Destination: Salt Lake City

With the air crisp, architecture precise, city spotless, and the people hospitable, I left Salt Lake City very impressed to say the least. Its broad streets form a grid-like pattern which originate from the Temple Square in the city’s center and branch outward on an XY coordinate system, a mathematician’s dream.

The architectural elegance of the Temple in Temple Square as well as the Tabernacle which houses the world renown Mormon Tabernacle Choir is unmatched in the United States and rivals any cathedral in the world. Beyond friendly, its residents were mind-boggling gracious. Friendly is when locals provide you with directions when you get lost or even just look lost; gracious is when they invite you to see the stunning view of the Temple Square complex from atop their business offices like we were invited to do.

Still skeptical, I even employed the “smile and stare” test to confirm their friendliness. The smile-stare methodology is simply to smile at a random stranger and stare at them to see their response. The more friendly the response the higher the score. Not surprisingly, New Yorkers’ scowls and stares score quite low on this test. A typical response in a typical city like Boston would for the person to hesitate for a split-second and reciprocate with a nervous half-smile. In Salt Lake City, a smile begets smile. A big, friendly greeting gets a big, friendly greeting in return; a kiss may even get a kiss back, although this has yet been tested. Aside from being in awe of its architectural beauty, its people were equally as stunning. The women there were Christy Turlington beautiful that any guy would love and modest enough that any mom would love.

And, it just wasn’t the blue-eyed blond-hair variety; in fact, the people got more diverse as we approached the Temple Square. There were Mormon volunteers represented from all over the world distinguished by the tags they wore that had their name and the flag of their home country on them. Sent out two-by-two, we met a pair of Japanese, two Taiwanese missionaries that approached our grandmother introducing themselves in Mandarin and an Italian and a Belgium woman who I mistakenly though was German since her tag was a little tilted, working together.

Quaint and conservative, Salt Lake City would be an ideal place to raise a family, and equally ideal place to find that significant other to raise a family with.