the return and report -- verbose edition

Since Nance pointed out my brevity in recapping my SLC trip, I thought I'd do a more detailed day-by-day play-by-play for those of you interested. If the picture book version in the previous post was good enough for you, then just skip this one.

tuesday// this was my travel day to SLC. I'm a pretty good flier -- low maintenance if you will. I had a quick hop to Minneapolis, and then a longer leg to Salt Lake. The plane I was to take to Salt Lake from Minneapolis was delayed, thus making my arrival delayed. In the end, I don't think this was a huge deal, but you get a little nervous when your flight is delayed -- or at least I do.

H picked me up from the airport and took me back to her place. What I love about friendships like mine and H's, is that even though there was a year and some change, and 2000 miles between us, we still pick up conversations effortlessly. In the short drive from the airport to her condo we almost exclusively discussed Netflix recent changes in their billing and distribution. No small talk here, we got down to the nitty-gritty. Later that evening, several of H's siblings (whom I had met over spring break when we all happened to be in Phoenix -- although not to see each other) came over for home made pizza and a viewing of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

wednesday// Wednesday brought a trip to This is the Place, a historic village fashioned after what the Pioneers would have lived like. TITP reminded me a lot of Henry Ford's Deer Field Village up in Michigan. There were houses and building with people dressed in period clothing doing jobs and chores of the day. Visitors get to participate as well -- and so I pulled some wool on two giant hairbrushes (there are more specific names for this, but this city gal does not know them). This is where the cow feeding came in -- along with the viewing of many other cute farm yard animals. There were baby lambs (freshly hatched) and baby goats, and some bigger goats who tried their darnedest to get out of the gates, and succeeded. H saw a house called the Andrus house, and learned that one of her ancestors might have lived there. And if not her, then one of her sister wives.

Later that day H, H's roommate J and I headed up into Salt Lake proper. We had a burrito at Alberto's, a delicious fastfood Mexican joint owned by a friend of H and J's. After we were filled with Alberto's we went to the Salt Lake Temple, and walked around Temple Square after. There really is nothing more beautiful than the Salt Lake Temple lit up at night.

thursday// H teaches swimming lessons at a residential pool, so we headed over in the morning for her lessons. She taught, I read GWTW. (See Nance, I did read. But the subject of War War War on vacation got to be taxing, so I took a break). We had Cafe Rio for lunch, and walked around Target. H had to work at her second job that night, but we had plans to attend a concert downtown, so I hung around her condo waiting for H's friend to pick me up so I wouldn't be late to the concert, and H would meet us down there.

So this is the part where I take an aside to say how cool Salt Lake City really is. Among other things, every Thursday night in July and August, the city hosts concerts in Pioneer Park FOR FREE. And not just piddly bands, either. Big headlining bands. Modest Mouse brought in 40,000 people last summer. We saw The Decemberists, a favorite band of mine, and they brought in 36,000 people.

The concert. The music was amazing. And it was super people watching. Most people probably have the image of nerdy tight-laced Mormons everywhere in Salt Lake, but let me tell you, the entire NoMo population comes out for these concerts. There were hipsters EVERYWHERE. And I can say that I saw my first joint be rolled in Salt Lake City, of all places.

friday// Friday happened to be my birthday. And it ended up being a perfect birthday. As H liked to say, a very Steinbeckian birthday. We had crepes for breakfast, and then headed over to Grandma Bev's house to pick raspberries. Grandma Bev lives around the corner from H, an has more raspberries than she can care to pick, or that her aging body will allow her. And lucky for H, her aunt was getting tired of picking the raspberries, so H got a turn to pick.

Raspberries abounded everywhere. I had never seen so many in my life. The business of picking raspberries isn't an easy one. Raspberry bushes have prickly vines, and the actual berries like to hide deep in the foliage. So I started on one end, and H on the other, and we picked until we met in the middle. Or we got tired. Or hot. I can't remember which happened first. I was working on a one for me, two for the bowl method. I am typically not a raspberry fan, but let me tell you -- these raspberries were so sweet, they could have been candy. Since this incident, I have now been turned on to fruit and cream (or half-and-half). I could have eaten bowls of berries and cream, and now do the same with Catawba peaches and cream. Don't call it gross till you try it, friends.

