Nieka and Ken Go West
Day 13: Park City and Olympic Cauldron Park

Ribbon-cutting ceremony at Olympic Cauldron Park.

We saw on the news that today was to be the opening of the Olympic Cauldron Park. We had just enough time before our flight to drive to Rice Eccles Stadium on the University of Utah campus to see the ribbon cutting ceremony at the new museum celebrating the 2002 Olympics. The ceremony began at 10:00. Joey Cheek, who won the 1000-meter speedskating bronze in 2002, introduced Utah Governor Mike Leavitt, who spoke a few minutes. Next, Fraser Bullock, the President of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, in SLOC's last official act, handed over the museum and a check for $750,000 to Bernard Machen, the President of the Univeristy of Utah, ending the most successful Olympics yet. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and the doors were open. Nieka and Ken were the first in line to buy tickets to the 10-minute movie being premiered that day. The movie, "The Fire Within," is a series of images from the opening and closing ceremonies and the games themselves. We both enjoyed it very much.

Sun rising behind the Olympic flame.

The Olympic torch was lit for the first time since it was extinguished at the end of the closing ceremonies and will burn through tomorrow night. We felt quite privileged to be able to see it aflame once again.

Before we left, Nieka got a picture with Joey Cheek. We had seen him receive his bronze medal during our visit to the Olympics. This event, as unplanned as it was for us, made a very satisfactory conclusion to our Utah adventure, begun 18 months ago.

Nieka and Joey Cheek.