Salt Lake Fieldtrip {State Capitol, Pioneer Museum, Hogle Zoo, Airport, In 'n' Out}

Since Callie is in fourth grade this year and we've been learning about Utah history and geography all year, and also since I had a Salt Lake fieldtrip when I was in fourth grade, we decided to do just that . . . go to Salt Lake and be a tourist for a day. We invited Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard to come along, which made it extra fun. We scheduled our trip for  the day Gregg was coming back from his trip to Savannah (11 May) so we could fieldtrip all day and then wrap up at the airport to pick him up.

Our first stop: The State Capitol. We spent a good while wandering around the building, peeking in at the visitor's center, then perusing all the displays on all the levels. We even saw a real live demonstration (against the inland ports) on the steps of the rotunda!

Grandma loves Minerva Teichert, so she snapped this pic
of the kids by one of her paintings inside the capitol building.

After the Capitol, we walked across the street to the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum. We followed the directions of the workers and walked all the way down and through and under and up again into the carriage house where we saw the shiny fire truck and the wagon Brigham Young was riding in when he entered the Salt Lake Valley. As we worked our way back through the museum to the entrance, we looked at some of the other displays, but man, there is a LOT to see there, and we'll have to go back many times to really get a feel for the place.

We came around the corner and I spotted this pic of our
ancestor Richard Ballantyne and his sons.

That fire truck was SO shiny!

Minerva Teichert in the pioneer museum.

And another Teichert in the carriage house at the 
pioneer museum.

Here's an old Yellowstone stagecoach.

A newspaper announcing Abraham Lincoln's
assassination.

We walked back to the Capitol and ate our lunch at a table outside. Then we moved on to our next stop on the fieldtrip: Hogle Zoo! (When I was in fourth grade, I remember visiting the capitol and the zoo, too!) We had a great time watching all the animals and I think the highlights of this trip were the elephants (last time we'll see them before they are moved to a new zoo), the zookeeper talk about the bald eagles, the seal and sea lion training, the wandering red panda, and the swimming polar bear.

Tradition! Gotta take a drink (and a picture)
at the lion drinking fountain.

I was just happy to see blossoms, but the monkeys
were cool, too, I guess.

Farewell Christine and Zuri!

We watched this polar bear swim in circles next
to the windows over and over and over.

Sea lion training was really fun.

Cal was especially happy to watch the red pandas
wandering around their enclosure all for a good long time.

She was also excited to see such a large tortoise.

This orangutan was walking around
(though it's hard to see in the shade of this pic).

The baby gorilla was cute!

After the zoo, it was time to pick up Dad at the airport. The kids really wanted to go inside, so we parked in the garage and went inside to wait for him. We were all ready for dinner after such a long day, so we stopped at In 'n' Out on the way home (yum!) and broke into the treats Gregg brought home for us for dessert (yum, yum!).

My friend Erin used to work here doing their graphic
design!

Such a fun day, celebrating our fourth grader and all we've learned about Utah this year.