Mission Accomplished: Our 48th State

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This morning we awoke in Ontario, Oregon and continued our journey into Idaho. Once across the state line, we stopped for gas in Twin Falls, and as we got back into the car we noticed something unusual across the street. It was a large field filled with American flags posted into the ground. We learned that it was the Healing Field Flag Memorial, erected in honor of September 11, and each flag represented Idaho soldiers who were fighting overseas. It was a pretty powerful image, and we were glad to have had the chance to see it up close.

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Moving along, we eventually crossed over into Utah - our 48th state on this honeymoon road trip extravaganza. As we came up to Salt Lake City, we could see the state capitol and the Mormon Temple. We checked into our hotel, dropped off our things, then spent some time driving around the downtown area (where we noticed that all of the streets revolved directionally around the Temple).

We noticed the Wasatch Mountains in the distance, and soon came to the "Temple Square." We parked the car on the street and spent some time walking through the Temple grounds. The Temple itself looks like a castle from Disney World, especially with the way it’s lit up at night. We visited the museum of church history and art and were invited by the museum volunteers to come back tomorrow to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform. Unfortunately, we won’t have time, but it was a nice offer just the same. It was beautiful there, but we had more on our list of things to see, so we didn’t linger here too long.

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Now that it was dark, we headed toward our next destination

–Ensen Peak. We drove through hilly local neighborhoods, following the directions of the staff of our hotel, and eventually found our way to an open parking area. We left our car and hiked up the side of a hill to the top, where a stone bench was waiting for us. From here we had an incredible view that overlooked the entire city, all lit up at night. It was truly breathtaking. Now we could clearly see that the city is a valley, surrounded by mountains on most sides with the airport to the northeast opposite the Great Salt Lake (which we unfortunately won’t have time to see on this trip). We watched planes land and take off from the airport, and were able to spot the Temple, the state capitol and other familiar buildings we had seen from the road. It was a calm, cool night, perfect for just sitting and watching the rest of the city come alive below us, and only a few other people joined us on the hill. This is probably one of the city’s best-kept secrets –anyone who visits must find this place at night.

The Mormon Temple
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It had been a long day, and it was getting late, so we finally left our perch on the top of the hill and headed back to the car. Tomorrow, it’s back to Las Vegas.

Love from our 48th state,

Ben & Jess