Flowers, skiing, ritzy digs and the blues, July 12, 2014

With no real plans for the day, we set out late this morning for the Red Butte Gardens, Salt Lake City's botanical garden. While this garden was not on the order of Longwood (very few gardens are), it really captured the spirit of the area. We took a short tram ride around the garden, that gave us a good idea of the various sections. We then spent an hour and a half roaming the rose, fragrance, herb, water, and medicinal gardens. 

After that, we just followed the road along, which took us to Park City, about 40 minutes away. The

Ski training

2002 winter Olympics were held here, and training still takes place here. We stopped at the freestyle skiing complex where kids were competing. We watched as the kids skied down slopes and did somersaults into a pool. The training center is also home to a museum for those Olympics. Since neither Ray nor I is very interested in skiing, we just did a walk through.

We had seen printed ads for the Deer Valley area that piqued our interest, so we headed there next. This is a resort area set in the mountains near Park City. From what we could see, it looked like an EXPENSIVE resort area. Sitting high up on a hill was the St. Regis Hotel. Access to the hotel was up an incline tram that they called a funicula. Curious as to what the inside of the hotel looked like, we boarded the funicula and rode to the top of the hill and into the hotel. Very posh. Apparently some of the rooms come with a personal butler. That's just a little outside our travel style. The views from the hotel veranda were fantastic though.

View from the St. Regis veranda

By then, we were getting hungry, so we stopped for dinner. When we emerged from the restaurant, we decided to try to find the venue for a Blues festival that was taking place in Salt Lake City. Thanks to GPS, we did find it, and were surprised that there weren't more people there. Blues groups had been playing there all day. The amphitheater was situated perfectly with the sun behind us, and the gorgeous mountains rising behind the stage. Not only was the stage lit up, but so were the mountains. As the evening progressed, and the sun lowered, the mountains took on a lovely pink glow. The first group was great, with a very talented lead female singer. The second group-- meh. The third group just wanted to jam. They were good, but not terribly interesting.

All in all, it was a good rest day for our knees.