Utah Was Surprising

When I was in elementary school, learning US geography, Utah was one of the states I had the most trouble placing on the map. I could never remember the order of all those little fiddly bits on the East coast, either... but Utah?! It's huge! I wish I could remember exactly what I said when I first heard that, for our family vacation this year, we were going to Utah. It's not a state I had ever been to before, so check one off on my list I guess. Still, it wasn't a state I ever thought I needed to see. What's the big deal about Utah? Mormons, you say? So what?

"We're going to be staying in Park City." When I learned that our resort was right by the Olympic park from the 2002 Winter Olympics, my attitude wasn't much improved, honestly. I couldn't really imagine what would be interesting about a has-been sports park turned into a tourist attraction. My feelings about that haven't really changed, and I would never want to live in Utah, but I did find love for the largest state I had hardly thought about before.

Utah is beautiful. Salt Lake City is basically just a city. It's on a surprising flat piece of land surrounded by foothills and plateaus. It's all of the stuff around Salt Lake City that is beautiful.

On our vacation, we made time for horseback riding and shooting, both in striking, but very different, landscapes. We also did less rural things like watching a fourth of July parade, going to the zoo, and the obligatory visit to the Olympic park. Most of those activities were shared with family members we don't get to see more than a few times each year (some we see even less). And, at the end of each day, we all went home to two cottages we shared with those same people we love.

There was some trouble with planning this year. With twenty-something people, including eight kids, it's really more noteworthy when there aren't planning issues. I mean, I sometimes feel like I need a manager and personal assistant and I only have the four kids. Some of us have a lot of wrangling to do before we can get out the door, while others might not understand that struggle. Some of us are a little less schedule oriented than others. Plus, I think staying in two separate cottages complicated communication. In the end, I don't think it matters because we all had a good time.