Utah in a Nutshell.

I haven't blogged yet from Utah, and I apologize. This part of my trip has been way more laid-back than the Chicago part, and I had ample time, but I think I was just too busy hanging out and chilling to really get to it. But now I will.

We arrived in Utah on Saturday, which now feels like a lifetime ago. I love how time goes so much slower when you are away from home and having fun. Anyway, once our plane landed in Salt Lake City, we rented a car, and I drove twisty mountain roads (it was a little scary!) to arrive in Mount Pleasant, Utah.

We spent the first night catching up with our friends Sandra (Go9) and her husband Jason. We even went out for ice cream at the Shave 'N Cream. As soon as we drove by this place, I died laughing at the name, and knew I had to go. We went the first night and got a tonne of ice cream for $7.50. I asked for a single scoop of ice cream (cost = $1) and got three giant scoops. And yes, I checked, and that was indeed a single scoop. After that I was on a giant sugar high, and composed a song in the car.

On Sunday, we took a long ride out to Arches National Park. It took almost three hours to get there, but it was worth it. Utah's a big state.

Here's a picture of a lookout that we stopped at:

Here's one of the arches at the park. I forget which one it is.

We then hiked up to the arch and climbed in it. Can you spot 1/3 of the Go9?

Here I am walking towards another arch. I've also forgotten the name of this one.

Monday and Tuesday were spent just chilling around town. We went for a road-trip to the nearest "big" city (Provo: an hour's drive away) to go to Best Buy. I thought I'd broken my camera near the end of my hike in the park. I got some sand in the lens and it wouldn't go in and out any more, but it worked again by the time we got to Provo. We still did some shopping, and everyone else bought new electronics except me.

On Monday evening, I cooked my awesome veggie chili for dinner, and we had a nice meal with the very classy wine that Vern and I brought from Chicago. We bought it at Walgreen's one night with the intent of drinking it in our hotel room, but that never happened, so it came to Utah with us. We had a nice campfire in the backyard, made s'mores, and then we girls stayed up talking past 2 am.

Vern and I left Mount Pleasant at noon today, and drove to Park City, where we'll be spending the next two nights. Before we left town, one last stop at the Shave 'N Cream was needed, as well as a photo of us, the sign, and our rental car taken with the self-timer on my now-alive camera.

The drive to Park City was very scenic, with many mountains, lakes, and twisty roads. I'm getting pretty good at this mountain driving, I tell you. After we checked into our hotel, we drove to Main Street and spent the evening wandering around, doing a little shopping, and having a nice supper of some pretty yummy pepperoni pizza. Here's a picture of Main Street:

Tomorrow we have lots on our plate: perhaps a scenic train ride, a visit to an Olympic site where Vern's going to force me to zipline, and then we will head off to Salt Lake City to meet up with The Grunt! I'm excited!

Hope you're all having great weeks. I will hopefully get in a post from NYC, and I will definitely have to backtrack at some point and post pictures from Chicago!

p.s. Vern was commenting that my Utah post is way longer than my Chicago post. That's because that one was from my iPhone, and this one's from my laptop. Yay for hotels with free wi-fi!