People envision a lot of weird things when they think of Utah, such as dirty old men that accumulate wives like I accumulate shoes. While Utah is not the polygamist paradise of imaginings or much like what most outsiders picture in many other regards, it does contain a lot of secluded locations with distinctive flavors worth a second take…or a double take.
Since I started attending photography classes last year, I have documented, via snapshot, a few of Utah’s strange habitats and unique quirks as I’ve come across them. Although I’m sure that this photographing will continue as I find more wacky spots, allow me to share some of the uncommonness, and bizarreness, that I’ve found within Utah’s borders thus far.
Elberta, a tiny town on the far side of Utah Lake, is a real throwback down to its vintage gas station.
This shoe tree can be found out in the desert near Delta.
Delta’s shoe tree is covered in everything from ski boots to Converse sneakers.
Antelope Island, on the Great Salt Lake, is home to a herd of bison.
These Antelope Island bison weren’t particularly eager for human contact but they weren’t too shy either.
We journeyed onto the Great Salt Lake via Farmington Bay last January. Talk about some serious oddballs! Spheres of puffy snow rumpled the lake’s surface and dumbfounded us.
The Great Salt Lake doesn’t freeze in winter due to its salinity but its surface ices enough for current rivers to emerge.
The snow near the Great Salt Lake crystallizes peculiarly. Is it the presence of sodium chloride or could it be Metachlorians? You got me.
The town of Thistle was wiped out in a landslide in 1983, the most costly landslide in U.S. history. This house has remained submerged in that ghost town’s muck ever since.
These bits of deteriorating stone and rotting wood are all that remain of the Thistle schoolhouse after 30 years of abandonment. It was one of the few buildings left standing when 65,000 acre-feet of water flooded the town in ’83.
Technically, I came across this conglomeration of signs just beyond Utah’s boundaries but, in my opinion, it was close enough.
Yes, Utah’s got some weirdness but who’d want to live in a state devoid of eccentricity and headshake-worthy places?
The last in our string of celebratory anniversary activities involved going to a painting class but not just any painting class, a class to paint a blue police box. Yes, those of you with nerd cred know exactly of who I speak.
Painting with a Twist is a little place in Murray that features daily canvas tutorials of all sorts. The atmosphere is relaxed and no artistic skills are required, which is great because I have none. And, for the record, that wasn’t a faux-humble statement that I expect someone to benevolently contradict. Truly, you would have a difficult time matching something I sketched to its corresponding object in the real world. Yet, rather miraculously, my blue box spiraled through the brush-time vortex relatively undistorted.
I am a hopeless perfectionist. I was the last person in the class to finish their work.
As you would expect from something so wibbly wobbly, time in our class flew by at an unpredictable pace. Three hours came and went in what felt like minutes. You had to paint quickly to keep up with our instructor and, unfortunately, due to my perfectionistic nature, I’m generally the opposite of quick. Therefore, my TARDIS materialized slower than anyone else’s but I did manage to only finish last by a few minutes.
Both of our paintings turned out far better than we expected.
This unique ending to our anniversary amusements was well received and appreciated. Many thanks to my clever spouse for planning so many fine and uncommon outings in honor of our topnotch marriage. And many thanks to him also for being the best husband a girl could ask for! Thirteen definitely doesn’t deserve its villainous reputation.
The following weekend, the second part of Jason’s anniversary scheme took us up to Salt Lake City again but this time to the twenty-fourth floor of The Grand America Hotel. We used that lofty vantage point as our base of operation for a couple days of downtown adventuring.
Our balcony, twenty-four floors up, provided a great view of downtown Salt Lake City.
We ate a delicious dinner at Ruth’s Chris our first night in Salt Lake. In my unsolicited opinion, if you are celebrating an anniversary or another out-of-the-ordinary occasion, Ruth’s Chris is a great place to do it. Although we didn’t make a reservation, when the hostess learned that we were commemorating our anniversary she quickly set about creating an atmosphere of specialness for us. Our table was strewn with rose petals and we received congratulations galore from the staff. We felt pretty elite simply for successfully completing another year of marriage.
After thirteen years, Jason and I are still hopelessly thrilled about each other.
On Saturday, we ate breakfast at Gourmandise, one of the best spots to grab pastries or cakes in Salt Lake; it’s very popular with the soon-to-be-fat crowd. On a side note, although this little joint never disappoints with its decadent treats, it can be short on seats so plan on patience if you’re going to gobble there.
The Golden Poison Dart Frog is one of the most toxic animals on the planet. One of these little guys contains enough poison to kill 10 grown men.
Following our leisurely breakfast, we headed to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium. This aquarium only opened at its nifty new location in Draper a couple of months ago so, as you might guess, it was basically wall-to-wall people, with a few creatures strewn in. We had to wait in an enormous line to even be admitted because the building was at max capacity and patrons had to leave before more were allowed in. However, in spite of the overabundance of humanity that made the place more of a petting zoo than an aquarium, Jason and I had a nice time. The Living Planet is impressive but I would recommend waiting about six months for the crowds to dissipate a bit before you check it out. We plan on going back when we don’t have to hurdle strollers in order to access exhibits.
Arapaimas can get over 10 feet long, weigh more than 400 pounds, and breath air. Their Piranha-proof armor makes them perfect inhabitants of South America’s rivers.
After our aquatic adventures, we ate dinner at Pallet, a restaurant in downtown that opened last year. The food was fabulous and the modern industrial setting was sophisticated and romantic. I’d definitely recommend this bistro to all y’all.
We are certainly not above taking ridiculous pictures.
The rest of our weekend was monopolized by relaxation, reading, and writing. We spent our final morning in Salt Lake lounging in our hotel room and stuffing ourselves with tasty room service. You can’t beat lazily eating fluffy pancakes and hearty corned beef hash, which just showed up at your doorstep, with the city and mountains spread out beneath you like the workings of a model train hobby turned mania.
What a lovely getaway to celebrate a lovely life! As per tradition, the last of our anniversary festivities will be discussed next week in more detail than necessary. But I shan’t give any of those superfluous details away just yet.
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