Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City, founded by Brigham Young in 1846, is the capital of Utah and the headquarters of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints - but currently slightly less than 50% of its residents are Mormons.  Surrounded by mountains, SLC's air is a little polluted, as seen from a distance, but it's a well kept up city with trees everywhere.

Nancy and I drove to the Salt Lake Temple but were not allowed to enter it on account on not being members.  We wandered around the beautiful grounds. 

Nancy discussed the Mormon religion with a gentleman volunteer and learned, among many other fascinating facts, that if you are married in a temple, the marriage is consecrated both on Earth and in heaven.  But if you marry in a chapel, the marriage is only official for your time on Earth, and you're not guaranteed to be with your spouse through eternity.

One of the buildings at Temple Square is the Family Tree Center.  It's a wonderful resource for anyone wishing to research his or her ancestry.  The church has collected and maintained geneological data for the United States and all over the world for more than one hundred years.  This must be the largest such collection of documents anywhere.  What's remarkable is that anyone can go into the center and watch a brief movie, and then a voluteer will direct you to a huge room full of computers and assist you in looking into your past.  I found that I am a descendant of kings and knaves, but Nancy comes from a long line of investment bankers and hedge fund managers.

Leaving Salt Lake City, we passed the beautiful big lake from which the city gets its name.  Then there were vast fields of white on both sides of the road for mile after mile.  Finally we pulled into a rest stop and a sign informed us that we were at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where most of the world's land speed records have been set.  The course is about seven miles from our vantage point, near the distant mountain range; it is ten miles in length, 80 feet wide, with a black stripe down the middle.

The salt flats are what is left of the ancient Bonneville Lake, which became isolated and slowly evaporated, leaving perfectly flat plains of salt.  I wandered out onto the flats and felt compelled to confirm that the surface on which I and many others had walked was indeed salty.