Mormon Tabernacle, Salt Lake City

Thursday, Jan. 29 while Paul and I were in Salt Lake City we went to Temple Square to see the Mormon Tabernacle. We entered through the North Gate and made our way to the North Visitors building where guides [two young female missionaries – one from Hong Kong and one from Washington State] took us on a quick tour outlining the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The story was told using large murals and statues as we walked from station to station. From there we went to the South Gate Visitor building which is dedicated to family and also has a display showing the history of the building of the tabernacle. Our last stop was the Tabernacle Choir building. We had to leave then to get to Clark’s Planetarium which has a domed IMAX screen. The 5:30 feature was World of The Universe, lots of flashing lights and loud surround sound. Pretty awesome!! We ate at The Gateway Mall Food Court before returning to the Tabernacle to listen to the practice session of the Mormon Choir Tabernacle. We were early and waited in the South Visitors building. We did a quick search for our ancestors on the computers. I printed out the info on Grammie and Grandad Wile. Paul found oodles of info on his family. Other groups were wandering around – among them was Martin Luther King Junior!!!!! At 8 o’clock we hurried over to the rehearsal.
His group came into the temple and down the aisle just as a guide was taking our picture. We had to step aside to let them through. He was introduced to the audience during the choir practice. That’s when we learned who this VIP was.
The choir was magnificent. I took a few videos so we will be able to hear and see the practice.
Today we left SLC @ 10:30 and drove to Red Ledge RV Park in Kanarraville, UT. The freeway was really crazy when we started but thinned out after we left the city behind. The highway follows a wide valley plain with mountains to the left and right all the way down. This area is very high above sea level[@7000 feet] and must be very dry in summer as both sides of the road were covered with sagebrush and scrubby little pine trees. The only other trees were near streams and creeks. The farmland had huge irrigation systems on wheels – some were unbelievably long, stretching in straight lines and sometimes gargantuan circles over the grain fields. Black Angus cattle dotted the grassland along with an occasional sheep herd. We saw a couple herds of deer near Cedar Rapids. Paul is really good at spotting them. I would miss them completely as their color blends right into the landscape.