so below is two days worth of posts.
5-18-2009
An auditorium that is used. They say it is "the biggest religious building" in America. Of course this is a bit of a technicality that they dont use against themselves. I'll let Matt go into this stuff as it seemed he had some passion in this subject area.
Inside the auditorium. It is said to hold 20'000+ people. It is used "about 1.5 times a month"
They were doing some light testing during our visit. Getting ready for some production.
The area where a choir would sit is supported by this area. It can all be moved thanks to pneumatic forces. The tour guide tried to explain this but I wasnt able to follow him as he wasnt making much sense.
Us with our tour guide looking down a gap at a fountain 3 or 4 floors down.
Top of the building. Covered with grass, flowers, and trees. Pretty cool.
Fountain on the roof.
Wildflowers that they are growing on the roof.
View of the capital from the 26th floor of another mormon building...
Apparently where the opening and closing ceremonies took place in 2002 for the winter Olympics.
Top of the building that the auditorium was in.
Three of the mormon temples in the mormon square.
The rest of the buildings on the mormon square. I "accidentally" went into the one on the bottom right...apparently outsiders were not allowed there...I was starred out of there.
Another view...
Another view of the auditorium building...
A sweet fountain out in the middle of the mormon areas.
A mormon temple in the reflecting pool
Matt in the reflecting pool... I see his doppelganger!
I am sneaking into the mormon holy of holies. Just kidding it was locked...but seriously...like we were directly told...only the "good" mormons get to go into.
A girl in one of the mormon temples was explaining how good the accustics were in this building...yay?
Salt deposits left from the Great Salt Lake. It really stinks in the area for some reason, and the area has been going through a 7 year drought causing the lake to shrink.
An abandoned group of buildings that obviously used to rely on tourism. The great salt lake has retreated a great distance from this place causing the local business to literally dry up.
Salt Flats out side of the great salt lake.05-19-2009
Photo from our hotel room at Reno.
Welcome to California!
We made a special trip down south to Lake Tahoe. It is an amazingly clear body of water. The only place I could reference as being this clear is a quarry I had been to in the past.
this sign was missing "ng" on a couple words which amused me. I am easily amused. Anyways this is a sign on the dock.
Lake Tahoe! It was amazing.
Memorial of the Donner Party. The snow was said to be as high as the stone goes on the monument. About 22'.
Monticello Dam. Dam was completed in 57' and covered the city of Monticello. Power generating plant added in the 80's helps provide power to the North Part of San Francisco. It is said if the dam were to suddenly disappear, that Davis, California would be covered by 3 meters of water(Roughly 9').
Look how deep it is...
This is a shot of the intake for the dam. It is the biggest vertical intake of it's type. They call this specific one the Morning Glory spill-way in the world...this claim is a bit unsubstantiated though...so take it for what you will.
More shots... If you are even remotely interested in this...I would highly recommend you reading this site... Monticello Dam
This is the picture Matt took while we were coming over the Oakland Bay Bridge. Traffic in San Francisco is by far the worst we have ever experienced. Worse then Atlanta's rush hour in my opinion. The main reason isnt the traffic itself but more the one way streets, people walking everywhere, and the low street lights / street signs.
We were driving down the street trying to find a place to park when up over a hill we come and I see Alcatraz. I put my camera with lenses and all out the window desperately snapping pictures trying to get a good shot. I like this one because it shows how steep the hills are here...it is crazyness.
Oh and Matt was yelling at me at this point..."I dont need pictures of Alcatraz! I need a navigator!" Yeah it is pretty miserable to drive through San Francisco...
Matt/Ben,
ReplyDeleteThe Clinton Library just recently sodded and added trees to their rooftop, they said it makes the building more energy efficient, I think its pretty neat, now the Clinton's have a yard to go with their apartment on the roof top. I really liked seeing your pictures because I wondered what a yard would look like on a rooftop.
How was Alcatraz?
Talk to you soon, love you guys!
Mom