The perpetual question

Our vacation has a running theme - sight seeing activities followed by 'where do you want to eat?'. Today's edition had us start out by driving to the capital building and visiting Memory Grove. We followed that up by driving around one or two of the nicer home sections in SLC just to take a peak for fun. At that point it was time to address the 'where to eat' question. The answer was to eat at a breakfast place called Coachman something-or-other with decor that would be considered awful in any era but looked to have been last updated in the early 70s. However, the good reviewers of Yelp! rated it well enough and we, too, found the food to be good (but really, even I can cook a half-decent breakfast.).

After said breakfast, we struck out for Park City. I have to say the drive between SLC and Park City was incredibly beautiful. The highway snakes between mountains that are rolling and covered in trees whose leaves were changing colors. We took some lousy pictures using the phone while we sped by that will only serve to sully the memory. The drive really was the highlight. Park City itself was worth walking around, etc. But it is just a snooty little ski village. We also hit the Tanger shopping outlets that are right outside Park City. They are like outlets anywhere else in the country. At least they gave us a reason to get out and walk around a bit.

After we came back from Park City, we took a quick snooze (well, OK, I did as Lu fiddled with her phone trying to find a good time to see a movie later and, as always, to answer the question about where we should eat next.) We ended up choosing a place called Chanon Thai again based on the reputation of Yelp reviews because we had passed the place on a walk the other day and it's exterior does not scream 'eat here, you'll love it' but really enjoy it we did. The food was very good and spiced correctly even though I had to bargain with the waitress to get her to agree to spice my dish at a 2 level on a 1- 5 scale. I sad 3 originally but she pretty much said 'no' and thought 1 would be more appropriate based on the color of my skin. In the end, 2 was about right. Luciana pushed herself to the brink of splitting her pants as she first ate as much as she could, then continued to push on and scoop out any bits of chicken she could still find. After mercifully putting down her spoon and stopping, she suddenly thought better of it and proceeded to ladle out a few more servings of just the curry onto some dregs of rice. Despite proclaiming that she felt incredibly stuffed in an almost painful way, she was a good date and helped me through a cocunut ice cream dessert which was a most excellent way to end the meal. All I can say is that my mini little wife still has a pretty darn good metabolism.

After dinner we caught The Town with Ben Affleck. It was fine and well acted and all but overrated by critics. Nothing great. Waiting for Superman (which we saw on Friday) was a much better use of our time and money.

Hello again

Just back from the Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas game. Luciana and I are enjoying our 13th anniversary trip to Salt Lake City. The boys are with the Chaves clan and it is just Lu and I for a few days. On Friday, we spent the better part of the day walking to a soccer shop that was 3.2 miles away but the walk admittedly felt forever. It wasn't helped by the fact that it was not the most beautiful scenery. Quite the contrary, the one thing we were sure of was taking a cab on the way back. We did pass through Liberty Park which was nice and very big. Let's see, what else did we do Friday? We walked to a place called The Bayou and had a late lunch. Then we went on the aforementioned Baton Death March to the soccer store. We recuperated back at the hotel to rest our weary legs and then went out in the evening to The Copper Onion and followed that up with a movie next door - Waiting for Superman. A very good first day.

Today (Saturday) we walked the nicer parts of the city. We started the morning by hitting the City Library which is architecturally very attractive and interesting to look at both on the outside and inside. We went from there to Trolley Square mall which is nice enough, I guess, but was totally, completely devoid of humans. Very dead. Actually, much of the city felt that way until we started walking toward the Mormon Temple. On the way there we stopped at a soup and salad place that Lu liked called Zupas. Have to say we both enjoyed it. After lunch, we continued on toward the temple. Temple Square was interesting and we took a small tour.

After the temple we continued our walking back to the Little America hotel. I think we had put in about 18,000 steps according to the pedometer at that point. After an hour plus nap, we took the Trax to the RSL game. There was a huge line to the team store which was concerning since I feel compelled to buy a jersey at every stadium we go to. The resason for the line was a 52% off sale, so the place was a total zoo. On the other hand, it was a darn good sale so I wasn't disappointed and came away with a new long sleeve jersey, a couple of jerseys for the kids, three scarves and a pennant. Definitely more than I intended, got caught up in the whole sale thing.

Anyway, a great day overall.

Sentences from a 1st Grader

Here are Luca's spelling word sentences brought home from class:




I particularly like his affirmative 'yep' as his self-acknowledgement of his behavior towards his brother and the comment his teacher inserted. (His teacher -- Ms. Thornton -- is fantastic.)