Quick Day Trip to Salt Lake City
Ever have one of those days where you don’t feel that great, the weather outside is crappy, and you want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee and Netflix?
It’s really inconvenient when one of those days happens while you’re on vacation.
The problem was, all 3 of us developed pretty nasty colds in California the week before flying to Utah (I think we can thank mother nature’s mood swings of hot, cold, hot, cold weather for that). So by the time we made it to Park City, we were all feeling pretty crummy. But with just 3 days to explore Utah, we didn’t have much time to waste on the couch. So we kicked our butts into gear and headed to Salt Lake City for a quick day trip.
We started out with brunch at The Copper Onion downtown. It’s a cute place with stylish decor, and although my appetite wasn’t the greatest, I went for the simple french toast to share with Evelyn. Suffice it to say, we both enjoyed it! But then again, who wouldn’t love battered and fried sweet bread, covered in powdered sugar and dipped in maple syrup?
While we ate brunch, we wondered what we might do with our day. I didn’t really make a ton of plans (a rarity for me), but I had a few things in mind. The problem was, most of these activities were outdoors, and it was far too cold and rainy to be out playing in the park!
After brunch we headed over to Temple Square. We parked at the new City Creek Center (which has lovely underground, heated parking – genius) and is just across the street from the temple. Inside the grounds we let Evelyn frolic around while I took some photos. While we couldn’t go inside the temple itself, it was still am impressive sight to see from the gardens.
The rain sputtered off and on, mostly just hitting us with little sprinkles here and there. There were couples everywhere taking wedding photos, so we tried to stay out of their way (i.e. keep Evelyn out of their way) while we circled the temple.
It’s a pretty marvelous piece of architecture; something we don’t seem to have much of here in the US, and it reminded me a lot of the towering neo-gothic churches of Europe.
Evelyn insists on pushing the stroller everywhere we go now. Which would be really cute, except she never wants to stop, and when we finally make her, she throws a huge fit. :\
If you’ve ever been to Salt Lake then you know they have a pretty OCD grid system for naming their streets. (Nearly) every street has a number and direction, which signifies how many blocks north, south, east or west that streets runs from Temple Square. So for example, the address 600 East 1400 South is 6 blocks east and 14 blocks south of Temple Square. It’s a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s actually pretty nice to be able to look at any street address and know exactly where you are!
We toodled around Temple Square until Evelyn started losing her cool and decided to go for a drive so she could nap. We drove up the hill through The Avenues, a neighborhood that starts at the Lower Avenues along the foothills.
As you go up the hill into the Upper Avenues, the homes gradually get bigger and bigger. It’s easy to see why it’s so desirable to live here, with views looking over the whole valley from the top!
After a drive through the University of Utah campus and a stop for some salted caramel mochas, we could hear Evelyn stirring in the backseat. The sun was finally starting to peek out, so (being that we were already on the east side of town), we decided to drive up to This is the Place Heritage Park.
Inside the park is a sort of “living history” village, where kids can take part in interactive exhibits like panning for gold, exploring a Native American teepee village, and going on Western horseback trail rides. It was a bit above Evelyn’s age-range though, and after advice from the lady at the ticket counter that it probably wouldn’t be worth the admission price for the 3 of us, we decided to save it for another time when she’s older and could really enjoy it.
Instead, we parked ourselves at the monument outside the village for a snack. There’s a giant lawn outside the village too, so on a warmer day it’d be a great place to plan a picnic after your visit. But for us, the grass was still a little wet from the morning’s rain, so we stuck to the concrete, which Evelyn thoroughly enjoyed stepping up and down and up and down on. The sun came out and finally warmed us up – such a welcome relief after a long dreary day.
And with that, we packed up and headed back through the mountains to Park City. A quick 30 minute drive, it sure makes it easy to jump between the two towns.
With a combination of colds and bad weather, our Salt Lake City day sort of turned out to be bit of a bust. đ But, it’s just one more reason to return in the future! With Matt’s company doing work there, I’m sure we’ll be back, so I’d love your suggestions for our future Salt Lake redo!
Read Next: A Fall Weekend in Park City, UT
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