The last day in Salt Lake City was spent following directions to the Fire/Police headquarters in downtown SLC. It was relatively easy to find; however, parking was not. There was a burger joint on the corner up the street, and I parked in their lot, figuring that they were not going to be open for awhile, so they would not mind. I met David Herrmann in the lobby (he was just getting in at 8:30 - and I was early, as I did not know how long it would take me to get there and get parked). He escorted me up to their floor, and we traded patches. He told me that the no longer trade with international fire departments because of something that happened some time ago that gave them some concerns as to how the patches were being used, and Homeland Security issues. In my tour with Mr. Herrmann, I met "the Big Chief" and we had a lovely chat about our Department, where I was from, and the Chief had a map of the US, where I pointed out Harkers Island (trying not to cover the island up in pointing to it). He was impressed about the equipment and members that we had for such a small place. When I left the FD/PD Headquarters, I figured I had better get out of the burger joint parking lot, and found a place on the street; however, it had these strange blue poles for parking meters, and I couldn't figure out how to use them, so moved on a couple of blocks where there was parking with no "meters." A picture of the parking meter "station" and the "meter" in the background is the last picture in the series. I walked about 5 blocks to Temple Square, and Mr. Michael Nelson, if you are monitoring this blog, these pictures are for you...... The Temple grounds were very interesting, and I went into the Tabernacle, where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings, and a public church that is open to the public. In the welcome center, there was a cut-away model of the inside of the Temple. I took the best pictures that I could considering that I was shooting through glass with reflections all over it. There were guides all over the place that were interested in answering questions; however, the questions I wanted to ask they would not have received too well, so I moved on to just a self-guided tour of the area. On the way back to the car, I got to see the trolly that still operates in downtown SLC, and a Greek push cart selling lunchtime food. I had no problem finding my way out of the city and back to my hotel. Gassed up the car one last time, and am in the process of repacking all my stuff in readiness to head out tomorrow morning at about 5:15 a.m. to give me plenty of time to get to the airport, drop off the rental car, and get my boarding pass. I have pre-checked in, so once I get my boarding pass, my bag is paid for, and off I go through security....yuch. Have taken almost 2,800 pictures, and the nice thing about doing the blog every day, is that it forces me to download my pictures, spot (literally) check them, and get them on the blog. It takes a whole lot less time to do 200 to 300 pictures at a time, than to wait until I get home and have to process 3,000.
