21 March 2024 Salt Lake City, Utah Day 1

I arrived in Salt Lake City the evening of Wednesday, March 20. I'm here to care for 2 black labs through the weekend. The dogs are 8 year old JPEG (left) and 6-year-old Cora, both females.

With a name like JPEG you can tell that her dog-mom is a graphic designer and works with electronic images. What a fun name!

Thursday was my first full day in Salt Lake and after some morning dog duties I headed into downtown Salt Lake, about 5 miles to my north. Wanted to find out more about the Mormon Temple and religion, as that's a huge thing around here. I also saw online that they offer free daily organ concerts at the Tabernacle and when I saw that Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor was on the agenda for today I couldn't resist – it's one of my all-time favorite pieces of organ music.

The concert was given by an organist emeritus, who explained that each organist chooses the music they will play when they are featured at the daily recital. Their musical selection must include a song that they themselves have arranged - impressive. The organist was phenomenal and I really enjoyed the concert.

After the concert I went into the Mormon church museum and learned all about John Smith and how this sect was started, and then I headed over to the conference center where they host large gatherings and give tours. The tour began on the first floor where they have any enormous auditorium that seats 21,000 people – more than the Delta Center down the street where they are hosting the NCAA men's basketball championship games. And it has a giant organ too! The space is used for their semi annual gatherings of all church leaders.

The tour continued up another level where we saw a gallery of paintings commissioned to illustrate many stories in the Book of Mormon and then we headed further up and saw a giant scale model showing the interior of the Temple (which only Mormons can enter). Currently the Temple is undergoing a multi year renovation and expansion - what a huge construction project!

I came back to my temporary home in the afternoon to walk the dogs and have some dinner and then in the evening I headed back as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearses from 730 – 9:30 p.m. and the rehearsals are open to the public. They had a full orchestra there for the first half and then it was just the singers and the organist. There are 360 members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir – amazing to hear them in person.