August’s Big Adventures
Since August is kinda busy (and since we’ve traveled quite a bit lately), we decided to have a few local mini-adventures in August rather than the usual out-of-town adventure. Here are the fun times we had:
Mini-Adventure #1: Jac’s Birthday
For
Jac’s 59th birthday, we spent the day up in Park City having two fun
new experiences. First, we learned how to blow glass at Red Flower
Studios. We made four pieces in total–two ornaments, one orb, and one bowl. Jac did most of the work, since this was his birthday surprise from me. Here’s quite a lot of shots of this fun, unique experience (can’t seem to edit it down):
Once done with the glass blowing experience, we had a little time to kill before our next ‘experience’, so we drove around the charming downtown area of Park City:
Finally it was time for Jac’s second surprise: the International Downhill Skiing Aerials World Cup at Utah Olympic Park. Wow! We had front row seats to these amazing feats for almost three hours:
Here’s a pano of our great seats for the show (thanks to showing up a bit early):
Half way through the competition there was a cool intermission show by the Hot Shot, who did lots of flips and stunts at the same time. It was amazing to watch! But…at that point (almost 3 hours into it), we felt we had adequately had ‘the experience’, so after catching the Hot Shots performance, we headed home.
In all, it was a very fun day, and hopefully an unforgettable surprise for birthday boy.
Mini-Adventure #2: High Uintas Drive
One Sunday in August we ascended 5,000′ up into the High Uintas for a day of beautiful forested mountains, puffy clouds in a bright blue sky, meadows full of wildflowers, and a crisp, refreshing mid-60s temperature!
We stopped for a picnic lunch along the shoreline of beautiful Mirror Lake (elevation: about 10,000 ft!) As usual, Jac’s container goodies were legendary and one of the best parts of the day. 🙂
Here’s a view of the walking path around the lake. We’re going to come back some other time when it’s less crowded and walk it a bit. 🙂
It was a fun, low key day (perfect for our tired and achy, just-vaccinated-and-feelin’-it bodies.)
Mini-Adventure #3: Spring City
For a fun Sunday mini-adventure, we drove about an hour and a half south to the tiny community of Spring
City, famous for some of Utah’s best-preserved examples of pioneer
architecture. The entire town is listed as a historic district on the
National Register of Historic Places (only one of two towns in the US to
have the WHOLE town listed). And we were not disappointed. What an
adorable place:
Outside
the town proper, we caught this ramshackle shack and its new resident
enjoying a breezy summer day on the porch. Look close…a deer family
has taken up residence. 🙂
On the way back, we drove through nearby Mt Pleasant–also pretty charming:
This day proves that impromptu, part-day adventures can be a lot of fun! 🙂