6-4 (Fri)
We tried to spend another night in Park City but the hotel was full. We heard on TV that on Sat. there is going to be a Harley Davison rally and a Gay Rights Parade in Salt Lake City so we decided to go to there today and return to P.C. on Sat. We went to a Tourist Center in PC and got info on what to do etc. The woman suggested several hotels. One was Little America. We thought we might like to stay at a Holiday Inn Express so we stopped at one before going into SLC. The guy was really nice. He couldn’t find any rooms so we asked him to check Little America. He found us a room there. When we saw it we thought, “this will be okay for one night.” Well . . . You wouldn’t believe this place! It has gold doors, a doorman, marble floors, art work to die for, gorgeous chandeliers, valet service, boutiques, cereal for $8, massage for $170, pedicure for 80 . . . Are you getting the picture? We have been walking around with our mouth hanging open. When I tried to check in at 11 a.m. the guy said the room was ready!!
We hopped on a free trolley and headed downtown to Temple Square. These Mormons don’t miss any opportunity to try to convert you. Our first tour, conducted by a girl from Hawaii and one from Peru, gave us some of the history of the church. I think they said that there are 53,000 missionaries working in the field at any given time. The girls have to commit 18 months of their lives and the boys two years trying to convert people. They took us in a couple of buildings and finally back to the Tabernacle. They wanted to send us all kinds of literature etc but we said, “No, thanks.” We went into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had lunch up on the top floor. It was lovely. One thing for sure, the Mormons have a LOT of money. The buildings are so elaborate and ornate.
After lunch we went up to see the rooftop gardens on top of the conference center. From there we went over to the genealogy section and researched our ancestors. That was a lot of fun.
We had a tour of the Beehive House which was Brigham Young’s home. I thought it would be a log cabin, but no it was a BIG fancy house. Two girls took us through there . . . One from the US and one from the Ukraine. I can’t believe how many people they have converted from all over the world.
I thought it was pretty hard to get answers out of them that we could understand. They talked really fast, skipped over the parts that were questionable and sometimes seemed a little disturbed when I asked something they didn’t like . . . “tell me the significance of the undergarment you wear?”
We ate dinner at the Lion House and then took the trolley back to Little America.