8/28/2011

Salt Lake City

I think I fall in a different camp from most people when it comes to vacation.  I am always ready to go home by the end.  I remember being on a cruise and walking off the boat after 7 days and everyone around me talking about how they couldn't believe it was over, well, I could, I was so ready to be at my own house with my things.  I'm sure that sounds terrible but it's the truth, I'm a homebody.  And Friday was the day I hit the wall in Utah.  It's no ones fault but my own but I had just had enough of living from a suitcase and doing just about everything as a group.  My plan was to keep my mouth shut and go with flow all day but I think everyone could tell I was off.  

I started the morning with some oatmeal, I tossed in brown sugar and banana (340 calories), which I forgot to take a picture of.  

We were on the road to Salt Lake City a little while later.  It's about a 45 minute drive and while I don't think anyone was all about visiting the temple, etc we thought it was something you should do just because you're in the area.  We found parking in a garage and exited the elevator into a very large bookstore.  It was like a whole different world, starting with the way everyone was dressed, Shana and I felt extremely out of place in our shorts and tank tops.  While perusing the tables and shelves I noticed I didn't recognize any of the titles on the DVDs and books, not one.  When we finally rounded up our crew and headed out into the city, we noticed something strange, a light post with established 2012 printed on it.  Shana was particularly disturbed because how can something be established in the future?  A little while later we learned that it's a building that's opening in March...still weird though.
Next we headed into Temple square.  We started at the visitors center hoping we'd get an idea of what to see.  But it was a little different then what we anticipated, there weren't banks of pamphlets or anything.  There were a few displays about the Mormon religion and a few about the building of the temple but other then that there were missionaries from all over the world offering to educate us on the religion and area.  We passed on an actual guided tour but decided to head over to the Tabernacle for an organ recital. 
The show was only about a half an hour long and while it wasn't my kind of music it was an experience and the architecture was absolutely beautiful.
After the show we headed closer to the temple to take more pictures.  We had seen a few brides from a distance while wandering around earlier but we weren't prepared for what we encountered when we rounded the building.  There were at least 8 brides & grooms wandering around getting pictures taken.  I starting snapping away.  Here are three brides I caught all in one shot.
The bride below on the left had our favorite dress of the bunch.  It had three dimensional flowers all over the skirt.
Joe & Bill photo bombed this couple.  They were actually trying to find a way around the building and then got trapped in the corner with no way out but through the couple's pictures.
It was too funny!  We couldn't get over it, every time we turned around there was another couple!
Eventually we got a tired of battling the crowds of wedding guests and headed around to another garden area and took some more pictures.  I love that Joe's such a professional.  I just don't think to get down on the ground for a better shot.


There wasn't a whole lot else to see at this point and like I said none of us were super gung-ho to spend a lot of time there anyway.  My mom started to get hungry so we went in search of a snack.  On our way we came to the Lion House & Beehive House which were Brigham Young's home and office.  
By this point it was almost 2pm and we were all getting hungry.  Bill had read a blog post about delicious burgers at a biker bar called Lucky 13.  While I was a little nervous about going to a biker bar I figured it was the middle of the afternoon, how scary could it be?
It wasn't scary at all.  Apparently this place has gained a lot of notoriety after being featured on Man vs Food and I'm guessing they'd had a lot of different clientele recently.  We were surprised because we were all carded at the door even my mom, uncle & Lynda. 
I order the celestial burger with smoked bacon, grilled onions, cheddar cheese and BBQ sauce.  Seriously, it was the BEST burger I've ever eaten.  Totally worth all 720 calories!  
I checked my fitbit at this point to see how I was doing step wise and about had a heart attack when it wouldn't display anything.  I couldn't believe I broke another one!  But after a few minutes I realized I've been wearing it to sleep every night and it hadn't been charged in forever.  I continued to wear it hoping it was still counting my steps and just conserving battery power by not displaying anything.  Plus, my mom wears a fitbit so I figured I could always just use her totals if need be since we were going all the same places.  

Our next stop was the great salt lake.  We were hoping to go to Antelope Island
We all took off our shoes and waded out a little bit.  It didn't get very deep and we were out further then almost everyone else around.  I'm guessing since we're from the beach we weren't as timid.

After splashing around for a little while we had our fill and headed for home.  As soon as we got to the house I plugged in my fitbit and was happy to see that it had been working after all!  And I had all of my steps for the day!  I left it plugged in for an hour or so then stuck in back on.  It has been acting a little funny since though, it keeps going into activity mode without my telling it to, not the end of the world, I just switch it back out.  After that it was a pretty mellow evening.  Everyone was full from lunch so we didn't do any kind of formal dinner in fact I just snacked on some strawberries and cool whip (117 calories).
Finally we brought out the Jello-O shots.  My sister & Lynda did Jello-O shots at a party a few years back and it's always been a joke because Lynda was Shana's 6th grade teacher.  Anyway, we knew we had to make some shots while we were in Utah.
Shana hadn't been feeling well on Wednesday so I took it upon myself to make the Jello-O for them.  It was raspberry flavored and I added a dollop of cool whip so they were extra fancy.  (170 calories)
That was about it for the day.  We went to bed at a decent hour and just had a relaxing night at home.
1. 15 Spend Free Days:  10 days total. 
2. Breakfast: 340 calories + Lunch: 720 calories + Dinner: 0 calories + Snacks: 285 calories = 2177 burned - 11345 eaten = -832 total burned, 13 days total.
3. Complete 1250 fitness minutes: 491 total.
4. Walk at least 10,000 steps for 25 days:  11953 steps.  22 days total. 
5. At least 20 days with 30 minutes of house work:  9 days total.

1 comment:

  1. i am the same way when i go on vacation!! i get to a point where i just want to be home.....of course after i am home a few weeks i am ready for another vacation :)

    ReplyDelete