One of the places Heather and I visited on honeymoon was Salt Lake City – a fairly vast city built solely for the purposes of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (or LDS for those in the know, or those who want to express their faith through their license plate). Salt Lake City is a beautiful place, their architectural style is very striking, and (on the whole) the people there are very friendly. Almost too friendly.

Since SLC is a place of pilgrimage, it is not surprising that there are tours available. There are also a number of “tour guides” who wander freely amongst the tourists to offer any ‘help’. For some reason, this made me feel very edgy. I felt that they had an alterior motive – that they were using this opportunity to convert as many people to LDS as they possibly could – starting with me. When I mentioned to one girl that I was on honeymoon I was immediately presented with a sheet of paper explaining the church’s beliefs in marriage. When I asked about the LDS’ view on woman in the church, the reply that came was very informative, but somehow a little too rehearsed. At the time I felt a little like they wanted me to cast-away my Anglican beliefs and immediately embrace their way of thinking. However, in hindsight, I think I was a little too paranoid.

It occurred to me that what I was presented with at SLC was not all that different from what I was presented with when Heather and I went on cave tours in Nevada and Montana. The Tour Guides on the cave tours were very eager to express how important the caves were, why we should treat them with respect, and what we can do to help maintain the caves. The Guides told us about how the different formations were formed, unbelievable as it sounded (”Really? It’s just dripping water!?”), and when I asked a question, the reply that came was very informative, but a little too rehearsed. I’m sure that if I had asked something in the visitor center, I would have been promptly presented with a handy pamphlet telling me all I wanted to know and more.

I don’t really know how to draw a conclusion from this post. It was just a thought I had, that I have now shared with you. Do with it as you want.

H and I are now married. Thank you to everybody who turned up, ate cake, or gave us some sort of ‘Good Luck’ or ‘Congratulations’ message.

Now H and I are on honeymoon. This is likely to be the only blog about the honeymoon that will be written during our honeymoon. This is because it is incredibly rude of me to be writing a blog while my wife is around, and also because I think this will be the only time I have access to a computer in the next two weeks.

H and I are currently staying in a trailer. In Britain and American Trailer would be considered a static caravan – and, on the whole, they are looked down on by society. However, this one has a little bit of a difference. For starters, it is advertised as a Bed and Fix-Your-Own-Breakfast – but the pancakes that were in the freezer turned out to be quite delicious. The other reason why this trailer is so special is because of this:

Notcie anything? No? Precisely. This B&B is in the middle of abolutely bloomin’ nowhere – so much so that it is advertised as the End Of The Trail…er! We have un-hindered views of the Great Basin National Park all around us, and, quite frankly, I’m quite chuffed I found it. The inside of the trailer is exactly as you would expect a B&B to be like – there’s all the amenities one could want, and a lot of really good, local, art on the walls to keep us entertained.

Today, H and I went on a tour of Lehman caves – one of the most spectacular caves in the world, and I have no reason to doubt that. Our 90 minute tour was interesting, enjoyable, and cold (it is quite hot outside, so I consider the temperature in the caves to be a bonus). Naturally, we weren’t the only people on the tour. One particular couple could only be described as stereotypical American tourists. For example, and to link it back to our accomodation, they were explaining to the guide that they used to live in a trailer in his home state of Kentucky. ‘Were you there for a long time?’ the guide asked. ‘Oh yes’, said she, ‘about 6 months’.