Day 26 - Gem Show and Mountains

Today we all slept in, until Dali the parrot decided we were quite late with her breakfast and started squawking (although I maintain that she's not quite as loud as her brother, Picasso). Ben made us raspberry nut muffins for breakfast (yum!), then we slowly got ready for the day. Natalia and I went to Gem Faire, a gem and mineral show, with her work friend Bryony and her husband Craig. They are new Golden Retriever puppy parents, before we left for the expo we spent a wonderful bit of time playing with the two wiggling bundles of fluff! Despite being from the same litter, Barkshire is a good 15 lbs bigger than his sister Diamond, but she clearly rules the roost and has already learned how to turn door knobs and get into cabinets by 4 months old. Puppy prodigy?

In light of my experience at the Gem and Mineral Show in Tucson, this one was very small and manageable, mostly strings and strings of beads with a few booths of minerals and jewelry scattered around. The four of us were enjoying wandering but weren't finding anything too compelling until we came upon the opal booth. He had some simply magnificent pieces, and even let us touch and hold stones appraised at $100,000! I might have swooned a little. I was picking through the boulder opal necklaces when I noticed his wife wearing a beautiful necklace that looked to be made with parts of a pocket watch embellished with opals and crystals. She directed me over to the other side of the booth and oh my goodness – I'd never seen anything like these! She takes old watches and clocks and turns them into necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings, some adorned with opal, some with small crystals. A few were even still running! Mindful of budgeting I restrained myself from buying the amazing necklace and earring set and instead found a really neat little necklace pendant that has two beautiful black opals set into it (she did say that they will be at the next Tucson show if I wanted to buy more...) Natalia got the steal of the day when she bargained for a half dozen polished and raw opals, the rest of us were suitably impressed with her skill!

After the show we went on a little drive up one of the many canyons that leads towards Salt Lake, winding our way up towards two of the ski resorts. This morning we had contemplated taking the tram to the summit at Solitude (?) but decided against it because of the temperature in the low 40s down here way below the base of the mountain. Once we drove up there this afternoon we were glad we had skipped, because it was the tail end of Oktoberfest and there was no parking to be had! Still, the drive was gorgeous and well worth the little detour on our way home.

Despite only spending a day here, my first impression of Salt Lake City is a positive one. It seems to be about the same comfortable-but-large-enough size that Tucson is, surrounded by incredible mountains (and top notch skiing that's less than 30 minutes away!), and so far the people I've met seem very friendly. There are a few quirks that come from living in a city with such a high proportion of Mormon residents, particularly that all the liquor stores are state run, and most everything is closed on Sundays. Still, I get the sense that this would also be a place I would be happy living, surrounded by mountains but also close to water, with a lot of outreach programs and social services that I could work with, close to friends and family in both Denver and Tucson. Hmmm.

We had dinner with Ben's mother Linda tonight, and the two of us had a very enjoyable time talking while dinner was baking. Ben made quick rise pizza dough, Natalia and I prepared some rosemary sauteed onions and seared peppers and mushrooms, and we had a build your own pizza night. I was gifted with the pdf of the Tyler family cookbook, so look out future road trip hosts – we might have to try making pizza! Linda also was able to give me some good advice for my choice of routes tomorrow, and now I'm really looking forward to taking the scenic route on highway 93 instead of I-15. There's a third potential that butts up against Yellowstone, but it's already a 10 hour drive as is, if I wanted to stop for a little bit it would add at least an hour or two of driving in and back, so I think I might avoid the temptation altogether and just go through the mountains. Plus I'll be passing the “Appendicitis Hill Wilderness Study Area”, which just might require a stop for a photo just for the oddity of it ;)

Pictures!

 Diamond and Barkshire

 They were so cute! I refrained from posting all 20 photos that I took, you're welcome ;)

 View of the mountains from town

 Driving up the canyon

 I'll admit, Utah, you're doing a good job of convincing me that this is a place I would love to live!