Tuesday Back to SLC

Today is going to be a less interesting blog as it is just travel, which was happily without events.

Deborah and I rose a bit slowly, showered, dressed, and then went to enjoy the busy, chaotic breakfast as families start their mornings in Moab. I also demonstrated how the coffee-making machine worked. Still, it was a good meal, and soon we packed up, checked out, and headed back to South Moab.

We drove south to what is called the Moab Man or the Golf petroglyphs. The art is again on a partially protected stone that seems to look down on a quiet space near a river. A golf course (thus the name) and connecting neighborhood have replaced the land, but there is still a feeling of holiness about the stones.

(That is Moab Man with the earrings, slightly damaged.)

With that done, we headed back North and out of Moab. We retraced our trip here and commented on things we remember now as we passed them. The Hyundai climbed to over 7400 feet on the trip back (SLC is about 4300). Near SLC, a truck swerved wildly, and then I did too as a large piece of tire was in the road. Yikes! It was about 4.5 hours to reach the Hyatt Regency SLC.

We saw some places in Price that we wanted to return to. We also would like to tour Nine Mile Canyon and Carbon Canyon someday. Some train sites and ghost towns are also a possibility.

We stopped for lunch in the first larger town, Spanish Fork, where there was a Starbucks and a Five Guys Burgers. I paid over $20 for a small cheeseburger, fries, and a regular Diet Coke. Hmmm. Should have gone to the cheaper (!?) Starbucks.

The valets held the Hyundai while Deborah checked in. She headed to the room while I experienced self-park. It is in an underground garage, and I found P2 and parked near the elevators like everyone else. I reached the hotel parking lot, but I did not have a pass for it. It was only for the valet. I had to carefully back out of the area.

The elevators, to my surprise, did not go to the hotel lobby but to the convention center. I found the hotel connection and found my way back. I then discovered another set of elevators in the hotel that did not go to guest rooms. Finally, I found the hotel elevators for the guest rooms. They only work with a room key (I had one): I waved it over the pad, then pressed the button, and soon I was on the tenth floor.

Deborah was there with our stuff, and we spent some time together, including unpacking and discovering the room. It has a nice view of SLC and the banking buildings. We are just a few blocks from the temple buildings, libraries, and museums.

Later, Deborah (she checked in right after we got here) went to the start of the conference meeting with a work colleague. I called the New Yorker Hotel in NYC to see if they could extend my reservation for a few more days. Nope, and they could not guarantee that I would not need to change rooms if I book a few more days on another reservation. Ugh! I decided to deal with it later.

I then headed out to see the City Creek mall and see if dinner was there for me. It was another high-end place with all the usual names. I was not surprised to find the Cheesecake Factory there. Nothing appealed to me.

I walked out and found a few high-end steak joints and pasta places. I then spotted the Ahh Shucks/Sushi Peanut Bar in the basement. I tried that. The bartender ignored me after a young clerk checked me in and scanned my driver’s license. Finally, I got a huge beer (in a giant margarita glass) for $5. free peanuts, and I was told, “You may not drop the shells on the floor; that used to be our things, but not anymore.” The sushi bar was the other half of the space, and the menu was a few burger choices, the usual fried stuff, or sushi. I ordered a Philadelphia roll (though I like it Portland style with smoked salmon in place of the tuna). It was good. My bill, after tip, was around $20. Not bad.

I found an Italian place that has a $15 lunch special to try tomorrow.

I returned to the room after that, stopping by Repeal, a Jazz Bar also underground, but decided that one cheap drink was enough, especially since it was massive (I did not finish it). I found the room without difficulty this time and started booking flights for my April trip to Michigan on my laptop. I also contacted Corwin to pick up some items delivered to the house. We talked about his dog challenges for a while. Hank can be a challenge.

I finished with most of my trip in place. Deborah had dinner and drinks at the conference.

And with that, we brought Tuesday to a close, and I wrote the blog while Deborah slept.

Thanks for reading!