Things You Should Know: Salt Lake City

As you hopefully know, Salt Lake City (and Utah in general) is made up predominantly of Mormons and so the laws very much reflect that. For example, their alcohol laws. There aren't "bars" because serving alcohol publicly is illegal. Instead there are "private clubs." The catch is, anyone can go into most of these "private clubs." But you have to pay an annoying "membership" fee. I think you may also have to pay a "membership fee" to drink at restaurants but my memory isn't so strong on that point because I was there on business and so most of our meals were paid for. Restaurants do serve alcohol, but they card quite strictly, so if you're under 21, don't count on drinking while you're there. But if you are old enough to drink, try some of the Polygamy Porter! (yes, that is really a beer)

Secondly (and probably most importantly) is that all the roads are named in relation to the temple. It's a bit confusing at first because 200 South runs East/West and 800 West runs North/South. Sometimes (particularly on Google Maps) they're listed as S 200 E, which makes it seem even more confusing. You have to ignore the first letter because that's just telling you you're going South on the road, so it's just going South on 200 East. It all makes sense, however, when you understand that 200 South means you're 2 blocks South of the Temple. and 800 West means you're 8 blocks west. Of course, blocks seem to get bigger and bigger the further out of the center of the city that you get, and the blocks have since been broken up so you get blocks like 4370 East. And some of the streets have names (though you will almost always see the number written below it).

Lastly, if you tour the Mormon temple grounds (which isn't as interesting as I'd hoped it would be because you're not really allowed to see anything) DO NOT give them your personal information unless you actually want them to contact you (because they will. for the rest of your life.). But do try to catch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It is quite impressive. And if you're as lucky as I was, maybe there will be a temple opening somewhere in Utah while you're there (which is entirely possible since the Mormon population in Utah continues to grow and so they are built there occasionally to relieve other overflowing temples), definitely go tour a temple. Non-Mormons are not allowed in the temple (hence why the SLC temple tour wasn't very interesting) except for during the few weeks before it is consecrated and opened. Of course, because of the fact that I'm not allowed there, it was one of my life goals to see the inside of a Mormon temple and I was thrilled to find out that one was opening in Draper, not 20 minutes away (that's what the picture is from above). It's interesting to see the rooms where they perform things like "baptism of the dead" and their family "sealing" ceremonies (ie a couple gets married and are "sealed" to each other for eternity or new children who are born are "sealed" to their parents for eternity, etc). But I think you have to have a natural curiosity for religion like me in order to really find this stuff interesting.