Stark Salt Lake City

Imagine a city with wide, empty streets and pretty buildings. The roads and sidewalks are well-maintained and the storefronts are aglow with neon signs advertising sales. The temperature is a little hot, but with a nice breeze to cool you right down. As you look around at this impressively well-maintained city, with its gorgeous mountains so close you feel like you can touch them, you realize these empty streets are more deserted. Ghost towns have a more lived-in feel. There are few cars on the road, most parked on the side of the street, owners absent. There are no people walking. Not one pedestrian. After a minute, a lone car parks, and its family gets out, rushing to their destination. The streets are empty again. 

This is Salt Lake City. I spent several days in the surrounding area. Every time I went downtown, I was struck by how my friend and I seemed to be the only people left in the city. The population is not quite 200,000, but I would have thought at least one of those 200,000 people might come out of wherever it was they were hiding. Salt Lake City would make a great filming location for the next zombie movie. Seriously. Wide roads, perfect for getting shots of hordes of angry zombies, stumbling (or dashing!) after their victims. The well-maintained city would be a stunning contrast to the undead in all their glory, ripping apart the poor people of Salt Lake City. There could even be a scene (am I getting a little ahead of myself?) where someone tries to throw all the zombies in the Great Salt Lake, and all the zombies just float back to the surface. I don't know if that is scientifically viable. Even the Mormon bit could come into play. Does the fancy underwear protect against zombies? Maybe the dead buried in their fancy underwear (does this happen?) would be protected from the bullets of their future victims? Maybe instead of writing a travel blog, I should start writing zombie screenplays. I see a future. 

The one exception to the isolation of downtown was Temple Square, the epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. Here, the prettiest of Mormon young ladies smiled gently at every one. Their tasteful skirts all fell modestly below the knee, and their name tags declared the country from which they came. They weren't pushy- not one of them did more than smile or say, "Hello!" to my friend or me.

The Temple itself is gorgeous. I kept calling it Walt Disney's castle, and it really could be! Apparently it is a popular saying amongst little Mormon girls that "Every princess deserves her castle" to get married in, and I can see why. Of course, heathens like me aren't allowed in, but there is a very nice model in the visitor's center to show the parts the normal Mormon people get to see. 

Temple Square was really interesting to me. I like how open they are with their admittedly strange beliefs. The place was very pretty and well kept. If you're interested in learning about their faith, this would be a good place to go. And if, like me, you're just interested in wandering in wide-eyed amazement that places like this exist, it is good for that too!