summer trip to slc

Oh, look, I'm back. Yeah, I've got to get some kind of plan about this posting thing.

But anyway... this summer while Frances was on her big Europe trip, Bill and I took our first grown-ups only vacation. (I know. Not one couple's trip in 17 YEARS? Yeah, yeah, only child, no local family babysitting, blah, blah, blah. Don't judge -- we know we're wackos.) So we finally went. Four big days in Salt Lake City, plane tickets, rental car, hotel room, the whole nine yards. It was great! Now you're going to ask, why there exactly? I can't actually remember any more. It looked pretty, I had never been there, I had a hankering for the mountains in summer, I don't know. But I loved the city.

We stayed downtown at the Peery Hotel. It was a historic building walking distance from all the interesting downtown stuff. Our room was right above the P.

We did all the big Mormon touristy stuff -- we went to Temple Square and had a tour (thank you to the sweet sister missionaries from Italy, Brazil and Taiwan who led us), we visited the Beehive House, and sampled the freshly baked rolls at the Lion House. We toured the Conference Center -- people, there was a meadow on top of the building. Wow. Then we got to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse. Also, wow.

One morning we drove up to Brighton Ski Area to hike to Lakes Mary, Martha and Catherine. But the adventure started before we even made it out of the car. This mother and youngster moose trotted across the parking lot and hung around eating while we watched from the car. (These guys are BIG.)

The lakes were gorgeous and we received a fourth one (Dog Lake) as our free gift. 

We ate in some terrific restaurants, mostly thanks to the guidance of Miranda, one of my favorite bloggers. She was nice enough to personally answer an Instagram request for suggestions and also directed us to a blog post about her Salt Lake faves. I would happily return to Cafe Zupa, The Dodo, Ruth's Diner and Tommy's Burgers. Alas, we didn't make it up to Bountiful for a sugar cookie at Swig, but I guess we'll just have to go back.

We did make it to Orem to see the Rookie League Angels affiliate Owlz play. It was a fun game and a beautiful night for baseball. And we got to see the names of many of our favorite Angels who played there as rookies.

I fell hard for the beehive theme -- they were everywhere!

I came home with some beehive souvenirs. Now I want to do a beehive block quilt.

We had such a great time walking everywhere, shopping, eating, riding the downtown light rail, exploring the beautiful public library and Natural History Museum. I know we'll be back in the future! Thanks, Salt Lake City! (Sadly, this copper beehive was too big to bring home. Also, it belonged to the State Capitol.)