socializing

 We don't socialize much in SLC.  Down in Moab, it's easy to just walk to one of several bars or to peek over the fence to see if our neighbors are around for a beer.  But in SLC, it's much more of an effort.  During the week, we aren't likely to go out: H will sometimes meet a friend for a post-work beer but since I work downtown, and have a thirty-mile round-trip commute, I am unlikely to want to drive back in town in the evenings (and bars/vegan-friendly restaurants are scarce in our neighborhood).  On the weekends, we tend to get up early to get out and do outdoors stuff before the trails get crowded or it gets hot, and then when we get home, it's difficult to rally to go back out.  

One of my goals for 2024 is to get out more, however.  To support more local small businesses and to get us out of the house.  Occasionally.

We're off to a good start, I think, because we met our friends E and K for dinner on Saturday to celebrate E's birthday and to catch up - they have VERY busy schedules and it had been since November (?) since we'd all connected in person.  They suggested an early dinner at Vertical Diner and we were like yes! because (1) early is good and (2) Vertical Diner is one of the OG vegan restaurants in SLC.  We hadn't been there yet but it has been on my list for a while. 

Vertical Diner (234 West 900 South) is fantastic.  Huge menu, 100% plant-based and while it may not be the healthiest for you, it was DELICIOUS.  It was so much fun looking at a menu and realizing that there were multiple things I wanted to - and would - eat.  H had a reuben, K had a chik'n fried steak with roasted brussels sprouts, E had a cheez steak sandwich and I had a chik'n biscuit and gravy.  There were sides of mac-n-cheez and mashed potatoes and gravy ... it was a table full of seitan and carbs and everyone one of us cleaned our plates.  They have beer on tap and cocktails too.  We were all so happy.

Dinner had been on the early side because E and K - who have an exhausting social calendar - were heading out to watch a friend's band later.  But they were just going to the RoHa Brewing Project (30 E Kensington Ave.) just a few blocks away and since it was early, we went too for a beer.  We'd never been to Roha before - small, super-chill place with lots of taps and even more cans of their own brews, a food truck outside and a large dog-friendly patio for warmer weather.  We hung out until way past H's bedtime, drinking local brews, playing a tabletop hook and ring game, meeting E and K's friends and listening to a fantastic local bluegrass band, Mars Highway.  

We have loved living down in Sandy: we like our house, we like our neighbors, we love the proximity to the Cottonwood Canyons.  But boy, it sure is fun to come up to the "big city" lol and do city stuff.  Here's to a little more of that this year.