Monday, October 13, 2008

Our fall staycation

We were so happy to see Donny and Jessica arrive on Tuesday. Larry worked most of the time, but I was happy to have friends along on my explorations. I left most of the picture taking to them, so I don't have a lot of pictures to share. I took as many of your suggestions as I could fit in and can't wait to get to the rest.

So what do you do with first time visitors to Salt Lake City? Here's what we came up with.
Tuesday we walked around the 9th and 9th neighborhood until Larry got off of work. Dinner at Cafe Rio followed by a tour of Temple Square just in time to see the sun set. Then we stopped for treats at Hatch Family Chocolates on the way home.

Wednesday, after a relaxing morning we headed down to Provo to say hi to my mom and check out my dad's finished tree house. Then we had an early lunch at J Dawgs before we drove up Provo Canyon. We stopped at Bridal Veil Falls. Drove up to Sundance and rode the ski lift to the top. From the top we hiked to Stewart Falls. Creed walked at least a mile on his own and we we happy to have to excuse to take things slowly because it was so beautiful.


I love Stewart Falls, but the best part was just being up in the mountains in the fall.
The original plan was to take the Alpine Loop on our way home, but we enjoyed the aspens on our hike and the Zozes decided to hit J Dawgs again before going back up to Salt Lake.


We decided to take it easy on Thursday. We had waffles with lingonberries at Finn's for breakfast. Then we browsed some local shops and picked up Cupcakes from So Cupcakes for dessert that night. After that we played at Liberty Park until Creed's naptime (ok, everybody's naptime)


Larry got off early enough to go to see all of the witches on display at Gardner Village. Then we went to Mazza for dinner (it might be my new favorite restaurant).
Friday, as Larry was working, we toured Park City. The weather was cold, but we bundled up and had a good time.
Donny and I rode the Alpine slide, while Jess and Creed watched diggers and tractors at work (it was the last weekend before the summer activities were closing to make way for skiers).
I guess the Slide is faster when it's really cold so it made for a fun ride. I can't wait to go back in the spring to try to Alpine Coaster. It's pricey, but it looked fun. We browsed the shops on Main Street and stopped for lunch, then went through the Olympic Park on the way home. We had enough time to pick up Larry and hit the zoo before it closed.

The original plan was to drive to Southern Utah Friday night and spend the night so we would be ready to hike in the morning, but the whole state was cold and wet so there would be no long hike. I was bummed because I think most people think of Arches or Zion or Canyonlands or Bryce Valley when they think of Utah so I wanted Donny and Jessica to see it (plus I'd be happy to see any of them again).

Saturday was cold and wet, but we couldn't miss the Farmers Market.The we stopped by the downtown library. I love this library and I'll have to do a whole post about it later to do it justice. After the library we went to The Red Iguana (it's a lot less busy for lunch than dinner). During lunch the fact that the Zozes hadn't really seen the Great Salt Lake yet so we made a spur of the moment decision to drive out to Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake. We actually did see antelope



And bison
And after a beautiful drive we set out across the beach so Jess could touch the Great Salt Lake, but it was freezing and we wimped out and left Jess on Donny on their own after we took this picture.
They are the tiny specks way out there.

We spent the evening snug in our home with a big dinner and carmel apples.
We really loved having Jess and Donny here and hated to let them go.
And look! They turned into Utah cowboys!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I miss them I miss them. Come back Zoz's!!!

Reba said...

what fun! You took them to so many great places!

Stephanie said...

I want to come visit you! You really know how to show your friends around. Sounds like a blast!