7.22.2009

"this is the place"

Next stop on my Week-Off Tour was This Is The Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City.

We were there for 3 hours and didn't even get through half. It was awesome and you should totally go if you ever visit Utah.

The story (as told by someone else other than me, but it's all correct to my knowledge):

"The location of the park is where, on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young first saw the Salt Lake Valley that would soon become the Mormon pioneers' new home. Members of the LDS Church believe that Young had a vision shortly after they were exiled from Nauvoo, IL. In the vision, he saw the place where the Latter-day Saints would settle and "make the desert blossom like a rose" and where they would build their State of Deseret.

As the account goes, Brigham Young was very sick with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever and was riding in the back of a wagon. After exiting Emigration Canyon and cresting a small hill, he asked to look out of the wagon. Those with him opened the canvas cover and propped him up so he could see the empty desert valley below. He then proclaimed, "It is enough. This is the right place. Drive on." The words, "this is the place," were soon heard throughout the wagon train as the Mormon pioneers descended into the valley, their long journey having come to an end.

However well known this story is amongst the inhabitants of Utah, there is little to no recollection of this phrase in contemporary journals until Wilford Woodruff recorded it later in a personal journal."

Ready for lots and lots of pictures? (Is it even legal to have this many pictures in one post?!) Be grateful. I actually have about 20 more pictures that I'm sparing you from. Maybe later.

This pretty Polyanna-esque house was the first stop at this village.

It's the farm house, strangely enough.


The first room you walk into is the dining room, (not shown in any pictures, but it's right through this front door...). Weird placement, but practical. The farm hands could come right in and eat without getting the rest of the house messy.


I was inlove with the windows and doors.


Free pony rides!!

...I'm fat. Don't look at me.


Ma and the girls on the massive bridge over the raging river:


We were told they were having a sale on caskets that day.

Lucky us.


This building has some sort of longing sentimental value for me. May be the first BYU building?


Lily was as happy as a lark when she got into this wood train...


And then she got mad at me cuz it wouldn't go anywhere.

My bad.


She got over it.


Next was a mini-ride around a mini-pond in a mini-train...where you could see the great big valley.



And did I show you my

I can't wait till I'm old and people will just accept that I've lost my mind and it's okay that I'm walking around with a florescent orange and pink bag with FLORIDA and bikinis adorning the outside.

I did come home with a sunburn around my collar. A red and painful one.

See.

That's what happens when I ignore my own awesome advice. Though, in my defense, I swore I put the sunscreen on better than that.

Next time, I'll take a super cool umbrella.


Photobucket

6 comments:

  1. I went there once, but didn't go inside because I was waiting for my parents to show up. I had a friend who was one of the "authentic persons" of the time. I am kinda sad that I never got to see him all decked out as a pioneer.

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  2. We were there last week too! Weird. But I didn't get any pics because I dropped my camera that morning at the zoo and broke it. Bummer!

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  3. I never realized that there was so much more to it than just a monument. Never been there, but I think I will the next time I am in Utah visiting. Thanks for the info.

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  4. I love your Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Sixth Sense references. All of your other captions were SO humorous. I was so tickled I think I peed a little...

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  5. I agree with every work said by Bonkers!
    Thanks for the virtual tour...loved it...

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  6. These are amazing pictures! How do you get them to look so glowy :) Lily is the cutest ever! and her hair is getting so long! :) she is beautiful just like her mommy! :) we should take a road trip and I wanna go to these places!

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