Hi Gram!
This road trip has been so much fun! We slept in a little bit on Wednesday, exhausted from the previous few days’ activities. The sun was shining and it was warm enough for light jackets when we finally started our adventure for the day. Our first stop was the post office and a store to pick up a jacket for Zibby – she brought gear for warmer weather or snowboarding, but didn’t plan for temperatures in between. Luckily, they had their jackets on clearance since it’ll be as hot as an oven in Las Vegas before too long.
After our errands, we headed over to the Pinball Hall of Fame for some fun. The museum was started by Tim Arnold after he retired from his arcade business in Michigan and needed somewhere to store his 1000+ pinball games. All of the games are playable, and the profits go to the Salvation Army. Some of their pinball games are from the 50’s or 60’s, and go all the way up to modern games. The workers are all volunteers who just want people to be able to play the old games and help the less fortunate in the process. After a few hours there, we headed back to the condo to rest up before heading to the Rio for dinner and a show.
We played some quarter slots for a few minutes, then grabbed a table at Guy Fieri’s El Burro Borracho, a mexican food-themed restaurant. The place was crowded, but service was lightning-fast! The waitress had barely taken our order before the fajitas were delivered, sizzling hot and smelling smokey and delicious. We made our way to the theater, where we had 3rd row seats to see Penn and Teller. Penn was out front, playing the bass with his jazz pianist Mike Jones, while audience members were invited up onto the stage to check out a tumbler with 2,912 ping pong balls that they would be using in a trick later on. Penn and Teller are amazing magicians and comedians with a career spanning over forty years. Teller had been out for surgery for the past few months and returned the day before we saw the show. They mentioned that the show was new and they’d been working on changes, to prepare the audience for a few gaffs and mistakes, but it was a flawless, incredible show. I got to be part of the show, pulling a card from a sealed envelope and showing it to the cameras for everyone to see. Their show was probably one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and we left there awed by their skill.
We had originally only planned to be there until Thursday morning, but there was so much to do, we extended our stay for another night. Thursday night, we went to dinner at Blackout Dining in the Dark – a restaurant dining experience with no lights. They took us into an antechamber with dim red lights first, where the waiter had us line up with Zibby’s hands on his shoulders and I was holding her shoulders. He donned his night vision goggles, then led us into the dining room and to our table. Taking Zibby’s hands, he brought her to her chair, explained where to feel the edge of the table and back of her chair, and seated her. Next, he came and repeated the process with me. For the first few minutes, we both kept imagining we saw things as our eyes tried adjusting to the sudden lack of light. It was a lot of fun feeling our way around the table to find our silverware and drinks while we waited for him to come back with our first course. As he brought each course out, he would describe the shape of the plate and a little description of the geometry and textures we could expect in front of us, then left us to explore with our other senses. I usually prefer to eat with my hands anyway, so it was a joy discovering the foods in front of me without worry about what people would think if they saw me eating that way. We took our time savoring each course, and were both delighted when we found out there were two desserts! It was a little shocking when we had to return to the seeing world and start using our eyes again, but our waiter and the desk staff were very friendly and accommodating. I think it would be a lot of fun to try that experience with a group of friends, where we could get more opinions.
After dinner, we headed over to Fremont street near downtown. Fremont street is lined with old-school casinos on both sides, and is closed off to cars. Pedestrians are free to wander down the street under a digital big screen canopy that serves to light up everything below and show graphics overhead. Huskers and street performers competed for our attention as tourists shot by overhead on a zipline that ran the length of the street. The whole experience was unreal! I even won when we walked through the casino – I put a dollar into a penny slots machine while Zibby went to the restroom and by the time she came back, I had almost tripled my money! After cashing in my ticket for $2.98 (It’s never easy to quit while you’re ahead!), we wound our way through the entertainers and made our way to Container Park, a retail/ park/ entertainment/ fire breathing cricket area built out of old shipping containers. Following some gelato and some time on the adult playground with bridges, slides, and hideouts, we worked our way back to Binion’s for a little more gambling and parking validation before heading back to the condo for a solid night’s sleep.
