made it to 209

Finally, we got some snow.  A decent storm rolled through Tuesday night through Thursday morning, leaving 3-5 inches in the valley and a nice 44" up at Alta.  My commute home Wednesday evening was a little gnarly: although there wasn't that much snow, the roads were icy and there were multiple slide-offs and crashes to avoid in my dependable little Subaru.  This brings the base depth at Alta to 93" and their accumulation to date to 209".  That's pretty meager for almost end-of-February, but we'll take it.

Clear and cold to start

All the skiers, of course, collectively lost their minds and it was crazy-busy up in the Cottonwood Canyons.  Snowbird had to close their parking lots - full - by 7:30 a.m. Friday morning.  And H, figuring it would be a madhouse, got up even earlier and took the first ski bus of the day, snagging the next-to-last seat at 6:10 a.m.  On the ride up the canyon, the driver of the 6:30 bus came on over the radio, saying that after the very first stop, they were completely full; over in Big Cottonwood Canyon, the bus driver reported leaving 70 people behind after filling his bus.  The Goldminer's Daughter Lodge was packed by 7:30 a.m.  Lift lines were ludicrous, with the Supreme singles line wrapping around one side of Alf's Lodge and the Sugarloaf singles line wrapping around the other side.  Best snow of the season - practically the only snow of the season.

Meanwhile, down in the valley, A and M did their five mile Dimple Dell walk; A also later walked to our local library to restock.  There were house chores (laundry, vacuuming, changing sheets), some baking (vegan hermits) and some cooking (Tuscan-style multi-bean soup, veganized arugula pesto, cashew cream and Mexican-style black beans for burrito bowls for dinner).

#shoplocal

H and I aren't big spenders, and the current pandemic has curtailed our spending even more.  But small businesses need all our help, especially as we head into winter.  The big boxes and Am@zon don't need our money - the local folks do.  With that in mind, here are just a handful of the locally-owned businesses that H and I like to give our money to - please feel free to do the same.

Grid City Beerworks - Our new favorite regular place, they opened mid-March 2020.  You read that right.  The beer is terrific, the food is very good (lots of vegan options) and when their dog-friendly roof deck finally opens - they're just waiting on permitting right now - Milton can't wait to go make new friends.

Saltfire Brewing - Another new discovery for us, Saltfire has higher octane brews than we usually drink, but we loved their Lupulin Dew Pale Ale.  They've got a brewery cat, a dog-friendly patio AND if you live outside of Utah, you can order their beers to be shipped!  They also sell coffee, available online as well.

Sticks + Stones Design - I got an enameled Utah necklace for my recent birthday and also have a pair of earrings.  Her designs are beautiful and simple and somehow just remind me of Utah's landscape.

The King's English Bookshop - Support your local bookstores, y'all!  I love TKE and have been shopping there for years.  Even pre-pandemic, I could order online and then pick up in the store, without paying for shipping.  Love me a bookstore.

Fishers Cyclery - Road, mountain and e-bikes.  Not open Sundays but they're been in SLC since 1930.  Great service and we've bought all our bikes there.

Salt Peaks Snowboard and Skate Shop - Snow- and skateboards, plus gear and accessories.  They were super-nice when we went in to get H a skateboard helmet, despite the fact that we were way older than anyone else in the shop;

A. Fisher Brewing Co. - Yes, there is a lot of beer on this list.  My heart goes out to all the little breweries.  The Fisher taproom is still closed but their patio is open, plus to-go beer sales. And they've got a full online merch store now too.

Western Nut Company - In business since 1966, Western Nut Company has amazing products - nuts, brittles, candies, chocolates - and I go every year for the holidays.  Their brittles are delicious!

Dancing Cranes Imports - Dancing Cranes Imports reminds me of what Pier 1 used to be, back when it was smaller.  There's jewelry, clothing, home decor, crystals, essential oils, etc.  They have an online store now although it doesn't look like clothing is available that way.

