Salt Lake City, Utah

Dear Friends:

Last weekend, I spent a few days in Salt Lake City, Utah.  I was there to attend a family reunion.  While there, I decided to take advantage of a little free time and visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake.

The Family History Library is the largest collection of genealogical data in the world.  Most of the collection is available online - but a large number of printed sources are only available there.  The library is located near Temple Square.  I took just a few moments to walk across the street, to see the Salt Lake City Temple up close.  To be honest, it never stops taking my breath away, when I see that building:

There are a lot of fun places to eat in Salt Lake.  For lunch, I decided to go a little old-school.  I made my way to Crown Burgers.

This used to be located closer to Temple Square, but moved locations - just a few blocks away.  The good news is that the food is just as good as ever.  The menu item that they are famous for?  A combination hamburger and pastrami sandwich.  I have no doubt that it's very healthy:

As I mentioned before, I was in town for a family reunion.  This particular reunion wasn't for close family members.  Instead, this was for the extended family of my great-grandmother - the Paxmans.  My father, aunts and paternal grandmother have stayed in touch with this part of the family for years.  I noticed that the older generation go to these reunions, but the younger generations just weren't involved.  I felt like - even though I'm not a youngster anymore - that I needed to help connect the older generations to the younger ones.  I certainly don't know how to do that - but I'm going to try.

I didn't know anyone else in this part of the family.  So, I reached out to the reunion organizer.  I offered my help with anything that they needed.  As it turns out, my skills with a computer definitely helped, as they wanted to put together a slide show of reunions over the last century.  This way, I at least knew one person.  My younger brother decided to go - so that would be at least two.

The fun started on a Friday night, where we had dinner with the family.  I immediately met some fascinating relatives and had a wonderful time.

The next morning was the big event.  We all met at a local Church building.  They had several displays set-up, with historical information and family stories.  I loved them.  I found a particular family heirloom that just blew me away:

It was a ticket to the original Salt Lake City Temple dedication from 1893, signed by the LDS Church President, Wilford Woodruff.  So much history there - and it was well-preserved.

Another displayed talked about the contributions of a William Paxman, who served as the first LDS missionary to New Zealand, as well as the Mission President of Australia and New Zealand - back in the 1880s:

As with other reunions, they had the oldest members of the family assemble for a picture.  They also squeezed everyone into other pictures:

It turns out that one of the family members actually owns a Coldstone Ice Cream store.  They provided dessert for everyone.  It was delicious ; )

My brother and I had a chance to meet with some delightful family members.  We spent time with the oldest member of the family - at 97 years-old.  He still had an incredible sharp mind, and was telling me stories of my grandmother and great-grandparents.  What a delight!

The reunion was a great experience - and not knowing anyone beforehand - wasn't a problem at all.

That night, we found a brand-new ice cream restaurant in downtown Provo - called Rockwell's.  The ice cream is all hand-made, and really interesting flavors.  I order the S'Mores - and this was a "single scoop":

It was absolutely delicious...and probably a permanent addition to places to visit while in Utah ; )

That's it for now...thanks for reading!  Next up - another quick trip to Los Angeles...