the long drive : utah/nevada/california [16]

We had been planning our drives pretty strategically, keeping the long days to 6-7 hours maximum, but we knew that would eventually run out. And Day 15 of the trip was that day.

Our route for that day covered 550 miles, from Utah through the entirety of Nevada to Truckee, CA, on the northern shores of Lake Tahoe. We knew it would be brutal, and we also knew that eventually it was going to happen - so we figured it was better to have the insane driving day at the end of the trip rather than the beginning.

Woof.

But first - WAFFLES:

We started the day with a brief sightseeing stop at the Great Salt Lake:

 

And continued the day with so.much.driving.

 






But then, surprisingly faster than we anticipated, we were through Nevada and into our new home state of California; and then we were checking into our hotel in Truckee, and then we were so close to the end of our road trip.

These pine trees!!! I was so excited to see some trees after so many miles of dead, dry desert. I actually sent a few snapchats to a few people to yell about how excited I was about the trees #noshamewhatsoever. You can take the girl out of Upstate New York, but you will never take the Upstate New York out of her.


I don't think I'm the first person to experience it, but I absolutely fell in love with Lake Tahoe after just a few brief moments. I have spent so many summers on pine-encased mountain lakes, and while I love the ocean, I am a "Lake Person" at heart. Oh, does Lake Tahoe speak to the Mountain Lake Person inside me. Just...look how beautiful it is:

After I stuck my feet in Lake Tahoe - because I have to stick my feet in bodies of water when available - we went to Las Panchitas Mexican restaurant in Kings Beach and Truckee River Winery in Truckee. Both were good, not great, but the surroundings more than made up for what the food and wine lacked. We finished the evening by sitting in the hot tub at the hotel and simultaneously winding down from the road trip thus far / getting hyped up to finish the road trip the next day.

While we didn't actually do much in Lake Tahoe, I highly, highly recommend going there if you are able to. I am already planning to take a trip up there next summer. I can't tell you how comforting it is to know that when I'm missing home, I just have to drive a few hours north and I have my mountains and my lakes right there. It may not be the mountains and lakes I have loved for so long - but I can't wait to love Lake Tahoe, too.

hidden gems : salt lake city, part 2 [15]

Saturday morning we got up, went to The People's Coffee for pastries and caffeine, then took our stinky dog to get a bath. Some vacation, right!? Turns out after two weeks of being in cars and hotel rooms together, a stinky dog is less forgivable than it might have been otherwise. We dropped the dog back off at the hotel and went to Pleiku, a "modern Vietnamese and tapas bar," for lunch. I got spoiled for pho when I lived outside DC, and Connecticut just didn't have the same offerings, so I was THRILLED to find some pho and boba tea on this trip. Plus a salad, obviously, because #healthy or something (disclaimer: nothing about any of this trip was healthy).

After that, Max said he had a surprise for me, so we drove over to Liberty Park, an absolutely beautiful park with gardens and greenery and a small lake and - surprise! - an aviary. I love birds, I am weirdly nerdy about birds (especially birds of prey - thank you, childhood obsession with the Animorphs series), I wrote a large portion of my poetry projects senior year about birds. I took approximately 3208726349620 pictures (rough estimate) so I won't overload you with all of them, but here's some favorites: 

 

(I have no idea who Taco is, but Taco is THE BEST MACAW).

After the aviary, we went to the University of Utah stadium to see the 2002 Olympic Cauldron Park. I am a HUGE Olympics fan - my life pretty much ceases to exist during the two weeks of Olympic Games and I just try to watch as much of the Olympics as I can. So, given the opportunity, I was EXCITED to see some of the SLC Olympic sites.

Turns out that we were in town the same weekend as a bunch of Utah students moving in and there were some university events going on in the stadium, so the visitor's center was closed, but I managed to get some pictures of the torch/cauldron from outside the fence. 

We were in dire need of caffeination after our bird adventure, so we went to Blue Copper Coffee Room, a small local coffeeshop with some funky iced teas and snacks. It was very cute, and I said to Max "I want my kitchen to look like this" (subway tile! big chalkboard! open shelving!) on our way out.

Saturday evening was by far the highlight of Salt Lake City and perhaps the whole trip. I had heard somewhere that there were a couple speakeasy restaurants in the city, so I made it our mission to go to one of them. We managed to get reservations at one which I just happened to stumble onto via some stealthy internet research, and it was INCREDIBLE. I won't say the name - speakeasies are supposed to be a secret, right? ;) - but we arrived, told the bartender our names, and were led through a secret door, down some stairs, and into a beautiful brick and rustic lodge-y restaurant/bar area. Their cocktail list was incredible, creative and unique; their wine list had three options for each red, white, or bubbly: "cheap - decent - good," and the FOOD. Oh, this food. Both of our meals were fantastic, and their house beignets are among some of the greatest things I have ever consumed. It was a great fancy date night dinner, which we followed up with a stop at BTG Wine Bar since we ate dinner much earlier than we normally do. They had a good, not great, wine selection in terms of glasses (from what I could tell, really only one glass of each varietal), but their small plates menu was great. We got a cheese board (I am a sucker for cheese) and enjoyed a couple of glasses before turning in for the night.