H also has a little plot in the community garden, so we headed over to see what was popping up. As zucchinis are wont to do, they over took the whole place. Her peppers were coming on, as were peas and we even saw the little orange head of a carrot. After experiencing such fresh and amazing produce (straight from the ground!) I firmly believe that if every American family was forced to have a garden and to eat the bounty of said garden, the obesity epidemic would dwindle. Carrots and peas that come from a garden are nothing like what you get in the local grocery. They are so sweet and delicious you wouldn't have to trick kids into eating their veg. It's that amazing.

Because the garden needed a little watering, we turned the hose on and walked down to the local fro-yo shop for a birthday lunch of just fro-yo. Yum. These things can only occur on ones birthday, you know.

The evening's plans entailed a trip to In-n-Out (my request) and my first ever trip to a Rodeo! Oh how excited I was! Being a curious person, I had millions of questions about the show before me. How do they get the broncos and bulls to buck? What is the purpose of the Rodeo Clown? Have you ever seen anyone seriously injured?

My favorite event was the bucking broncos. Those cowboys ride them with such grace and elegance in such a situation. I was equally astounded by how the cowboys hop from their bucking bronco onto the back of the rescue horse (I'm sure it has a real name, I just don't know what it is). I also really like the timed events (the ones where you try to lasso steer and such). But what was really amazing to watch the horses know exactly what their job was, and what they needed to do when. Such amazing animals!

We headed to a place called The Dodo for some post-Rodeo dessert eating. I went for the Key Lime Pie, and while it had excellent flavor and crust, was disappointed at its miles of meringue atop the pie. A meringue lover I am not.

saturday// Saturday brought a trip to the local farmer's market in Pioneer Park. H, J and I wandered around the park looking at the local wares and settled on some rainier cherries, beets, local honey (which went missing?!), and some other fruit and veg. I bought a print from a local artist, and the three of us split the most amazing fresh-squeezed limeade. We were also completely smitten by a red wagon full of chocolate lab puppies for sale. A wagon! With puppies! How cruel!

Under the advisement of many friends, we walked across the street to Bruges Waffles and Frites for lunch. Bruges is a tiny shop which only sells -- you guessed it, Belgian Waffles and Frites. They offer two types of waffles, vanilla or cinnamon, and a bevy of toppings. Because I wanted to save room for some frites as well, I settled on a plain cinnamon waffle. Oh my heavens. Waffle isn't even the proper term for this food. It's nothing like the fluffy waffles we Americans are accustomed to. The waffle is made of a dough (not a batter) that sits in a proofing cabinet. The best way to describe this treat is that it is like a cinnamon roll in waffle form. It was delicious without any toppings, and frankly, I thought I probably would have developed Diabetes instantaneously, had I put anything on top of it. The frites were delicious as well. Crispy and golden on the outside, soft pillowy potato on the inside. And paired with the spicy fry sauce we chose, it was a great balance to the super sweet waffles.

Saturday afternoon took us to the pool, and a dinner of barbecued chicken and some zucchini from the garden.

sunday// church. And dinner with H's family.

monday// Monday was a State Holiday to celebrate Pioneer Day (see link on previous post). H, J, and two of H's siblings and I headed up Emigration Canyon to Ruth's Diner. (I thought it so fitting that we were in the actual canyon that the pioneers entered the valley through on the original Pioneer Day). Ruth's was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (and while I think that Guy Fieri is a total Douche Bag, he will never lead you astray when it comes to good places to eat). Their biscuits were the size of my head, and the Eggs Benedict was sinfully delightful.

To work off that gluttonous breakfast, H, J and I headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon to "hike" around Silver Lake. Silver Lake is a little lake and hiking trail open at Brighton Ski resort, when there isn't any snow on the ground. Silver Lake is beautiful. I think I kept repeating "you only see this kind of stuff in movies." Because really, I only ever see beautiful lakes surrounded by snow-capped mountains and mile-high pine trees in movies.

