#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

highlight reel, part 4

And here's the last couple of years:

October 2016 through September 2017.  Houseguests in October and April.  Trips to Moab in November and May.  The Summer of Cycling with H doing the Porcupine Hill Climb (podium!), the Crusher in the Tushar and the Tour of Utah's Ultimate Challenge.  A quick tour of Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks with H's folks.

October 2017 through September 2018.  Fruita (Colorado) and Moab trip in October.  H racked up 1.1 million vertical feet skiing.  Another trip to Moab in May, this time with a jeep rental.  The Year of Hiking, leading up to the big hike at Bryce Canyon NP.  Volunteering at the Crusher.  A trip to Great Basin National Park, including a hike up Wheeler Peak (13,063 feet above sea level). Our friend P has an extended Utah stay in August and September.

highlight reel, part 3

And more memories from the past ten years:

October 2014 through September 2015.  A's parents come for a visit in October.  H's parents came for a Thanksgiving visit.  We said goodbye to our Becky.  There was, you know, skiing.  We tried Moab in the spring for the first time.  Our friend R visited in the summer.

October 2015 through September 2016.  We went to both Bryce Canyon National Park and Moab in October.  H went full-time telemark and also skied Baldy's Main Chute.  We went to Moab in May, including camping in the Needles district.  We did a 54+ mile MTB on an old rail trail.  H's parents visited in August.  We took an anniversary trip to New Mexico, including the amazing Chaco Canyon.

highlight reel, part 1

Since I'm getting all nostalgic with our tenth move-iversary, I thought I'd do some quick looks back on those first nine years.

October 2009 through September 2010.  We spent the year exploring, checking out canyons and skiing around (before deciding on what would be our mountain).  We hiked Timpanogos for the first time, via the Timpanooeke trail.  We saw our first Utah mountain goats on Ben Lomond.

October 2010 through September 2011.  We got a record 723.5 inches of snow and put our first Alta season passes to good use.  We went to St. George and Zion National Park with H's folks.  We got MTBs.  We had lots of summer visitors.  We went to Trout Creek Guard Station for our tenth wedding anniversary.  We had our first fall trip to Moab.

highlight reel, part 1

In thinking back over our first ten years in Utah, I've enjoyed revisiting some of the highlights.  (Also, it's been kind of rainy so we've been stuck inside not having new adventures.)   Here's some from the way-back machine:

October 2009 through September 2010.  We arrived in Salt Lake City!  We skied around at several different ski resorts before deciding we liked Alta best.  We climbed Timpanogos for the first time via the Timpanoeke trail.  We saw mountain goats on Ben Lomond.

October 2010 through September 2011.  We got the best winter to date, with 723.5 inches of snow, which we put to good use with our Alta season passes.  We went to Zion National Park and St. George.  We got MTBs.  We went out to the Trout Creek Ranger Station for our tenth wedding anniversary.  We started going to Moab.

playing favorites

Last Saturday, on one of our chairlift rides at Alta, H challenged me to name my three favorite hikes from the Year of Hiking we just had.  The Big Hike (a/k/a the Under the Rim trail at Bryce Canyon National Park) didn't count - plus I don't think either of us would have chosen that one: it's gotten better the further we get from it but it was a suffer-fest at the time.

H's favorites were, in no particular order:

1. Emma Ridge
2. Ben Lomond
3. Naturalist Basin

My favorites, with the qualification that I might have to change my mind because I wasn't sure I was remembering them all, were:

1. Emma Ridge
2. Brighton Ridge Run
3. Ben Lomond or Silver Fork/Honeycomb

But when I got the chance to review the list of all the hikes we did, I think I have to replace Brighton with Murphy Hogback.  I just love that one.  I love Canyonlands; I love the views from that hike; I love that so few people are on it, despite it being in a national park.

We found it interesting that we both had Emma Ridge and Ben Lomond on our respective lists, and we liked those hikes for the same reasons.  Emma Ridge was because it was new, with not many people on it, and with a different perspective in an area we know well by now.  Ben Lomond was because it's long but not difficult, because of the views down into Eden and Liberty and because there were not many people on it (hordes of dirtbikers at the end notwithstanding).