So, Salt Lake City. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. I knew that some of the liquor laws in Utah were funky, so I didn't expect to be able to go to as many bars - and especially not as many unique bars! - as we went to. I don't think of Salt Lake City as having a vibrant foodie scene, but it was certainly there if you looked for it. I didn't think that Salt Lake City would be a place I would care about, and yet I found myself thinking about "next time we come here we'll have to...". It is hot, and it is very concrete-and-granite, but otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Hopefully next time we'll be able to go to the Olympics visitors center! 

full of surprises: salt lake city, part 1 [14]

Where Cheyenne was disorienting because it was a pretty alien experience to me, Salt Lake City reminded me not to assume things about cities. I wasn't sure what to expect from Salt Lake City, and in my stereotyping brain I just sort of assumed it would be a pretty white-bread city with not a lot of things to do since it's the epicenter of Mormonism.

Boy, and thank god, was I wrong.

We stayed right downtown, which was perfect since we were in walking distance from just about everything. Despite my general distaste for organized religion, I wanted to check out the LDS Temple grounds, so that was our first stop.

This building is absolutely breathtaking. Since I am a recovering Catholic who doesn't really subscribe to any version of organized religion at this juncture of my life, and I was in awe of the temple, I can only imagine what it's like for someone who has meaningful feelings toward the temple. The grounds are gorgeous, flowers everywhere, reflecting pools, statues, benches, fountains. We were there as the sun was shining right through a couple of the spires, so it was tough to get any pictures - and pictures absolutely do not do it justice, but here are some anyways:

After we wandered around the temple grounds for a while, we decided it was time for a drink and found Bar X. Bar X is partially owned by Ty Burrell - aka Phil Dunphy from Modern Family - and it's a cool, dark, almost-dive-y Prohibition-esque cocktail bar. If you're familiar with Charleston, South Carolina, it reminded me a LOT of The Gin Joint (aka one of my favorite bars anywhere. 😍). I took zero pictures inside because it was pretty dark, but we both had some KILLER cocktails. Max got an Old Fashioned, and I got a Jameson cocktail that I have already forgotten. Once we decided to have another round, we opted for the "Roulette" option on the menu. I told our bartender (his nametag said Nando and he was amazing so if you are in SLC and go to Bar X definitely get a drink from him) that "I like gin..." and before I could even offer any suggestions or stipulations he was already making me a cocktail. And it was incredible. It had some sort of lemon and honey and something herb-y in it, and he called it the "Sunflower." Max got another whiskey drink that resembled an Old Fashioned but wasn't quite the same.

From there, we scouted out someplace for dinner and were led to Whiskey Street, a bar/restaurant a few blocks away. I was drawn to Whiskey Street because they had a full page on their cocktail menu dedicated to Mules - I don't often order a mule, but they are among my favorite standard cocktails. I got the Cucumber Mule, made with ginger beer, Effen Cucumber vodka, and mint (it was fantastic!). Max ordered some absinthe, which is apparently very popular in Salt Lake City seeing as it was offered at every bar we went to. I had never tried it before, so I took a sip, checked that off the bucket list and now I'm good. I don't like licorice or anything that tastes like licorice or like it might have come in contact with licorice, so absinthe is not really my jam. More power to you. It was less gross than Jagermeister, and significantly less gross than the Jagermeister-and-root-beer combo someone purchased for me in Indiana last summer (two of my least favorite things combined. Awful). We ordered a "polenta poutine" that had short ribs, cheese curds, a battered boiled egg, and gravy over polenta sticks, followed by my ahi tuna/chile relleno combo (different, but good, also spicy!) and Max's bourbon and coke meatloaf (not my thing, but he liked it). We ended our night with a glass of wine at the hotel bar, because we are actually old men.

Coming up on Day 2 of SLC: pastries, parks, and secret speakeasies...

bagels, bison, & breweries : fort collins, co & cheyenne, part 2 [13]

Let me begin this post by saying if you ever end up in Cheyenne, WY, you absolutely should go to Mort's Bagels for breakfast. While they aren't New York bagels (my NY bagel connoisseur husband would like you to know that), they are still delicious and a definite great start to the day. I had a sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on a garlic bagel; Max ordered a "Wyoming Sunrise" which was avocado, onion, and tomato on a green chile bagel. The coffee was pretty decent and the bagels were a perfect way to feel like I was ready to get going without feeling incredibly full.

Just south of Cheyenne is a big ol' bison ranch. I got unreasonably excited when Max suggested we go and pet/feed some bison - I am actually just a giant kid at heart, and as a University at Buffalo graduate I have an irrational love for bison/buffalo. So we drove the nine miles to Terry Bison Ranch, another place where I was completely out of my element, and bought some tickets to the train ride where you get to feed the bison.

We didn't check the train times before we came down, so we had about an hour to kill before we got to feed the bison. Luckily, there are plenty of other animals there, such as tiny Li'l Sebastian horses, alpacas, camels, ostriches, pigs, and BABY GOATS.

