Sweet, sweet Utah

San Francisco is wonderful. But I tend to get angry with it during the summer months when highs are only in the 60s (as they are most of the year) and the wind picks up in the afternoon, causing me to curse under my breath as I clutch my jacket closer to me. It is not uncommon to see people wearing winter hats and beanies here in the middle of July! Thank goodness I can escape to the bone-warming greatness of Utah where summer is summer. That is what I did a few weeks ago, and here are some of my recommended activities:

1) Wade in the pool at the bottom of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon. If you're My Boy, climb up and jump from every rock you come across while yelling, "To infinity and beyond!" Also, pick up rocks, even ones that are 1/3 your size, and heave/throw them.

Aunt "Schkervs" keeping My Boy steady

I keep thinking about how this looks like an engagement picture

2) Go to Lagoon for their 5-11pm $20 special. I hadn't been for about 9 years but found it still totally rocks, despite their getting rid of the Magic Carpet and Roll-O-Plane rides and inexplicably still keeping hard-core zoo animals like WHITE TIGERS there! Nothing seems right about that.

3) Beat the mid-day heat by going to Kangaroo Zoo (thanks for the tip, Addi!). Stay until child gets hurt (but not badly--I didn't mean "thanks" sarcastically). I actually liked it so much that I bought myself an admission although I didn't originally intend to.

This is how My Boy looks when he's trying to be obedient and smile for the camera but wants to get on with more jumping and sliding

4) Attend patriotic Children's Parade. We'd never been to one of these, and My Boy enjoyed collecting the taffy and hard candy that was thrown at him while watching all the kids and dogs in their red, white and blue. I kept telling him to chant, "USA! USA!," which seems slightly blasphemous considering how much I really do love my country, but I thought it was funny.

As a side note, we scored some pretty great stuff from a nearby yard sale--a full-sized Buzz Lightyear that makes shooting noises and says stuff (thanks Nana!), a build-your-own marble maze toy called "Marbleous" (hee hee!), some books, and a training potty (like he's ever going to use it!...or so it seems at the moment).

5) See Wayne Thiebauld exhibit at the Springville Art Museum. A print of this picture hangs above my dresser and makes me happy:

so I was really excited to see more of "Tee-baugh's" stuff, and at a small museum that charges no admission too! It was great, and I also enjoyed seeing all the local art being displayed, which was mostly for sale. Buying original art is something I could really get into (I'm not one to sit and study a piece and don't have any analytical comments or explanations beyond stuff like, "Cool! Gumballs! I like the colors," but I like seeing what people do).

6) Determine if son is ready for theater movies. We went to Horton Hears a Who at the dollar theater and found My Boy is not ready for the theater experience, unless eating a lot of Junior Mints qualifies as the theater experience. He did okay but got restless halfway through and whispered, "We can get this at the library" (he gets to pick a movie out at the library about once a week). We took this as our cue to leave. Thank goodness we were only out $3 instead of $30!

7) Eat
--Two trips were made to Taco Time for a soft bean burrito with sour cream and a crisp taco. How I miss that place!
--I ate so much at the Art City Trolley that I was in pain when I stood up. This may be my favorite restaurant of all time (sometimes I feel like I don't deserve to live in SF because I usually don't appreciate the fancy-pants restaurants around here. I'd rather have an In-N-Out burger than almost anything--I know, I'm like some sort of red-neck man). I ordered this drink that whipped up orange cream soda with vanilla ice cream. It was heaven on a hot day.
--We finally tried The Mandarin. It's a Chinese restaurant in Bountiful that is supposedly one of the best in the nation. It was really fabulous, and very reasonably priced too. I would definitely recommend it.

All this plus some tennis, golf, wiffle ball, night walks (it's REALLY hard to beat a nice, warm night walk), board games, time with family and friends, lots of free babysitting and some sleeping in equaled a fantastic time. Would I move back? No. Yes! No. I don't know, but it's sure great to visit.