Saturdate 3: The cupcakery and animal wifery

This Saturday’s activities included a visit to one of the local cupcakeries for some mini tasty treats, washed down with a giant cup of concrete ice cream at Neilsen’s. I asked the guy at the counter what the difference between concrete and regular ice cream, and apparently concrete has significantly more butter fat.  Upon gaining this knowledge, Shane ordered the extra large. I ordered an extra spoon.

We put the top down on the little car and took our mini cupcakes (Shane had the blueberry, I had the key lime, which tragically looked better than it tasted) and concrete to Liberty Park for a walk in the lovely sunshine.  Although we drive past the park frequently (I now drive past it every day on my way to work), we had never actually been in it.  What do you know?  It’s fantastic!  There are indoor/outdoor tennis courts, multiple huge playgrounds, meandering water features for kids to play in, horseshoe pits, bocce ball courts (are they really courts?), museums, running/walking paths, lots of trees and grass, and to our surprise, the Tracy Aviary. We had the workers for the weekend and were planning on taking them to the Aviary until they decided that it was too cold and they had other errands to run.  Not knowing where it was, it was quite auspicious of us to stumble upon it (in real life, not virtually) while on our Saturday stroll.

Lucky for us, the Aviary was also free when we walked by (or at least it was unguarded… we walked right in without paying anyway), so we jumped on the opportunity and checked out our fellow feathered friends.

This is when I discovered that I have a knack to attract caged mini animals.  Call it a kindred spirit.  Call it animal wifery.  Call it monkey and bird whispering.  Whatever it is, I think I have a gift.

Aside from the caged and uncaged birds (like the bald eagles who were neither tethered nor caged, just injured and unable to fly), we most enjoyed the birds that just wandered around the park like the peacocks and other spotted birds.  They just cruised around and checked out the other birds.  We were excited when we found these and documented them thoroughly.

We were most excited when we found a peacock that wanted a better view of the park from up on the roof.

And then we saw the most glorious sight: the first snowconeria of the season!  These pop up all over town at the beginning of the summer and we indulge at least once a week.  We mourn a small bit of mourn at the end of the summer when they disappear, unfortunately much earlier than the hot weather.

It’s not very hard to please us, as you can probably tell by the fact that we’ve been having so much fun doing the things local people do on third grade fieldtrips.

Shane calls in “Powder hungry” to work

Claiming he worked too hard the week before, Shane said he was going to be in late to work on Tuesday and hit Solitude instead.  They reported 26″ of powder and he “needed” to test out his new ski boots. At least that was his excuse.

They finally took out the camera when they were tired of skiing and had tracked out their favorite areas. Here’s Shane doing his thing:

This whole “skiing before work” thing is not a new concept.  Click on the photo below for more pictures of his most recently documented dawn patrol trip.

3,000 vertical feet of untracked, knee-deep, blower powder.  It puts a smile on his face to this day.

Saturdate 2: Zoo zoo zoo and yurt yurt yurt

Since we had so much fun last weekend on our Saturdate, we decided to try another hand at it.  It was another lovely sunny day (albeit a bit chillier), so what would any 20-something childless couple do?  Go to the zoo, of course!

I befriended many a monkey in between jaunts to visit the swimming penguins, the birds sitting on the rhinos’ backs (they really do this, even in Utah), problem solving orangutans, pacing cougars, sleeping kangaroos, swallowing (and unswallowing) giraffes and chilly zebras.

We were definitely a minority (lacking a few kids to say the least), but we didn’t let that stop us.  We are zoo enthusiasts!

And then later on that weekend was… YURTASTIC ADVENTURE TAKE II

Our first attempt at our Valentine’s date yurt dinner was a tremendous FAIL.  We got off work early, dressed in appropriate warm clothes, drove up to Solitude and waited at the meeting point for over a 1/2 hour, only to discover that we had been stood up.  Apparently they cancel the trip if there aren’t enough people and they failed to contact us.  You can understand why we were disappointed when you read the description of the yurt on their website:

One of the most unique dining experiences in Utah, the Yurt offers an enchanting adventure and a delicious dinner. Guest’s cross-country ski or snowshoe (approximately 3/4 mile) through the moon or lantern lit forest to a Mongolian yurt, where a chef prepares an incredible five-course meal guests won’t soon forget. In its 19th season, this intimate dining experience seats twenty and is rated #7 on Sunset Magazine’s best mountaintop dining experiences list. Overwhelming popularity for this experience make reservations a must – the earlier you plan the better.

