Salt Lake City family touring advice for Slippy???

Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX Diagonal Fisheye for Nikon

02/16/2006 04:05:01 PM · #1

Just booked my flight and hotels. My main client is kindly paying all travel & lodging expenses for me, my wife, and two daughters (7 and 4yrs) to take a paid holiday. My itinerary is something like this:

13 - Wendover
14 - Wendover
15 - SLC
16 - SLC
17 - SLC
18 - SLC, put wife & kids on a plane, then I'm off to Wendover again.
19 - Wendover
20 - Wendover, working
21 - Wendover, working
22 - Back to SLC to fly home

Possible activities:

- Wendover: -airport museum, -some way to experience the salt flats? -our US office (haha)... ?
- SLC day at Snowbasin,
- SLC other stuff: -Delta Center, -Old Navy, -Imax... ?

Does anybody have any advice for cool family stuff to do?

Oh, and I will be packing my Rebel and my A95. :-)

muckpond

Nikon D200

02/16/2006 05:36:37 PM · #2

the big mormon cathedral thingy (i was there only briefly and obviously forgot to get a brochure) is way photographically cool. might not be thrilling for the tots, though.

otherwise, the only other thing i saw in SLC was the inside of a jiffy lube on the way to san francisco. :/

have fun!

muckpond

Nikon D200

Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX Diagonal Fisheye for Nikon

02/16/2006 05:36:55 PM · #3

NO JIFFY LUBE + SAN FRANCISCO JOKES, PLEASE :P

frisca

Nikon D70

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

02/16/2006 05:39:27 PM · #4

Originally posted by muckpond:

NO JIFFY LUBE + SAN FRANCISCO JOKES, PLEASE :P

You want us to ignore that most fabulous, once-in-a-lifetime setup?

*walks away..laughing quietly to self*

Message edited by author 2006-02-16 17:42:10.

muckpond

Nikon D200

Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX Diagonal Fisheye for Nikon

02/16/2006 05:40:26 PM · #5

sad part is, it's a true story. lol

pearlseyes

Canon EOS R7

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

02/16/2006 05:55:30 PM · #6

the big mormon cathedral thingy (i was there only briefly and obviously forgot to get a brochure) is way photographically cool. might not be thrilling for the tots, though.text

He's referring to the Salt Lake Temple downtown. I personally haven't taken pictures of it, yet it is highly photographed. Look at dwterry or digitalknight's portfolio to view pics of it. Hope they don't mind me mentioning them.

You could also go to The Gateway; it's an outdoor shopping complex downtown with a lot of nice restaurants and an Imax theater.

Why not take a drive to Park City? It's only a 40 minute drive from downtown and well worth it. You could go skiing or tubing with your kids, out to a nice dinner, and tour main street. There are a lot of things to photograph as well. Æ�Âº

Hope you enjoy your stay here. We had a huge storm hit last night. I have eighteen inches of snow in my yard. AWK

Message edited by author 2006-02-16 17:56:54.

PhantomEWO

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

02/16/2006 06:03:00 PM · #7

Well in SLC, must see things are:
1. Temple Square. Many areas of interest including a museum, family History Center where you can do a search for relatives or friends long dead and see your geneology, A view from the top of the LDS Church Headquarters Building, a great pic of the Temple can be had from the 10th Floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, A tour of the Conference Center (seating for over 20,000 in one room). Don't worry it's pretty low key, the missionaries really won't pester you at all.

2. The Pioneer park and This is the Place Monument and historical Park. Lots of Pioneer and 1800's buildings and display. This is across the street from the city zoo, Hoogle Zoo.

3. Kennecott Copper Mine ... I think the top visitor center is closed for the winter.

4. Lots of ski resorts. Best are Snowbird, Alta, Park City and I'm sure others have different favs.

5. Sorry you'll need to stay in Wendover to gamble ... are you that good at the tables that your job is to haul your family around to casinos after casino making money for your loan sharp mafia buds? LOL

6. When you visit the Delta Center there is a new mall right there.

7. The hookers used to always hang out on 2nd South ... ooppps sorry, wife and kids .....

Again the biggest tourist thing is the LDS Temple Square. It took over 40 years to build. Check out the geneology and if you go to www. lds.org you can get free movie tickets to a great movie about the start of the LDS church. You need to request the tickets early to get in, they are always booked solid.

Good luck and enjoy the skiing.

