checking out salt lake city

we were only in salt lake city for one night, and since we'd arrived a little earlier than planned we had some time to go out and take a walk.

as we walked along we passed this:

and then we killed a little time walking through the mall.

around the corner we came across the huge mormon temple, and lots of people were hurrying down the street to get there.  we must've arrived just before a service was scheduled to begin.

of course, since we aren't mormon the best look we were gonna get was in the visitor center that overlooked the temple.  there was a pretty detailed model to look at:

and you could learn all about it if you wanted to take the time to look at all of the exhibits.

outside we walked all around the grounds, which were really pretty.  we even witnessed a marriage proposal, which is always fun.

the hub thought he remembered a cool train station down the street, so we headed out of there and walked towards it.  on the way there we passed the stadium where the utah jazz play, and also where justin timberlake has a scheduled stop on his "man of the woods" tour.

the train station was still there, but the doors were chained shut.  oh well.

i noticed the ragnar logo in windows all along one side, and i wondered if this was where their headquarters were located.

as we made our way towards the rear of the building, we found what must've been a pretty cool area to hang out in during the 2002 winter olympics.

  
the bean sweet-talked us into a little treat here, where two guys were making custom filled churros.  she opted for one filled with nutella.

we headed back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before heading downstairs to dinner and found this in our closet:

we'd been told that the hotel restaurant, bambara, was rated #1 in the city.  and since we were right there, we decided it was the best spot for dinner.

that little card got us each one of the chef's special appetizers - a beet deviled egg.  not my favorite, but the hub and the bean enjoyed it.

the blue cheese house cut potato chips were pretty tasty.

and the corn bisque with fresh crab and basil oil was really delicious.

we love cheese boards.  i think we order one every chance we get.

the hub's wedge salad looked good too, with the butter lettuce.  yum.

the bean opted for the grilled chicken as her entree.

this was the hub's pumpkin parmesan gnocchi.

and i'd ordered the seared striped bass.

it was all delicious, and a nice way to cap off our quick stop in SLC.