[I'll take the time to point out that Nance commented that my trip seemed very... Outdoorsy. And it was. It's hard to be in a place like Utah and not do outdoorsy things. While I'm not typically a fan of The Outdoors, this trip was truly enjoyable. Partly because there is no humidity out West; thus, I do not sweat. Or if I do, the no humidity wicks the sweat away. Perfect! The other aspect to this enjoyment was footwear. I did bring a pair of sneakers (ugh, I know), but only used them once, on raspberry picking day. The rest of these activities were enjoyed either wearing my TOMS, or Birkenstocks. Perfect!]

Because it was Pioneer Day, there is a huge parade in downtown Salt Lake, and then many little towns put on their own parade. So we attended the Butlerville Days Parade. I love a good parade. Somehow I always end up getting teary at the patriotism on display.

Following the parade, H and I set off to find some Hawaiian Shave Ice. My first introduction to Shave Ice was during Spring Break in Phoenix. My friend S and her husband M own a Shave Ice cart that they take the various fairs and school events and sell delicious shave ice. (Shave Ice for the uniformed, is like a sno-cone, but much, much fluffier, and much much better). In Utah, these places pop up for the summer. Little huts will magically appear in random parking lots and sell shave ice for the summer. When one has so many choices in shave ice, one has the opportunity to be discerning in choosing vendors, so we drove past 2 different places, before settling on the third and final place. I went with orange and cream. Delish.

In the few other visits I've had to Utah (this was my third) I have been told that "it never rains in Utah." And somehow, each trip I've been there, it has rained. And it rained on Monday night, during the fireworks. So the neighborhood gathered in H's parents front yard to watch the fireworks, under hoodies and umbrellas.

tuesday// H and I set off to Downtown SLC again, to catch a viewing of The Tree of Life at an indie movie theatre. We were a little late getting there, and I had to use the bathroom, but didn't go before hand. The movie was ... interesting ... and I kept thinking that I needed to get up to go to the bathroom, but I was afraid that The Point of the movie would certainly be revealed while I was away. Turns out, there was no point to the movie, so I could have (and should have) gone to the bathroom.

We had about an hour and a half to kill before H needed to be to work in the afternoon, so we opted to head to The Lion House for one of their famous Lion House Rolls. Heaven in yeast-roll form. I then dropped H off at work, and went back downtown to meet my friend B for dinner.

B spent several years in the CLE for law school, moved back to the Salt Lake area, got married, and is now expecting a little girl. It was so great to catch up with old friends, and made me scratch my head as to why we don't keep in better contact.

wednesday// Wednesday took us up to Park City. I had been there before during another trip, and really enjoy being up in the mountains. Our goal for the day was to ride the Alpine Slides and the Alpine Coaster. I'm nothing shy of a scaredy cat, if I don't know what I'm getting myself into, and I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into.

We first rode the Alpine Coaster. This is a ride where you sit in a little cart with a seat belt, and are pulled up the side of the mountain on a roller coaster track, and then sent down through the trees to the bottom. You control your own speed and have your own brakes. This, I was particularly terrified of. The line for the Coaster was just over an hour long, and while we were waiting, I needed to use the bathroom. Because I had been expressing my concern for my life, H and J were convinced that instead of going to the bathroom, I had actually left to go home, since I was carrying the car keys. Much to their dismay, I returned to the line, had butterflies in my tummy the whole ride up, and then smiled and laughed the whole way down.

The Alpine Slides require a ride up the chairlift, about halfway up a ski run. You then drag little yellow carts to the top of the fiberglass slides, and ride the cart down. Again, you control your own speed with a hand break. There were four slides total, and one designated the "slow" lane. For the safety and consideration of those around me, I chose the slow lane. Going down the slide just before me was a woman in her early 40's who appeared to be at the resort with a group of work friends. Had I known that she was taking the slow lane very seriously, I would have opted for another lane. I caught up with this woman about halfway down the slide, and then poked behind her the rest of the way down. To be sure, it was fun, but I wish I would have been able to go a little bit faster.

