We still had one day before we would take my husband and son to the Salt Lake City airport and my daughter and I would continue on to California. It was raining anyway, so we thought we’d spend the day in Salt Lake City at Temple Square.

It’s a beautiful section of the city with amazing architecture and artwork, and Mormon missionaries at every turn, to help you find what you’re looking for. But the most remarkable part of our visit here, was the genealogy research we did — free of charge and with help from the Mormon nuns — at the Family Search Center.

All four of us found a spot in front of computers in the Family Search Center. The nuns helped us get started and we used all of their software and memberships to sites like ancestry.com. We researched both sides of our family and found ancestors back into Ireland and England, as well as many copies of the census as far back as 1880.

Here are some tips for using the fantastic Family Search resources when you’re visiting Temple Square:

Start at FamilySearch.org to plan your visit and followup before going to Temple Square.

Gather as much family information — maiden and married names, dates and places of birth — as you can prior to your visit, so you can make the most of your research at Temple Square.

Park at the public parking lot on the corner of North Temple and West Temple. It cost about $6 to park all day.

Ask a missionary/volunteer where to start. If you’re a newbie, they’ll probably send you to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to get more individual guidance from the volunteers. If you’ve done this before, you can probably head right to the Family History Library, where there are several stories of artifacts to discover.

Purchase a copy card and print your discoveries to take home with you.

Continue your research close to home! Family Search centers throughout the globe are set up with free clinics to help you on your journey through genealogy.

Enjoy your adventures in genealogy! Be careful – it’s addicting!
Trip West 2010 Series:
Badlands
1880’s Town -Murdo, SD
Black Hills, South Dakota
Yellowstone National Park
Family Search in Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Ghost Towns, Wyoming and California
Manzanar War Relocation Center
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

By the time we’d seen the sights in beautiful Bavaria, we were ready to get to Carinthia, where our Austrian exchange student lived with her family. Carinthia is in Southern Austria, right on the border of Italy, and we discovered it is the vacation destination for much of Europe.

(Biking the loop around Klopeiner See – “See” = “Lake” in Austrian.)

Our five days with Maria’s family were so much more than we could ever have asked for. We were tired after our long drive from Paris, and Maria’s mom, Renate, truly took care of us. She cooked for us, washed our clothes, and generally treated us like royalty during our stay with her in Grafenstein.

(Riding the high-altitude gondola to the top of Petzen Mountain. Some of us were a bit nervous.)

Maria became our official backdoor tourguide of Carinthia. I can say that traveling with a guide is such a different experience that traveling with a map. It was relaxing – we were able to look at the beautiful countryside, rather than deciphering signs or the map.

(Riding the luge down the mountain – three times!)

For instance, I didn’t even know this mountain luge was in the area – I didn’t see it on our map. But Maria took us right to it. How could we miss an experience like this?

(Paddleboat on Worther See.)

Maria would ask us, “Do you want to go where the tourists go, or where we go?” What a question! We got the backdoor treatment throughout Carinthia. This is Worther See – at 40 meters deep, it’s cold even in the heat of summer – but beautiful!

There were plenty of great kid-spots. One day it rained and we found an indoor waterpartk. This park in Klagenfurt had a waterslide and gelato stand.

Craig took his Euro coins all by himself to buy a cone.

(Klagenfurt park.)

Of course, there were playgrounds. Even at a farm restaurant near Maria’s home (where everything they serve is harvested and made onsite) we found a swingset.

And kittens.

Travel with Kids in Europe Series:
A Playground in Every Town (more still to come)
Colmar, France
Bavaria, Germany
Carinthia, Austria
Venice, Italy

As we continued our trek across Europe to visit our Austrian exchange student, we stayed a few days in beautiful Bavaria, in Southern Germany.

We spent a day at Legoland in Gunzburg.

We slid down the double banister at Berchtesgaden Saltmine tunnels, wearing the traditional leather aprons used by miners long ago.

Although the mountainous terrain was tricky on our travels, and one tunnel was closed, our roundabout journey across the mountains led us to a lovely restaurant in Garmische, which an equally lovely playground.

From our room in Fussen, we could actually see Neuschwanstein Castle from our window (see the spires to the lower left in the above photo.) The next day’s visit to the castle which inspired Cinderella’s was, in fact, magical.

We also found playgrounds each day in Bad Urach, Strasbourg and our favorite of the entire trip, was Aumeister Biergarten in Munich – the most fabulous family/neighborhood gathering place I think I’ve ever seen.

Travel with Kids in Europe Series:
A Playground in Every Town (more still to come)
Colmar, France
Bavaria, Germany
Carinthia, Austria
Venice, Italy

When we landed in Paris to start our two-week tour of Europe in 2004, we were jetlagged, but excited. Our first night was already booked in Colmar, at the border of Germany and across the French countryside, so we turned down the offered Mercedes upgrade with GPS and drove off in our rented Opel sedan.

By the time we arrived at our darling room in Colmar, a Disney-esque town with half-timbered houses along cobblestone roads, we were so exhausted we crashed into our room and slept for I don’t know how long.

The kids thought for sure they had landed in heaven, since the room had bunkbeds.

The next day we enjoyed the first of many picnics with food gathered from a grocery store. This is how we ate through most of our trip.

And of course, we found a lovely playground in Colmar – setting the stage for the way we’d approach European travel with two young kids.

Travel with Kids in Europe Series:
A Playground in Every Town (more still to come)
Colmar, France
Bavaria, Germany
Carinthia, Austria
Venice, Italy

In 2004, our family traveled to Europe to visit our wonderful foreign exchange student, Maria (wearing the hat), in Austria. We ended up on a whirlwind 15-day tour of France, Germany, Austria and Italy, in a rented Opel sedan. At that time, our kids were only ages 5 and 7, and this was our first trip abroad with them. We traveled with only two Rick Steve’s backpacks, while the kids each carried their own school-sized packs. Without a doubt, this fantastic trip was worth every moment (and every dime) we spent.

(Picnic near a church at the top of a Carinthian mountain.)

We walked a lot, ate a lot, played a lot and found a playground in every town. You’ll notice in most photos, Craig is eating something, if he’s not on a merry-go-round, or in a sandbox.

(At the school playground, in Grafenstein, Austria.)

I’ll share photos with you in the coming weeks. I was looking through old photo disks and came across the pictures from this trip. Since that trip was pre-Pass the Torch, I haven’t shared these photos before – enjoy!

Travel with Kids in Europe Series:
A Playground in Every Town (more still to come)
Colmar, France
Bavaria, Germany
Carinthia, Austria
Venice, Italy