Welcome to Mormon Country!

This is me standing in front of a replica of the car in the movie "Spy Kids".

This May (2001), I traveled to Orem, Utah on Southwest Airlines (one of my favorite airlines to fly). Why did I go? A dance thing- you know the story. Anyways, the Salt Lake City Airport is about 45 minutes from the La Quinta Hotel in Orem, UT that we stayed in.

My stay in Utah was fairly pleasant, I didn't get lost or anything! It was really hard to breathe for me- I live at about sea level- Long Beach, CA ranges from -15 ft to 170 ft above sea level. Orem was 4,771 feet above sea level and Bringham Young University in Provo, UT (about 15 minutes from Orem) is 4,539 feet above sea level. Talk about altitude sickness! The symptoms weren't that severe, but I was out of breath constantly and felt a little claustrophobic. The air was also a lot drier than Southern California.

I didn't notice it, but some of my traveling companions pointed out that there was a lack of diversity in the part of Utah we were in. To them, it seemed like the majority of people were white and it's practically an unofficial requisite that you are of the Mormon church. On the plus side, the coommunity did seem very family-oriented and there was a Wal-Mart and a Krispy Kreme within 10 minutes by foot of the hotel! (I didn't go to either- I think I've only had a Krispy Kreme donut once in my whole life and it was refrigerated.) The famous Dalai Lama happened to be giving a speech at Utah Vally State College (where the classes were held), but unfortunately, I didn't go.