Following our adventures down mountain sides, we stopped at the outlet malls in Park City for a little shopping. [This is where I found the only downside to my only taking a carry on. Not enough room for bringing back goodies I found along the way].

H and J had a function to attend Wednesday night, and I was invited to go, but opted to meet up with some more friends for dinner. I hadn't seen C in almost 10 years, and in that time he's married and had 2 kids. We had a great dinner catching up on life, and reminiscing about The Old Days. It was so great to see him and catch up.

H and J's aforementioned function actually ended up being a total nightmare, and we all ended up going for a nice long walk and debriefed about the days adventures.

thursday// Thursday was my last "real" day in the Valley, since we had weekend plans to head up to northern Utah. Wednesday night H and I had googled around for the top attractions in Salt Lake, and found that we had hit most of them already. Not wanting to waste a day, we decided to head West and tour the Kennecott Copper Mines.

To get to the mines, one has to pass through a new development of towns. They're quite pretty, but a bit eerie. They all look the same, and there really isn't much around them. It was almost like driving through the set of a movie.

The Kennecott Mines are the largest in either the world, or the United States. Suffice it to say, they're big. In fact, they are visible from outer space. Yeah. Big. We entered through a gate, and were given some hazy directions about how to get to the visitors center. The entire ride up the side of the waste slopes, all I could think about was the movie Erin Brockovich and how the people in that nice Pleasantville community at the bottom of this mine will probably all develop cancer or some sort of incurable disease in the next decade or two. It all seemed so hazardous. Like I might keel over and die, just from visiting.

From the Salt Lake Valley, you can see the copper stained "mountain" that is the front side of the mine. The actual mine is on the back side, and is a giant pit. What you see from the valley is the waste materials from the mining process. The mine spans something like 2 miles wide and nearly 2 miles deep. And by the end of the year will be 500 feet deeper. It was all very cool and scary at the same time. We watched a film at the visitors center that was 5% informative and 95% propaganda like information to make you think that Kennecott isn't going to kill you or your neighbors, or make your dog grow an extra head. The rest of the visitors center were displays of how the copper is actually mined, what it looks like in different stages of the process, and where we can find copper around us. Little known fact: The Salt Lake Olympics were the first Olympics where the medals were manufactured in the same city that the games were held. [Speaking of the Olympics, it's kind of cool to see the remains of the games around Salt Lake. Up in Park City you can see the giant down hill jumps that the olympians used to compete in, and I think now that is where the US team practices]

Following our Kennecott experience, we treated our selves to a Sonic (my first and only of the trip! Quelle horror!) H had to work her second job, again, so I dropped her off, and headed over to another friend's house to visit for a bit. I didn't realize that my friend S lived just a few blocks from H's work, so it worked out perfectly. Again, I hadn't seen S in about 10 years, and in that time, she got married and had 2 kids (boy, do I feel behind on that one!). Her littlest baby had some health issues when he was born, and it was fun to see the progress that he had made.

Following my visit with S, I picked H up from work and we grabbed a bite to eat at a place called Settebello's downtown. They're an authentic Napoli style pizzaria, with a few locations throughout the country. Boy, was this some good pie. They're wood fired, right before your eyes, and almost all of the ingredients are imported from Italy. Allegedly, Settebello's hauls in their water from New York City (of all places!) because its supposed to do amazing things to the pizza. Whether this is true or not, it was a great slice.

Settebello's also has a gelato joint attached to it, so after our pie, we walked around the block a time or two, and then headed back for some gelato. I got coconut, and some other flavor I can't recall, and they were both delicous. [This is also where I found out that in SLC, there are buckets of orange flags at either side of a crosswalk. Pedestrians are to pick up a flag at one end of the crosswalk, walk across the street with the flag, and then deposit it in the bucket on the other side. If you want to look like a giant loser, I recommend following the law. Otherwise, just jaywalk, like I tried to do]

friday// Friday started our trip up north. Our destination was Bear Lake, a lake that spans both Utah and Idaho up in the tippy corner, near Wyoming. We took a round about way to get to Bear Lake, via Logan, so H could show me her college stomping grounds. In Logan, we had lunch at a little spot called the Gristmill, got some cheese curds (which proved to be invaluable for the remainder of the trip) at a local dairy, walked around the campus, had an authentic cream soda (for H) and I had a lime freeze (with paper in it?!) at the counter at the Blue Bird. It's a charming little town! We also visited with one of H's college roommates and her family, who still live in Logan.

