Because we had to forgo out usual spring break trip this year, we agreed that we’d try to get a few weekend trips in prior to our annual trip to Florida with Laura’s family in June.  We all had Memorial Day off, so a long weekend trip made sense.  I spent all week looking at a few destination possibilities, and settled on Spokane via Salt Lake City on Delta, departing Saturday morning and returning Monday evening.  As of Friday morning there were 24 open seats on the second leg, and by that evening it was down to 1.  However, Salt Lake City was still looking fine, so we decided to check it out!  We’d connected in SLC before, and once drove from there to Bryce Canyon and Zion and back, but had never spent any time in the city.

We had no problem getting on the flight out there, though started out with 10B, 11A/B, and 12A/B.  When the man sitting in 11C saw that he was sitting next to two little girls (the older two) whose dad was a row up, even though it was a middle seat (right behind first with tons of leg room), he offered to switch, which was awesome!  Luckily Delta still has TVs at every seat on almost if not all their mainline aircraft, so the girls were able to watch movies on the way, and I did a bit of reading and napping.  The oldest, being almost 8, can pretty easily keep herself entertained, though the newly 4 year old and almost 6 year old are still not quite at the maturity level to not get fussy about silly stuff, so long story short, the flight could have been a bit better.

Getting off the plane, through the terminal, and grabbing our car seats took all of maybe 10 minutes, but the 45ish minute wait at the Thrifty counter negated all of that.  I’d put in for a standard SUV, but by the time we got there, they were a bit short, so we ended up with a Jeep Wrangler, which actually ended up being pretty fun.  The girls got a kick out of that.  Everyone was getting a bit hangry at that point, so I found a good looking Mediterranean spot off of I-80 on the way to Park City, our first destination on the trip.  It was in a neighborhood called Sugar House, and located in a courtyard of a large shopping center, and had an outdoor patio, which was perfect for a late morning meal with sunny weather in the mid-60s.  We were very impressed with the wraps that we got, and the girls enjoyed their sweet potato fries.  I also liked that they had draft beer, and that per Utah law, all drafts were 4%, meaning I could have one before our drive to Park City!

We left around 1215, and within about 25 minutes, we were at Utah Olympic Park where some events for the 2002 Winter Olympics were held, including the ski jumps and bobsled/luge track.  We took a walk through the ski museum there, and found that there was a virtual reality setup that 4 people at a time could do, so the ladies all took about a 4 minute “ride” on a virtual trip down a mountain on skis (a 4 wide ski-lift looking contraption that moved around to match what’s happening on the screen).  After that, we all tried our hand at a virtual ski jump, which everyone enjoyed.  After getting a few pics of the girls in a bobsled and on a luge, we headed outside where we found that a skier was going down one of the jumps into a large pool, which was entertaining to watch for a while. I’m not sure what surface type was being used, but given that it was almost summer, there wasn’t any snow for the skier to glide on.

We were intent on finding a place in Park City to hike, though it was difficult to determine a good place to park to find a trail.  After a few minutes of driving, all but Linley had fallen asleep, and while we almost just drove back to Salt Lake, she was adamant on hiking.  We found a trail system on the east end of town, and luckily found a short trail that she and I could do while the others rested and slept in the car.  I’d been wanting to check out High West distillery, whose whiskeys I’ve had on occasion, so I cozied up to the busy bar at the saloon in downtown Park City for a cocktail and a pour of the spring seasonal bourbon, along with a huge pretzel with mustard and beer cheese.

Everyone had woken up by the time I got back to the car, and we headed back west on 70 through the mountain passes to SLC.  After relaxing in the room for a bit, with the adults attempting naps, we headed out for pizza at a divey place a few blocks away called Pie Hole.  The crowd was an interesting mix of folks, and the pizza names and toppings matched. I had a slice each of Flamagra, Street Fighter, and Bill Gates, while Laura had a Yosemite, and the girls all had cheese.  We walked back to the hotel and hopped in the car for a trip to the local Trader Joe’s to pick up snacks for the next day and the flight home.  The girls weren’t in the best moods so we got in and out as quickly as possible, and got them back to the hotel and away from the general public.

They were all ready for bed, so I headed out for some local flavor.  I had a great time sampling beers at Epic Brewing, where I met a father and daughter from Boise who own a salon with other members of the family.  They were finishing up a several state tour of breweries, so I was jealous!  I stopped in a local joint called the Bayou, which while pretty dead, had a New Orleans style jazz band playing, and plenty of excellent local taps.  After a quick walk back to the hotel, I found everyone else asleep, and wasn’t far behind.

We woke up a cool morning with clear skies, with a forecasted high for the day around 70.  We had some time to kill before our first stop of the day, so we drove around the Capitol building and some local neighborhoods, and drove through downtown where we saw the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It’s a really nice and clean downtown, and the surrounding mountain view didn’t disappoint.

We had kept our destination for the morning under wraps, and the girls were very excited when we got to the Tracy Aviary in Liberty Park.  Nala loves birds, so she was especially excited.  We had an awesome time spending about two hours wandering the aviary and seeing dozens of species of birds.  Highlights were the peacock wandering freely, and the owls.

My friend Lucas who I previously worked with had flown into Salt Lake to drive up to Jackson Hole, and coincidentally, was passing back through town before flying home to Dallas that evening.  Both being avid travelers and foodies, eating at Red Iguana was the obvious choice.  We finished at the aviary just as he was rolling into town, so we met there, and were able to get a table before the place became packed with the Sunday lunch crowd.  We were most excited about the moles that they’re famous for, so he and I each ordered a different type and split them.  We had the traditional Mole Negro (made with dried chilies, Mexican chocolate, raisins, peanuts, walnuts, and banana) and the Mole Amarillo (made with golden raisins, yellow tomatoes, yellow zucchini, and chilis).  Both exceeded expectations, and we were stuffed upon finishing.  Somehow we still managed to help Laura finish her huge plate of nachos.

Laura and I were exhausted after the early morning and the big meal, so we again retired to the hotel to nap a bit.  After resting up, we headed north just under an hour to check out Antelope Island State Park.  While we would love to have explored it more, during the one hike we did, we were bombarded by tiny biting gnats the entire time.  The girls had a blast climbing around on the rocks, but we ended the hike early to escape back to the safety of the car.  We drove around a bit, where we saw a few buffalo that are part of the large herd in the park.  We were all getting hungry, so headed back to Salt Lake for dinner.

After a stop at a gas station to clean all the dead gnats off the windshield and fill the gas tank, we parked behind Red Rock brewing, and got a table.  Our server was very friendly and attentive, and was kind enough to split up the girl’s entrees so there was no fussing, and brought their food out first.  He was also excellent at keeping my beer glass full.  All beer on tap is 4% abv per state law, so I was able to sample several.  Laura and I split a burger along with the Superfood Salad, which was a delicious combination of kale, arugula, roasted beets, avocado, blueberries, grapefruit, pistachios, goat cheese, and balsamic.  After dinner we got in about 20 minutes of swimming at the indoor/outdoor pool on the 3^rd floor roof of the hotel, and headed back to the room to pack up and get to bed.

Because the only nonstop flight back home would get it in after 10pm, we opted to fly through Minneapolis, leaving at 9am, and arriving back in Indy around 5pm after a two hour time change.  It was a pretty uneventful trip home.  Overall, we really enjoyed our time in Salt Lake, and were impressed with the area overall.  We’ll certainly be back when we need another weekend mountain getaway.