Thursday, April 16, 2009

Thursday 16th April…..when will my luck end?

This was waiting for me at 8.30am this morning.IMG_6531

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Pretty to look at BUT cool…

I drove the 30 miles into down town Salt Lake City, scenes along the way.IMG_6534

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The RV park is only 14 blocks from the main square so very convenient.

About 1pm I took the local bus down to the main square and went to the Mormon Temple square, 10 blocks of incredible beautiful buildings.IMG_6541

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The grounds are wonderfully kept.

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I went in to the Visitors Service centre and this is where I had the very sad news that the Tabernacle choir practise set for 8pm tonight (and the main reason I was here) was cancelled because the choir were performing a concert on Saturday evening.

Nothing I could do about that but I did take a guided tour of the buildings with these delightful young ladies.IMG_6575 They were so radiant and so happy to be sharing their message with me, it was a lovely 40 minutes and I learned things about their faith, very interesting.

I then went across the street to this building.IMG_6561

This was 5 floors and was packed.IMG_6562

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I had done some research on my family history and here I found a lady who sat and helped me and showed me how to search.  I spent 2 hours here and foundIMG_6563

my great, great, great Grand Father, born in 1786.

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This is John’s son, my great, great Grand Father and his wife and children….. now I have to do some more research to see if I can go back another generation, fascinating stuff!!

I walked around the square again and this time went into the Tabernacle and had the good fortune to hear a gentleman on the organ, what a sound!!IMG_6578

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It was now 5pm and I decided to treat myself for dinner so whilst eating my meal in the restaurant a gentleman came and sat in the booth next to me and he was talking on his cell phone and I couldn’t help but hear what he was saying.  He was telling someone that the choir is rehearsing at the Cathedral tonight in readiness for their concert their on Saturday.

You know me shy, quiet and reserved!!!!!!!  When he had finished his call, I excused myself and said I could not help overhearing your call and I told him I had come to town especially to hear the choir and how sad I was that I would not be able to hear them.  He smiled at me and gave me his business card, he was the General Manager of the choir and he invited me to the Cathedral to hear them do the rehearsal and told me it was not open to the public but if I had a problem to call him.  How so lucky am I ???

I thanked him and off I went to the CathedralIMG_6546

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What a beautiful church.

I sat amazed and watch many men and women set up the church and at 8pm the orchestra came in and then 360 choir members.IMG_6586

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This young man was a guest soloist and what a voice!!

This gentleman brought the rafters down, he was amazing!!IMG_6592

So the photos are not great but I did not want to use the flash.

This was a most remarkable evening to hear the choir, the organ it was one of those you had to be here nights. 

What a fitting end to my Journey of a lifetime and another one of my bucket list items crossed off!!!!!!!

I leave in the morning for three days of hard driving to get me home.  It is mainly on Interstate highways and the weather reports are quite good….will post when I can and I wish you a great evening and if you want a thrill click on YouTube and punch in Mormon Tabernacle Choir and listen to one of their songs!!!

1 comment:

shunpiker said...

How wonderful that you were able to hear the choir after all.
We were in Salt Lake about 9 years ago and did almost the exact same things you did.
Safe travels home!

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