We travelled to Bear Lake through the Logan canyon, which, again, was beautiful (I haven't met a Utahn canyon I didn't think was gorgeous), and arrive at the lake. H's family (mom, stepdad, and a gaggle of siblings) were to meet us at Bear Lake for the weekend, and they were hauling the boat from Salt Lake. This is the part where one thing after another after another went awry.

There is one place to stay in Bear Lake, if you don't own your own cabin, and that's the motor lodge. Reservations were made at least a month prior, but when you have two high school nitwits running the joint, one of whom is reminiscent of Snooki, things can go wrong. They had messed up the reservation for the first night, leaving 8 people without a place to stay. H called her mom to report the problem, only to find out that there were some issues on their end of things in Salt Lake, and H's family turned around and headed home. Problem was, they had our entertainment (boat) and our food supply for the weekend ... and there are no grocery stores in Garden City, where we were staying.

So H and I headed down to the KOA "grocery" and picked up some essentials for the few days we would be there. H had some friends coming up to Bear Lake the following day, and they had a boat, so it seemed like things were falling into place.

saturday// Saturday we woke up to overcast skys and kind of chilly temperatures. H and I planned to hang around until she heard word from her friend on their plans, which entailed a "bike ride" for them, and then some boating. This bike ride was actually a ride around the entire lake, which is about 50 miles. Because we had little else to do, H and I took advantage of the Direct TV in the hotel room (which can only be described as a roach coach) and waited for the bikers.

Exciting part #1 of the day was when we needed to go out on a rescue mission. One of the guys in the biking group blew a tire and needed to be picked up. So we drove up to Idaho to rescue the guy, who was nothing shy of totally awkward, only to find that he had found a ride with a random person and wasn't where he said he was going to be. Rule number one of rescue missions: if you are being rescued, do not move. Nobody told this guy. So we turned around and finally found him. On the awkward car ride home, the rescuee asked if we could stop at one of the local burger joints to he could "get some calories in him." Le Beau's is also famous for their raspberry milkshakes, which was on my list of must-eats. Now, if I were being rescued, and then asked to be taken someplace to get food, I would probably offer to buy my rescuers a milkshake at said famous place. But no, he did not. And then, he couldn't remember exactly where the cabin was that the was staying. Useless.

After the rescue mission we knew that the rest of the group was pretty close to home, which offered a ray of hope onto our day. Sure enough, H got a phone call saying they were home, and were going to go out on to the lake and go swimming. Yay!

H told me that Rule #1 of being invited to a pool party is : never wear your swimsuit there. Because you will inevitably show up, and nobody will be swimming. And what happened? We showed up, and everyone was getting out of the shower. No swimming here. Sad face.

After some time, they actually decided to put the boat in the water, and we went out for a spin. I grew up on boats, so this was nothing new to me; but I had never been on water so choppy in all my life. Only a few moments into the ride I was drenched from head to foot (good thing I put my suit on!). It was both the scarriest and the most fun boat ride in my memory. My body actually ached for a few days after the ride from holding on so tight to the side of the boat! I was never more happy to see dry land in all of my life.

H and I went back to our hotel to shower, and then went back to the cabin to cook out with her friends. Later that night, I finally got my raspberry shake, and it did not disappoint!

sunday// we woke up and headed to church (because if I learned anything on this trip, even the tiniest of smallest towns in Utah contain an LDS chapel). We left straight from church to head to H's dad's house, in Dutch John, Utah. Never heard of it before? Not surprised.

Dutch John has a population of 145 people. I met 4 of them. There is a gas station, a post office, and (you guessed it) and LDS chapel. The ride to Dutch John is a pretty one, through Wyoming and down through the Flaming Gorge. We had to be on the lookout for wildlife, as they are known to spot bear and moose.

