Day 8: SLC

What to do in Salt Lake City? All we know about this city is that it was the stage for the olympic wintergames in 2002 and that there are many mountains surrounding it. And even after a little googling we can not find any more famous cultural habits or architecture we already knew about. But in the lobby of the hotel we find some interesting things to see around this small city (small for American standards) out of a whole lot of advertising flyers. Near SLC we can visit the Kennecott coppermine that should be the largest in the world, we can swim in the salty Great Salt Lake (the lake is six times saltier than the ocean what makes you float like a cork) and there is a planetarium with 3D IMAX movies about the universe.

We visit them all! The swimming in the salty lake is very strange and funny, just to lay in the water, relaxing with your arms crossed, without sinking. You must be really stupid to drown here.

The coppermine is an unbelievably huge hole (like a canyon of 400 meters deep) created in the past 100 years by thousands of people. There used to be a lot of railwaytrack for transporting the copper rich stones, but nowadays there are gigantic trucks as big as houses driving around carrying up to 360 tons of rock a time (I once saw them on the discovery channel and now I can tell they are really out here). This is really a playground for men, with this extreme equipment and explosions that demolishes big parts of the mountain every day. I might sign up once to drive one of those amazing trucks here. For the people who are visiting this mine soon; the visitor center has the most funny and well made informative short video I ever saw. The whole process is explained in a very funny and at the same time understandable way. I will try to compliment the director when I’m back home.

After out visit to the coppermine we play a real game of American Minigolf and the evening we have dinner (2 kilos of rice each with loads of meat, sounding more delicious than it tasted) and visit the planetarium. Unfortunately the 3D movie we like to see (Hubble 3D) is only on for tomorrow noon, so we just take a look at the exhibition. It is very interesting and informative, we both learn some things about space we never knew before. Before we know it the planetarium closes and we are back on the streets, have we really been in there for 2 hours?

In the evening we try to get a nice view on the city from uphill, taking more effort than we thought. It is really hard to find a place with a good view because everytime we see a potentially good viewpoint there is a house blocking our way. Eventually we succeed and can finally use the tripod I brought for the job. The city is kind of magical to see at night with all the lights turned on, but I think LA, New York and Chicago were more impressive at night when I saw them last year, simply because they are much bigger.

Well, what a day, there is definitely more to see and do in Salt Lake City than I expected!