#shoplocal

such a slow start

I'm not complaining about the snow - I'm really not.  We had a fantastic ski season and all this snow (Snowbird reported still having a 109" base on Memorial Day weekend) means good things for our water supply.  BUT.  But all the snow still in the mountains means a slow start to the hiking season.  I don't like post-holing and I don't like wet feet.  I guess I'll just have to wait.  In addition, the Saturday of the holiday weekend was still pretty chilly.  The weekend before I had optimistically taken the comforter off the bed to segue to summer sleeping.  H pointed out the forecast (40s, 50s and 60s) and I promptly put the comforter back on.  Brrrrr.  Saturday was a beautiful day as the cold front moved out but temperatures still didn't get above 68.  That's fine if you're in the sun.  It's cool otherwise.  So H went for a road ride and got chilled; and I went for a run and didn't overheat in the slightest.

Pre-

I also dragged out the dehydrator to do some strawberries.  (That machine cranks out a lot of heat so we usually only use it once the weather turns cold.)  Strawberries had been on sale at the grocery store.  It's still a little early for them so they weren't fabulous, but they were certainly good enough to dry.  Every time I use the dehydrator, I can't believe how much the food shrinks down.  Four full trays of fresh, sliced strawberries dehydrated down to a half a ziploc bag's worth.  And for all they weren't the very best berries, the end result was chewy and very sweet, with a concentrated strawberry flavor.  Who needs candy when you've got this stuff?

Post-

six years

H and I are celebrating our move-iversary: six year ago today we arrived in Salt Lake City.  We had hoped to get out and hit the trails - the unseasonably warm weather has departed and it is finally feeling more fall-like - but the Wasatch Front has been covered in clouds with the mountain forecast comprised of words like "periods of rain" and "rain likely."  I will hike in the rain if I'm caught out in it but I have difficulty convincing myself to go out once the rain has started.  Instead, we've been doing laundry, mowing the lawn, weeding, making brownies - rainy day stuff; going to the Porcupine is also on the list because that's how we roll.

Looking back at this last year (and our "year" goes from October through September), it seems a little quieter than some of our other years, with hardly any snow, fewer guests and fewer excursions.  In a nutshell (with links to the month's posts:

October 2014:  MTBing, hiking and a visit from A's folks

November 2014:  Hiking, wine-making, sewing a coat for B, Opening Day at Alta, skiing, a Thanksgiving visit from H's folks, A's Thanksgiving morning Cold Turkey run

December 2014:  Skiing, Christmas, saying goodbye to our B

January 2015:  Skiing          

February 2015: Skiing (including East Castle), very warm temperatures

March 2015:  Skiing                                      April 2015:  End of skiing

May 2015:  Long weekend in Moab, hiking

June 2015:  MTBing, A's Crack of Dawn road race, hiking, visit from our friend R

July 2015:  MTBing, a trip back east, hiking, kalimotxo

August 2015:  MTBing, A's trail-running attempt, hiking, Tour of Utah, Herbie attempt

September 2015:  MTBing, hiking (including getting back to the Uintas), XTERRA

That's not too shabby, I guess, although we really had hoped to have gone camping several times (and ended up not going at all).  We'll just have to try to pick up the pace for this next year!  And if you're interested: Here's a link to the post I did last move-iversary, which in turn links to highlights from our first five years.

kalimotxo

H and I are soccer fans, enjoying the fact that Salt Lake City has its own team, Real Salt Lake (who are doing terribly right now, by the way).  We watched a lot of the men's and women's World Cups and we have gotten into the British Premier League.  We even have our own BPL teams to root for: he's for Arsenal and I like Swansea, the only remaining Welsh team.

While watching the most recent men's World Cup, we were introduced to Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, also known as Men In Blazers, and then once the World Cup was over, we kept watching their BPL recap show on t.v.  Some people find their shtick tiresome but we think it's just the right amount of bonkers.  (H does miss a lot of their pop culture references; I explain where I am able.)  When we learned that the Esquire channel had hired them to cover the annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, we knew we'd watch, despite not really having much foreknowledge of or interest in the event.