H's dad settled in Dutch John to be a fly fishing guide on the Green River. He's since taken a corporate job, but her stepmom works for the government doing something with the dam -- she has a dam job.

After we settled for a minute at H's dad's house (which I think involved a little nap) we put our swim suits on and headed down to the gorge to swim. Utah had record snow fall this past winter, which has left every body of water in the state over run. The run off from the mountains is making the water levels so high, in both Bear Lake, and in the gorge. There is no beach at the gorge, you cliff jump into the water. H's sister J jumped in first and assured us that the water temperature was "perfectly fine," which translates to "galacial" (we are talking about snow from the tops of mountains, you know). Once you were actually in the water, and the initial shock wore off, the water was actually fine.

Following our dip in the gorge we were treated to an excellent dinner of ribs and some of the best coleslaw I've had in a while.

Later that night, H and I put our suits back on in order to soak in her dad's hot tub under the rural Utah sky. There is little else that is more gorgeous than this site. Stars for miles, ones I had never seen before. Dutch John doesn't do much, but what it does do, it does well.

monday// Monday we lazed around Dutch John. H's sister J took us on a ride in the Ranger, which was essentially an offroading golf cart on steriods. We went up into the mountains around Dutch John and saw some of the damage from a wild fire that spread a few years back. We attempted to find a look out over the river, but never found it.

When H's dad returned from work, we headed down the river. He knows the river like the back of his hand -- he was a fishing guide, after all. We started at the dam and floated for about two hours. It was so peaceful and amazing to be surrounded by rock formations, trees and water. We didnt' have enough time to actually fish, but I did see a few fish swimming around. We enjoyed Red Vines and Ginger Beer, and H's dad explained all of the sites to see to us.

After our float, we had home made pizza (the only kind of pizza one can have when the nearest pizza place is an hour away), which was delicious. H needed to be back to Salt Lake, about 3 hours away, by 10 the next morning, so we were faced with either driving back late at night, or getting up early the next morning. We settled on early next morning.

tuesday// we left Dutch John at about 6am to head back to Salt Lake and got to see the sun rise over Wyoming. H went to teach her swim lesson, and I took a little nap and showered.

Because we really had done most of what we (I) wanted to do the previous two weeks, we didn't have much on the agenda for Tuesday. We did decide to go downtown (again) for lunch at a spot called Moochies (another D, D and D spot, Al). Moochies is famous for their meatball subs, and it didn't disapoint. H and I realized that this was the place to pick up men in SLC, because we were quite possibly the only women in the place. The sub was messy and delicious.

H had invited a bunch of friends to go up into another canyon Tuesday night for tinfoil dinners, so she and I stopped at the local Wal Mart (my fave) for the supplies. This proved to be an adventure, and I snapped a picture of one of the most amazing tattoos I have ever seen. To make up for the horrific Wal Mart experience (is there any other kind?) we stopped and had some frozen custard on the way home.

The afternoon was spent prepping the tinfoil dinners. For those of you unfamiliar with tinfoil dinners, its a packet of foil filled with ground meet, a bit of cream of mushroom soup, and chopped veggies like carrots, potatoes, and onion (those are the staples) . We added garden fresh zucchini (H had zucchini coming out of her ears) as well as some parsnips. You double wrap the packets in foil, and then cook them in a fire.

I ended my Salt Lake trip in the most amazing fashion: around a campfire, eating tinfoil dinners, with a babbling brook behind me, listening to a guitar sing-along. It was absolutely perfect (dispite the rain -- but it never rains!).

wednesday// I headed back to CLE on Wednesday excited to see my family, but with a heavy heart in having to leave Salt Lake. It really was an amazing trip. I would move there in a heartbeat, if only it was a little bit closer!

So there. Congratulations for reading the whole thing, if you did. I'm actually glad that Nance gave me a hard time about being so brief in my previous recap. I had been meaning to write down a detailed account (for me or others) for a while, and this was reason enough to do it. [and made me realize that I really just ate my way through Northern Utah, with a few touristy things thrown in, and some outdoor stuff. But mostly just ate.]

Until next time, SLC!