Thursday July 17, 2014

 
Non-Travel Day

 
This morning we headed into Salt Lake City, and the “Temple Square” . This is an area that
encompasses many buildings of the Mormon Faith, both religious and secular. Our first stop was at the “North Visitor’s Center” where we were introduced to the basics of the Mormon faith. The displays in the visitor’s center depicted the life of Jesus Christ, the history of the church, their service to the community and the origins of the Mormon faith; it was one of the best visitor’s centers that we have visited. Next we took a guided tour of the “Temple Square” area; our first stop was the “Tabernacle”, an oval shaped building, construction was finished in 1875; that is the home of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, it was built in this shape so that the
speaker, without electronic help could be heard by those in the rear. We were towards the back of the building and the tour guide who was standing on the pulpit ripped a piece of paper and dropped a pin, both of which we could hear, and then turning her back to us spoke in a normal voice and again we could hear her clearly, the acoustics in the building were perfect . Our next stop was the “Assembly Hall” or church building; at this point our two tour guides
gave us some information about their religious beliefs, which we found very enlightening. The “Temple”, built by the Mormon pioneers between 1853 and 1893 is a beautiful stone structure that is the most sacred building of their faith and is not open to the public. At 12 noon we went to a ½ hour organ recital in the “Tabernacle” building; it was a fantastic experience listening to this organ that contains over 1,100 pipes. After lunch we went to the “Conference Center”, this is a huge building that contains many conference rooms and an auditorium that seats 21,000 on 3 levels, in semicircular configuration, and with every seat having a perfect view of the podium this is accomplished by not using any pillars to support the balconies or the roof. Structural
support is achieved using methods similar to building a bridge. What makes this architectural feat even more
amazing is that the roof, directly over the auditorium is an expansive area
either covered by granite walkways or expansive plantings covering 4 acres of
trees and flowers . The entire building
and the surrounding sidewalks and courtyards cover 10 acres. We received a private tour of the building,
as we were the only ones to arrive at that time; it was wonderful to have the
opportunity to discuss the features of the building and their religious beliefs
on a one to one basis. We next visited
the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the Church Office Building where we went
to the roof observation platforms for fantastic views of the city skyline and
the surrounding area. It was here that
we learned that the haze we have been seeing is actually smoke from forest
fires to the west in Nevada and north in Idaho. 
Dinner was at a wonderful restaurant on the top floor of the Joseph Smith
Memorial Building. At 7:30 we returned
to the Conference Center for a rehearsal performance of the Tabernacle Choir,
this was fantastic and we both enjoyed the performance. The auditorium is so big that with us seated
in the first level of the balcony section the 360 member choir and the full
orchestra seemed to be in miniature. It
was an amazing experience to see and listen to the choir.