We've learned a lot, actually, because Rog and Davo have done a good job of adding historical and cultural context, including lots of interviews with notable Spanish and American bull-runners, Pamplonan restaurateurs and local figures, all in between calling play-by-plays of the action and being dutifully horrified at the gorings.  For the record, they seem to be on the bulls' side more often than not, especially when the runners display above average idiocy.  One thing they've been doing with each episode is featuring a local beverage or food.  One that piqued our interest was kalimotxo, a half and half mixture of red wine and regular Coca-Cola.  It's a recently developed beverage, starting in the Basque region of Spain, and the revelers at the Sanfermines festival and encierro, a/k/a the running of the bulls in Pamplona, drink it by the liters.

"Poor man's sangria," you betcha

We tried it and ... amazingly, it isn't that bad, with a sangria sort of feel to it.  Even the New York Times is on board.  We didn't drink enough of it to kill the whole two liter bottle of regular Coke I bought, but it was certainly quaffable.  (Next up?  The Men in Blazers also have been enjoying the uniquely Basque combination of chocolate milk and cognac ...)

candy land

I'm not a huge USA Today fan but I do love the Pop Candy pop culture blog written by Whitney Matheson (what a dream job!).  She's been running a feature where folks can guest-write a post about their city, "The Pop Traveler."  I submitted one for SLC but didn't get selected, unfortunately.  But a guy named Dan Nailen did and he did a great job of why Salt Lake City is secretly happening: click on through and check it out.

around the state

What's going on in Utah these days?  (Yes, this is a filler post since we haven't gone skiing nor done much interesting lately.)

The Sundance Film Festival started today, in Park City and its surrounds.  H and I didn't bother trying to get any tickets to anything because we don't like crowds and H can't generally stay awake in movie theaters anyway.  I do keep an eye on the Trib's Sundance blog, however, and make lists of films that I want to see if/when they get released wider.

Miss Utah may not have won the Miss America title, but there's a Utahn on the latest season of Survivor: One World, if anyone cares.

And yes, we finally got some snow: Alta is reporting 15" in the last twenty-four hours, and there are supposed to be several more storms hitting the mountains over the next several days.  It's not enough, but it's a start.  Maybe we'll ski this weekend!

research

In my last post, I mentioned that H had done extensive research to determine which greater SLC area bar would play host to our post-turkey trot beer.  The man is nothing if not thorough: he called twenty-five bars (since 25 is a nice round number).  In full disclosure, we have not been to all of these places (which include brewpubs, dive bars, sports bars, regular bars, dueling piano bars and a strip club), but instead only present this as a sampling of what is available should you wish a beer outside your SLC home on Thanksgiving.  Here are the results:

• the Porcupine - CLOSED
• the Canyon Inn - CLOSED
• Lumpy's - OPEN AT 6:00 PM
• Maggie McGee's - OPEN AT 10:00 AM
• the Fox Hole - CLOSED
• the Hog Wallow  - no answer/probably closed
• the Cotton Bottom - CLOSED
• A Bar Named Sue - CLOSED
• Squatters - CLOSED
• Red Rock Brewing Co. - CLOSED
• Hopper's - CLOSED
• the Beer Hive - CLOSED
• the Highlander Club - OPEN AT 11:00 AM
• the Green Pig Pub - OPEN AT 5:00 PM
• the Bar In Sugarhouse - OPEN AT 6:00 PM
• the Desert Edge - CLOSED
• Green Street - CLOSED
• Gracie's - OPEN AT 5:00 PM
• X-Wife's Place - OPEN AT 6:00 PM
• the Tavernacle - no answer/connection
• Fiddler's Elbow - CLOSED
• Keys on Main - CLOSED
• Club Allure - CLOSED
• the Huddle Sports Bar - OPEN AT 6:00 PM
• Lumpy's Downtown - recording/no information

knowledge is power

Since it's been so light on posting of late, both here and at WWW's sister-blog, I'm doubling up and using the same post on both sites.  It's totally cheating, of course, but they're my blogs and I can do what I want.

