Day 7 - Temple Square and Ensign Peak

Thursday morning, Hal decided to go get some parts for the RV generator at the NAPA store, so Melissa and I went back into town, while he took the RV. They'd decided that there was nothing at the convention today that they absolutely had to see, so it was a sightseeing day all around. Melissa and I pretty much covered the same ground I had yesterday, so here are simply more pictures of Temple Square, the big Conference Center, and the observation deck. 

After we'd toured the Temple Square again, we drove up a side street to the Capital area - it's just a few blocks up the hill, and the Capitol building sits on a large park-like area. The whole place up there is called "Ensign Peak", because B. Young and some early Mormons climbed up here and planted some flags to mark their territory and declare ownership.  It was nice up there, a great view of the whole valley, but it was so hot that Melissa couldn't even stand being in the car with the AC going full blast while I took pictures. So I had to be quick.  I walked up to the capitol building, and the doors were unlocked, so I just walked right in. There were about three other people in the whole place, including an oriental couple where the wife kept yelling at her husband to do this or that. She was really berating him for something, I was  a bit surprised he didn't haul off and smack her. So I took a bunch of shots of the interior of the capitol building, and then we headed up to the peak.

Dust and haze from scattered small brush fires was evident on the horizon. Our trip was overshadowed by the large number of brush and forest fires that struck out west in the summer of 2012. We saw several brush on our travels. It was also much hotter than normal for the end of June, people we talked to said it was more like August weather. It didn't really affect me that badly, but Melissa complained of the heat for much of the trip.  Mid-afternoon, we headed back to the KOA. Hal had decided to hang around the RV and take care of some personal business while we were gone, so then he and I took the Crown Vic out to the NAPA store, and stopped at a large Super Wal-mart  for some shopping. This was the first Wal-mart I'd ever seen with it's own multi-level parking garage on site. The size of the place was overwhelming. Our little local store could have fit in one corner of it. We got some nice steak and salads for dinner, and stocked up on other stuff we'd need.  I took a walk along the Jordan River park behind the KOA, and got a few pictures .

After our nice dinner of grilled steak and salads, we waited for the sun to go down, and Melissa and I headed back to town for some night shots. We drove up into the residential area of Ensign Peak above the capitol area and overlooking the city. At the end of a long cul-de-sac street we found a vacant lot that overlooked the whole valley, and offered a fantastic view. There were a lot of "No Parking" and "No Trespassing" signs all over, but there were perhaps a dozen or so other people there, mostly kids and young adults taking in the view. I started to set up the camera when a cop car pulled up and started to shoo all the people away. It turns out the lot is owned by one of the people on the street, and they don't want a bunch of kids running all over it. I asked the cop, "Hey, where can a guy on vacation from New Jersey get some nice pictures like this?" and he says, "Why didn't you say you were from Jersey - I'm from East Rutherford! Let me get these kids out of here and then you can take your pictures - just be careful, ok?". So that was cool. I set up the tripod and took a bunch of shots, holding on to the camera for dear life, as it was quite windy up there as well.  The whole Salt Lake City valley spread out before me, from the foothills of the mountains to the west, all the way to the airport and the red ribbon of Interstate 15 to the east.

After we left the Ensign Peak area, we came back down into Temple Square, I wanted to see what kind of shots I could get of the buildings there at night. The Tabernacle was lit up quite nicely.

Thus ended our last full day in SLC - tomorrow would be the final sessions at the Convention for Melissa and Hal, and then we head south to Mona, where the company was having a big 'family day' at one of their farms. We'd arranged to park the RV at the farm for a couple of nights.