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/16/2006 06:08:28 PM · #8

There are lots of Temple Square Pictures here, including a bunch of new ones from today with the new fallen snow.

jrtodd

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

02/16/2006 06:10:29 PM · #9

You can't come to town with out eating at The Red Iguana . I'll PM you my phone number, I work with a couple of other members and we love to meet up with you and show you and the fam around a bit. The think I am even in town that week.

John

Nald

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

02/16/2006 07:01:47 PM · #10

Originally posted by jrtodd:

10-4 to that Slippy, we can show you and the fam around town. ;)

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

02/17/2006 08:44:38 AM · #11

Originally posted by jrtodd:

Hah, my wife saw your post last night and said "Aaaak!" She's painfully shy, which is pretty odd because whenever she meets new people she always gets along famously. She's the type people gravitate toward, IMO.

Anyway, I'd love to meet up for dinner, I just have to convince. My family loves Mexican, too, so The Red Iguana sounds great.

Thanks for all the tips!

jrtodd

Nikon D850

02/17/2006 10:01:39 AM · #12

My wife is the same way, so I understand. We can play it by ear and see what happens. You still have my number and if you need anything while you are here just give me a call.

Mattel Barbie Photo Designer Digital Camera

02/17/2006 10:05:32 AM · #13

Originally posted by jrtodd:

My wife is the same way, so I understand. We can play it by ear and see what happens. You still have my number and if you need anything while you are here just give me a call.

Coolio, thanks!

digitalknight

02/17/2006 10:44:15 AM · #14

There is a lot more to do in Salt Lake City than temple square -

Utah Museum of Fine Arts has a couple of exhibits that I'd love to see - UMFA

Photographically I'd try to get to the RIo Grande building - it's about two blocks south of Gateway - but don't walk there in a straight line - that would take you right through the homeless shelters. I go there all the time, but I would be hesitant to take female companioship with me. Walk over to 300 West, then south and back over to the Rio Grande - only a block out of your way.

My kids think the planetarium is a pretty cool place - it's part of the Gateway, and has the Imax theatre that Alecia (pearlseyes) referred to. It's free to just walk into, and they've got some neat stuff you can walk around and see. Oh, and don't miss the olympic fountain while at Gateway.

The capital used to be very cool, but they've taken it apart to put it back together again.

Jump on the University Trax (light rail) downtown (don't pay, it's free to the Library) and ride it to Library station - there's the City/County building and the new Salt Lake Library - some of the best old restored and new architecture there is.

There are easier mountains to get to than Park City - Emigration Canyon is just above the Zoo and Pioneer park - it's full of beautiful snow right now - Millcreek Canyon is very pretty, haven't been up there in the winter in years- ok decades. One of my favorite canyons along the Wasatch front.

Larry Miller, beloved owner of our own Utah Jazz, kindly built a recreation center for us in Sandy called Jordan Commons. My kids like to eat at the Mayan - they have a diving show, waterfalls, that kind of stuff while you eat. Food is what you would expect in a cliff diving establishment - but the kids like it. It's also a very nice theater, kind of built like a small town inside - like I said the kids will like it.

Then of course there's the sub-par basketball, hockey,and arena football teams in town - what every wife and family wants to participate in.

Ok, that's off the top of my head. Of course details and instructions are just a PM away. Guess it depends on if you want to be a tourist or get to know the place a little - I always avoid the tourist stuff when I can.

Oh crap, how could I forget? Hang gliders! One of the best hang gliding sites in North America (that's what the pilots tell me) is at the south end of the valley - you can drive through a neighborhood and right up to where they launch - my kids think it rocks - and they fly all the time - well not in the snow.
Hang Gliders

Message edited by author 2006-02-17 10:52:47.

Nald

Nikon D700

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

02/17/2006 10:57:57 AM · #15

That's because we're keeping all the good shooting spots a secret! hahahaha

Message edited by author 2006-02-17 10:58:09.

colyla

Canon EOS-50D

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM II

02/17/2006 11:40:07 AM · #16

Originally posted by dwterry:

There are lots of Temple Square Pictures here, including a bunch of new ones from today with the new fallen snow.

These photos are awesome!!

jrtodd

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

02/20/2006 05:19:52 PM · #17

In the end I would load the family in the car and take the quick 3 1/2 hour drive down to Moab and see Arches and Canyonlands. Looks like you have 3 days free and this would be the perfect amount of time for this trip. You could stay (I have told my wife I would never recommend this place, but...) at the Apache, which would be OK for a family with a fist full of Canadian Dollars.