Foto Story Friday #60 --Take a little 1900+ mile trip day 4

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Well day 4 was Sunday. After church and dinner and lazing around for awhile we decided to take a short drive up to This is the Place monument. It was a place my sister had never taken me in all the summers I spent with her in Salt Lake.
I was amazed by all the statues and monuments. Since it was a Sunday we could just wander around reading the inscriptions.
There is a huge handcart. I'm pretty sure it's not to scale but it did make for some neat pictures.
I even got a shot of myself! I was standing there reading and being teased about reading SO slowly when I saw myself and could not resist capturing the moment.
This is the huge central monument. I did take shots all around it, but chose to just give you the frontal view. It's quite amazing.
From there we drove to Ensign peak. We were not feeling ambitious enough to hike up to the top. We did park in a no parking, no standing zone (sorry if you happen to have a house right at the end...)Ensign Peak is where Brigham Young and others went to look over the valley and plan it's layout.
You can get some great views of the Wasatch Front from here.
And the Sunset was to die for....
completely stunning.

The view of the city is fabulous. With a pair of binoculars, we could see 4 temples from here. Temples are dotting the earth!
(still working on the pictures... these I remembered I had posted on facebook!)

Foto Story Friday #59 -- take a little 1900 + mile trip day 3

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

On the 3rd day of our trip, being in Salt Lake, we headed down to Temple Square and The Conference Center. The last time I was through SLC I didn't have time to see the Conference Center. It had just opened ... yeah it had been several years since I was there. I was the only one who had never been inside, so we took the tour and now you too can enjoy a few of the sights.
Inside the main theater of the Conference Center. This is huge. We were blessed to hear the organists playing patriotic hymns.
Looking down onto the fountain.
Looking across the cool water element at Heather and her in-laws.
Looking up from the fountain area.
Taken from upstairs, looking up into the intricate skylight.
We were able to go up top, which is very cool. Unfortunately, I was too busy taking pictures to learn anything.... I really like the water elements and plants on the roof. I did learn that they are planted in a crushed shell "soil".

We wandered over to the Tabernacle and also got to hear someone playing the famous organ that accompanied the Mormon Tabernacle Choir for countless years.
It just happened to be the 4th of July so we enjoyed the fireworks that our hosts shot off in the parking lot.
for a little kit, they were pretty cool.
There was a beautiful sunset over the valley that Independence Day.
As it got dark we decided to head out for some Baskin Robins located near a huge park. Having spent many summers in SLC, I knew that the parks put on dang good fireworks shows.
We were fortunate to get a parking spot and enjoy the aerial display.
The grand finale.
(Hopefully I will have found a way to get the rest of my pictures and finish our trip next week.... my little Mac died and now I've got my pix on an external hard drive and no way to get them off...... Wish me luck!)

Foto Story Friday #58-- take a little 1900+mile trip day 2

From Casper we headed off toward Salt Lake across Wyoming. Upon study of the map we realized that we would be passing a few cool places.
First off we flew by Independence Rock. (Taken through the back window of the truck.) Do you know why they called this rock Independence? Well, we learned.... if the pioneers headed west arrived at the rock by July 4th they would make it to their destinations, be it Salt Lake or California, without hitting winter storms..
Just down the road from Independence Rock is a place called Martin's Cove. A group of Mormon hand-cart Pioneers hit the Rock on November 2 and thus had already experienced winter storms. They were met by a group of rescuers from Salt Lake and brought into the cove to rest and gain strength before pushing on to the valley.
They were starving and ill-prepared for the weather.
Pulling handcarts with their few possessions and often their sick.
There are monuments for those pioneers who didn't make it. Hundreds of them passed away at Martin's Cove and were buried in shallow graves.
They had to cross the Sweet Water river. Many said they simply could not cross another river. 4 young men and others carried many of them across the freezing water. There are monuments depicting the young men and their brave act. One really needs to spend a whole day at Martin's Cove. There is a lot to see and you can pull a hand cart out near the cove then walk in. One day we will come back and do a little trekking. Our Youth went there end of June for a 3 day trek. Cody was very impressed. (This photo was taken through a pair of binoculars. Thus the strange quality.)
This is Devils Gate. The Sweet Water River runs through it.
Close-up through the binoculars.
We continued on our journey to Salt Lake and pretty much followed the trail the pioneers took as they walked to the valley. We got there in a matter of hours and it took them weeks and weeks of hard physical labor to arrive. Along the way we saw a huge wind farm. We were impressed by how large these windmills are.
Some of the beauty we saw.
Finally we arrived in the city. We quickly changed and headed to the Salk Lake Temple for a session. Above we have Heather, David and Troy gazing up and the temple.
This is what you see when you arrive just before dark.
The reflection pool is very cool..... there were some kids playing in the water which caused this cool ripple effect.
One last look at the temple as we head back to our lodging.
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Join me next week for the continuing adventure.......

Foto Story Friday #57 --take a little 1900+ mile trip, day1

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

We took a little trip with our friends, David and Heather, to Salt Lake City.... but we went through South Dakota. Not strange you might say, but it is, if you happen to live in Eastern Montana. We made this a trip of firsts.
As we left town-- Eastern Montana.
Somewhere in South Dakota, we saw this line-up of fire trucks. I barely got them as we flew down the freeway at 80 mph.
Storms were rolling in.
This is a huge cemetery near Rapid City South Dakota.
Entering into Mount Rushmore National Monument. The bridge is very cool, but kinda hard to capture from the backseat with the rain coming down.
We sat in the truck waiting for the rain to let up, then made a break for it. the flags are pretty cool, lining the path up to Rushmore.
We bought some umbrellas and shortly thereafter it stopped raining!
The crying presidents.
Backed off a bit. ( I took tons of pictures so that I'd be sure to have the perfect one.....) I do like how the rain made streaks across their faces.
Thanks to Heather for snapping our picture to prove we'd been there.
How would you like to hang from this while chipping away at the mountain creating the monument? .... yeah not me either! :)
The last glimpse of Washington as we left.
Off on the next leg of our adventure. We were once again chasing storms. We hit this one smack dab in the middle!
It was coming down so hard that we were forced to pull over and wait it out for a bit. This is the view through the windshield.
Sorry about the quality, but we were driving again and this is all run off from the storm! There was even a little waterfall!
As we approached Casper, WY another storm was brewing. We spent the night and rested for the next days adventure..... stay tuned next week the story continues!