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.
Tag Archives: Travel
Drink 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.
How to Get Lucky
On good days I accept it as a compliment; a sincere expression of admiration. Other times, though, it’s hard not to take the meaning literally.
“You’re so lucky.”
Lucky. The word hangs in the air like an accusation.
In many ways we are lucky. We’re lucky to have been born to middle class families in the richest country on earth. We’re lucky to have been raised by loving parents; to have received a good education; to have our health and all of our faculties. I’m immensely grateful, every day, for my good fortune.
In short, we’re lucky in the same way that millions of other middle class residents of developed countries are lucky. Everything else took effort, determination, sacrifice and, perhaps most importantly, a strong belief that we are the masters of our fate.
Which brings me to the other thing I hear when someone says “You’re so lucky:” capitulation. Capitulation to the vagaries of life. Surrender to imagined forces beyond our control. I hear in these words the sentiment “if only I were luckier, things would be different.” That’s a copout. We assign ourselves too easy a task in life when we ascribe so much of our condition to luck.
Welcome to Antelope Island
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.
Meet Brian and Shannon
Fulltime wanderers since 2010, Brian & Shannon are traveling the world on a quest to see everything there is to see . . . at least once.
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