Salt Lake City Part 2

By Rachel Richards

For our second day of the long weekend, we decided to have a chill day and stick around Salt Lake City. After Liam’s nap we headed downtown to Bruce’s favourite Thai restaurant Sawadee. It’s become a family tradition to get Thai food here when we visit. I LOVE Thai and can’t get any decent stuff here in Lethbridge so I always jump at the chance when I’m visiting a different city.

After I STUFFED my face with red and green curry, and pad Thai, we headed up to the Utah State Capitol to look around.

Utah State Capitol

I love to explore new places that are free and cool and the capitol didn’t disappoint.

When you first walk in all you can see is marble, marble, everywhere! Beautiful white marble, you know, the kind that’s popular on Instagram right now.
In the main area the ceiling is painted in the history of the region. Bruce the history buff walked us through each painting and what it represented.

The main area was flooded full of girls doing some sort of group photoshoot. I would have said it was for a company except they all looked like they were still in high school, so maybe a school group of some sort?

Either way, I liked their thinking and asked Lauren to do a photo shoot of me on the stairs, mimicking what some of them were doing. #notamodel lives on and I love it!

We went up the gilded elevators to the second floor and walked around checking out the artwork and admiring the architecture. It really was a cool building and I wonder if the people who work there still appreciate it or if they’ve grown immune to it.

Memory Grove

After our brief capitol building tour we went down into nearby Memory Grove. Similar to Midway Memorial Hill, this dog park/memorial park had many different memorials, plaques, and buildings dedicated to soldiers from the Salt Lake Valley who served in the various wars.
​
You couldn’t ask for a better day! The flowers were blooming, the blossoms were on the trees, and there were a bunch of people playing with their dogs in the man-made stream and pond.

Bruce and Ben took a little longer than Lauren and I would have liked. Again, these history buffs had to read everything and discuss it. I enjoy history too, but not as much as these two!

Ensign Peak

After the park, we drove up to the trailhead for Ensign Peak. Or as I like to call it “The Bears Hump of Salt Lake City.”
We had barely gotten three of four steps when Liam began to fuss. Lauren opted to stay behind with him and let him cry/nap in the car while we hiked.

The weather was lovely with just a slight chilly breeze but the hike up kept us warm. Like Bears Hump, it’s a short but steep hike up. The views of the mountains and the city are gorgeous! We got to the peak lickety split with only a couple of quick breaks to catch our breath.

The view from Ensign Peak is awesome because to the east you see mountains and the Salt Lake, the city to the south, and more mountains in the west.

This would be an incredible night hike when the city is all lit up, I’m going to add that to my list for my next visit.

The story of this peak is interesting too. When the Mormon settlers came to the valley, a bunch of the leaders climbed the peak so they could map out the valley and its canyons and streams, etc. They planted an American Flag at the top until the 30’s when it was replaced with a stone monument.

This is a GREAT hike for people who don’t care to hike much, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area. It doesn’t take long and it’s beautiful.

We went home and chilled and watched more Drunk History episodes. Even Liam was pooped from the day and needed some time vegging on the couch.

​On my next (and last recap) I’ll talk about hiking in Big Cottonwood Canyon and playing tennis for the family birthright.