It was kind of fun to spend that chairlift ride remembering all the great hiking we just did.  Yes, the mileage we put in was in training for the Under the Rim trail but as it turns out, we got more than just training out of each individual hike.  (Maybe not Alta Dry Fork/Snowbird - I can give that one a rest for a while.)  I do love skiing but I think hiking may be my favorite.

nine years

We've just ticked off another move-iversary: nine years, having arrived in SLC around 3 p.m. on October 3, 2009.  Looking back on our year - which we count as starting in October and finishing in September - what have we done?  Not as much skiing but a lot of hiking - and the hiking isn't done yet.  Here's what we did:

October 2017 - MTBing; hiking (Millcreek Canyon, Park City, Alta); trip to Fruita and Moab

November 2017 - MTBing; hiking (including the annual Sol-Bright hike after the first decent snow); Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

December 2017 - Alta's opening day (finally); some skiing; lots of baking at home because of the low snow conditions; good skiing on Christmas Eve and Christmas day (but cold)

January 2018 - Ski guests come to visit; skiing but very little new snow

February 2018 - Skiing but very little new snow

March 2018 - Skiing, including one storm day where it took H five hours to get up to Alta (for only 15" of new snow)

April 2018 - Skiing; rugby; rain

May 2018 - Closing day for Alta; Moab trip (including jeepin'!); hiking at home early because of the low snow conditions; MTBing

June 2018 - MTBing; hiking (Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Uintas, Ogden), and starting to train in earnest for The Big Hike.

July 2018 - Busy! MTBing; hiking (Alta, Park City, Beaver, Great Basin National Park); volunteering at the Crusher in the Tushar; camping at Great Basin National Park

August 2018 - The Big Hike at Bryce Canyon National Park; our friend P arrives in Utah; MTBing (Park City and Midway); hiking (Big Cottonwood Canyon, Park City, Snowbird); Tour of Utah

September 2018 - MTBing (High Star Ranch, Glenwild, Powder Mountain, Round Valley); hiking (Alta, Big Cottonwood Canyon, the Uintas, Millcreek Canyon)

And now, happy new year, everybody!

seven years

Another October 3rd, another move-iversary.  Seven years (as a reminder: our "year" goes from October through September, corresponding with our arrival in Salt Lake City) here and once again, this past year has just flown by.  Sometimes it doesn't seem to be going quickly at all - like when I'm doing my morning commute, which has gotten slower as the valley traffic increases - and then we look at the calendar and realize that we are only weeks away from ski season, when it only just seems like the lifts stopped turning.  To recap, here's what we did this past year:

October 2015 - trip to Bryce National Park, Cedar Breaks, Moab and surrounds; MTBing

November 2015 - annual Sol-Bright hike; final MTB of the season; ski season opens; Cold Turkey run Thanksgiving morning

December 2015 - skiing, with H's switch to telemark skiing nearly full-time

January 2016 - skiing; boozy milkshakes for A's birthday

February 2016 - skiing                              March 2016 - skiing, including H's run down Main Chute

April 2016 - last month of skiing

May 2016 - Moab trip, including camping at Needles District; home turf MTBing; rain

June 2016 - first gin and tonic of the season; A's personal best at the Crack of Dawn race; weather got hot; MTBing; Wasatch Front hiking begins

July 2016 - hiking on almost all new-to-us trails; MTBing; wildflowers

August 2016 - MTBing, including 54+ mile rail trail ride; wildflowers; Tour of Utah; visit from H's folks; Salt Lake Bees game; hiking, including 16+ mile Alta Dry Fork/Mineral Basin loop

September 2016 - hiking, MTBing, New Mexico trip

And another October means another year ahead of us.  What will this one bring?  Check back here and find out!

don't be a joey

This technically counts as a ski season post topic, but (1) since I forgot to post it this winter and (2) since Snowbird is planning on being open until July 4th and Snowbasin is reopening on the weekends until further notice, it's still technically ski season.  So.  When our ski friends were out here in March, Chris mentioned that his teenaged daughter and her buddies had a name for all the goobers out there that you don't want to ride the chairlift with - they're all Joeys.  I immediately latched onto this - because then I could ski up to H in the liftline and say, out loud, "OMG, did you see what Joey was wearing?" plus we could yell "Joey!!!" at people from the chairlift, in each case without fear of offending anyone.  We then had to come up with a list of who qualifies as a Joey (Andrea was totally appalled that we came up with so many in such a short time).

