Downtown and the Mormans

Today was the day that Luke left for their road trip up to Seattle, so I woke up early enough to see him off and went downstairs to get some of the free breakfast our hotel so graciously offers. That done, I toyed with the idea of going downtown to wander around and check out the sights. After an hour or so, I decided it was worth the $1.40 to get down there by the train. Oh, it is a good transport system, but a little on the expensive side. The other problem is that it only goes on one route, so there aren't many places that you can go- unless you connect to the hopelessly confusing bus program. Nevertheless, it was a quick trip down from the university and it wasnt too crowded. I started by getting off a little early and walking down Main Street- and then onwards toward the Morman temple and just about every other Morman building too. The actual downtown area isnt that big- its almost as big as Perth I think- there arent that many tall buildings. There are a few parks that dot the landscape, but overall it is just another metal jungle. Most of the shots I took were of the Temple grounds, and all the lavish landscaping there is. They have this statue that is made of gold- 2 seagulls- that is there in memorial of the flock of seagulls that ate up all the locusts that came and ravaged the Morman settler's crops in 1860 something. The temple is one thing, there is this big semi circular round thing called the tabernacle which has this shiny silver roof. Most of that was being refurbished and reconstructed when I was there. All in all, the Morman area of Salt Lake City is the heart of the city, all the streets are named by their distance from the grounds. Its nice enough, and there are statues all over the place and all the trees are lit up with little lights at night. After my adventure around the Morman centre, I walked up to Capitol hill. Well, with my luck the Capitol was being refurbished as well. So all the shots I could of got of the nice buildings are covered in construction railings and trucks. Oh well. There was a good view of the city, but I have noticed that after around 2:30 or so there is this haze that settles over the city and surrounds that make it very difficult to see anything. After another walk down the hill I got a Calzone and caught the train back up to the hotel. It was a nice 4 hours, and now I have seen one of the major tourist attractions in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow may hold a hike up the mountains, hopefully the rain will hold off.