MEM-SLC
September 24 - 27, 2010
- Nick arrived in Salt Lake City from Memphis, and Brad came in from Phoenix, both around 9:30 or 10 AM.
We picked up the rental car (a Malibu) and then headed to the Homewood Suites Hotel to check in. 
We got settled in and then took off to check out some breweries and have lunch. - We ate at Red Rock Brewing Co. Brad had a trout/bacon club and Nick a veggie sandwich. We had a couple beers and bought a shirt for Patricio then went walking. The waitress at RRB had recommended Epic Brewing as a good destination for great beer. It was about a mile away from where we were at the time, but we decided to hoof it anyway.
Along the route, we stopped at a few places for beers...Squatter's Pub (meh), Junior's Tavern (had a great IPA), then to Epic, on State Street south of downtown. 
We assumed that there would be a tap room or a pub of some sort at the brewery (at first we thought maybe we had come in the wrong entrance). Alas, all that was there was a sales room. We went ahead and bought 4 bottles (22 oz) and started walking back. Farther north on State St, we came across the State Room/Bayou and had some great beers - Uinta and Anderson (both local brews) - and played a few games of pool. The bartenders (and customers) were really friendly. The bartender actually stored our Epic beers (in bags) in the cooler below the bar ("groceries" is what we had to call them due to state laws). A couple sitting at the bar then gave us some pointers on where to go to hike the next day. - We walked back to the hotel (another 1.5 miles or so) and decided to go downstairs for dinner at Iggy's Grill. We had some mediocre pizza and a few beers then headed back and had the Epic beers at the pool. Watched some TV, then headed to bed.
- On Saturday, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel then checked for stuff to do. The agenda definitely included the Great Salt Lake, so we got in the car and headed north out of the city via I-15. We wanted to check out the lake at Antelope Island State Park, which the waitress at Red Rock had mentioned the day before.
Around Layton, UT, we headed west and across the causeway to the island. After touring the visitor center we drove the rest of the road along the island's coast/spine, checked out the old ranch at the end, and then came back. 
Scenery was great, and we actually saw an antelope. We concurred that this was probably the first antelope we'd seen in all our travels. We stopped at a public access area to check out the "beach" and walked for what seemed like forever to get to the lake, across (very) smelly sand. Nothing grows in the water due to the salinity, but brine shrimp are plentiful. We waded into the water a bit, but didn't stay in too long. - Once out of the park, we ate lunch at Taco Maker (!!) and had a well-deserved treat at DQ. Then we made our way farther north to Ogden...there really wasn't much there to see or do, from what we gathered by driving around a bit. It's a nice city, with new buildings and what seemed like a really neighborly feel, but we just weren't feeling it then. There just wasn't a whole lot to do and we didn't feel like walking around, so we headed back to SLC.
- Once back in the city, we went by the state capitol building.
Then we tried to find Gilgal Sculpture Garden (fail) but ended up...at a brewery. Desert Edge Brewery, specifically, which we recalled having beers at the first trip to SLC in 2004. After leaving there, we drove to Epic and picked up a few more bottles of beer. - Went back to the room and hung out, watched TV, then decided on dinner and a movie at Gateway. We had dinner at the Happy Sumo (sushi and curry tofu noodles w/sake) and saw Devil (freaky, but meh). Walked back to the hotel and called it a night around 11.
- The next morning we got up and had breakfast then mapped out where we wanted to hike for the day. We planned on going east of the city into the Wasatch National Forest to do a 5 mile hike.
The drive was really beautiful, through cottonwood forest. The leaves were bright shades of orange and yellow with pines interspersed throughout the drive. It took about 30 minutes to get to the trailhead, shorter than we had anticipated. We assumed it would take longer, and had planned on getting water along the way. Since we weren't really prepared, and the nearest convenience store wasn't exactly close, we just went ahead and drove to Park City, UT, which is where we were going to go after the hike anyway. - In Park City, there was a street festival going on all along Main Street. Bands food vendors, crafts, etc. At the beer tent we got a Wasatch Pumpkin Ale (so good). After walking the festival, we went into the Wasatch Brewery and went upstairs to the bar, got a beer and sat on the patio. Then we ended up downstairs at a table and had lunch (with a beer).
- We headed back to the car, having walked a good 2-3 miles in Park City (that's our hike). Once back in SLC we stopped (once again) at Epic for some beer and then went to the hotel and changed. Stopped at Red Rock and had a couple beers while watching the Colts beat the Broncos. We talked to the bartender for a while, and he recommended a few places to grab a beer. From RRB, we went to the Beerhive Pub. They had a ton of beer on tap and in bottle. We parked ourselves on the patio out front and started a conversation with a few opera singers. Nice guys (but they couldn't understand why we would come to SLC for the weekend without a purpose). We had a couple beers there and then went to the Poplar Street Pub, next door to RRB. Had several beers there and a pizza. By this point we were pretty tanked, so we went back to the hotel and had (of course) a couple beers. Nick may or may not have puked and passed out.
- In the morning, we ate breakfast and hung out in the room for a while, to 'recover.' For lunch we went to PF Chang's and had lettuce wraps.
- Got to the airport and back to Memphis around 6:30 PM.