In our explorations of Utah, we've relied on a number of sources of information: word of mouth, newspaper articles and, mostly, guidebooks.  Here's what our Utah-centric library looks like right now:

• The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns by Stephen L. Carr
• Insider's Guide to Salt Lake City (4th edition, but a treasure trove of information regardless)
• Frommer's Utah (a going-away present from MSM - thanks again, MSM!)
• Moon Handbooks - Utah (found in a used bookstore and not that helpful because it's old)
• 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles - Salt Lake City by Greg Witt (we've done so many of these that we're wishing there was a volume 2, 60 More Hikes Within 60 Miles)
• Hiking the Wasatch by John Veranth (not quite as detailed as 60 Hikes)
• Roadside History of Utah by Cynthia Larsen Bennett
• Best Easy Day Hikes: Canyonlands and Arches by Bill Schneider (2nd ed., a Falcon Guide booklet)
• and two Pocket Naturalist pamphlets, Utah Trees and Wildflowers; and Utah Birds

Click on over to the other blog if you're interested in any of these books - there are links over there directly to Amazon.

not much happenin' here

Sorry it's been so empty around here but we really haven't been doing anything post-worthy: workin', goin' to the gym, doin' laundry, walkin' the dog.  The ski areas are starting to open, however, so soon enough we'll have that to share with you.

The Salt Lake Tribune recently had a list of fifty websites that are all about Utah and what this state has to offer - click here to get to the list.  I haven't checked all of them out yet but there's a wealth of information about the Beehive State, perfect for if you're thinking of exploring out here.

That's all I've got ... wish us snow!

cloudy

There hasn't been much posting activity here lately because we actually laid low and didn't do anything this past weekend ... plus I am in SHOCK over not having seen the sun since the weekend.  It's been cloudy and rainy and in the low 60s all week - really quite vulgar.  But the skies will clear and the ground will dry and we'll hit the trails again soon.  Captain Mike even sent us the link to the Wasatch Mountain Club's events calendar so we'll have no excuses at all.

let's do lunch

When I lived back east, I hardly ever went out for lunch, preferring to bring my own and browse the interwebs or chat with coworkers.  That's still my preference in no small part because I'm cheap and I find lunch to be the least interesting meal of the day so why waste money on it.  However, I'm at a new job in a new city and it behooves me to accept lunch-out invitations when they are offered.  Here's where I've been since starting my job on 11/09/09:

• Olive Bistro - Mediterranean bistro/wine bar at 57 West 200 South, SLC
• Caffe Molise - modern Italian at 55 West 100 South, SLC (I had the portobello panini)
• Bay Leaf Cafe - Southern and Asian cuisine at 159 So. Main St., SLC (I had bulgogi)
• Cinegrill - mostly Italian with 1950s booths at 344 South 300 East, SLC (great minestrone!)
• Benihana - at 165 S West Temple, SLC (can you believe I've never been to one of these before?)
• Miramar - dive Mexican at 342 West 1300 South, SLC (shredded pork tamales with chile verde)
• take out from Cafe Rio - Mexican chain (some sort of crispy chicken taco - meh)

I've got my eye on Himalayan Kitchen (my boss's favorite Indian place) so hopefully I'll be adding it to the list sometime in the near-ish future.  Lunch on!

link me, m'dear

Slow A&H&B news week, so all you get is links!

Where East meets West:  a Salt Lake City man got sentenced to 23 years in prison for a two-day robbery spree in Portland, Maine, last February.

I take this woman, and this woman, and this woman ...:  National Geographic's February issue has an article about the Fundamentalist Church of LDS.  In other related news, HBO's Big Love (about a polygamist Utah family) has their season 4 airing now.

Olympians in the house:  in a recently-filmed promo for Nestle Crunch bars, Apolo Ohno speed-skated down the Olympic luge run at Park City.  You can see the promo on YouTube.

Thanks to the Salt Lake Tribune for the above links!

