In Salt Lake City

Our hosts at the Timpanogos offered to take us to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Sunday morning. I've owned records, cassettes and CDs by the choir so I was happy to have a chance to hear them live. What a sight! The tabernacle was built, surprisingly, 150 years ago and yet its construction still looks modern and even space-agey. Inside, music surged through the huge pipe organ with its 11,000+ pipes.

The Tabernacle can be seen behind the storytellers. It is surprisingly modern-looking, considering it was built just after the Civil War!

 Nearby the Temple soared, a majestic building completed in 1892. Only those considered "temple-worthy" are allowed to entire, but in the nearby visitors' center a cutaway model shows a lavish interior with crystal chandeliers and elegant furnishings.

 On the Temple grounds, a sculpture commemorates the Handcart Pioneers, those hardy early settlers who crossed the Rockies using a handcart to haul their belongings. Can you imagine anyone doing that today? That truly is dedication.

 The Seagull monument is a reminder of the time that a plague of grasshoppers threatened the survival of the early pioneers. The grasshoppers were eating up the crops, and there would have been nothing left for the people to eat in the winter--but then a huge flock of seagulls arrived and ate and ate and ate the grasshoppers, wiping out the swarm. It is incredible to imagine sea-going birds showing up in land-locked Salt Lake, but that is what happened, and the birds saved the lives of the settlers.

A shining Angel Moroni raises his trumpet atop the Temple.

The Temple reflected in the Reflecting Pool.

 Inside the south visitors' center, exhibits explain how the granite was hauled to build the Temple.

The next photo is inside the gigantic conference center located across the street from the Temple. If I remember correctly, it can seat 21,000 people (or maybe it was 27,000?). It is HUGE. And beautiful.

 Rooftop gardens are filled with wildflowers later in the spring but of course it was too early when we were there. But the distant snowcapped mountains were enough to make me happy.

 More pics tomorrow. There's still a lot to talk about!

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