Hello!
Up this morning about 6, and down to “pick up” breakfast about 7. It’s basically just cold choices; no hot food available at all. We basically picked up orange juice and coffee for R, and headed back upstairs to see what was left from our picnic yesterday. Fortunately, when we shop for picnics, I always buy too much food … which R says isn’t possible, so we still have plenty now!
We really didn’t have a lot specifically that we wanted to see/do in SLC, but one of the things that I definitely had on the list was visiting a Harmons Grocery, an institution in Utah since 1932, with stores in the metropolitan Salt Lake City area plusa few in St. George. When we were here in the area last year visiting friends Jeff and Nancy, we fell in love with Harmons. It would be the equivalent of the size of a Safeway or Albertsons, but with incredible Harmons store-made brands, other local products, and goodies of all kinds. There are Whole Foods here in SLC, but I don’t know how they would even begin to compete with Harmons. It would truly be fun (and expensive!) to live close to one. They have their own ceramics line, which is like something you’d normally see in a Home Goods store! All sorts of fun things to look at! The first one we visited was in a really lovely neighborhood (seemed to us that most of SLC are really lovely neighborhoods! Lots of brick and many bungalow-style houses with beautiful front porches; lovely trees everywhere, and lots of variety of architecture.) The second Harmons we hit was a bigger store with correspondingly more things to buy! Robert found some very interesting “red” rice that we now are bringing home, although I don’t think the jarred Kalamata olives or sun-dried tomatoes will make it far out of town.
At 10 we were at the University of Utah Natural Science Museum. The building is lovely, and some of the exhibits were excellent … it’s just that we both realized while we were walking through the exhibits – that we both found it kind of boring! Not exactly sure why that was, so we finished going through the exhibits rather quickly, and headed for the great outdoors!
That’s when I asked R if we could go to Garden City UT. Let me explain. One of the best things I have ever tasted was last summer’s raspberry shake, for which Garden City is renowned. And, a month or so ago, when I was thinking of a trip north, one of the best incentives for me was getting another shake – true confessions here! I had rather put this trip together figuring we could get there at some point, either before we got to Boise or after Thayne WY. However, on the Weather Channel’s morning report, it appears that there is a blast of winter weather headed our way on Tuesday! Temperatures are apparently scheduled to drop something like 50-70 degrees from Tuesday to Wednesday. (And let me also go on record that I didask R if I should pack sweaters or warm jackets … which it looks like we may be needing soon, only to have him say, a cross between “Why bother and no need!”). So … we have our t-shirts and our light jackets and our blue jeans. So … at least our legs will be warm!
So, as we left the museum, R plotted the route to Garden City. It’s about 2½ hours away but one thing that we hadn’t reckoned on was 3-day-holiday-weekend traffic! Wow! It felt like driving into Paris on August 1, when most of Paris is heading out of town! Lots of mountain-road driving but eventually we found ourselves winding down into the valley that is Garden City on the shores of Bear Lake. We were able to find the same place we went last year, only this time there was quite a crowd waiting in line and waiting for food!
When it was our turn to order, we got two grilled cheese sandwiches, an order of French fries, and two large raspberry shakes. To say the service was slow would be an understatement … R, bless his heart first got our food, and brought it to me, saving some spaces at a shady picnic table. It was taking so long to get our shakes, though, that I ate my sandwich and a portion of the wonderful fries and still he didn’t come back. Finally, I left the places to go relieve him so that he could eat his sandwich and fries while they were still warm. And at long last – and I’m thinking at least 20+ minutes, out came our shakes!
R, who was feeling a bit “this isn’t worth it” about the entire situation, quickly revived and agreed that – those shakes are definitely “merit un detour”! So, it’s possible we may go back through Garden City after Thayne WY, but if we don’t, or if it’s too cold for a raspberry shake, we had a great lunch today!
Because of all the traffic, R suggested a route back to SLC going south through Wyoming and then heading west to the hotel. We had it great, as there was not very much traffic at all – going in our direction. I’ve taken some photos of the traffic jam heading out of town – with bikes, kayaks, RV’s, boats and ATV’s – figuring some of those people may be there all night! Oh well!
Got back to the hotel just at 5 pm and we are so full from lunch (which we didn’t eat until somewhere around 2!) that we will definitely be in for the night, watching tennis! Thank heavens for the U.S. Open!
Tomorrow, on to Boise ID!
Much love,
m
xxx
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