Squatters has updated their web site - very slick!

Sundance A - Z - Deseret News has a handy alphabetical guide to the film festival, which runs January 21-31 in Park City and SLC.  (I will not be attending any of the showings, but I'll make a list and rent 'em when they come out on DVD more later.)

looking forward

Once the ski season kicks into gear, H and I will pretty much put everything else on hold, skiing every weekend until the snow is gone. The converse of this is that when the snow is finally gone, we’ll have all this free time to fill.  In anticipation of this, I’ve started making lists* of as-yet unexplored things that we can dive into come springtime.  Here's some of what you'll see here in future posts:

• Red Iguana – home of the best mole on the planet (I may not be able to wait much longer for this one)
• Caputo’s (Italian) Market and Deli – the SLC version of Miccucci’s
• St. George, Utah
• Mount Timpanogos and its accompanying caves
• Nine Mile Canyon
• Mormon Tabernacle Choir Rehearsal – apparently they open their Thursday evening practices to the public
• The Beerhive
• The Bayou
• Logan, Utah
• Exploring more state parks
• Skyline Drive
• Green River, Utah
• The Beer Nut - since we're blowing our life savings on beer, we might as well get back to making it
• Red Butte Garden
• Lake Powell - houseboats for rent!
• Jordanelle Reservoir
• The Golden Spike National Historic Site

*H is a spreadsheet addict while I am a notes and lists addict, with little scraps of paper all over everywhere, each inscribed with Very Important Things, of course.

two birds posts with one stone book

Over at this blog's big sister blog, there's a review of a book that Captain Mike loaned me - Heart of the Trail: The Stories of Eight Wagon Train Women by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien.  Go check it out!

catching up

Y'all, I'm soooooooooooo sorry for the long delay in posting. It's not that we don't have stuff to share with you, it's that the computer was in the spa enduring an intensive (and expensive) cleanse to rid itself of all the viruses and spyware and crap that COMCAST [stupid jerky @#$%^&* Comcast] exposed us to. But we're back. And lots of upcoming posts to bring you up to speed.

In the meantime, you all should really go check out this blog here. She's a Utah girl who loves the outdoors and who has parlayed that plus her love of writing into an actual career. Plus, she totally commented on two of my posts (!!!!!) so she deserves all the love you can give her. She's in the sidebar of links too.

insider information

A word here about this great book we’ve been using and dog-earing ever since our first trip to Utah: the Insiders’ Guide: Salt Lake City. We have the fourth edition (copyright 2004) and I’m sure there have been updated editions released, but boy, I love this book. It has yet to steer us wrong: Fiddler’s Elbow, Little America Hotel and Towers, Ruth’s Diner, Lone Star Taqueria, Beans and Brews coffee shop, Desert Edge Brewery, Red Rock Brewery, the Shooting Star Saloon (Huntsville), Rooster’s 25th Street Brewing Co. (Ogden), Wasatch Brew Pub (Park City), etc. Aside from the food and drink listings, the book is packed with information on day trips, hikes, skiing, neighborhoods, used bookstores, you name it. Now that we’re here, I think we’d like to pick up a newer edition but in the meantime, this guidebook is our constant companion.

in the interim

I'm pretty stressed about packing - although H assures me everything will be done on time - so I won't be posting much before the Move; and it'll take us a little while to find an apartment and hook back up to the internet once we get to SLC, so please bear with us. (There will be plenty of time for posting once we're settled, however, since I don't have a job yet.)

So to keep you entertained, here are links to posts I wrote about Utah on my other blog, Friend Mouse Speaks:

Our first vacation there in October 2007; an exploration of SLC-area brewpubs; more Utah brewpubs; and a review of Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. There's also a list of things I will and won't miss about Maine which isn't strictly speaking about Utah, but as the reason I will/won't be missing them is because I'm moving to Utah, is sort of related.

There are also some links over there on the left to Utah-specific sites, things that I find interesting and/or worth exploring. I'll definitely be adding to those in the months to come.