Utah Trip

We took a trip out to Utah to visit with our son Nathanael and his wife Mary-Anne. It was a lot of fun and we got to stay almost a whole week.

This is a picture of Nathanael and Mary-Anne in front of their new house in Lehi, Utah. They had the house built and just moved in fairly recently. They got to pick out all the options for the house and the paint colors and just recently put in the grass around their house.

One of the best things about the neighborhood where they live is this trail that goes along the South Jordan River right near their house. We went for lots of walks while there, around the neighborhood, and along the trails. We even did some geocaching. This is a shot of the river right from the trail not more than a block from their house.

One day we spent the day up in Salt Lake City. Here's a picture of the church conference center. We took a tour of the roof, which used to be flat but has been turned into a garden. The trees and grass are all real and they are not growing in dirt but in an artificial man made soil that is a lot lighter than dirt.

Here's a shot from the top of the church administrative building. You can see the Salt Lake Temple and behind it the tabernacle where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir use to perform before the convention center. It was real sunny out and the temperatures were in the 80s the whole week we were there. We got to see the place where Nathanael works and his office. He is a prosecutor for the Salt Lake City Prosecutors Office. We ate lunch at the Lion's House which is a historic monument and which I think used to be Brigham Young's home.

One day we went for a big hike. We went early so the sun was not too hot yet. We climbed up Mount Tipanogos. It was steep but the views were fantastic and it was wonderful being outside on a hike. It took about an hour I think. Here's view back down the canyon and you can see the floor of the Salt Lake Valley in the distance.

At the end of the trail is Tipanogos Cave where you can take a tour. The rock's all limestone and water has eroded it out into caves all through the mountains.

Inside were three main caves or chambers. Here's a formation where a stalactite is almost down to the stalagmite which will then be a column.

There were lots of beautiful formations and the pictures don't do them justice. Most of them I had to delete because the camera wasn't doing the flash right.

On a different day we went to the "This Is the Place" monument and park. This is where the Mormon pioneers first came to Salt Lake Valley and Brigham Young said "This Is the Place", which he had seen in a vision so he knew it was where they were to stop and settle.

They had some of the old settler's buildings and cabins and such there so you could tour and see what life was like for the pioneers. This is the inside of an old school building. They also had some people dressed up in pioneer clothes that you could talk too. The blacksmith shop was really interesting.

This is the type of dwelling place that the Indians of the area built and lived in, which was very primitive compared to what the pioneers were building.

We got to pan for gold in the river there. I found these five nuggets in just a short period. Jacquelyn's thinks they must be fools gold. I'm going to show them to John to see what he thinks.

On a different day we went on a scenic drive to see the mountains and the fall colors. We took the Alpine Loop drive. Here's a picture of Bridal Veil Falls coming down the canyon walls.

We also stopped at Cascade Springs which was my favorite. There were these beautiful spring ponds with water coming out of the ground and flowing all into and through them and a boardwalk that you could take to walk around the springs.

The water was crystal clear. Here's a Brown Trout. Cascade Springs is one of the prettiest outdoor spots on Earth.

The highlight of the trip was the chance to attend one of the sessions of General Conference. We got to see the prophet and the apostles and listen to the talks live instead of watching on TV. Here's a picture of the inside of the conference center during conference this session. You can see from the arrow where we were sitting

Here's the four of us in our seats. We got there early. Mary-Anne, Nathanael, Jacquelyn, Doug. It was a lot of fun and something I had been wanting to do for a long time. Both Nathanael and I had never been to one in person.

Here's picture of the pipes from the organ and a children's choir that sang songs during our session.

A shot from our seats. The conference center holds 21,333 people.

It was fun to see all the people too. This shot and the next one are some pictures of the crowds.

Another shot of people.

We had a good time at Conference and learned a lot too from the messages and talks by the church leaders.

Inside were a lot of well-know paintings that depict scenes out of the Book of Mormon. This was of Christ visiting the Nephites on the American Continent after his crucifixion and resurrection.

These two are Helaman and the 2,000 stripling warriors, and Alma doing baptisms in the waters of Mormon.

Here's a favorite of mine, Abinadi in chains testifying to wicked King Noah.

Here is Lehi and Nephi and their family on a boat coming to America after fleeing Jerusalem. Below is Lehi finding the Liahonna in the wilderness.

It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun. Thank you Nathanael and Mary-Anne for being such great hosts and for having us over to visit. We got to see a lot of neat stuff but the best part of the visit was getting to spend time with the two of you (and Jackson). And we enjoyed playing cards and watching TV and going for walks with the two of you just as much as any of the sight seeing. It was great to see the two of you doing so well. We all have a lot to be thankful for.