Day 12 was spent primarily in Salt Lake City. After a late sleep in we headed down to main street in Park City for a little shopping and lunch at our favorite lunch place, Main St Pizza. Best milk shakes ever! Anna had the butterfinger milkshake and we named it the LeeBecca Shake in honor of her cousin who had it last back in January. For the afternoon we headed down the mountain to Salt Lake. We were able to go out to the Great Salt Lake State Park and walk out to the lake. The smell of salt was overwhelming. The salt would crunch beneath your feet. After cleaning out the RV to remove all of the sand and salt we returned to SLC and to Temple Square. Had a little trouble getting into the parking lot with the RV, trying not to take out the parking booth in the process. We toured the temple square and learned about the Mormon pioneers led by Brigham Young and the struggles to build the Temple. Toured the tabernacle and the Joseph Smith Center before running in the rain to the Conference Center. Impressive facilities and the kids had lots of questions regarding the Mormon faith. The crowning moment of the day was listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir at rehearsal from 7:30 to 9. They were practicing for the July 4th celebration and so the music was all patriotic and ended with a beautiful “My Country tis of Thee.” Returned to Park City and collapsed into the beds by 10:30.

Day eleven was a bit of a sleep in day but Julie and I still made it to the grocery store by 9 am. After lunch, Julie stayed in and began about six loads of laundry and the kids and I headed out to finds some adventure. We found it in the form of Alpine slides, alpine coasters and zip lines. Had a blast.

Day ten was a travel day. We left Moab and the red cliffs of southern Utah behind and headed North. We passed through Green Valley, UT and stopped at the John Wesley Powell River museum. Watched a movie on the adventures of this early pioneer who first explored the length of the Colorado River. Had lots of discussion about how challenging it must have been to ride that river in a wooden boat. Some of them did not make it. Heading North, the landscape slowly changed. I was really surprised how barren the central east plateau of Utah appeared. The cliffs began to change from red to chalk and the vegetation disappeared. Certainly appeared to be an ancient sea bed to me.

After Price, UT, the climb began. Up to 7,000 ft before descending down into the Provo Valley. We made a pit stop in Orem, UT for supplies (ice cream) and headed back up into the mountains through Heber valley and over the hill to Park City. Beautiful sight to see in the Summer. We will be here in Park City until Saturday morning. This is kind of our rest stop before moving on. Lots of laundry to do.