I have visited Salt Lake City many times for the Outdoor Retailer trade show, so I have accumulated some useless but interesting facts over the years!

INTERESTING FACTS:
1. Sea Gulls are the state bird. Yes, you heard that right. Check it out if you don’t believe me:  Utah State Bird: Sea Gulls
2. Streets are really wide for historical reasons – to allow a team of oxen and covered wagon to turn around.  Utah Rails
3. Crosswalks have red flags for pedestrians to grab before walking across the street for added visibility. SLC Government

THE VIEW:
Ensign Peak Trailhead 

We stumbled across this trail last January so we revisited the same spot to take a summer photo.  This trail is perfect for great 360 views overlooking Salt Lake City as well as the Wasatch Mountain Range.   I thought I heard a rattler at one point, so was being super “watchful”. To be completely honest, I hightailed it out of there in a great big hurry!

The Ensign Peak Trailhead is a Wildfire Restoration Area due to a lightening-caused wildfire last August 2016.

THE ARCHITECTURE
Union Pacific Depot  

Built in 1908-09, it dates back to the more prosperous era in the history of American railroad travel when it provided services for Los Angeles, Salt Lake City Railroad and the Oregon Short Line Railroad. The restored depot serves as a Grand Entrance to “The Gateway” a shopping complex in Salt Lake City.

This is definitely a spot where I looked up and down to see all the architectural details, from the tile, to the paintings and to the stained glass windows. And me, being me, I truly appreciated the clean washrooms as we were wandering about the city.

URBAN ART
We had seen this graffiti every time we drove on I-15 into SLC. So this time, we decided to check it out. It is actually part of a Haunted House, called Fear Factory.

SPORTS:
Smith’s Ballpark is a minor league baseball park. It is the home field of the Salt Lake Bees of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.  I have watched a couple of games here and even though I am not a huge fan of baseball, the views from the park more than made up for it. Plus feeder teams are always fun to watch as they are not making the big bucks and are really playing because they love it!

DINNER:
I have eaten in many great SLC restaurants over the years; Cucina Toscana, Market Street Grille, the Caffe Molise, Tin Angel Café and many more. This trip I decided to return to the Himalayan Kitchen and introduce my husband to Indian food. I ordered the traditional dishes of samosas, naan, butter chicken, and tandoori chicken.  Despite the typical dishes, they were all authentically great!  So good in fact, that I forgot to take a photo of the food before we started, and there was certainly none left at the end!

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