Wrapping up Salt Lake City

After doing some research online we decided NOT to visit the Great Salt Lake. Initially the kids and I were interested in swimming in it but then we read about the smell and biting insects. Despite wanting to see Antelope Island we decided to do something else due to the 1.5 hour drive.

The day started with a visit to the Mormon Salt Lake Temple.  

We spent a few minutes in the Tabernacle but quickly exited due to Tag insisting that he should be allowed to climb on things.  We then went to the visitor's center where Mickelle and I each looked up one branch of our heritages.  I looked up my Father's side and found pieces of the family tree I did not know about but the cool find was a picture that came up of Mickelle's grandpa John.  It pulled up the wedding photo of him in uniform with her Grandma June.  It was a nice clean scanned picture.  Pretty cool.

John was an Airplane Mechanic in the Navy and June was Miss Bellingham.

We then hit the City's Planetarium, which is very well done for a free museum.

Elle's electric blue sunglasses courtesy of Brooks Running - free at some running expo. Mick keeps trying to toss them, but Elle won't let her.

Next up was the Discovery Children's Museum.  Just like in Boise, our association with KidsQuest Children's Museum provided us a discounted admission.

The Discovery Museum was very impressive.  It's obviously well run and well funded.  All of the exhibits were well maintained and working.  It was also not crowded.  We did our best to make sure the kids saw the whole museum and there were tons of things to see (a market, farm, emergency room including a real life-flight helicopter, a commercial airline cockpit, Bob the Builder exhibit, acting stage, water feature and hands on building/art area).  There was a also a fake tree that Tag climbed and plucked a fake leaf off of (sorry Discovery Center, we'll take good care of it).

While Tag flies, Elle is taking care of the patient.

Tag likes to take over certain areas and finds it difficult to share when he does. Luckily no one else was trying to play with the Widgets. Mick had to guard this structure while he found me.  We were the only ones allowed to help him destroy it. 

Ladder to where exactly? His leaf is proudly stored in the car door's drink holder. 

Something that I found interesting about Salt Lake City was how easy it was to navigate.  The entire city is setup on a grid system where the Temple is at the center.  At any time you know exactly how far away you are from it.

We wrapped up the evening with dinner with our friends, and their friends.  The next morning before heading on to our next destination I went for a run up Mill Creek Canyon with their 14 year old son who runs Cross Country for his High School. It was another beautiful run.

Adios Salt Lake.  Headed to see some Arches.