Joseph Smith, Caffeine Free Coke and Un.be.liev.a.ble

Well, back on the road again!  It's been a quite the year, so Nick and I were both more than a little happy to get out of the house!

Due to credit card points redeemable for flights, that are only usable between 10am and 2pm on the fourth day of the Queen of England's birthday and to locations that have four letters in them, we found our self in Salt Lake City, Utah!  Of all the places in the world I've been, I can say with certainty, this was the most boring of them all.  That sounds so harsh.  It was nice and there was a very lovely shopping area, but I can't say it's high on my list of places to get back to.  

That being said, I'm happy I saw it.  :)

This is the most important building of the Mormon faith and is referred to as the Temple.

We listened to an organ practice here (the Tabernacle building maybe...).  It was quite an impressive practice we heard.

The Temple during the day.

The ceiling in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  Quite amazing.  

More in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.  And home to a cafe containing Caffeine-free Coke.  You don't see that very often.

Joseph Smith as a Sphinx in the Gilgal Gardens.  This was a sculpture garden that one of the more eccentric bishops of the Mormon church was responsible for creating.  One of the locals visiting the garden was surprised that we (Nick) found it.  Thank you, Trip Adviser. 

We took a few tours on the Temple Square area where many important landmarks to Mormon religion are located.  There were tour guides from all over the world represented.  Interestingly, Iowa City, IA is also a landmark for the Mormon religion and marks the place where ~3,000 "pioneers" (many of them British) joined the trek to settle in the Salt Lake valley.

So, we headed out from Salt Lake City today to the Grand Tetons.  There are NO WORDS!!  What a day!!  We spent most of it driving and it was AWESOME!  I couldn't even believe it.  It was un.be.leiv.a.ble.  I wish these pictures showed 1/100th of how beautiful it was as we drove.

Classic Coffee Shot.

This and all the following are the the trip from Utah, through Idaho to Wyoming.

Our hotel room.  I'm guessing Burt Reynolds stayed here at some point in the 70's.  We were both pretty pumped when we got here.  There's something pretty great about these spots.

Hotel shot again.