The Wow Factor!

13 Aug 2010--Had a great day yesterday, drove out to the Bingham Copper Mine during the day and then went out last night to a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It seems odd, but the Copper Mine is actually a tourist spot, and a pretty cool one at that.

This is an aerial view of the mine in 1930 and then what it looked like in 1990. It is really big when you look at it, but I wouldn't have thought it was over 2 miles across when we were standing there.

These 1st 2 pics are as you drive up to the Mine, and then once you are in, but before you see the big hole.

The trucks that haul the ore, etc. are incredibly huge. The tires alone are 12 1/2 feet high and cost about $25,000 each, while the truck itself is about 2 stories high. You don't realize how big they are until you see them beside something else.

The 2nd pic here is a stitch and shows a great view of the mine.

The machines they use as loaders are 6 stories high and can pick up 196,000 pounds in a single shovel. Again, you have to see them to believe them!

We took these videos for Jack...Here is one of the big hauler truckers being followed by a regular size pick-up truck.

And here is a hauler being followed by a school bus...we hope Jack can tell how big it is!

Here is a guy standing next to one of the 2 story haulers.

And here is Marie standing beside one of the teeth in the loader.

In what was a little Visitor Center they talked about how responsible they are being with the environment, which was really funny as we saw all the soot in the air as we were leaving the area. I am sure that in another 10 years you won't be able to see the mountains at all.

After resting at home a couple hours, we headed back into Salt Lake City to see a rehearsal of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Every Thursday night from 8 PM to 9:30 PM they put on a free rehearsal for anyone who wants to come see them. It was truly a rehearsal, in that the conductor stopped them from singing several times when they were not performing as he wanted them to.

The rehearsals are in the Conference Center, the same place we saw the organ recital the other day...the Choir was much better!

We were a few minutes late, so just as we were entering the Conference Center the singing was already going on.

We figured there were probably 250 people in the choir, but didn't see anything that told us that. It was interesting that all the men seemed to have on khakis and either a short or long sleeved shirt, while all but 2 of the women we saw seemed to have on a long skirt and "outy" blouse. Almost like a Mormon uniform.

This song was beautiful. Hallelujah!

Back outside, we now were able to see the Temple lit up, and the 2nd pic shows the Christus lit up inside the Visitor Center. Both were really beautiful.

Another tourist took our picture all together for us. Everyone here is really friendly and outgoing...and there are a ton of kids either giving the tours or walking in Temple Square just waiting to help you. Amazingly, they are from countries all over the world, so you see them giving tours in Japanese, Italian, or whatever. All the tour guides we have seen have been young girls, 21 or maybe 22 yrs old...amazingly confident speakers for their ages.

I forgot to tell you the other day that this Temple took 40 years to build, from 1853 until 1893...again, I would love to see it inside!