be a tourist in my home community

a friend wanted to run an errand up to Evanston Wyoming, the first town in Wy after you leave UT on I-80. We picked a nice clear Sunday in the autumn, had breakfast in SLC and then drove up to WY. We accomplished the errand and then explored the town a bit. First thing….it was real hard to find a nice place to eat on a Sunday. We dismissed McD’s etc. Actually we had a hard time finding anything else at all, Sunday or no. We ended up at a hotel restaurant. We think perhaps it IS the best place in town. We had a nice meal with a great server, but if you know other places worth checking out in Evanston, we’d like to know about them. Then we drove around town a bit. It’s an ok place, but we decided it was too quiet for our liking. We drove back home a different way….over to the canyon that took us down into Ogden. All said it was a very nice way to spend a beautiful autumn Sunday afternoon.

I didn’t take any pictures but today a friend and I went up there for the day. We began at Deer Valley for the rug sale for the Adopt a Native Elder program. We attended the veterans honoring ceremony. Then we went into town for lunch and a walk around.

Last weekend Snowbird resort gave rides in the tram to people who brought in food donations. My friend and I went up there. It was a beautiful day. Some people are already skiing and some people were hiking up the runs at Alta with snowboards (Alta doesn’t allow snowboards).

This is another part of the Jordan River Parkway. It needs maintenance, but I doubt it will get it anytime soon because of budget constraints.

For my celebrant class I had to walk a labyrinth. I found this one along the Jordan River Parkway. It was kind of a sad labyrinth. It was out in the open sunshine and I don’t think anybody goes there. There was gang graffiti on it. I think maybe it was a good idea that didn’t work out as well as it could.

I finally found my way to the Jordan River Parkway. This is on the near west side of town so I have to drive there which is why I guess I haven’t been there yet. It’s a greenbelt along the river with a fairly long walking / bike path. There are a lot of sports places along the way…playgrounds, tennis courts, skateboard parks, soccer fields. It’s a nice oasis in the city.

Lately I’ve been deciding to take roads that I don’t usually use just to see where they go, what’s on them. So far I haven’t found anything very interesting, but at least now I know for myself. One road, an earlier exit off the freeway that I usually use, goes through an industrial/ commercial part of town….now I know. Yesterday I took a US highway further than I usually do. It turned out to be rather boring, nearly all through ranch land, and I didn’t even see things like ranch homes, cattle, birds, telephone poles even. Just rolling hills of grass. Now I happen to appreciate grassland, but it can be rather uninteresting when you’re just speeding by in the car, wondering how far it is until you see something different, let alone get to your destination. So now I know that taking that part of that road isn’t very scenic and mostly adds time and extra gas used up to my trip. I’m sure I’ll keep experimenting with this. Someday I’ll be surprised at what I find.

My little town has one of those old opera houses from the turn of the last century. Used to be the center of the town and all that. Ours had a big fire quite some time ago which did it in for awhile, but in the past several years it’s gradually being restored. They have to work on the guts first and do most of it with grant money. The place still looks like someplace that had a big fire. But it now has a new state of the art, energy efficient heating system, new wiring, new plumbing and bathrooms, stuff like that. The lobby has been painted up to look decent. The seats are pretty new.

Now we had a group of classical musicians from another state here in residence for about a month. Today I heard their first concert. It was really good. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the series.

If you have a bit of $$$$ to spare and you want to have a ski (or other) vacation in Park City, I highly recommend the Stein Eriksen Lodge. Now, the lowest price room on the web site was over $500 / night, so you do need some cash to sleep there, but you also can do like my friend and I did and just spend the day.

We began with the famous Sunday buffet. It’s probably the best one I have ever had. All kinds of super delicious food, beautifully presented. You can linger and eat and eat and eat. It cost $45, but I know places in town that cost that much where the food and service aren’t anywhere near as good. The buffet can be a one meal for the whole day deal.

Then we paid $25 in order to use the spa. Pedicures there cost $98 and massages I think were in the vicinity of $200, but we got to spend the whole day using all the water we wanted. We began with the outdoor hot tub and waterfall and then moved into the heated outdoor pool where you could watch the skiers. Eventually we made it to the indoor hot tub, the steam room and sauna, as well as the little inglenooks by the fireplace and the tea bar. We were there for about 4 hours I think. I didn’t have a massage, but I felt like such a relaxed noodle by the time we were done, I might as well had have one. This is a deal. I wonder if maybe other spas ahve thi skind of service. It’s worth asking.

I accidently found this tiny park one day while walking in the Avenues. It’s named after a famous local woman around here. She was an educated woman physician who founded education programs for woman to become midwives so that childbirth would be safe. She was a sister-wife who went out to earn a living to support the family. By all reports she was dedicated to the health and welfare of women and children. This park is tiny, the size of a small house lot, which it probably was at one time. The sign says that Dr. Ship’s home office was a few blocks away in the Avenues.