Park City

We drove just a half hour east of Salt Lake City to visit the
ski town of Park City. It's a nice little town, but definitely
set up for the ski industry. It was originally a mining town,
but when the mines closed, the skiing moved in. Now there
are lots of little shops, restaurants, bars, etc. all set up to
cater to the tourists.


On our way out of town, we visited the Utah Olympic Park.
Park City was host to most of the skiing and outdoor events
during the 2002 Winter Olympics and they have a small museum
and park where several of the events took place, to commemorate
the event.


It's a fun museum, with lots of interactive displays, including this
bobsled.


I was amazed how heavy a curling stone is...42 pounds!


We got to send emails to ourselves as ski-jumpers!


I think I would have been a lot more scared looking if I had gone
down the real ski jump, which is located just outside the museum.
Very Steep!


The Bobsled and Luge facilities are also located here. No chance to
take a ride on this...not sure I would want to anyway. Looks kinda
dangerous!

We had a great time in Park City and the Olympic Park was a lot of
fun and much more than we expected!

Salt Lake City

I've been home two weeks and Lynn and I decided on a
change of scenery! Yes, we both still have the travel bug,
but we're taking trips close to home this summer. We headed
to Salt Lake City, which is about 4.5 hours away from home.
Along the way, we stopped at the new In-N-Out Burger in
Draper. In-N-Out is a regular stop of ours in California, but
now we have one only 4 hours from home! Good thing we
don't have one in Grand Junction because it certainly would
not be good for my waistline!


We checked into our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and
it's a cute little mom and pop style motel, called the City
Creek Inn. It's located only blocks from the center of the
city. Salt Lake City is set in a beautiful location, with mountains
all around. Much like Denver, if Denver had been built right
against the Rockies instead of on the Plains. Right against
the mountains is the University of Utah. We drove around
the campus and saw Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is where the
opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics
were held.


Before we came back to the hotel for the night, we drove around
the downtown area. Salt Lake City is the home of the Mormon
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) religion. Salt Lake
City is to the Mormons like Vatican City is to Catholics. The
centerpiece of their faith. The Temple itself is very pretty and
is especially so at night. We can't go inside though since we
aren't Mormon. Overall though, Salt Lake City is very welcoming
and there are lots of things to do here. We should have a good
time seeing the sights over the next couple of days.

Olympics on the Brain

Do you ever have things just pop into your head on
a consistent, coincidental basis, for no particular
reason? Over the last 24 hours the Olympics have
strangely entered my brain. Yesterday, I was walking
down the hill from work and I discovered that oddly
enough, I could recite every Summer Olympic venue
in order, and in which year. Last night at trivia, I
was able to answer that Juan Antonio Samaranch was
the President of the International Olympic Committee
from 1980-2001. Then, this morning I was looking at
a blog I subscribe to and copies of B.C. Olympic
Placemats given away free from Marathon gas stations
popped onto my screen. The packrat that I am, I actually
still have some of these from long long ago. It's just
weird how all of these things on one particular subject
just appear all of a sudden in my head. I think winter
is having it's effect on my brain.

Final Four Cities

Today Chicago was chosen as one of the final four cities
as bid finalists for the 2016 cities. Also chosen were
Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro. The cities that didn't
make the cut were Doha Qatar, Prague Czech Republic and
Baku Azerbaijan. Now the International Olympic Committee
will review all four bids and make a final decision on
October 2, 2009.