Salt Lake City, UT
- Jun 24, 2019
- 3 min read
I have to apologize in advance. This post is incredibly late. I ended up going to Salt Lake back in May, but (as most of you know) life happens and I haven't had a chance to blog about it.
I was only in Salt Lake for a quick weekend trip, but we really tried to pack a good bit of exploring in. In case you didn't know, Salt Lake has a very conservative population and most shops close on Sunday (face palm).
I flew Delta to Salt Lake and arrived with minimal hiccups. I pretty much exclusively fly Delta at this point for the miles and they've had minor issues (knock on wood). I'm also getting better at sleeping on planes (thank you Xanax and Tylenol PM). A side note to my friends with bluetooth headphones, they are not airplane compatible. Sadly, I ended up watching/reading movies for the travel day.
Friday night we ended up going to a roll call with the squadron at a local bar. ICYMI, Hill Air Force Base is outside of Salt Lake City. Basically every airman I met over the weekend was OBSESSED with the mountains. I have to say they were pretty stunning myself.
On Saturday Tim had these wild ambitions to take me hiking. I work out pretty regularly, but Tim is definitely in FAR better shape than I am. The man can still run a 6 minute mile (vomit); I've never run that fast in my whole life. I'm also incredibly competitive so there was a high likelihood I would end up vomiting or getting eaten by a mountain lion. NATURALLY, we settled on a "strenuous" hike called Waterfall Canyon Hike. Despite this trail being labeled as strenuous, I was surprised to see the amount of people with young children and dogs doing the hike (Salt Lake is surprisingly short on pools and outdoor water activities. I frequently found myself wondering about swimming. Do people swim in Salt Lake? Are bathing suits a prohibited form of clothing for modesty reasons? SO MANY QUESTIONS). Back to the hike, yes it was strenuous. There were a few moments my calves were really on fire and few moments I did think my lack of coordination would lead to my untimely demise, but we made it and the views were beautiful.
After the hike and me only almost dying once, we went to Rooster's for lunch and beers. Naturally we needed to regain all the calories we had just burned. Salt Lake has lots of rules and regulations about alcohol. I believe there's something about the percentage of alcohol in beers served on tap vs in bottles. Additionally, they are very serious about checking IDs and discretely measuring shots in mixed drinks.
After a few beers with some of Tim's buddies, we went to Ogden's 100 Year Anniversary Festival. The city had shut down part of the down town area. They had all kinds of local vendors, musicians, and traditional attire worn by early settlers. I bought local cheese (I love a cracker with cheese) and goat's milk soap. The soap smells like roses and I'm going to incredibly sad when I've used it all. After walking around for a bit we decided to take our shenanigans a step further and rent LIME scooters. We proceeded to ride around Ogden for the next hour and finally stopping for ice cream at Farr Better Ice Cream. A local recommended it and I'm never going to say no to ice cream.
That night we decided to get some Thai food and just hang out. I was pretty exhausted from the day's activities, travel, and slightly jet lagged, but the Thai food was really yummy. Fun fact about me, I don't think I had ever eaten Thai food before meeting Tim. I was missing out!
Sunday we went to Hogle Zoo and exploring downtown. Like I said earlier, everything closes on Sunday. We should have switched our days! Anyway, the zoo was really fun and I enjoyed feeding the giraffes. Afterwards, we went and saw the Temple, the state capitol, and went for some drinks before taking me back for my flight home.
Overall, I wish I had more time in Salt Lake and, always, more time with Tim. It's definitely a fun place to check out for someone that loves the outdoors!
Until next time...in Jackson Hole.
-Leslie
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