My weekend

I’m in Salt Lake City today—I flew in early this morning for a Global Entry interview. SLC is one of just a couple locations that has weekend hours. Since it’s also a hub for Delta, I was able to get a direct, non-stop flight even if it did require getting up at 2:15 AM.

I was done with the interview by 11 (approved, hurrah!), and in my hotel room before noon. So I walked over to Temple Square which is just under a mile from my hotel. There’s a light rail here in SLC, and it’s free, but since the next train was 14 minutes out when I got to the stop, I figured I was better off just walking.

I saw at least five weddings going on, and a whole lot of dark suits, and very plain sensible shoes. I took a family’s picture (yes, they said, we would like to have some of the temple in the background), peeked into where the Tabernacle organ recitals are held. Unfortunately I couldn’t have gotten to the recital hall in time for the free noon performance, and I’ll be in the air tomorrow for the 2 PM show. Too bad, the acoustics were great in there and I bet it’s a real treat.

Otherwise, here are a few random pictures. The weather is pretty blah here—in addition to the normal inversion that SLC tends to get in the winter, there’s also fog in the area. I took this at the airport around 10 AM; that's the air traffic control building sort of hovering in the distance.

I saw a lot of these dotted all around the grounds and don't know if they have any significance other than looking really neat. This first one is at the front gate on the east side (I think, hard to tell because it's so grey out). What doesn't show up very well is the steam rising all around it from the water it's in.

Here's another one that wasn't in water. Isn't that an interesting shape? The vegetation on top looked to be native or at least plants that don't need a lot of water and might do really well in the endless sunshine Utah normally has.

This is on part of the wall as you move from the grounds toward Temple Square itself (the grounds have things like the museum, visitors center and so on). I noticed that my camera focused on each of these little faces when I got the picture.

And finally the obligatory photo of the Temple itself.

And then I walked back to my hotel and now I'm contemplating room service for dinner.