17.08.2018
Vita writing:
We arrived in Salt Lake City by cars. To better understand the history of the city, we took free guided tour around the Mormon temples. Two girls Mormon missionary sisters – one from Texas, the other from Japan – were our guides. They walked our small group through the temples and told us a little history of the city. Mormons were the ones who founded this city. Some part of the city’s property belongs to them. All tours are organized free of charge. The people were very kind and indignant in their faith.
We were surprised by splendid temples and beautiful fountains in surrounding. And most by the beautiful flower gardens in all possible places. Different pelargoniums, geranium, begonias, etc. There is a golden angel Moroni statue blowing a trumpet on top of most Mormon temples.
The day we arrived there were a lot of weddings taking place. We counted at least 10 pairs of bridal gowns, bridal nurses, wedding guests and children. We tried to go through the crowd one by one to feel the atmosphere of the wedding and celebration. All the young couples photographed whenever they found a nice spot near temples, monuments, fountains and flowers. So were we.
At one of the temples we listened to organ music for a while.
We ate our lunch at the old Mormon restaurant Lion House. The food was simple and tasty like a homemade kitchen. The atmosphere was also pleasant because there were many wedding guests dining there. In ancient times, some 70 people were having their meals at the same time during a hard working day.
Right after our lunch we drove to the top floor of the Mormon headquarter building. Mormon Church is coordinated from this high-rise building all over the world, including Latvia. The guide showed us the city very warmly and told us about the main buildings of the city such as the University, the hospital, etc. It was said that at the beginning when Mormons arrived at this place and began to build the city, there were no trees at all, everyone was planted, thousands of them that we could see everywhere in the city now. We were surprised by beauty and wealthy all around.
Later we walked through the museum learning some history and about Mormon’s persistent work over the years.
All the temples and buildings had same definite somewhat modern but in the same time old style. All the paintings were also painted in their Mormon style.
Later, outside the city, we stopped at Lake Salt.
Then we went on to watch the Twin Falls on Snake river. One of them – the Shoshone falls is even higher than the Niagara Falls.
In the evening we reached our motel on the roadside. The landlord, a kind Mexican, suggested the nearby Ziggy’s place for our dinner. Most of us went there and little later the others were gradually joining us. Some of us ordered a place specialty – the Eclipse hamburger. Ilgonis played ermonik and we sang at the table. We had a very nice evening. We felt tired and went to a peaceful motel to bed.