Disappointment of epic proportions.  The chef of St. Bernard’s, who also cooks for the yurt, felt so terrible that he invited us to have dinner there on the house.  And although it was not very yurt-like (I’m obsessed with yurts and am trying to figure out how to have an art studio yurt in the back yard), it was probably one of the top 10 meals of our lives.  It was that good.

Fast forward to this weekend, when we were finally able to reschedule our trip.  We repacked and bundled up and we were off, excitement still pretty high, despite the first fail.  It hadn’t snowed for a few days so the trail was pretty packed and snowshoes weren’t necessary, so we were able to take a lovely stroll through the woods on a crisp evening, keeping our eyes out for wild animals or lost skiers. You can’t see me in this picture because I’m way up in front, just charging ahead, anxious to see the yurt!

And then, just around the bend (there were many, I think to make it seem more magical.  I bet the yurt was really only about 100 feet from the meeting point, but it took a good 15 minutes to walk there on the charming trail):

The inside of the yurt was decorated in mongolian style, with great rustic photos, Tibetan prayer flags and a great professional stove and oven in the middle.  We ate on two long tables, getting to know our fellow yurt-goers throughout the night.   What characters.  The meal was spectacular and so huge that we could barely touch the dessert when it strolled around two hours later.

Here is a rough menu:

Course 1: Roasted pepper and tomato soup with artisan cheese and chive oil.

Course 2: Fresh large scallop ceviche with sweet pepper relish on a bed of baby arugula.  Served with a cucumber cup filled with salmon mousse.  The scallop had the most incredible flavor and texture.  I must try to recreate it.

Course 3: Baby spinach salad with spicy candied walnuts, slivered green apple and local Beehive “Barely Buzzed” cheese, with a scrumptious espresso lavendar crust.

Course 4: Thick, juicy pork tenderloin cooked with a wild mushroom sauce, served with buttered napa cabbage and roasted fingerling potatoes.

Course 5: Pumpkin spice cake and sliced strawberries marinated in a balsamic reduction.

By the end of the night we were so full and were having to waddle the whole 3/4 of a mile back to the car.  I was seriously contemplating hiring a snowmobile to take me, as Shane refused to carry me (chivalry is dead).  It started to lightly snow on our walk back.  What a perfect way to end a perfect evening.

More on that “starting to snow” bit later.  Shane’s still recovering from his “called in powder hungry” to work day.

Saturdate: Capitol Building and Ensign Peak

We had a rare sunny weekend with nothing to do.  So instead of doing much needed chores around the house, we decided to go on a budget tour of our city (everything we did was free!).  First stop: The Utah State Capitol Building.

There was an amusingly strange / alternative festival out front, and I was pleased to see that there is at least a small bit of diversity in Salt Lake, even if was only from the hours of 2-4 pm.  Most of the rooms were closed for the weekend, so we definitely need to go back when we can see it all.  So if you come and visit, you very well might get to go on a tour of the Capitol with us.

Although there were no bizarre governor’s portraits like there are in Sacramento, we did find an incredibly awful Photoshop Cloning FAIL.

Really?  It would have taken about 2 minutes longer to clone it properly.   But that’s besides the point… Why on earth did they need to even add extra head to her?

Poor Chief Justice Christine Durham.

Afterwards we mosied around the Capitol area until we saw a monument on the top of the hill.  We weaved our way through neighborhoods until we found a trailhead, and soon we were on a mini hike up to Ensign Peak.

The weather was warm (for a snow-less weekend in February in Utah, that is.  I think it got up into the low 60s), the views were spectacular, and the company was lovely.  We’ll add this to our list of places to take people when they visit.  The list is getting quite long.  Someone had better come and visit us soon.