Staycation: August 12-15

This summer has been blissfully busy, but busy nonetheless. Weddings, showers, bachelorette parties, Bike MS, Becca's birthday, teaching, and lots of work meant that we stayed in Salt Lake City for the summer. As August approached we found ourselves suffering from a slight case of cabin fever--we needed a vacation! Lack of time before orientation/school starts helped us to get creative. Thus, the staycation was born. We set out to 'discover'--or discover anew--some of the great places near our own home. With cell phones off and a self-proclaimed internet ban, it really did feel like vacation! The best part? Sleeping in our own bed at night.

Day 1: Head to Bear Lake and Minnetonka Cave... or get shakes.

The trail that led to nowhere... thanks a lot Map Quest.

This is about as close to Minnetonka as we came.
Thanks a lot giant family reunions that took up all the tours.

Thank you, State of Idaho, for bringing us this group of boy scouts to "What Not to Wear".

30 minute wait for a raspberry shake? Worth it!

Camping at Bear Lake.

The sight from our campground--lovely.

DAY 2: The Lake, Ice Cream, and a night on Broadway

Packing Up--No one rolls a sleeping bag like this one!

Sharks at Bear Lake!

We had a blast playing in the lake with our floatie toy from bunco! The water was the warmest that I've ever experienced and it was a perfect introduction for Becca to all things Garden City, Utah. After abandoning our spot on the lake we headed back toward Salt Lake, but not before we made the required purchases in my favorite little city:

God bless you, Aggie Ice Cream, for your fabulous new-blue Aggie flavor!

After arriving home, taking a power nap, and showering we headed back out on the town. One of our favorite local movie houses is the Broadway Centre Theatre on 300 S. in downtown Salt Lake City. While there we played tourist and enjoyed the area. Dinner took place at The Copper Onion, a swanky new American fare bistro next door to the theatre. We gave the restaurant a strong three stars. The atmosphere is fun, service is excellent, and the location can't be beat. However, the food options for herbivores are minimal and it is a little outside of our student budget. A fun first try thought! After diner we had some time to kill so we walked around beautiful downtown Salt Lake City at dusk. Finally, it was time for the movie.

We saw "The Kids Are Alright" starring Mark Ruffalo, Annette Benning, and Julianne Moore. We hated the movie, but the company was excellent! :) That night we went home exhausted from the road trip, sun burns (see my sweet shade lines?!), and our busy stay-cation schedule! There were more adventures to be had, but this night we were sure glad we were able to enjoy the comfort of our own home at the end of a long, very fun day.

Day 3: Sleep in, watch movies, Hatch's Family Chocolates, and Saturday's Voyeur

After enjoying a very relaxing morning of sleeping in and rejeuvenating, we were off again for more stay-cation action! First stop on our Saturday evening was to Hatch Family Chocolates. This hugely popular chocolate store, made famous by the TLC series "Little Chocolatiers", is only two blocks from our apartment in SLC's avenues. Even though we pass Hatch's multiple daily, Becca and I had never been inside. Truthfully, the clogged lobby with people hovering around every evening deterred us in the past, but now it is stay-cation time, so we got our game faces on!

We found the family owned shop to be lovely, although very packed! The lobby is extremely small and the glass displays are crowded with folks looking for the perfect candy treat, but the staff is wonderful and extremely helpful in ushering you through the process. The Hatch kids were working the registers and I must say I was extremely impressed that even through about 30 people were inside the lobby clamoring for what one classy gentleman called "the midgets", the kids were respectful, patient, and really nice. I, however, wanted to punch the guy. :) Our total purchases? Two chocolate turtles that were about the size of my hand plus one chocolate dipped oreo cookie.

Regrettably, the Oreo cookie wasn't able to last until this picture was taken 15 minutes later. :) Don't judge! The chocolate was excellent, but fairly pricey. With three morsels in hand we walked out $15.00 poorer than when we arrived. Yikes!

Our playbills and small shots of green jello, courtesy of SLAC at intermission

With chocolates in hand and our picnic and drinks packed we hit up the 2010 performance of the Salt Lake Acting Company's "Saturday's Voyeur". This political parody musical theater skit show is just about the cleverest, funniest, most irreverent thing I've seen. Thanks, SLAC! We had an amazing time and will do this again, every year!

Day 4: The Salt Lake City Aquarium

One of the 'must dos' on our list this time around was The Aquarium. Becca loves petting the sting rays (see below) and I have never been! To close of the stay-cation on Sunday we spent a wonderful afternoon touring the exhibits and staring into huge tanks. I think my favorite part were the jelly fish, while Becca easily loved the spiders most. :) (Test: Becca, do you read our blog?) Enjoy the pics.

Petting the stingrays! Becca is basically the stingray whisperer...

THE END!

Although we loved our staycation and had many adventures, we also found it was nice to just be at home with our little family. Turns out that SLC and home aren't so bad after all.