One thing John and I tried to do on this trip was to experience things that we personally had not experienced when we lived in Utah. I had never been to the Great Salt Lake, so that was our first stop today. Hot. Stinky. Dry. But very interesting. I'm afraid it is probably something you only have to do once...however we did get quite interested in the history of the Saltair Pavilion. Saltair was the largest resort in the US in 1893 and was built right over the water. Trains and automobiles brought hundreds of people daily from Salt Lake City for dancing, dining, picnics, plays and concerts. Or just to breathe in the ocean-like salt air and to swim in water so salty it was impossible to sink. Fire completely destroyed the first Saltair pavilion in 1925, but it was rebuilt within one year. In the 60's the Saltair resort was abandoned and left to rot. Fire completely destroyed the building in 1970. The frame of today's Saltair building was once an airplane hanger. It was moved to it's present spot about 25 years ago and remodeled to represent the original one (though not anywhere near as fancy/large). Today it seemed a little deserted, but they evidently do have rock concerts there during the summer. After checking out the grounds, we headed into Salt Lake. Today we planned to do Temple Square. We started with the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and watched "Joseph Smith The Prophet of the Restoration". Would highly recommend seeing this film if you have not done so already. We then stopped in the lobby to listen to a wonderful piano player, went thru the Beehive House tour and then snuck back over to the Lion House Pantry for a snack. Afterwards we headed to the Church Offices as we wanted to go to the top floor. With all the new security procedures in place, you have to have an escort. Ida Mae Smith was our escort. She was great! She is 92 and has lived in SLC all her life. In fact, when we were up on the roof she pointed out the house she grew up in which was just a block away. She also pointed out a lot of interesting things, we were probably with her for 1/2 hour or so. Sweet lady. It was getting later in the afternoon and I had promised my mom we would go over to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneer building to look up some pictures of our ancestors. We asked Ida Mae where it was located and then she went on to tell us how she loves that place and that we certainly did need to spend some time there. I asked if she knew when it closed and she thought 5pm. It was 4:40pm. We wondered out loud if we could make it and Ida Mae said "Honey, I know I can't, but maybe you can?" so we hustled out of there. The address was 300 North which sounded like 3 blocks north, right? Well, 3 very long city blocks with a couple streets thrown in, straight up the hill toward the capitol building (in about 98 degree heat). We race-walked up the hill and could see the building just 1/2 block away when I crumpled to the ground, immediately overcome with intense nausea and sweating profusely. Evidently I was having some heat stroke issues! I rolled up in the fetal position on the sidewalk while the girls ran up to the DUP building to get me some water. I probably looked crazy to all the rush-hour traffic whizzing by... Audrey has a great tale though. She said she asked an older lady for some water because "my mom is having a heat stroke" and the lady took awhile for it to "register". Then she started bustling around trying to locate it quickly. Audrey offered to pay, but she refused and the girls came running back to me. After resting and hydrating, we did make it to the DUP building only to find it locked - well, it was past closing time by now. Sorry mom! We slowly made our way back to Temple Square and relaxed in front of the temple and the water features until I had regained my energy. Then we checked out the Visitor's Center, the Church History Museum and the Assembly Hall. John really wanted to see the Conference Center so we headed over there and took one of their tours. Bob Lee was our guide and again we had a wonderful time. He told us about his wife (who passed away from cancer) and his job (airline industry in security). In fact, he often was the escort on airplanes for various Presidents of the Church during his 38 year career. He also told us about a time when he was head of security and one of the planes was high jacked. We had a hard time breaking away from him as his life was quite interesting, but our final stop for the evening was the tabernacle to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. They practice on Thursday nights from 8pm-9:30 and it was already getting 8:45pm. We said our goodbyes to Bob (took a picture since he felt like family by now) and then finished our evening listening to the wonderful MTC sing. Whew!
