Two Temples

We had a thorough and thoroughly satisfying conference, so we gave ourselves a few days off to vacation in Salt Lake City. After evading the robotic cops at the airport:We took in two of the cities holiest sites. First, Temple Square:
We couldn't get in to the temple itself, but we went into the world-famous tabernacle.
While there, I couldn't help but notice how much the organ:
reminded me of a somewhat different temple I visited in Japan.
This guy, on the other hand, reminded me of nothing at all:
He was in the northern visitor's centre, sooth-saying for Nebuchadnezzar along with other biblical figures like Noah:
None of them, however, were fit to kiss the sandals of the 11-foot marble talking Jesus:
If you look carefully, you'll see that he's floating in space. Don't let it fool you: he's not too far out of reach of those of us stuck in the terrestrial kingdom:

When we'd had our fill, we moved on to Tamrika's temple to awesomeness:
This is the main floor of a former Antiques store that Tamrika and John have lovingly restored JUST FOR GUESTS LIKE US. Tanya (and, if you zoom in, Chris) express how amazed we were that we got to stay here. The place was outstanding. Rooms and rooms of interesting books:
Original Deseret art pieces by local heroes:
And so forth.

We spent the night in, all of us being tired, and the entertainment at home being more than exciting enough for us. Tamrika and John played Centipede:
The girls played pinball:
And Chris and I stuck to Gorf:
Gorf.

Culture

I'm in Utah, absorbing the culture. That means that my hotel bed-side table is more fully stocked than usual, as is my Mexican restaurant salad bar:
Moreover, they have managed to develop a clothing store tailored precisely to my generation:
Chris was concerned, and, as it turned out, he had good reason to be:
I can handle the outrageously offensive depiction of women, and I can handle the Jesus, but I can not handle them being on the same t-shirt at the same time. I don't know if that woman is being exploited, but it looks like that guy is trying to bite off one of her lips. I think Jesus is going to give him a high-5. Good thing imagining his mom being electrocuted hasn't got him down.

Anyway, thank goodness, I could get back to culture with which I was more familiar at the hotel:

Antrhopomorphosyncretism

And lo, though the good camera's batteries were dead, it still found some way to be useful for the blog.