A Chronicle of My Trip to Salt Lake City

Hello! I am sorry that I have been so neglectful and have not posted pictures of my trip, yet. My sister actually emailed me and demanded that I do so - so, it wasn't quite a demand, but every suggestion from a big sister seems very commanding. I will rectify the situation and chronicle my trip for you all in words and images.

I arrived in SLC several hours before Michele, so I called my friend Cindy and convinced her to take the afternoon off to play with me. Since I was hungry, I asked Cindy to take me to a Utahian restaurant. Here we are at a wonderful Mexican restaurant just after we finished eating our vegetarian burritos. Bet you didn't know Utah was famous for its Mexican food - neither did Utah!

While we were still at the restaurant, Michele called and said she was on her way, so Cindy and I headed to my hotel to await Michele's arrival. Little did we know that her trainer, Mike, has a teeth brushing fetish and needed to stop on the way to brush! So, Cindy and I waited a while.

They finally arrived, but I cannot post the picture of Michele when she first arrived. Let me just tell you, she had been on the road for two months without our beloved barber, Willie, and she hadn't showered in about a week! To my eyes, at the time, she was a rainbow, an ocean, just perfectly lovely. Looking at the picture now, however, she was quite a bit worse for wear!

Before Michele and Mike got their much needed showers, we all crowded into the truck so that I could see how Michele has been and will be living for the next while. It is really cool in there! Of course, I don't have to live there, but it was neat for a visit! They even let me drive! OK, so maybe the truck wasn't running and I didn't actually move anywhere, but sitting with my feet on the pedals and my hands on the wheel sure felt like driving to me!

That evening, Cindy took us to the best vegan restaurant - the same one Michele blogged about when she was in Utah last. Ahhh, yummm! Cindy ordered just as much food as the last time and we all enjoyed and got fuller than full!!

The next morning, Michele and I were on our own. We set out on an adventure to find, what else, a Starbucks! Every time we asked the GPS to take us to one it lead us to an office building, the airport, and even to the Temple! The fourth time was the charm and Michele got her coffee.

We then headed to CR England to get Michele a haircut. As I mentioned before, she really, really needed one after two months on the road. On the left is my lovely lady before her haircut by that oh so nice barber. And here she is after! What a difference! She says she felt like herself again.

After Michele's haircut, Cindy took us to Park City and we had a ball. It was snowing and beautiful. We could see the skiers and snowboarders livin' it up. For some reason, Cindy and Michele became fascinated with every set of stairs that we saw and we had to climb them all. I still don't know what the fascination was, but, oh, what a view once we reached the top - every time!

While in Park City, we rode a trolley, had fresh squeezed OJ and caramel apples - though vegan Cindy just had a plain apple on a stick and professed it extra delicious because it was on a stick! - sat and took pictures with every animal statue we saw, including a moose with painted toe nails and sequined eyelashes, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

We ended the tour of Utah with a trip to The Great Salt Lake. I felt it was important to ingest some salt from the Great Salt Lake - though my companions did not agree. I tasted it twice and it didn't taste as salty as I thought it would - boy, I hope that was salt I ate!! I also wanted to stick our feet in the water, but Michele and Cindy would only agree to a finger, so I contented myself with that.

After we left the lake, we had another yummy dinner (at Jeremiah's favorite restaurant - we missed you!!), after which the server rubbed my belly - what can I say, they are friendly in Utah - and then we all went back to the hotel and did Michele's laundry! It was actually very fun. At this point in time, the battery in my camera died and I intended to charge it in the room to have it ready for our last day in Utah. Of course, in all the rabble rousing in the laundry room, I forgot to do that, so the whole next day I used Michele's camera and she has all the pictures! We had a ball, though. We went to a lovely church full of wonderful - and, of course, friendly - people, then went to a park for a walk, but it was too cold, so we just sat in the car and talked. That afternoon and evening we spent with Cindy and her very, VERY big family at the birthday party of one of her younger sisters. On the way to the party, Michele and I stopped at a Joann's to get supplies to make Ellen a card. It was the tiniest Joann's I have ever seen - it actually looked like a Goodwill store, so Michele and I called it the Joann's Thrift Store!

We couldn't help but have fun with Cindy's family. Each sibling gets to pick what they want for dinner on their birthday and Ellen chose a Salad Bar! What providence that three vegetarians would be attending!

All in all, my trip and visit with Michele - and Cindy - was perfect! I thoroughly enjoyed myself and hope you enjoy it through this blog!