If you don't want to be a Joey, don't get caught on the hill with the following:

• fur-lined hood
• one-piece ski suit
• fanny pack
• NFL jacket (unzipped) worn over a hooded sweatshirt
• rear-entry boots
• flowered gaiters
• helmet cover (spikes, fins, dreads, etc.) if you're an adult
• costume - unless it's some special dress-up ski day
• bouquet of lift tickets / series of lift tickets stuck onto each other
• perfect feathered hair & sunglasses combination (especially if it's snowing)

Feel free to leave additional Joeys in the comments!  And remember, friends don't let friends be a Joey.

happy utahniversary

Holy crow, has it been a year already?  I can't believe it's been a year - not to sound like an old person, but where has the time gone?  I can tell you where it's gone: I just paged through every single one of this blog's posts for the last year, and the time is laid out there in (excruciating) detail.  Here are some highlights:

October.  We "officially" arrived in SLC at 2:43 p.m. on 10/3; we found an apartment; we met Captain Mike for the first time; we went to our first football game at the U (23-16 win over Air Force); our first official Utah snowstorm was on 10/28.

November.  I started my new job on 11/9; we got our first "loyal customer discount" at the Porcupine; we hired a realtor; I ran the Thanksgiving morning Cold Turkey 6K.

December.  H's parents visited during an unusual cold snap; more snow; our first ski day was 12/19 at Brighton; H skied Alta for the first time on Christmas Eve; we skied Solitude on Christmas Day.

January.  H skied Alta on New Year's Eve; we got into Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude; I turned 40; we experienced our first SLC inversion; we experienced our first Utah waist-deep powder day; we skied for the first (and only) time at The Canyons.

February.  I had my first Crown Burger; we went to the Red Iguana for the first time; we bought a house and didn't do too much skiing because of the dearth of snow and the whole having to move in/unpack thing.

March.  I skied Alta for the first time; our friend Tom visited; a bunch of eastern ski-friends visited; we skied for the first (and only) times at Snowbird and Snowbasin; snowshoeing with Captain Mike.

April.  Lots of snow ("7 feet in 7 days!") and, thus, lots of skiing; we did our first spring hike; B got her summer haircut.

May.  Our friends P&C visited; I got to be a zookeeper for a day; it snowed on 5/24 (and stuck); my folks visited; we hiked Timpanogos Cave.

June.  We climbed Mt. Olympus and did many other hikes; Little Cottonwood Creek flooded; Snowbird finally shut down its lifts for the season; we went to the Snowbird Beer Fest.

July.  H rode his bike a lot; I rescued some kittens; we went to the Pioneer Days "Days of '47 Rodeo;" we did lots of hikes, including up to gorgeous White Pine Lake.

August.  H rode his bike a bunch; we did a lot of hikes, seeing some spectacular alpine wildflowers; we went to the Bonneville Salt Flats for Speed Week (one day of it); the Tour of Utah put in some miles in these mountains; we celebrated our ninth anniversary at Log Haven; it snowed in the upper elevations on 8/30.

September.  H rode his bike a lot; we did quite a lot of hikes, including two big ones: Timpanogos and Ben Lomond; we saw the sheepdog trials and some ghost towns; we went to the Utah State Fair; H's parents came back to visit again.

We had a great year - and we're looking forward to new adventures and places and untracked powder in this our second year in Utah.  Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for the upcoming exploits of H and A and B, right here on We Went West.

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!

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.

this is how you say that

Despite the fact that none of you left me comments with your thoughts on how to say these place names like real Utahns, I'm going to give you the phonetic pronunciations anyway. Because I'm a nice person. And I hate loose ends.

Hurricane ----- HUR-uh-kun
Duchesen ----- du-SHANE
Monticello ---- mon-tuh-SELL-o
Alta ----------- AL-tuh (not ALL-tuh)
Panguitch ---- PAN-gwich
Salina -------- suh-LINE-uh
Weber ------- WEE-ber
Tooele -------- too-WILL-uh
Uinta --------- you-IN-tuh
Oquirrh ------ OH-ker

how do you say that?

Do you all know how to say these Utah place names like the locals? Give it your best shot phonetically in the comments and I'll post again later with the actual pronunciations.

Hurricane
Duchesne
Monticello
Alta
Panguitch
Salina
Weber
Tooele
Uinta
Oquirrh

obsessive

One thing that did keep us entertained on the long drive out here was keeping track of RV names (we also did license plates, but that's for another post). We had noticed a couple of years ago that there seemed to be a wide range of often euphemistic names for these highway behemoths; on the drive from Maine to Utah, we made a list.

