August 9, 2009 From Salt Lake to Moab

We have arrived to Salt Lake City around 2 o’clock. Our hotel – Crystal Inn – offers rather large rooms with love seat sofas, two tables, two chairs, spacious bathroom, good breakfast and a smallish pool that we did not dare to use – a kid threw up in the pool!!!! Oh, how I missed the pristine pool in Yellowstone Best Western – I swam there in proud solitude… no kids… no chlorine…
As we have arrived early enough, we could unload, take a shower, change – and hit the city streets. We walked first to the Gateway shopping mall (the closest thing on earth to Disneyland)– which also contains the Olympic heritage plaza. The air was a joy to breath – warm, clean, and dry! The sun was bright – an unusual feeling to any Seattlite!
From Gateway we walked past the Convention Center with its glass towers of Babel towards Temple Square. The Tabernacle is an impressive building. Constructed in the end of the 19th century (it took 40 years to raise this edifice) it stands on almost 10 acres of flower gardens. The tallest spire is crowned by the angel Moroni that is holding the pipe proclaiming the end of days… The façade is facing an oval endless pool and a cascade of small fontains that lead to the doorstep of the Church’s headquarters. On a small plaza there stands a bronze sculpture of Joseph Smith and a sister that gives him her last penny. I loved the sculpture – it stands on a very small pedestal and is of almost human proportions. It does not instill awe or fear like the Brigham Young monument at the entrance to the park – the faces are soft and kind and somehow lit from the inside.
Next morning we listened to the Tabernacle choir at 9:30. 380 singers plus an orchestra – a sight to see (and listen to). We also rode the light rail – which is free in downtown Salt Lake City. They have a developed system of light rail that runs to the University District and other parts of the city.
Around 11 we left the friendly Salt Lake City and headed south east to Moab and the Arches National Park.
The road to Moab is not a very easy one – you drive endless serpentine turns between hills and mountain slopes… We arrived to our hotel around 5 in the evening.
My father was out of sorts because his supply of film was running low. So we decided to explore our new “campsite”. We drove ( a mistake!) and parked our ar in the heart of the downtown Moab (5 blocks from the hotel) . We got the film in a drugstore 2 blocks away and walked through some tiny shops. We ended up at an ice-cream shop – where they made sorbet for us – using real frozen fruit!!! Their coffee was excellent, too!