the Greats of SLC

A really great thing I love about SLC life is that there are always great things to see and do here.
So when Shylettera came into town two weeks ago there were a couple of sights I wanted to show her!
Our first stop was the Great Salt Lake. 
Ive always wanted to head out there and see how Great our city's name sake is.

It was a perfect day to go. It was cloudy/rainy/snowing in the city but once we drove out to the lake it was sunny and {relatively} warm.
The GSL is 75 miles long! and 35 miles wide.
It is mad up of 33% salt. Thats double what is in the ocean!
I loved seeing the photos of The Great Saltair and the resort status it was back in the day.
I learned all of this at the Visitors Center, of course.

I then had the idea to drive out to the Salt Flats. 
It turned to a crazy idea cause it was like a really long drive away.
But once we started driving there was no turning back and we really wanted to go!
Before we actually got to the Flats we got to another part of the lake. I think. I'm not really sure what it was but it was cool. It was so beautiful and had the perfect stillness. We realized afterwards that it was so still that it had a perfect reflection. If you turn this picture upside down you won't even be able to tell which way is up. I dare you. Try.

We weren't sure how much longer we had to go until we finally saw it.

We pulled straight over on the freeway and ran onto the Flats.
I think I pranced around for awhile I was so excited to be there.

It was the most amazing site I have ever seen.

And the fun didn't stop there!
We were about out of gas after such a long drive and the only place to fill up was Wendover!
Haha. So we drove the 8 miles to fill up and we reached the state line. We drove Shylettera all the way back to Nevada.
And we even got to be in two places at once, which doesn't happen every day!

The Lake and the Flats are definitely a site to see. And Wendover, will it was just an added bonus. 

Salt Lake TWO

Back to more exploring of SLC...we saw so much! 

We went on a tour of the Conference Center. 

And a tour of the Joseph Smith Building. And learned so much of its history. I had no idea it use to be Hotel Utah! It always amazes me how beautiful that building is. It opened as a hotel in 1911 and housed many US Presidents as they stayed in Utah. We also saw the Joseph Smith movie which gets me into tears every time. 

On Sunday morning we went to Music and the Spoken Word at the Tabernacle. I wish I could go every week. The tabernacle and the songs are just so beautiful. Such a great way to start your Sunday. 

And walked around Temple Square lots. There is something about living close to the temple that I just absolutely love!

I think my favorite part was exploring the Salt Lake City Cemetery. 

Remember weird obsession...but this time its even cooler cause 14 of the 16 Church Presidents are buried right here in SLC.
The cemetery was created in 1848, just a year after settling SLC. The cemetery is so cool looking with so many old and worn headstones. Such character up in there!

I loved stumbling upon headstones of people that were born in Europe and crossed the plains to Utah after joining the Church. Such dedication, devotion and faith to do so many outstanding things.

We loved running around and finding all of the headstones of important Church leaders and presidents.
The pictures can speak for themselves of what we got to see.
{Presidents}

{This one was actually my absolute favorite. Such an amazing legacy and epitaph.}

It was soooo exciting. Until we got to like President 12...I lost a little steam. And when we wandered for like 20 mins trying to find President Hunter. It became a little tiresome. 

{Prominent Mormons}

Although Archer was not a prominent members, I loved this headstone. It was made of wood {although preserved} and on the back explained that he was a carpenter from England and had expressed upon joining the church that all he wanted was to come to the Salt Lake Valley. He came into the valley with the very first handcart pioneers, however died shortly after.

We loved finding all of these headstones and just being in awe of all of the church history. It made me love and appreciate the gospel a little bit more that day and in away helped the history of the church become more alive {no pun intended.}But seriously, I was in awe.

Seeing all of these historical significant places and learning so much helped me become more excited about my new home. It is full of history and oh so pretty.
However, the snow this past week has made me second guess. 

my new stomping grounds

I am blogging a little out of order here...but a few weeks ago Rudy came into town during my fall break {loveeee working at a school!} and so we were able to do some sight seeing of my new town. I love that Rudy loves to go to museums with me! It made for the best tourist weekend. 

We were able to go to soooo many places! I loved seeing all of these great sites and learning more about the pioneer history of Utah.

Rudy's great great great great..etc...grandpa is Truman O. Angell and he basically designed alllllll of Utah. Like seriously, ever single plaque shows that he was the architect. His legacy lives on through the Salt Lake Temple, the Beehive & Lion House, the Capitol building, the city arch on State St., and the first buildings of the city where City Creek now stands. It was really cool to see how much he influenced this city.

one of the first places we went to was the Beehive House. 

This house was designed for Brigham Young living quarters as well as his office while serving as Territorial Governor for the State of Dessert and President of the Church. 

It is so beautiful inside! I would never have thought that the building would have been so ornate for so long ago.

}Did you know that the pioneers created their own language!? Ya, neither did I...but here is the BOM in that language}

{BY's bed, cane and hat}

{Brother Brigham was a carpenter, and these were his tools}

This was the office for President of the Church and was also used as the office for the presidents up until Joseph F. Smith. Both him and Lorenzo Snow died in this home. Many important doctrines were revealed in this room. (most of which I cant remember now) 

We went to the top of the Church Administration Building to see the view of SLC.

I had forgotten how amazing that view is! Being up there did remind me of my sweet Grandma Jytta and how much she loved being a volunteer there. It was such a clear day and such a beautiful site. 

From there we went to Brigham Young's gravesite. Our Church Admin tour guide told us how to get there {you see that street, go up there, past the yellow car and the red car and the blue car but not past the yellow house....haha}

I loved that his gravesite was right in the heart of the city in such a peaceful and serene park. 

We also hit up the Church History Museum.

A little overwhelming but so interesting. 

I just love knowing that pioneers settled this land and being able to see the transformation of the Salt Lake Valley. One of the things I thought was the most fascinating were the remnants of the night of Joseph Smith's death.

{The watch that save John Taylor's life, the cane which Willard Richards beat back the mob and the guns the Prophet Joseph used to shot back. WOW.}

I also learned that the Saints had their own money system in SLC. President Young use to sign each and every money note that was distributed throughout the city.

However my favorite part was the section of the Church Presidents. We worked so hard on memorizing all of their names and learning what they focused on most while President. 

I think we were there for like 3 hours. 

Dont worry, we went and saw lots more sites too!