legs up and sitting on her knees and pulling her arm out of the seatbelt. Today she did it and when I caught her and told her she was in "big trouble" (that usually sends her into tears) her seatbelt had locked and she couldn't get back down. She was yelling,"I stuck, I stuck!"I finally got her re-buckeled and distracted her with my I pod. She looks like quite the pro doesn't she...
Thomas's Top Five:

1. "Swimming" Scott took them swimming at the hotel when we arrived. We all felt really disgusting after our walk in Lake Nasty.

2. "Skipping Rocks" When I asked him for his top five he looked at me rather disgusted and said "I'm not putting that lake on there!"

3. "Collecting rocks" Yes, the dang rocks again. I think he may be a budding geologist.

4. "The house." They really have no idea whose house we saw, but they liked seeing the old house. Later we were talking about the house and Thomas asks,"Did you sign us up for that church?" He had seen them give me the card to fill out! I told him no and he says," Good. I don't want to have to drive to Utah to go to church!!"

5. "Looking for deer." We saw loads of deer on our drive into Wyoming.

Grace's Top Five:

1. "Playing in the sand." 2. "Swimming."

3. "Seeing that old house."

4. "Looking at the little island" We drove out to Antelope Island in the Salt Lake. That's where the state park is for the Great Salt Lake.

5. "Stepping in the water." I wonder about this child sometimes.

We are spending the night in Laramie. In the morning we are going to check out the town and then head to Estes Park to the Stanley Hotel. It's the hotel from "The Shining" and is actually where Steven King wrote the book. It's also on National Register of Historic Hotels and the National Register of Haunted places. We'll see!

Even though today was not the most enjoyable day of our vacation so far, driving through Wyoming with this in your rear view window makes anything ok...

Blessings,

Leslie