Utah holidays, just before the academic year starts

Transitions: they are painful, but rewarding.  I needed to get back to writing.  Last night we landed some two hours late in Salt Lake City, but after viewing the THOR movie and an uneventful night, we were ready for a holiday. 

Patrick, did anyone say breakfast in bed!

This morning we captured a picture of Patrick having his first (and only, if we are paying) breakfast in bed.  Roberta and I presented the idea last night to Patrick and he lit up.  It seemed liked a fun idea and the smiles on Patrick’s face in the morning told us it was worth doing.

After a pathetic demonstration by me for not stopping work, Roberta put her foot down at 8:30 AM and said that she was going to breakfast.  Patrick’s fabulous breakfast tray, a rather extra positive delivery lady, and the wonderful bright morning sky overlooking the Wasatch Mountains all said, lets begin holidays.  I unfortunately woke up (~6 AM) with lots of great ideas and needed to get them on “paper”.

On the Albion Meadows trail, Little Cottonwood Canyon

We headed off to a place identified last night on my fancy new android cell phone.  Yes, it was listed as having an 8 AM opening, but they met us at the door pleading that start time was at 9 AM.  We took the long way back towards our hotel and found a nice place across the street from our hotel.  It served great; yogurt, granola and fruits (Kevin, what did you think), along with bagel and cream cheese and super coffee.  The shop also hosted an art gallery and we took full advantage of what was on offer.

Although it was early August, Spring in the
Wasatch Mtns was just beginning.

The best part of the breakfast coffee shop was the conversation with the owner, with who we discussed our day’s touring.  She persuaded us to reconsider Antelope Island (on the Great Salt Lake) – at this time of the year it is rather smelly and full of flies.  She recommended Little Cottonwood Canyon and a high alpine hike.

Elk in Wasatch Mtns.

This was the perfect start to our holiday.  We were all ready to start the trip with a gentle, 2+ mile hike at better than 7000 feet above Alta, Utah.  The walk was super, sky clear, air and temperature perfect and, true to reports, spring flowers just came out last week (after the snow melt).  The alpine meadows were rich with many pastel colors and more promise for the higher regions.  Patrick was in his element and took many hundreds of pictures.

We got to the final turn of the Albion trail hike and decided to take advantage of the Germania Pass trail. It was a stroke of fortune to find the walk and enjoy the best of the region. 

There was still a good deal of snow in the
mountains.

A very late lunch turned into a good idea for a dinner, giving us enough time to catch the end-of-season-quality, Sunday night Sox-Yankees game in our hotel room.  The holiday began with a smile.