Salt Lake City Pass--Day 1

Thursday, June 25th--Nate had a BRILLIANT idea--he found that Salt Lake has a City Pass you can purchase and it includes several amazing places around Salt Lake Valley, and even beyond, for an very affordable price. He purchased a 3-day pass and from there we chose what we wanted to do every day. On this day we went to This Is the Place State Park, Lion House Pantry and Clark Planetarium.

This Is the Place State Park was AWESOME!! We had so much fun as we walked around and experienced the pioneer life as it might have been in the mid-1800's as the Salt Lake Valley was being settled. Our first thing we did was ride a train and make a stop at one of Brigham Young's homes. This home was mainly for a few of his wives. It was also surrounded by a farm. It was a pretty amazing house--one with a floor plan I wouldn't mind having (of course, with modern conveniences included!). Elise and Brady were quite intrigued by the childrens areas and the toys and other things a child of that time would use and play with.

From there we caught the train again and headed up to a main street where we went into a school house and a house where the kids sifted through dirt to find beads to make a bracelet with. Next was a walk through a petting zoo. We went into a barn where there was a brand new baby goat, the kids thought he was so cute. At the end of the petting zoo was a pony ride. Elise went on but Brady didn't want to. Then the newspaper press and from there a stop at Huntsman Hotel for a few sugar cookies--yummy! After a sweet treat we caught the train up to where there were several teepee's and clay/wood huts. Right next to them was a small train that the kids and I took around a large pond. It was pretty fun but Brady had fallen right before and seemed okay till I noticed, while on the train, he had scraped his knee pretty bad and was bleeding. Good thing mom always comes prepared for anything and had wipes and band-aids. After he was all cleaned up and bandaged he was in happy spirits again and ready to move on. In the Native American area a lady took us into one of the clay huts where the kids made arrow-head necklaces (Elise would wear hers for days afterwards!). From there we walked over to the Tithing Building where we made candles. It was SOOO cool! I really enjoyed it. Nate and Elise did too. Brady was content to just watch. I kept thinking how fun it would be to do this kind of thing at home, it was so easy! We got to shape ours. The lady helping us, Darcy, took Elise's candle and shaped it into a heart. This was the funnest activity, in my opinion. One of the things Elise was looking forward to the most was making handkerchief dolls in the Mary Fielding Smith house. Sadly, it was closed and I could tell her heart was broken. I had mentioned it to Darcy and she just happened to have a finished handkerchief doll and gave it to Elise. She was so happy! She carried that doll all over. After our fun candle-dipping we walked around a little longer and then it was time to go. There was plenty we didn't do but it was so hot that we felt we had done the things we would have enjoyed the most and it was time to sit somewhere cool and eat lunch.
Part of the City Pass included a meal and the Lion House Pantry. We were happy to be in an air-conditioned place enjoying lunch. For the most part, the selections weren't all that great but we did enjoy the fresh fruit and home-made rolls. After our tummies were full we set out to get to Clark Planetarium where we just barely made the showing of "Under the Sea" narrated by Jim Carrey. It is an IMAX 3-D show. It was pretty cool. We enjoyed the various jokes Jim threw in there too. Brady had never tried 3-D glasses before so this was his first experience. It was so funny to see him reach out his hand to things or duck. At the end there are bubbles that are on the screen and both he and Elise kept putting their hands out to try and "pop" the bubbles. Nate and I just laughed and laughed. After the show, the kids had fun walking through the planetarium and seeing various exhibits on planets and surfaces of planets. They liked predicting the weather for Channel 2 News (just for you Lindsay!).

All in all a great day!