Friday morning, we packed our things and headed north toward Ogden, UT. The landscape through Nevada and southern Utah is just gorgeous – red rocks, valleys, and plateaus galloped by as we drove toward snow capped mountains off in the distance. At one point, the earth struck straight up on either side of us, the road carving through a trench hundreds of feet high, sheer faces on either side of the car. I listened to podcasts and gaped at the beautiful scenery while Zibby split her time between writing articles and gaping, awestruck, right alongside me. By the time we got to St George, we were both hungry for lunch and the car was ready for some fuel. After gassing up, we found Viva Chicken, a Peruvian restaurant, and had one of the best lunches in recent memory. Zibby had a Tacu bowl, with jasmine rice, beans, shredded chicken, marinated tomatoes and onions. I had the Arroz Chaufa, a fried rice bowl with peppers, onions, jasmine rice, shredded chicken, and soy sauce. They were both flavored with herbs and spices that made the flavors explode in our mouths and left us wishing our bellies were bigger so we could have more. I ordered a Chicha Morada – Peruvian purple corn, cinnamon, pineapple, apple and lime – to drink and it was like nothing I have ever tasted, so delicious. Back in the car, we were making good time as we drove through Provo, Salt Lake, and finally to Clearfield where we found a hotel for the night.
After getting a little work done on Saturday morning, we headed out to CB Maddox, which serves the best friend chicken that I have ever tasted. I ate there a lot when I lived in Utah, and was disappointed last year when I passed through on a Sunday, only to find them closed. I wasn’t going to fall prey to bad planning again this trip, and started planning our time in Utah before we left Tucson to make sure that we would be here on a day that they were open. They don’t have a dining room or any indoor space, so we parked and walked up to the outside window (there’s also a drive-thru option, but the walk-up is the way to go). We each ordered our meals, then answered questions while we waited for them to prepare them. “What’s a cornpone?” Zibby would ask. “You’re going to get one,” I answered. “What’s fry sauce?” she would inquire, to which I would answer, “Delicious. You’re going to like it.” The wind was blowing, making us feel colder than it really was, so we opted to eat in the car instead of at the picnic tables. “What’s this stuff?” Zibby asked about a small ramekin of a golden sauce. “That’s honey butter for your roll and cornpone,” I explained. My heart sang as I shared a meal from my favorite fried chicken joint with the woman that I love. After we both over-ate a little, we headed north to Ogden, where some of our friends were training at iFly, the skydiving simulator in Ogden. It’s a joy to have a front row seat watching teams train, skydiving right in front of our eyes. We chatted with a few of our friends between training rounds, then headed back to the hotel – they had been there training since dawn and would still be training until nine o’clock that night. We chatted about what we wanted to do on Sunday, then turned in a little early.
Morning came too quickly on Sunday, but we didn’t want to miss the free cereal and coffee breakfast that the hotel provides, so we pried ourselves out of bed and shuffled down to the overcrowded lobby. After breakfast, I did a little reading while she did a little writing, then headed downtown around noon to Temple Square. The architecture, clean lines, and grandiosity of the temple and surrounding buildings is awe-inspiring. We saw a theater capable of seating 21,000 people that they use twice a year, a model of the temple (which you aren’t allowed into if you aren’t a certified member of the church) with a room whose purpose was for the original builders to congregate and discuss their plans – over a hundred years ago – which doesn’t see regular use, and a short film about a renovation that’s underway to isolate the temple from the ground below it, allowing an earthquake to move below it and leave the temple untouched. It’s amazing what a group of people, with a single focus and dedication, can accomplish when they pool their time, energy and resources to reach their goals. I wish humans could come together in this way to solve some of humanity’s big problems, without arguing about religion. Once we got hungry, we found a place called “Mollie & Ollie’s” that served bowls, wraps, and salads. We each got a bowl with veggies, quinoa or noodles, and a light sauce. This was another meal that didn’t disappoint, and we headed back to the hotel happy.
Well, we’re getting up early tomorrow to head up the mountain, so until next time, Stay Amazing!