SLC: Eat, Conference, and Leave

Things I Learned in Salt Lake City, downtown proper:
1. There appears to be a meth problem
2. Sundays are not a day to do things downtown, unless you want to go the gateway mall or to the Mormon (LDS) church.
3. The public transportation is pretty easy to use, although there are no buses on Sunday.
4. I can read an entire book in Barnes and Noble in 4 hours (see number 2 if you’re wondering why). And no one kicked me out. Looking around, I wasn’t the only one doing this. This is the book I read : My Summer of Southern Discomfort
5. The Mormon Tabernacle choir is really good and worth getting out in the 26 degree weather to hear.
6. The Mormon Tabernacle choir performs a live broadcast on Sunday mornings, which means we watched them put on makeup, rehearse, and then they locked us in for 30 minutes (well, no getting out during the live broadcast).
7. Snow that has collected along the curb is really, really dirty.
8. Sun doesn’t equal warmth when it’s 34 degrees out.
9. Some people are inhuman in SLC and wear shorts in the previously mentioned 34 degrees.
10. Beehives have a significant meaning for Mormons. It was explained as a metaphor for the LDS community.
11. Utah is the beehive state.
12. Starbucks is open on Sundays.
13. There are some really good restaurants in SLC.
14. The massage school may have cheap prices, but you do get what you pay for.
15. The salt palace convention center is not the best venue for a conference. It certainly doesn’t beat New Orleans or San Diego.

In general, I had a pleasant time in Salt Lake City. The trip started well with a very friendly bus driver from the airport to downtown. Dan, our bus driver, was enthusiastic about his city while he drove us into downtown. We saw some lovely architecture in the city library, the mormon temple, and some 19th century buildings. We ate some really excellent greek food as well as a fantastic meal at Zy wine and cheese.
But I can see why over a weekend the town empties out and heads for Park City, etc. There isn’t a lot to do or see unless your into meth, older malls, or Mormonism. It may seem overdramatic what I am saying about meth, but on Sunday we encountered many young homeless people who looked very worn with the signs of drug addiction. It was a pretty sad way to end our trip. I found myself wishing I had booked an earlier flight home.
You may be wondering why I didn’t go skiing while on this trip and the answer is, I don’t know how to ski and the conference required me near the convention center. Oh, yeah, and I am not the biggest fan of snow. But we’ll try that out again soon with our trip to Big Bear.
Here are some shots from around SLC.