The BEST of Utah

Here are some of the BEST of things that Utah has to offer that we experienced over the Christmas holiday. Firstly, lets talk about FOOD. It never fails that some of the things you can always do in Utah are 1. eat and 2. go to a movie. Needless to say, we definitely utilized both of these. The day after arriving we went to ICEBERG- this classic drive in that has the BEST shakes. Here, Cynthia and I are enjoying one- I have the Grasshopper (mint oreo- the best) and Cynth got Eggnog for the holiday season. These are the "mini's. This is true HEAVEN for an ice cream lover like myself. I always hated that in Boston they had their "milk shakes" which were really just sugared and slightly flavored milk. Now THIS is a real shake! Another place that we hit is my favorite place to eat- CAFE RIO. Truly, there are few things better than their veggie salad with pinto beans and half cilantro half creamy tomatillo dressing. I just love the tortilla so much. I eat it first to make sure that I have room. We also hit CHICK-FIL-A- one of William's most favorite places to eat. He ate there once at the mall while my cousins and I were having girls day out and then the two of us went so that he could get his fill-of-a. We went to the location off of 106th south near South Towne Mall and it was just PACKED with little kids. I had forgotten just how many kids are in Utah, and I know it was more than normal considering there was no school but it is just a shocking comparison to the Bay Area. Gotta love the waffle fries. I also had a frosty from WENDY'S- I haven't been able to find one yet here in Cali (see, but I'm totally ok here cuz we have IN-N-OUT). We also hit RED ROBBIN- I SO LOVE their steak fries! And "cowboy" sauce- hehehe- its actually called "campfire" sauce so the waitress and my family had a good laugh about my mistake. Hey, at least I was in the same genre!

Next, onto the MOVIES! We truly saw SO many in the 10 days we were there: National Treasure 2 (entertaining but SO UNBELIEVABLE- I mean, the whole Mt. Rushmore thing as a conspiracy cover-up just made me laugh. But, it was entertaining and interesting, though not fully factually accurate. Hopefully, it will make people actually research history- but I think many will just think that everything is true from the movie. I expect to see a huge increase in attendance to Mt. Rushmore during 2008 from the film. I think they should create a special "tour" to highlight some of the things from the film- it would be a good way to make money). Next, it was Rush Hour 3 at the dollar movies (I just LOVE the dollars! I so so miss them. And since we had 4 people, we got in for 50 cents each! It reminded me back of the BYU days when we would hit the Movies 8 on 50 cent night. It was just packed on those nights, much more than others, but it was only a dollar normally. I think that just as college kids we were looking for any kind of break we could get. Golden Compass- (this was a good movie- not one I would see again, but ok. I don't understand all of the talk about the "atheism"- maybe its in the books but I didn't see it in the movie. I did enjoy the "Coke bears" as my mom put it). And P.S. I Love You- NOT the movie to see for anyone sensitive or romantic, let alone someone who is still somewhat newlywed. It was a bawler- but it made me feel better that both my sisters cried as well cuz normally I am the only one crying in movies. That is one that I will never see again- just like "The Letter" (a Korean film I saw at the International Cinema) or "A Walk to Remember". They are just way too sad. I can't write much more cuz it is bringing on sad feelings.

So, what else is there to do in Utah besides that? I know that at times it may feel like eating and going to the movies are the only things happening, but there is so much more to be had if you do a little searching.

WINTER SPORTS: Truly, Utah does have the "best snow on earth" and my favorite place to ski is at ALTA. I would say that I'm an intermediate skiier- I love to do the blue runs but I HATE to feel out of control so I usually take things at a somewhat slower pace. Last year, I took William skiing and he did incredibly well for not having skiied in over 10 years. His one request was that we go again this year. Alta has this AWESOME program called "Ski Free After 3". That's right- you can ski their beginner lift and trails for FREE from 3 pm until the lift closes at 4:30. Their ski shop even offers discounted rates for the time period making it only $9 for an afternoon of skiing. This is PERFECT for beginners because when you are just learning, you get tired pretty fast so that generally is all that you feel like doing for the day anyways. William did awesome- the line to get skiis took a bit of time so I just made him immediately go on the run and not do the horrible bunny bunny hill. And he did great! His second run was even better. The nice thing about Alta's beginner trails is that you can make them slightly more difficult if you like and they are just really fun and beautiful. It was an awesome afternoon of skiing. HOWEVER, going down the canyon back home was not. It was a horrible traffic jam. It literally took us an hour and a half to make a normally 20 minute ride due to everyone emptying the canyon. But, I have to say, I glad it was after skiing cuz that kept me in a somewhat decent mood.

We also went ICE SKATING. There are some things in life that I wish I could do better, but ice skating just isn't one of them. I've been usually once or twice a year but it generally hurts my calves and feet and so I can't go for long periods. I haven't fallen down in a long time though and it is fun- but only for a limited time. William wanted to go again as well and fortunately, he has some of the same issues and so we probably were only skating for less an an hour. Just enough to have fun and get our fill before our feet were totally killing us.

PIONEER THEATER COMPANY: This is one of the hidden treasures of Salt Lake. This is the theater company up at the University of Utah and my family has had season tickets there for probably over 15 years. The acting is always superb, except sometimes the plays themselves (writing, theme, etc) aren't all that great. The most recent play was "The Foreigner" and my dad, mom, and Sarah saw it and my dad in particular said that it was the best and funniest play that he had seen since Hayfever. Mind you, Hayfever was probably over 10 years ago, so this meant it was a great play. So, he kindly bought me, William and Cynthia tickets to see it. And it was hilarious! And the actors truly had such great comedic timing. If you ever get a chance to see a performance of this play- see it because it is just hilarious.

UTAH MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS: This is another little gem that has had some great traveling exhibits. It's at the University of Utah as well and admission is usually $5 but they had a special event the day we went so we got in for free. They had a great exhibit entitled "Andy Warhol's Dream America" with a large number of his paintings. I like much of Andy Warhol's work, but I thought that they did a terrible job of showcasing his work. He has these paintings he has done in slightly different styles to make a series. They are most powerful when they are all organized in a big grouping side by side (usually in a big rectangle or square). But, the way they organized this collection, many of the series was just strewn out all over the wall, making the impact less powerful and more difficult to make comparisons. They have some of his famous Campbell Soup Can series and I tried for 15 minutes to convince William of their value and importance for influencing art and he just didn't get it. Well, he understood it but still thought it was pretty lame. My favorites from this series were the shoes one. Each canvas had some diamond dust on them- creating a great sparkling effect. My favorite one was of the different black colored shoes- the coloring and textured contrast was really interesting. I learned something at this exhibit about Andy Warhol that I never knew before. Warhol was scheduled to speak at the University of Utah and he came and was just even more bizzare and stand-offish than normal and really didn't even answer any of the audience questions. Well, one of the students had attended a different Warhol lecture and knew that it wasn't the REAL Andy Warhol- it was a stand in! It turns out that Warhol had done this same thing at 6 other university talks that he had given! I have to say that's pretty low- to me, its kind of in the same category as a singer lip-syncing to a cd at a concert. But, hey I guess at least the concert attenders got to see what the artist looked like- they students didn't even get that much of an opportunity.

PHEW! I hope now you can see some of all the wonderful activities that Utah has to offer. It was a fun but busy trip for us and there are still a few more adventures to come . . .