Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake

Day two in Utah! Our second day there we went to check out the Great Salt Lake before it got too hot again. Antelope Island is an island in the Great Salt Lake (from here on out known as GSL cause ain't nobody got time for that). It's the craziest thing, you drive forever through the suburbia of Salt Lake City and then all of a sudden there's salt flats and no more civilization. The island has a ton of birds, bison, and antelope on it and has a real good beach if you want to swim in the GSL. We got there before 9 and left a little after noon so it was pretty cool temp-wise. It's a deserty sort of place, as you can imagine an island surrounded by salt might be, but still very pretty. And the animals! So neat.

COFFEE CUP HEAD.

BISON! Like right there!! There were herds and herds of them. Just chillin' on their island. The antelope were a little harder to spot but we saw a few.

We drove down the island to Fielding Garr Ranch, one of the oldest working ranches in the western US. It's next to one of the springs on the island so it was a nice spot of green in a generally brown landscape.

One of the herds of bison we saw! So neat. I'm such an animal freak, I loved seeing them!

After driving around the island and saying hi to the bison we headed to the "beach" to check out the GSL. We didn't swim since it was only like seventy something out, but I wish we had, the water felt so good!

The huge downside of the GSL? All that brown stuff near the water's edge? Gnats. Or flies. Or something. Swarms and clouds of them. MILLIONS. They look like dirt, but it's swarms of flies. I've never seen so many bugs in my entire life. It was crazy. Thankfully they weren't biting gnats or flies (because apparently those exist on the island too), so Brendon just stomped through them and I followed. Once you're into the water there's no bugs!

The water is crystal clear and so so refreshing. It's beautiful. It was a perfectly clear day out, the water just sort of melted into the sky. I could have hung out there forever, but Indiana was like NOPE.

HA, Indiana was not a happy camper. She was over the GSL. She was all about the restaurant by the beach though! We stopped there before heading out because I was huuungry. They had surprisingly good veggie burgers!

Look how clear! It was like the beach! I wish we could have swam, or floated, but I think Indy might have been a little too chilly afterwards. Next time! ;)

That's pretty much it for day two. After Antelope Island we headed back to the hotel for Indiana to get a good nap in and then had some dinner downtown. When your baby goes to sleep at 6:30 your evenings are pretty short. I'm all about that though, I passed out around 8 every night. I think I made it to 9 once to see the sunset. Grandma!

Next up... mountains!!

Salt Lake City - Temple Square

Lets just start out with a pic of Indiana on our big ol' king sized hotel bed, because why not?

Salt Lake City! Oh man, we had a blast. We were definitely nervous about taking a five month old on her first long trip, including her first flights, but it was so great. Really really great. She's amazing. It was definitely not stress free, but it was so much easier than I thought it would be. And so worth it. Sorry Indiana, you've set yourself up to be dragged on a whole bunch of family vacations.

So why Salt Lake City? Well it started with me checking out all the destinations Southwest flew direct under 3 hours. And then it was between SLC and Nashville. Everyone said wooo Nashville! But in the end our love for the mountains and considerations for Indy won out. Nashville is definitely on the list, but since Indiana is in bed by 6:30-7 every night, we figured we'd be missing out on a lot that Nashville had to offer. And did I mention we love the mountains? And I'm so glad we picked what we did because we loved Salt Lake City. LOVED IT. We loved the city itself and loved how close the mountains were. PLUS a cool front of some sort had come in the day before we arrived so the highs the first day were like seventy something. Heaven! And even though the rest of the week the highs were in the nineties, it cools down so much at night it's not even bad. PLUS NO HUMIDITY. Dry heat is so much more tolerable. I'm a terrible Texan. Brendon was (jokingly) looking at real estate in SLC. I mean, we really enjoyed our time there.

Anyway, lets get down to the nitty gritty. Them pictures! Our first full day there we hit up downtown, but our main objective was to check out Temple Square. And oh man, it did not disappoint. It is massive and pretty and awe inspiring. And everyone was so nice!

The Temple looks like a castle! It's beautiful. And insanely large. I would have loved to gone in, but rules are rules. We went into the church, the visitor's center, and took a tour of the conference center across the street which had killer rooftop views of downtown. The whole place is amazingly well taken care of. I'm talking like Disneyland-esque clean. And the flowers! Oh my gosh the landscaping was spectacular and everything was blooming like crazy!

  

Kudos to the kind family who offered to take our photo! And to the little girl who asked, "You guys just got married, right?" and the mom who said, "They have a baby!!" Haha! I think this is the only photo of all three of us from the whole trip. Note to self, ask more strangers to take our picture!

The flowers! Seriously, awesome.

Another shout out to Sister Margaret for taking this photo and for giving us a tour of the conference center. She was a sweetie.

These cuties!

Okay, this hill doesn't look that steep but let me tell you; it's long, it gets so much worse, and it was wicked. It goes all the way to the state capitol (our goal) and I pushed that stroller all the way. And then almost puked. We took the week off from running so I had to get my workouts in somewhere. And I feel like a good vacation is one you're sore from.

Sister Margaret's mom took piano lessons in that building! Sister Margaret was prob at least 70. She was full of fun facts!

We didn't actually get to go into the capitol because Indiana was throwing a fit. Probably her biggest of the trip. Of course on our way down the hill she promptly fell asleep. But anyway, the capitol is very cool from the outside. It's on a giant perfectly manicured lawn on a hill above downtown so you can see pretty much the whole city. And the surrounding mountains! Utah is all about the views, and they're real good.

And a parting shot of my two faves eating some really spectacular waffles and fries for dinner (haaaayyy it's vacay!) at a little place a block away from our hotel. The fries and aioli were awesome but the waffles... holy cow, the waffles were on another level. I'll be dreaming about those for ages. We went twice and we should have gone more. Bruges Waffles and Frites; if you're in the area, GOOO.

So that was day one of vacation. Insanely long post numero uno, done! More to come!