Day 5 - we slept in a bit and hit the road around 8 am. Today was going to be another short day of driving (4 hours) from one hotel to the next. Our plan for the day was to stick around the Salt Lake City Area.
In our original planning, we had Day 4 ending in Price, UT and Day 5 ending in Pocatello, ID. We planned out Day 5 and realized that we would possibly have an issue getting to Golden Spike (See Day 6) before their closing time. We rearranged days 4 and 5, adding another day to our agenda and splitting the days up.
Our first stop on the day was a photo op in Lehi - anyone recognize this building??
If you guessed Footloose, you are correct!
We stopped for lunch and then headed into Salt Lake City. Our two quick photo ops in SLC were the Capital Building and the Olympic Cauldron.
After these 2 quick stops, we headed to Park City to visit the Olympic Park & Ski Museum. Park City wasn't in our original agenda. Once we added another day into the trip, we looked at adding another stop to our day. My sister's family lived in Park City for a few years and had a few suggestions for our day. We hadn't made a final decision on heading to Park City until we were in SLC. We were so glad that we made the decision to head out to PC - a favorite part of the day, for sure!
Teri (my sister) had mentioned the ski jumpers but wasn't sure that they would be jumping this early in the summer season. We were hopeful that they would be - and we were thrilled to see that they were!!
We stood outside and watched the jumpers for 20-30 minutes, then headed into the museum to explore a bit. The museum is free and is definitely worth the visit if you ever find yourself in Park City. We aren't big museum people, but decided we'd walk through and see what they had inside. So glad that we did! There are 2 levels in the museum - the lower level is full of the "history" of skiing / Olympics. The upper level is dedicated to the SLC Olympics, held in 2002. We walked through the lower level and then headed upstairs, where we spent the majority of our time. They did a wonderful job of putting together pictures, videos & memorabilia to keep the 2002 Olympics alive.
After visiting Olympic Park, we headed further into Park City to track down some caffeine and chocolate. I was fighting a pretty good migraine and needed a caffeine kick! We pulled into a 7-Eleven just as a grade school (across the street) was letting out for the day. Mass chaos ensued! After grabbing the goods, we headed into the neighborhood to hunt down the house where Teri and her family lived. After finding the house, we started to head back towards Salt Lake City - stopping quickly to see their other home and then headed back down the mountain. We were so glad that we made the effort to drive out to PC and explore, even if only for a short while.
Our last stop for the day was Antelope Island. When we decided to add an additional day to our itinerary, we knew that we wanted to show the kids the Great Salt Lake. I looked at a few different state parks throught SLC and found Antelope Island. I instantly knew that this was our destination for seeing the Lake!
We headed to the island - pretty excited to drive the causeway, see the lake (maybe dip our toes in?), see wildlife (buffalo, deer & antelope) and explore Fielding Garr Ranch.
As we drove across the causeway, we were shocked by how low the water was. Even more so as we drove towards Bridger Bay, where we planned to walk to the water's edge and and get our toes wet.
We asked the kids if they wanted to walk down to the water, but they all declined the offer. Honestly, to park and walk to the water's edge, it would be 10-15 minutes before we'd reach the water. It wasn't hard to accept their answer and move on.
We came across this big guy on our way to Fielding Garr Ranch. He was hanging out alongside the main road. As we stopped to take some pictures and watch him, he started movie closer to the van and then ended up crossing the road, right in front of us!
We spent some time at Fielding Garr Ranch. We walked around the ranch, poking our heads in to the different out-buildings, seeing the horses and checking out the hands on activities. It was a great way to end our day. The rangers were actually closing up "shop" for the day, but invited us to enjoy the outdoor spots for as long as we wanted. We didn't spend too much more time there, but certainly enjoyed the quiet of the afternoon while walking around the ranch.
The twins trying their hands at roping a horse.
Kaitee showed them how it was done! She walked up, grabbed the lasso and then walked up to the horse...where she then looped it on to the horse's neck. I love the bow "and that folks, is how it's done"!
It was getting late and we needed to still get dinner and then head to the hotel for the evening, which was almost an hour away still. We drove back towards the causeway, only stopping long enough to snap a few more pictures as we went.
After a great dinner at Five Guys, we checked in to the hotel and the kids went down to swim for a bit while the rest of us hung out in the hotel room. We did enjoy a beautiful sunset - it reflected beautifully on the red rock mountains behind our hotel!
While we stayed within the Salt Lake City area for the better part of the day, it was a great day with a bit of everything. Some movie photo ops, great food (Chick-fil-A for lunch, Five Guys for dinner!), a state capital, Olympic history, a beautiful mountain town, very scenic drive into SLC, buffalo/Great Salt Lake/Fielding Garr Ranch and a stunning sunset! Another fun day "in the books"!
Favorites - Day 5
Matt - Olympic Park/Museum & Watching the Ski Jumpers
Becki - Olympic Museum (SLC Olympics), Ski Jumpers
Will - Ski Jumpers
Alex - Seeing where Aunt Teri, Uncle Steve & Judah lived, Walking around the Ranch
Kaitee - Olympic Park, Sunset
Maddie - Finding a Segway in SLC (Scavenger Hunt item!), Breaking the Ski Game in Museum!, the mountain drive to Park City, the surprise of the Up House
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