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I am Forrest Gump

by Brian on September 28, 2012 in Travel, United States, Utah

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Salt Lake City, UT

Sometimes it’s hard not to feel a bit like Forrest Gump. No, not because I’m slow-witted (although that is often true, too) or a prodigious runner (which is decidedly never true) but because occasionally it feels like I’m unknowingly dropped in the middle of history’s great events.

Watching the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice isn’t exactly like giving John Lennon the starting lines to Imagine or being hosted by Richard Nixon at the Watergate hotel, but it felt a little out of body just the same – like I was witnessing something extraordinary that I had no right to be a part of.

Cathedral of the Madeleine

by Brian on September 26, 2012 in Travel, United States, Utah

We can’t leave the topic of beautiful Salt Lake City buildings without showing you the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Its amazing Spanish Gothic interior and colorful Byzantine murals are simply breathtaking.

Drink Utah

by Brian on September 21, 2012 in Food & Drink, Travel, United States, Utah

Wasatch Brewery, Park City, Utah

It’s hard not to be a little disappointed. From all we had heard about Utah’s liquor laws we thought going there would be like visiting some bizarre alternate universe where drinks could be served but not seen. So great was the hype about Utah’s toughest in the nation alcohol restrictions that we contemplated smuggling our own stash over the border like modern day Al Capones.

But our laziness bested our ambition, and we failed to stock our cupboards before arriving. At least, we figured, we’d accumulate stories about harried adventures navigating Prohibition-style liquor laws. What we found instead was all too ordinary, if only because most of the rest of the country is no less bonkers when it comes to booze.

Welcome to Antelope Island

by Brian on September 14, 2012 in Travel, United States, Utah

Antelope Island Utah

Bison were not something we expected to find roaming Utah, which we’ve always envisioned as a dusty place that grows amazing red rock formations instead of grasslands. We certainly didn’t expect to see grazing animals near its largest city and especially not in the middle of the Great Salt Lake for which that city is named. But not only does a herd of 600 bison roam the 42 square miles of Antelope Island, so do pronghorn, bighorn sheep, bobcats, coyotes, porcupine, badgers and millions of water fowl. It’s like one of the world’s largest city zoos, only without the cages.

Salt Lake City Capitol

by Brian on September 10, 2012 in Travel, United States, Utah

Murals inside the Salt Lake City Capitol building rotunda

The U.S. may not have Europe’s 17th century palaces to house our government offices but we’ve still managed to create some amazing spaces for our bureaucrats. Each state capitol we’ve visited (18 in all so far) is unique. Notwithstanding its stereotypically domed neoclassical architecture, the Capitol in Salt Lake City is one of the most impressive we’ve seen.