saying good-bye to SLC

Whew, it's Thursday already! Where In The World have I been since Monday? Too exhausted to blog in the evenings! Sorry...

Plus I hit the Panic Button earlier this week when I dropped my camera, oh no Susan! But, all seems well with it and the memory card. {relief}

It has been a busy week for us here in Salt Lake City.

On Tuesday, Sal gave a presentation about some of his research during a technical session at the ACS conference. Here's a summary of his talk, although it's gibberish to those of us who aren't organic chemists! It went very well, and he was given 2 timeslots since the speaker scheduled after him had to cancel. So, he was able to go into more detail and have additional time for Q&A.

I was able to sneak in a visit to another scrapbook store, Heartfelt Creations. It's in Sandy, a suburb of southern SLC, but was totally worth the 20 minute drive from downtown. The store has an almost overwhelmingly HUGE selection, it took me a while to get through it! And if you're into scrapbook page kits, this store is so for you! They have about 50 two-page kits displayed on the wall. So, fellow scrappers, if you're in SLC, be sure to add this store to your must-visit list.

And for some adventure ... we had planned to go skiing today, but since a storm was forecast to move in Utah on Wednesday night, we went on Wednesday instead. We got up early and drove to Alta ski area, which is in beautiful Little Cottonwood Canyon, only about an hour from SLC. Actually, we drove to the Park 'N Ride at the base of the canyon and took a ski bus up to Alta ... there's no way that our little rental car (a Corolla) could make that steep, snow-covered drive! And actually, laws require that you have snow tires and/or chains in the Canyon anyway.

I just couldn't plan a trip to Utah during prime powder season without scheduling in some time for us to give skiing a try. After all, Utah touts that they have "the greatest snow on earth". We're total novices, so we took some lessons, a class called "First Time on Skis", where you learn how to stop, turn, glide, etc. There was only one other person in the class with us, so it was almost like a private lesson. But I couldn't even make it through the class, the weather was just too BRUTAL for me! Holy cow! It was 22 degrees on the mountain, and the wind was really blowing too ... I don't even want to know what the wind chill temp was ... (think snow blowing horizontally). I was miserable, so I went inside and had some hot tea instead. I know, I'm a weather whimp! But in my defense, even the ski instructors were saying it was a rough weather day. Sal finished the lesson though, and enjoyed it. I guess he has more "arctic stamina" than I do. Notice the wintery conditions in our photos (which were hastily taken because it was so *bleeping* cold!):

here's me before gleefully returning my ski gear to the rental desk:

this shot better shows the snow whipping around (yep, my smile is for photo purposes only, I felt like a popsicle):
and here's Sal, frozen but a real trooper for finishing the lessons:

Since I'm not a cold-weather girl, I kind of already knew that snow skiing wasn't going to become my new lifelong passion, but wanted to try it nonetheless. And as I anticipated ... thanks, but no thanks. Like anything else that requires being out in the cold, I don't see the need. *wink* But I'm glad that I tried, and I learned a few things about skiing: (1) that it's more difficult than it looks; (2) that ski boots are really uncomfortable (!!!); (3) that the snow feels really "slippery" underneath the skis as you glide along. At first, you feel totally out of control; and (4) that it's easy to trip over your own poles. {chuckle}

So today, we're departing SLC and heading south to Provo, Utah. It's about an hour away, and is the home of Brigham Young University (and more scrapbook stores, tee hee). Sal was invited to give a seminar to the Chemistry Department there, and will be hosted by his PhD advisor, who left Purdue and is now a professor at BYU. So Sal will be spending all day Friday on campus with the BYU Chemistry faculty, discussing research.

I don't think I've mentioned that SLC is a friendly, clean city that's ringed by beautiful mountains. We enjoyed our stay here. Although it's the capital and the population center of Utah, it's not a huge city ... only 180,000 people. So, it's got that small-town feel (and no traffic jams!). Not what we expected. To me, that's the beauty of travel ... first-hand discovery about a place, I love it!

Oh, and one more thing ... I'm often asked where Buddy & Aruba stay while we travel? With my parents! Thanks Mom & Dad! We love knowing that B&A are in a safe, loving place and they sure have fun with "Grandma & Grandpa". My Dad snapped this photo of Aruba waking up from a nap on the sofa yesterday, she's so content, our sweet angel:

I'll see you back here from Provo!