Travels with Amy and Dave: A white Christmas

Sunday, December 30, 2012

A white Christmas

My nephew David lives in Salt Lake City with his wife Berlin. They are expecting a baby girl in January and invited us to spend Christmas with them. My sister Sherri joined as well and we had a lovely holiday celebration together.

Berlin is due in (fairly) early January and we were really hopeful she'd give birth while we were there but alas, Piper decided to wait.

Our other hope was for a white Christmas. David gently explained that Salt Lake City is in a valley and typically they don't receive any snow over Christmas. However, we were in luck and it actually started snowing on Christmas eve.

Seriously. Here is proof of it. You can see the flakes on the back of Hannah; one of David and Berlin's duo of weimaraners.

I was pretty good at documenting the snowfall and sure enough on Christmas day this was our view from their apartment.

We arrived to Salt Lake on Friday evening, December 21. We got in late but were able to rent a car and get to David's place just fine.

On Saturday we ventured out into the chilly temps and had brunch at one of David's favorite spots, the Piper Down Pub. (Not the inspiration for his namesake if you are curious.) Dave had a Guiness and they artfully designed it with a shamrock in the head.

After lunch we made our way over to the Utah State Capitol. Here's Dave and Berlin in front as well as a shot of the infamous beehive. The Beehive and word "industry" became the official motto and emblem for Utah on March 4, 1959.

David then took us through a scenic drive through the neighborhoods of Draper and some of their massive homes for sale. We passed the Draper Temple as well and then stopped for some amazing photos of the sun setting over the lake.

We are FREEZING!

After that we drove back into Salt Lake and stopped at Scheels Sporting Goods. They are a newly opened store there and are known for having a ferris wheel inside the store. Of course we had to ride it!

David's Mom Sherri arrived that night and on Sunday we made a day of it up in Park City. We arrived a mere 15 minutes late for our whiskey tour at the High West Distillery & Saloon and they turned us away. So we made our way through Park City and stopped at another bar for a drink and finished the day window shopping.

Here is David, Berlin and his mom, my sister Sherri on the roof top bar overlooking Park City.

We return to High West later for dinner. We had a terrific meal and Dave and I finished our meal with a dessert of a whiskey tasting and chocolates. While I tried them all, I am definitely not a whiskey fan and prefer chocolate over it any day.

Afterward David took us to the Historic Temple Square and we walked the Temple grounds taking in the sites and sounds of Utah's umber one tourist attractions and world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

David prepared an outstanding Christmas eve dinner of ham, sweet potato casserole and a green bean casserole. Each day he made a hot breakfast and needless to say we left Utah stuffed to the gills.

We enjoy a brief Christmas Day together and then off to the airport to return to San Antonio we went.

Here are Hannah and Hugo enjoying the warmth of the fireplace.