The Perils of Polygamy

Well, how can you possibly top Las Vegas? How about Salt Lake City--from Sin City to reddest of the "Red States" (one of only 3 states who still give GW a 50% approval rating). We had a blast here--alot of family research-and alot of meeting 'new family members'. We decided that we should wear t-shirts with "I'm related to Daniel Spencer....are you?". Seems like every time we turned around, there was another cousin lurking. We walked into the University of Utah/Marriott Library (yes, the president of the Marriott hotel chain is a Mormon) - and were getting some info from the curator ,Robin, on how to access the collection. She asked for a name to search and we gave her "Daniel Spencer" (John’s great-great-great grandfather who started the whole thing by converting to Mormonism). She turned, slowly, and said, "Are you related to Daniel Spencer?".....Turns out that her husband is, too.
We had Kate and Mary here for three action packed days--starting with Sunday morning and VIP seats (with "Cousin Mel" who is also an LDS bishop) at the Mormon Tabernacle Choir followed by an LDS Temple Tour, tour of Brigham Young's house, a visit to the cemetery to see the dead relatives and tour of the city. We had them running from morning to night.

The highlight for them was visiting the house where Eleanor, their mother, grew up. We had stopped by the house the week before -to introduce ourselves to the owners and offer them some old photos of their house. It turns out that two guys, Matt and Jay, bought the house- and they had just started to do the house history. They were thrilled to find early photos- and stories about the family living in it in the 1930's. So, they invited us all over for a tour of the house--and had a gorgeous dinner and lots of wine.

We followed up Robin from the U of U and got together with her significant other, Bear, and her for dinner. It was an instant match. We laughed through dinner and after a great meal, drove over to Spencer Avenue and walked around. Bear invited us to his bakery, Mrs. Bakkers Pastry Shop. The business was started by Bear’s father – who married a Spencer. He told us stories of his father, a German immigrant, falling in love with ‘a Spencer” and the hoops he had to jump though to marry her (including converting!!) He was a devout Mormon for the rest of his life, went on missions and raised his family LDS. But, on his death bed, he asked Bear for a bottle of Reisling wine…

The Bakery was amazing. Bear’s father created special tools for making icing into the most beautiful flowers – the cakes look like a florist’s bouquet. We got a tour of all the machines and a demo of how they create these gorgeous flowers. And, of course, we got lots of free samples!

Our month in SLC flew by—we had a social schedule that amazed even us. Dinners with Bear and Robin, with Matt and Jay, with Claudia and Richard….