Utah, Salt Lake City - Friday, September 7, 2018 - Temple Square and Genealogy Research

Wednesday and Thursday didn’t work out as we had planned.  The Salt Lake City Regional Hospital was not on our list of places we wanted to visit.  Greg woke up about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with chest pains so we headed to the hospital where they ran several tests and concluded with installing a stent in a major artery in his heart that had a 90% blockage.  We had an overnight stay and came home Thursday afternoon.

We can’t say enough good things about Salt Lake City Regional.  Although Greg wasn’t an ICU patient he was in the ICU because that was where they had an available bed.  The doctors and nurses there couldn’t have been kinder or more attentive.  The director of the ICU even came in to check on him a couple of times.  Everyone talked to us about what was being done and why they were doing it.

On Friday morning Greg said he was feeling much better than he had been (go figure!).  We decided to go to Walgreens and get a new prescription filled and to do a shortened version of our original plan to visit Temple Square.  We thought we had figured out where to park that was close to the Temple.  Turns out we were wrong, we ended up walking about a mile to get to the where we wanted to go for lunch.  A lot of it was uphill and Greg was just moving right along, no problems.  He said he knew he wouldn’t have been able to do that a week ago.

We had lunch at Lion’s House Pantry.  Lunch is served cafeteria style.  We both had a baked chicken breast with a light cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and herbs and corn on the cob.  One of their homemade rolls accompanies every meal.  This meal was fantastic!  I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t want to draw any attention to us.  We were already underdressed as this place seems to be a favorite of the local church leaders and area business men and women.

Lion House takes its name from the carved lion on top of the front portico.

Brigham Young, second president of the Church of the Latter-day Saints, built the house for his wives and children (he had 27 wives and 56 children).  He and some early Church members practiced the Old Testament principle of polygamy which was officially ended in 1890.  The basement contained a dining room which could seat 70 people.  On the main floor were sitting rooms and bedrooms for wives with children.  The second floor had bedrooms for children and childless wives – one under each of the 20 steeply-pitched gables.  This picture shows some of the gables.  Brigham Young died in the Lion House in 1877.  The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964

The Beehive House next door to the Lion House was Brigham Young’s residence, office and reception area for official visitors.  At the time the house was built Young was both president of the LDS church and Utah’s territorial governor.  Young’s brother-in-law, Truman Angell designed the Beehive House, the Lion House and the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

Gardens of Beehive House.

Gardens on Temple Square are redesigned every six months and replanted by hundreds of volunteers.

Salt Lake Temple built by Mormon pioneers between 1853 and 1893 – forty years.

Assembly Hall which was built with granite left over from the building of the Temple.  This is a place of public worship and is mainly used for conferences of the LDS congregation.

The Tabernacle is too large to get in one picture.  It is home to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We had hoped to be able to attend the Thursday night rehearsal of the choir but we were both worn out.

Our last stop was the Family History Library.  It houses the largest genealogical collection of its kind in the world.  Visitors can use the collection at no charge.  Over 300 computers are available for use.  Volunteers are available to help you one-on-one if you have problems.  The only catch is the information is mainly prior to 1930 so searching for someone in this generation can’t be done here.  We were here to see if I could get some tips on researching my great grandmother who according to family legend could have been half Cherokee.  We received some great help and I know more about where to search to find answers.

We will move on tomorrow to Fillmore, UT for an overnight stay.  Fillmore was the first capitol of Utah.  Wagons West RV Park will be our destination for the night.