We recorded 168 distinct RV names:

1. Advantage
2. Adventurer
3. Airstream
4. Alfa
5. Allegro
6. Allegro Bus
7. American Clipper
8. Arctic Fox
9. Atrium
10. Austen
11. Big Foot
12. Big Sky
13. Bighorn
14. Born Free
15. Bounder
16. Brave
17. Cameo
18. Cardinal
19. Carriage
20. Carri-Lite
21. Chalet
22. Challenger
23. Chaparral
24. Chateau
25. Chateau Sport
26. Chinook
27. Coachman
28. Concord
29. Cougar
30. Country Coach
31. Coyote
32. Cruiser
33. Cub
34. Daybreak
35. Designer
36. Discovery
37. Dolphin
38. Dutch Man
39. Dutch Star
40. Eagle
41. Edge
42. Embassy
43. Endeavor
44. Endura
45. Everest
46. Express Superlite
47. Flair
48. Four Winds
49. Freedom Elite
50. Friendship
51. Frost
52. Fun Finder
53. Georgetown
54. Gold
55. Gray Hawk
56. Gray Wolf
57. Hawkeye
58. Hideout
59. Hitchhiker
60. Hitchhiker II
61. Hornet
62. Hurricane
63. Independence
64. Intrepid
65. Itasca
66. Jamboree
67. Jay Feather
68. Jay Flight
69. Jayco
70. Journey DL
71. Kingsley
72. Kiwi
73. Kountry Aire
74. Kountry Star
75. La Palma
76. Lance
77. Land Yacht
78. Laredo
79. Layton
80. Legacy
81. Luxury
82. Lynx
83. Majestic
84. Mallard
85. Matrix
86. Melbourne
87. Microlite by Flagstaff
88. Minne
89. Miranda
90. Montana
91. Mountain Aire
92. Mountaineer
93. Navicon
94. Neptune
95. North Country
96. North Star
97. North Trail
98. Open Range
99. Outlaw
100. Outlook
101. Pace Arrow
102. Palomino
103. Pinnacle
104. Premiere
105. Presidential
106. Pusher
107. Quest
108. Qwest
109. Rambler
110. Raptor
111. Renegade
112. Road Warrior
113. Roam Free
114. Rockwood
115. r-Pod
116. Salem
117. Sand Storm
118. Sandpiper
119. Scotty
120. Searcher
121. Shadow Cruiser
122. Shamrock
123. Shasta
124. Sierra
125. Silverback by Cedar Creek
126. Southwind
127. Spirit of America
128. Sportsman
129. Spree
130. Springdale
131. Sprinter
132. Sprite
133. Stagecoach
134. Star Craft
135. Starwood
136. Summerland
137. Summit
138. Sun Burst
139. Sun Star
140. Sun Valley
141. Sun Voyager
142. Sunseeker
143. Super Nova
144. Survivor
145. Tall Grass
146. Terry
147. Tioga
148. Trail Cruiser
149. Trail Master
150. Trailrunner
151. Tuscany
152. Ultra Work-Play
153. Unihome
154. Valencia
155. Veri-Lite
156. View
157. Vision
158. Vista
159. V-Lite
160. Wildcat
161. Wilderness
162. Wildest
163. Wind Jammer
164. Windsport
165. Xtreme
166. Yellowstone
167. Zanzibar Safari
168. Zinger

We also found that many of them seemed to fall into specific categories:

Animals
Arctic Fox, Big Foot, Big Horn, Cardinal, Cougar, Coyote, Cub, Dolphin, Eagle, Gray Hawk, Gray Wolf, Hawkeye, Hornet, Jay Feather, Lynx, Mallard, Palomino, Raptor, Sandpiper, Wildcat

Place Names
Everest, Georgetown, La Palma, Laredo, Layton, Melbourne, Neptune, North Country, Open Range, Pinnacle, Salem, Sierra, Springdale, Summerland, Summit, Sun Valley, Tioga, Tuscany, Valencia, Wilderness, Yellowstone, Zanzibar Safari

Conceptual
Advantage, Born Free, Brave, Challenger, Discovery, Endeavor, Flair, Friendship, Independence, Intrepid, Freedom Elite, Legacy, Luxury, Majestic, Renegade, Spirit of America, Spree, Survivor, View, Vision, Wildest

Movement
Adventurer, Bounder, Cruiser, Fun Finder, Hitchhiker/II, Jay Flight, Journey, Mountaineer, Pace Arrow, Pusher, Rambler, Roam Free, Searcher, Sprinter, Trail Runner

Nature/Weather
Big Sky, Chaparral, Chinook, Daybreak, Four Winds, Frost, Gold, Hurricane, Mountain Aire, North Star, North Trail, Rockwood, Sand Storm, Shamrock, Starwood, Sun Burst, Sun Star, Sun Seeker, Super Nova, Tall Grass

My favorite: "Road Warrior," of course. (This is how we managed to drive across the country with no radio - by doing this sort of geeky, compulsive thing.)