Also this ostrich that was 100% an asshole and did some incredibly questionable things while we were standing apparently too close to his personal space:

And then we got to take the train out to the bison herd. I was SO EXCITED at the prospect of petting some bison. Until they told us not to pet them, just to feed them (I pet a couple anyways, sorry not sorry). The train conductor explained the process of feeding a bison - you have to put the food right on their tongue because they have awful eyesight and they will pretty much put your entire hand in their mouth. We left the train station with rousing cheers in response to "you all ready to get your hands slobbery?!" which is maybe the only time in my life I've been excited about animal spit.

The ranch saddles the Wyoming / Colorado border - we had been joking the whole time that Max was doing everything in his power to keep me out of Colorado since we'd been mere miles from the border for a couple days and I am trying to knock out as many states as I can on this trip. So when the train crossed over for a brief turn into Colorado, I was thrilled. Even though we were planning on driving down to Fort Collins later. Still counts.

Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the bison herd. The punks weren't paying attention, apparently, and the conductor had to call someone at the main barn to get the bison to move. They walked right up to the train. Now, they are still HUGE, but the bison were so much smaller than I expected them to be. Bison are also incredibly cute, which is a weird statement to make. They were all very friendly and super excited to eat - almost as excited as I was to feed them. I was a giddy little kid about the whole experience. It was so, so cool and I highly recommend doing it (but bring hand sanitizer with you).

 

A storm was quickly approaching, so we started our trek back to the station - as it started downpouring. It was COLD and unpleasant, to say the least, so when we got back on the train we immediately headed for the restaurant to get some lunch and warm up. The irony was not lost on us - here we had just been feeding bison and now we were about to eat some - but it was delicious and worth it. I got a bison chili, my favorite mode in which to eat bison, and Max got a bison burger.

Once it cleared up a bit, we started the next leg of our journey down to Fort Collins, Colorado, to go to the New Belgium brewery. If you've been following this blog, or if you know anything about us in real life, you know we are beer lovers and so when we realized how close we were to New Belgium we had to squeeze it in. And it was great.

We managed to get on the brewery tour, which we didn't have reservations for but I HIGHLY recommend getting a reservation and doing the tour if you plan to come to New Belgium. I have been on my fair share of brewery tours and this was one of the best ones. We got to see all the normal things you see on a tour - the stills for the mash/wort, barrels for aging the lambic, where the canning process takes place, etc. - but also the science lab where they do chemistry work when creating a new style, where the hops are growing, and our guide grabbed us some cans fresh off the canning line.

Oh - and we got to complete the brewery tour by going down a slide. SO FUN. 

We hung out for a while, finished our beers, and drove around Fort Collins for a bit. I will admit that my research into planning this trip, after it was determined that we wouldn't be able to go to Denver, was mostly just "cities along I-80" and once we decided on the distances we were willing to drive each day, Cheyenne was the one we picked. If I had put a little more time into researching our stops, I probably would have wanted to stay in Fort Collins instead. But - you live and you learn. Fort Collins was a pretty cool little city and I want to visit again when we actually have some time to spend there.

After we had driven around Fort Collins for a bit, we headed back up to Cheyenne - along with a short circle detour so I could get a picture of the "Welcome to Colorado" sign on the highway that I missed thanks to a truck the first time around. Our bartender at Danielsmark had recommended Wyoming Rib and Chop House, a restaurant that frequently showed up on the "best of Cheyenne" lists. It was a bit of a culture shock for us. We have eaten at many different kinds of restaurants and so have a certain idea of what "fancy" dinner looks like for us - which was very much not this place. It was more like a nicer Logan's Roadhouse or a less Texas-themed Texas Roadhouse. Totally fine, just not what we were prepared for, which we quickly realized. It was not the worst meal we've ever had, but nowhere near the best, either. They did serve 55oz margaritas, however (I did not order one). The highlight of the whole experience was most definitely finding a signed Billy Dee Williams photo on the walls:

We closed out our Cheyenne adventure with a trip to Baskin Robbins, because we are adults, a hotel breakfast in the morning, and a long day of driving ahead of us. I-80 through Wyoming is mostly incredibly boring, but the few views we were able to see were pretty incredible - especially as we crossed over into Utah. Plus we crossed the Continental Divide which was pretty cool.

Salt Lake City is nestled in a valley, and the views coming down into the city were incredible. But I'm getting ahead of myself here - SLC is yet to come. This post is about Cheyenne. ;) Cheyenne was cool, not someplace I'm in a rush to go back to, but it was a very eye opening experience for me to see a small Western city and a way of life that is so, so different from what I'm used to. And that's what traveling is supposed to be about, right? You learn from being out of your element, and Cheyenne reminded me that there's a whole lot of this country I've never seen and never experienced anything like it. So thank you, Cheyenne. I may have been a little hesitant about you as a city, but I appreciate the experience, even though - and maybe especially that - it wasn't something I expected or was prepared for. Travel is always life-changing, just not always in ways you're ready for.

See y'all in Salt Lake City.