Farmers market, apartment hunting, mysterious white stuff

Saturday proved to be a very productive day for the Swensons. We started the morning off by perusing the 100+ apartment listings that popped up since Friday afternoon, made a few calls, wrote down addresses and set out apartment hunting. On our way to our first tour scheduled for noon, we remembered with dismay that we were in danger of missing the farmer’s market for the second time in as many opportunities. Thankfully the tour didn’t take long because they actually did not have any available apartments, contrary to what they said on the phone, and we quickly looped back to the park next to our temporary apartment.

After our arrival in Salt lake on Friday of last week, we had slept in Saturday morning and discovered late in the day that the local farmers market occurs on Saturday mornings in Pioneers Park, located roughly 50 feet from our complex. The market only runs through October since they actually have seasons out here, and our residency right next to it is also scheduled to end around then, so we felt like we should take advantage of every opportunity to visit and were sad to have already missed one. The prospect of missing another was a real bummer, but it two wrongs made a right and we got to go after all.

There were several main differences between the the market here and the one at home. For one, there were significantly fewer growers. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was 40 degrees and pouring, but I don’t know. It seemed like their prize crops are squashes and gourds. The fruits and vegetables were kind of sad-looking and were very expensive. The peaches were over $1 each, a bag of lettuce was $4, and a tub of goat cheese the size of an altoid container was $5. I don’t think I’m ready to pay that sort of premium quite yet. Ask me again next spring, and I might change my mind.

We checked out a few more apartments and were disappointed in what we found. We had a specific list of requirements that we wanted to fulfill, and we have a few more weeks to find a place, so we were pretty picky. We did get to explore a lot of fun neighborhoods though. While driving, the weather started to go from bad (good, according to Shane) to worse (better, according to Shane) to worst (best, according to Shane). The temperature continued to drop, the rain turned to sleet, and then culminated in a thick dumping of snow, with flakes the size of potato chips. Maybe the snow was a good luck charm, though, because we found an apartment and signed the agreement right then and there. This is what our new neighborhood looked like when it just started to snow, before it stuck to the ground.

We’re in a three bedroom basement apartment of a large house in Cottonwood Heights, which is at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon, the canyon that leads to several ski resorts. It’s only 15 miles from our front door to the chair lifts at Solitude. Come on over, we have room!

And to further our action-packed day, we met up with Brynne and Sam, feigned interest in the Oregon-Cal football game, visited Trolley Square, a funky mall in an old trolley station, went to the largest Super Wal-Mart I have ever seen, and then capped it all off with an excessively large bowl of pho. What a day.

Thanks, SLC department of safety!

Last night we had dinner with the lovely Brynne and Sam, who are also new SLC residents. Everyone is moving to Utah. Our Sunday morning meeting had 4 new families or couples in it that had moved here in the last few weeks. True story. We are currently living in the heart of downtown SLC, which is quite exciting. We just walked out our door and were met with a plethora of dining choices. Brynne and I were suffering from extreme and persistent hunger, otherwise we would have explored even more options instead of settling for the first one we discovered, situated across a wide street from our complex. Normally crossing such a large street would be quite perilous. Luckily the city of Salt Lake provided handy orange flags for us to use to cross the street. And of course, Brynne and I used them with much enthusiasm.

Today the internet was introduced to Utah

Contrary to what one could assume from our lack of internet presence these past few weeks, the Swensons are, in fact, alive and thriving in our new home in Salt Lake. We have been waiting patiently (and have had to make daily trips to the Library to check email), and our DSL modem finally arrived today. I felt like a part of me was missing.

Shane’s new company, Applied Signal, arranged for a giant moving truck to haul all our stuff out to a storage unit in SLC and put us up in a nice furnished apartment for the month until we can find a permanent dwelling. Watching a semi truck do a U-turn in the cul-de-sac was impressive. They packed up everything in the shed and 10×10 storage unit, and fit it all in the loft they built above Shane’s car in the back of the truck.

Our storage unit was what we like to call “dense.”

On our last day in Santa Barbara, we did what we thought we would miss most, and grabbed a carne asada burrito and horchata from Super Cucas and ate it down at the beach. ::sigh::

We said our goodbyes on Thursday morning and caravaned our way to Marshall and Mollie’s in Las Vegas, which conveniently sits 1/2 way between Santa Barbara and Salt Lake. I was very involved with my book tape and was actually enjoying the drive until something happened. Despite its recent release from the shop, the Curse of the Purple Van struck again, just a couple hours short of our destination. Look at me on the side of the freeway. I do not look happy. Remind me why we have this van, again?

We did make it to M&M&N’s in good time and had a wonderful evening. We’re looking forward to meeting up at some of the Southern Utah National Parks and skiing together this winter when we can maybe repay the hospitality.

Parts of the drive were spectacularly beautiful. We drove through the prettiest parts before I got my camera out. I didn’t realize that we were actually quite close to the Grand Canyon. We’ll have to make a trip there, too. Our list of vacation to-dos is growing every minute!

We rolled in to our new temporary apartment in Downtown Salt Lake on Friday afternoon (after making yet another Curse of the Purple Van stop just after Provo) and are enjoying getting settled in our new hometown and figuring out what this whole “cooking” thing is about. More on that later…

 

Project zebra bench

One of our projects last weekend was cleaning out the storage shed in the back yard of my parents’ house. It was interesting to see the sorts of things that were deemed so valuable that we had to save them (a full bin of shirts and socks from when Shane was in high school, one shirt with the slogan, “women want me, fish fear me,” which he still refused to throw away). One of the more exciting finds was the base of a claw foot queen anne coffee table that was missing the top. It was at the very back of the shed, on its side, covered in dust, scratches, spiderwebs and iguana spit (it was used as the base of Ernie the iguana’s cage at one point in its life). With the help of some willing participants, I cleaned it off, restored the finish, made a cushion for the top, and voila… Shane and I now have a bench for the end of our bed! I am so domestic!

This just in: We’re moving to UTAH!

As of Sept. 24th, Shane will no longer be able to say that he is “retired.” He has mixed feelings about this change of status, but overall is quite excited. The main reason: check out where we’re going to be living! (The names in red are ski resorts)

Gone are the days of the 7 hour drive to go skiing. I can’t say I’m too sad, either. There are 12 shopping malls in the Salt Lake area!