I got in Wednesday night about 9 p.m. and had the most amazing view of the mountains. Normally I opt for an aisle seat, but this time I'd made sure to get a window seat. I would have killed to have had my camera out for this view. I did take some video on my iPod. I'll admit, I was rather taken from my first glance. My friend met me at the airport and on the way out of the parking lot, I asked him to stop the car so I could get a picture of the sunset. It was breathtaking.
Thursday we woke up late and had an enjoyable breakfast at Finn's (the chocolate croissant was a meal in itself). Afterward, we decided to visit Sugar House Park, which was really nice. A number of families had decided to visit for the afternoon. We saw a number of joggers as well. It's a great place to just read or have a picnic with the family...or roll down a hill, as we did.
That afternoon we did some hiking in Mill Creek Canyon. It had rained some as we drove up, but we decided to make a go of it anyway. The path we took was a bit slick, but we had no real problems. The forest was lush and green and the hike was a little challenging but still good--I think we got above 9000 feet here. We saw snow, which I thought was an odd sight to see in July.
My friend had gotten tickets to see Goldilocks Capone and the Three Amigos at the Desert Star Theater in Murray. Mashups of different pop culture touchstones are apparently a specialty here. We enjoyed the show, and afterward an emcee who was part of the cast pointed out couples celebrating anniversaries and people celebrating birthdays. Then the whole cast performed several patriotic songs and had some good skits in between parodying politicians like Sarah Palin and the Mormon presidential candidates Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney, as well as celebrities like Lebron James.
After the play, we decided to go to a club downtown called Area 51, which has '80s night every Thursday (they also had some great-sounding parties over the weekend, such as a glow stick party Friday night and another celebrating the turn to Cancer zodiac sign, which would feature tarot readings and other New Age-sounding stuff that has little more interest to me than fun kitsch value). Upstairs was the 18-and-up party, which was fun and got pretty crowded with people of a wide range of ages, featuring music from David Bowie, New Order, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Def Leppard, Depeche Mode and countless others; downstairs was a far-less-populated but no less enjoyable darker '80s mix (The Smiths, Depeche Mode, etc.). We were there for a very fun four hours, and kept saying around 1 a.m. that we were going to leave after whatever song was on, but then good songs kept playing and we couldn't bring ourselves to leave.
Friday we again woke up late and went out for pancakes. In the afternoon, we went to Red Butte Garden, quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I've seen. Probably half the pictures of the roughly 350 I took on vacation were taken here. A fire had broken out in the mountains above the gardens a couple of weeks prior to our visit, but it had been contained fairly quickly; however, we could still clearly see where it had been and how close to the building it had gotten. The gardens sit up on a mountain, so you get a great view of the city below. There's also an amphitheater there, and some great national acts like Sheryl Crow were performing there this summer, as well as buzzed-about acts Fleet Foxes and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. I couldn't believe how great the venue was--not only was it beautiful, but it hosted great concerts too! A wedding and its reception were also taking place there that evening--easy to see why someone would want to get married there. The gardens are huge (I'm not sure my friend and I traversed them all), full of beautiful, colorful flowers and trees, and also feature a great kid's area with a fountain and a giant flower pot that has a tree growing from it (my friend egged me into trying to climb it). This was only the second full day of my trip, and my camera battery gave out while at the gardens--I thought it was fully charged beforehand, so maybe I had taken so many pictures that the camera just wouldn't hold a charge anymore. I was disappointed, but at least my cell phone takes good pictures.
Saturday we went to the Utah Museum of Fine Art on the University of Utah campus, also up in the mountains a couple of miles from Red Butte Garden. I particularly enjoyed the Egyptian pieces in the African gallery, but I liked the European gallery as well. My friend and I had a good time trying to interpret Don Olsen's modern pieces, which were displayed in a huge gallery with a high ceiling that also housed a piano--clearly a room meant for events. I think we walked through the entire museum in about three hours, then took off outside to venture across the University of Utah campus, eventually making our way back up by the University's Rice-Eccles Stadium, home to many events from the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. We drove out to Big Cottonwood Canyon in the Wasatch National Forest that evening, which was a great drive a little ways from my friend's house (we made sure to eat at In-N-Out Burger on the way). We encountered more snow that actually covered part of the trail around a lake (not sure which one). It had rained on us a little driving up, and I'd wondered aloud if we'd see a rainbow. Not only did we see a rainbow, but we saw the most vibrant one I'd ever seen, and it had a double!
Sunday we got an even later start than before and drove to Diva's in Salt Lake City to get a drive-through lunch and cupcakes. My friend enjoyed his caramel macchiato (I forget what he had for lunch) and I munched on a good chicken salad sandwich before I tore through the chocolate chocolate cupcake (sadly, they were out of chocolate peanut butter). We wished we'd been able to partake of brunch, as they had $3 mimosas and live music, but time didn't allow. We were heading to Park City that afternoon to take on the alpine slide. I had had some reservations about being on a slide that was going down a mountain--how steep is it? how fast?--but they were all absolutely unfounded fears. The slide is a lot of fun. We'd talked about ziplining too, but there were thunderstorms only about 20 minutes away, so we would barely have time to get down the slide. We had only just gotten off the ski lift before we heard thunder, and originally we were told we wouldn't be able to go down the slide because it was raining at the bottom of the mountain, and sled brakes on the slide won't work in the rain. We were told we'd have to wait for a suburban to come fetch us, then shortly after we were told they could let some people down the slide, so there was a mad dash to get sleds and run back to the slide. There are four slides, and one is marked for people who prefer to go a bit more slowly, so being a first-timer, I took that one. Needless to say, my friend quickly disappeared from my view and was waiting for me at the bottom. Scary though it is to be on a mountain during a thunderstorm, it was also pretty cool and I wish I had been able to get pictures.
It did start raining not long after we got off the slide, so we decided it was time for dinner and went into town to Adolph's Restaurant. The bartender, Sweet Jonny D, was rather personable and gave great recommendations for dinner. I was glad I'd taken his advice and gotten the shrimp linguini--it was so good. My friend also enjoyed his chicken francese and even had leftovers for the next day (I managed to eat my entire dinner). We shared a brownie sundae, which was also delicious. This restaurant is clearly a favorite of locals, as several of the patrons who came in struck up conversations with Jonny about mutual acquaintances and such. Dinner was pricey, but my friend and I really loved it.
That night we went back into Salt Lake City to catch a movie and got chai lattes afterward. The first coffeehouse we went to was full of obnoxious hipper-than-thou types loudly cheering at an open mic night. We stood in line for a couple of minutes before leaving, as the line hadn't moved since we'd gotten there and the crowded, loud atmosphere was a turnoff. I forget the name of the place where we ended up, but the chai lattes were good and we ran into one of my friend's friends, who had been camping out there for a while reading and dining at one of the many tables. My friend maintains that coffees and teas are done better west of the Mississippi, and I might be inclined to agree.
The next day was Monday, which meant it was time for me to go. I was sad not only to leave my friend, as we'd had a fantastic time seeing what we'd seen, but I had also gotten used to the mountain views and the crisp, dry air in Salt Lake City. Every morning I'd sat on the back porch at my friend's house and read, enjoying the lovely weather and the sounds of the creek that runs through his backyard. It was great to enjoy a definite change of pace and attitude for a few days and to see things that I don't see on an everyday basis. Even if I saw the mountains every day, I don't think the view would get old.
http://redbuttegarden.org/
http://umfa.utah.edu/pageview.aspx?id=25861
