Day 3: Twin Falls to Salty Lake City (The 4th of July)

Our second day of driving brought us past Boise to Twin Falls, Idaho. After a rather disappointing dinner at "Idaho Joe's" (okay, the baked potato was pretty good) we hit the sack to rest up for our Fourth of July driving.

As we left town on the the morning of the Fourth, we stopped at the Snake River Canyon to take in the beautiful site made famous by Evil Knievel who once jumped the canyon on his motorcycle.

There is a "perfectly good bridge" across the canyon, but that didn't stop a group of college-aged gentlemen from jumping off it:

We stayed and watched the craziness before hitting the road again for our drive to Salt Lake City, Utah.

Arriving at the home of Mike and Amanda Lazinski, we rested for a brief bit and then headed out for some touring of Utah's capitol city. Our first stop was the Cathedral of the Madeleine, which I have been wanting to see for quite some time. It is indeed a beautiful building, and though we weren't able to attend any liturgies, the Cathedral has a reputation for outstanding music.

Mike and Amanda then took us to Temple Square to see the famous Mormon Temple:

Of course we Catholics aren't welcome inside that, but we were able to go into the Tabernacle where the Choir performs. The amazing acoustics of this building were demonstrated for us by a young tour guide who stood at the center of the stage and dropped a few pins on a piece of wood, sending amazing sound throughout the space.

After resting for a bit and enjoying a local micro-brew or two, we took a spin through the University of Utah campus and saw the stadium where the Utes play football, and where the opening and closing ceremonies of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games were held:

We spent the rest of the evening at Mike and Amanda's house, sharing a lovely barbecue supper and then viewing the Sugar House Park fireworks display.

It was a quintessentially American day for us . . . not only did we undertake a good bit of highway driving, and enjoy a barbecue and fireworks, we also visited the home of a truly American creation: Mormonism.