Salt Lake, 2002 Olympics, Capitol building

Antelope Island is home to herds of bison, antelope, bighorn sheep and mule deer. The island is in the Great Salt Lake and is accessed by a causeway. Many sea gulls line the causeway.

Great Salt Lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River and is 75 miles long by 28 miles wide. Four river drainages enter the lake, but Great Salt Lake has no outlet causing it to leave high concentrations of minerals behind. Only brine shrimp, brine flies and algae can survive in the saline laden lake which varies from 15% - 25%.






Park City (elevation 6,911) is in the middle of the Watstch Mountains on the other side of the mountains from Snowbird where we are staying. This town started also as a silver mining town, but transferred to snow sports when the value of silver was devalued. The 2002 Olympics were held in Park City where one can see ski , bobsled and snowboarding runs. Judy tried the bobsled, but because it was in a musuem, she didn't get very far. The park is 389 acres and serves as a training park for athletes year around.




















Salt Lake City serves as the state Capitol for the state of Utah. The Corinthian-style structure was built in 1916 and was recently updated. It was designed after the US Capitol building in Washington DC. It sits on a high hill overlooking the city of Salt Lake.

July 2009 Salt Lake City

From July 11 to 18, we traveled to Utah. We are staying at the Iron Blosam resort near Alta in high altitude territory. Alta was a raucous silver mining town in the 1860's however the devaluation of silver in 1873, put an end to the area's heyday. In 1940, the first ski resort was built revitalizing the area.

We stopped at Fort Bridger State Park in Wyoming on the way into Utah reliving some history between the pioneers and Indians. The Mormons bought the fort in the 1860's and used it for rest and safety as they neared "their Promised Land".

July 13, we visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Temple Square is a 35 acre, three block area containing the most prominent buildings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints. The buildings were erected in the mid to later 1800's some taking as many as 40 years to build. The Temple is an impressive structure, but is closed to the public. We toured the Tabernacle and were able to listen to an organ concert on the 11,623 pipe organ.

While at the Mormon Tabernacle we learned that though the Mormon temples are rarely open to the public, the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple is open to the public for two months. After a new Temple is built, the LDS members open the temple to the public so everyone can see the inside of a temple. It was impressive - no expense was spared in the three story structure. The baptismal font was most impressive, but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside. The font rests on the back of twelve oxen symbolically representing the twelve tribes of Israel. In this font, baptisms are performed in behalf of deceased forebearers.

Florida in March 2009

In Huntsville, AL, we stopped at the Space Center to see various aspects of space history. We saw a number of rockets, the space shuttle as it was loaded on to a rocket and the blackbird plane which travels 2,000 miles per hour.

To get away from the long cold Michigan winter, we spent a week in Davenpot, Florida near Orlando with Mark, Kerri and the boys. We stayed at the Regal Palms Resort which allowed us to swim in the pool, go down the water slide, float in the lazy river and soak in the hot tub. A few days were very cold for Florida, but we made the best of them. A number of college soft ball teams were at the resort so Burke had a chance to make friends with a girls team entertaining them in the pool with his four year old antics.

On Thursday we drove to Lakeland to watch the Detroit Tigers play against the Washington Nationals. We were pleased that the Tigers won 10-2. After the game, the grandsons were able to get 10 autographs from the team members.

Denny and I drove to Fort Myers for a few more days in the warm south. We spent a few hours at the Edison - Ford estate along the Caloosahatchee River. Thomas purchased his home in 1885 and moved his new bride from New Jerseyonto the property in 1886. Henry Ford visited his friend, decided his liked the area so he purchased a home next door in 1916.

Henry Ford used the home as his summer residence whereas Edison continued to discover products in the laboratory in near his home. The worlds' second largest Banyan tree stands on the property and was used as a natural source of rubber along with Harvey Firestone.

Snow Train, (snow being the key word).

The end of January we traveled to the Upper Peninsula to see the Snow Train. That may sound a bit anticlimatic as we have plenty of snow on the ground in Western Michigan; however this was the final of six birthday celebrations as each of us turned 60. This trip celebrated sister in law Carrie's 60th birthday which actually was in October.

The Snow Train is aptly named because we saw snow everywhere, snow so deep the animals in the area are unable to move; however the vistas were beautiful with fresh white snow as pictured in our photos. We also rode over trestles and saw frozen waterfalls.

Len and Carrie Blauwkamp try to capture the beauty on their camera.

Don and Helen Dieleman enjoy the day long train ride in their comfortable railcar.

Our group made a stop at Tahquamenon Falls to see the beauty of the falls in the winter. The area around the falls has had 155 inches of snow so far. The trip across the Mackinac Bridge was interesting as we dealt with very high winds.

Florida Jan. 2009

On January 1 we decided to head to Florida for a couple of weeks for warmer days. We found most days to be in the 70's or even the 80's.

One day we went to Blue Springs State Park where many manatees spend the winter. Manatees need water temperature about 70 degrees - they have only a thin layer of blubber so they don't stay warm if the water isn't warm. If temps get down to 65 or below, the manatee will become stressed, become hypothermic and die. They live in shallow water and eat as much as 150 pounds of food each day. We also took a boat ride in this park and saw many varieties of birds along with alligators and turtles.

One day we decided to go to Epcot where we visited exhibits from many countries. We had dinner at the German Restaurant, Bier Garten where we had good food and interesting entertainment.

We also visited Homosassa State Park. This park is set up with pens and cages for fox, bear, a 48 year old hippo, alligators. In the center of the park is a large area where there are many birds - flamingos, herons, ibis, egrets, owls, whooping cranes, wood ducks and anhingas along with eagles and many other birds. They were in an enclosed area, but many were able to fly out and were sitting in trees or on the path. In an underwater observatory, we could see fish manatees and anhingas. A couple times each day someone feeds the manatees and talks about their habits and life span.

Then we headed for the Atlantic and fortunately the weather was very nice. At Daytona Beach, we were able to drive our car on the beach and also took walks. We saw the tallest lighthouse in Florida - Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. The 203 steps to the top seemed like a greater challenge than we wanted to take so we just took pictures from the bottom.