Monday, May 5, 2014, Salt Lake City, UT

Time for another trip into the heart of Salt Lake City.  This time the plan was to tour the capitol building, see the Tabernacle at Temple Square and visit the Clark Planetarium.

We parked the car by the capitol building.  It was interesting that across the street from the capitol was a normal-looking residential neighborhood.  Our tour was led by a very nice docent that fed us with interesting facts about the history of Utah and the capitol building.

We were told the marble for the building was quarried in Georgia.  As an interesting, but unsubstantiated side note, we were also told the marble in the Georgia capitol building was from Europe.

About four blocks from the capitol building is Temple Square.  It is the heart of the Mormon religion.  The entire area is beautifully landscaped with a huge variety of flowers and very welcoming to tourists.

Salt Lake Temple

I guess I really had no idea what to expect, but the big gleaming aluminum helmet was certainly not it.  It was just as unusual on the inside.  Of course, the choir was not singing, but we did get to hear the organ being played.  It has more than 11,600 pipes!  We learned that the 10 largest pipes are not made of metal at all.  Instead, they are made of wood, covered in plaster and then finished with gold leaf.

Salt Lake Tabernacle

Salt Lake Tabernacle Organ

Salt Lake Assembly Hall

The old railway station has been refurbished and is now rented out for functions.  Inside it is wide open so it can be set up for meetings or weddings or dancing or whatever you might want.

Salt Lake Union Pacific

The Clark Planetarium was a museum on our ASTC membership list. Our membership allowed us each admission to a movie in the planetarium (we chose Back to the Moon), and free roam of the very nicely done museum.  There were several displays I had not seen before.  

Maybe one day I will have a room where I could display a 6 foot diameter globe - I really like globes. 

If the moon display only had the moon's gravity, I would have been able to jump more than 6 inches off the ground.

Sunday, May 4, 2014, Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake With Kate, Salt Lake City, UT

A visit to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, northwest of Salt Lake City, UT, was on the agenda for the day. It was somewhat overcast, but we headed out anyway. There is a long causeway allowing you to drive directly onto the island - no ferry or boat ride required.

At the Visitor's Center, we learned there are between 500 and 700 free range Buffalo on the island. We saw a few (maybe as many as 50 buffalo total), but the island is large compared to the little bit we were able to see from the road and I'm sure most of the wild animals are shy. There are also elk, deer and bighorn sheep, but we didn't see any of these. 

The haze put the island in a different light, but it was still pretty!

Towards the south end of the island, there was a ranch that was open to the public. People were climbing all over everything there. There were antiques in the kitchen cabinets, old washing machines in the laundry and furniture in the rooms. In the barns, tools lay upon workbenches as if someone would be coming back to work on a project.

The largest barn is where they once sheared sheep. A lot of the mechanical equipment was still in place or could be envisioned from what remained. I am sure life was hard when this place was in full operation only a few years ago.

I am not sure why there was blasting equipment in the barn, but clearly, all I needed was a handlebar mustache to be the quintessential villain!

Kate wanted to walk down to the water's edge, so we circled back to the beach. I had to retreat to the car after only a few minutes of the relentless onslaught of tiny little gnats. Kate and Joani made it to the water and back, but they were covered in gnats when they got in the car. As we drove home, they would roll down the windows every so often to let the critters out.

Saturday, May 3, 2014, Reconstructing Our J-couch, North Salt Lake City, UT

I did not wake up with the intention of taking on any projects, but somehow one got started and I was not allowed to give up before it was completed. The J-couch was never long enough to stretch out without your feet hanging over the arm. We had thought it would be much more accommodating if only that arm height was lowered.  

No one ever sits at this end of the J-couch. The ability to stretch out would be ideal.

Removing the arm involved removing the drawer and David crawling under the couch with a wrench.

Once the arm was removed and opened up it was relatively easy to modify it to any height.  

This was the first time I got to use the workbench I had stowed in the basement. It was a good thing I also had a full array of power tools!

The air compressor and the stapler made reassembly a little bit easier. Of course, Joani's re-upholstery expertise is what really made this project possible.

Ok, that looks rough, but in my defense, it is never seen.

The completed project provides plenty of room to comfortably stretch out for watching TV or sleeping.

Sam is really bothered by the compressor and especially the nail gun, so Joani and Kate took him for a walk while I finished the framework modifications. The park is adjacent to a nice greenway. There was a lot of evidence of beavers along the river but no sign of dam construction. Just a short way along the greenway there was a cross-country dirt bike track that was getting a lot of use on the weekend. The noise was barely noticeable in the coach and obviously didn't seem to bother the wildlife along the trail.

Kate spotted this carp in the river (at least 18" long).

Thursday, May 1, 2014, Walking Around With Kate in Salt Lake City, UT

Our first foray into Salt Lake City, UT, included several sights. We parked near the center of the city and walked to everything. Their City Hall has to be one of the most impressive buildings we have seen anywhere. It would have been nice to see the interior.

The Leo was a science museum that was a bit different. It was nearly deserted but appeared to be something of a "hands-on" kid's museum. Strangely, an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls was just closing (not something I think kids would enjoy).

One very interesting exhibit included an array of cameras connected to a computer that animated a skeleton as you moved. I think Joani and Katie just wanted to see me look silly. 

Next up was the City Creek Mall. On the way, we passed this old book store and had to go inside. Forget Barnes & Noble, I think this is what a bookstore should look like.

Most of the city is a lot newer and more modern. City Creek Mall stretched more than two city blocks and included a skyway to cross the street midway along its length. The shopping was two stories high with apartments above that and retractable roof panels to make it an open-air mall in good weather.

On the way back to the car we were treated to another kind of show as a building was being demolished. One guy attacked the building with a large concrete wrecking ball from one side while another guy used a hydraulic claw on the other side.

None of it seemed very efficient but it did manage to capture our attention for probably 10 minutes before we moved on.