Sin City

Clever Merchandise

I suppose I have a lot to update you on.  After a great deal of technical difficulties, I can now post the entry from Thursday night when we arrived in Vegas where it was over 104-degrees.  

Our day started with a good lunch at a mediocre brewpub (yes, another brewpub). The pub was clever in its beers, but the whole experience left us less than satisfied. Afterward, we drove out to the Great Salt Lake.   Oddly enough, finding things to do at the lake was harder than we expected.  But we had the Lewis & Clark spirit and just drove until we hit water.  And we did. We came across a funky and dilapidated taj mahal looking building in Saltair, UT (about 20 minutes outside SLC).  We entered the building and I discovered that this was yet another place that would creep me out.  While browsing the postcards, I found several troubling magnets and other trinkets with sayings like "ENOUGH CHANGE, I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!" Nice.  But we were there for the lake and that's what matters... right?  RIGHT! We walked out to the water which was about 200 yards from the real shore. Apparently, the lake is much smaller during the summer months.  So, in order to get to the water, we had to walk through utterly disgusting grey salty sand.  At times the sand was totally solid and at others, we sunk into the nasty muk.  By the time we realized this was the unholiest of waters, we were halfway to the water and it was too late to turn around. Unfortunately, at the actually water there were millions of totally nasty flies so we couldn't even muster the strength to tough the water.  Somehow, there were several kids merrily playing in the water, so I guess we're just big babies.  It was still very cool to see the lake, so we're glad we endured all of the nature and weirdness!

The Great Salt Lake.

After the lake, I explored SLC on my own while my counterpart took a nap.  I found a cool open-air mall, the University, lots of churches, and other things.  I'm not sure how you have an open-air mall in a city with extreme weather, but it was nice, I guess.  One approach for making the mall family friendly was to place a huge sprinkler system in one of the areas in the mall.  So, while trying to navigate the crazy mall that is unbearably hot, you also have to endure squealing masses of kids running about in their bathing suits. Talk about exhausting. After my afternoon explorations, it was time for baseball!

Last night we journeyed outside of SLC to Orem, Utah to see the Orem Owlz Triple-A baseball team.  Part of the LA Angels of Anaheim's farm system, this was something I was very excited to do.  About 40 miles south of SLC, the drive demonstrated that 1) there are more people in Utah than we realized; 2) Utah drivers are scary; and 3) rush hour sucks even more in a foreign town.  We eventually found the stadium.  The game was already underway by the time we found the entrance and bought our tickets. What's so hard about navigating a semi-pro baseball stadium? For staters, the Owlz play at the Utah Valley University's ballpark which means finding our way around a campus.... And to make matters worse, there was a ton of construction, no signs guiding guests, and only a few people at the game so we couldn't even follow the crowd. But we bought our $4 tickets, found some food that resembled ballpark food, and found seats in the shade. 

As some of you know, I've spent a lot of time watching baseball.  And attending games is one of my favorite things to do.  Well, this was the first time that I was the ONLY black person in the stands.  There were 3-4 black players, one black man working the grill, and an ambiguously brown teen working behind the counter at the food stand.... But I was the only black patron.  It wasn't weird until we were standing in line for Sub Zero ice cream.  Baseball fiend that I am, I already had my ice cream helmet (and it's soooo cool to have a minor league helmet!!!) but my counterpart was very excited for the Sub Zero ice cream.  What is it? Well, it's ice cream made using nitrogen.  The server literally pours the cream into a bowl, adds your choice of toppings, and then adds the nitrogen and you get to watch the cream freeze right before your eyes.  It's pretty cool.  And when I became obsessed with ice cream making earlier this summer, my counterpart described this process in detail.  Apparently, at the end of a chemistry class in college, all of the TAs demonstrated this trick that is proving to be very profitable for the Sub Zero folks.  Anyway, while standing in line, I couldn't help notice a boy of 7-8 years just staring at me.  And I mean STARING. Like alien invasion staring.  Now, usually a smile or some sort of gesture is all it takes for such kids to chill out, but no such luck.  In fact, the boy was staring so intensely that the father started talking to us.  To his credit, I think the father understood what was going on and wanted to teach his son that I wasn't an alien?  He even got his daughters to engage with us directly as well.  The potentially troubling moment was saved by an aware dad.  And I was grateful.

The rest of the game was fine.  Some decent baseball, but mostly just good people watching.  when we go to baseball games, half of the fun is to watch the local color.  Overall, Orem was entertaining but not thrilling. 

En route to Vegas, we discovered the BEST diner ever.  High concept restaurants usually don't work well for either of us, but as we were making our way out of Utah on a seemingly endless I-15, we discovered one of the coolest ideas ever.  It's a small regional chain called ONE MAN BAND DINER and it's just that: one dude running an entire diner.  You seat yourself and then jot down your order on the notepads already at your table. Then, when the whole party is ready, one person picks up the red phone at the table

One Man Band Diner!

and places the order.  The "one man" in this system receives your order and then starts to prepare it.  When the food is ready, you pick it up at the counter and pay for it in one step.  The drinks and trimmings are all self-serve.  It's important to note that the directions are very explicit. They explain every detail so perfectly that even the most clueless should be able to navigate the procedure.  Not only was the food awesome, but the whole enterprise was impressive.  There were five or six other tables of people (each group with 3+ people) and the one man show didn't skip a beat.  While cooking all of our meals, we also witnessed him settle an account with a delivery man and bus the tables.  TOTALLY IMPRESSIVE!



The rest of the drive to Vegas was uneventful.  We enjoyed the rolling hills, sprawling canyons, and endlessly flat strips of generic highways.  All in all, it was a great day in the car.

 Next up: Our Vegas Adventure, returning "home" to SLC, and our departure.