Woodside Gulch

August 7, 2017

Weather: 85 and sunny (Salt lake) 78 (Park Ctiy)

Hours Driving: 2 hours

States Drive Thru: Utah

Miles: 19 miles

Restaurants:

Movies:

Games: Family Game of The Office - Make a Sale (made by Ben, Bee and Matt)

Books:

Hotel: Powderwood Condo

I was so tired last night that I didn't write. So I am writing from our Condo in Park City with views of the mountains from our deck including the Olympic ski park. We can see the ski jumps and whatever the other horrifying ski runs on the side of the mountain are with the 2002 Olympic logo on them. The condo is really nice. 3 bedrooms 2 baths. It is perfect. The kids love the three bed loft above the living room.

So, yesterday morning, I convinced everyone that we had to visit the Great Salt Lake. I needed to see if I can float. I don't normally float. Elizabeth does not normally float. Matthew does not normally float. Apparently, everyone can float in the Great Salt Lake. From reviews, they say the best place to view and swim in the salt lake is from Antelope Island. It is about 30 minutes outside of the city, north. What a strange place to be. We drove on a road that cuts through the crystallized dried up salt beds. The lake used to come all the way up to the edge of the mountain range covering the city. The salt in the lake is nine times that of the ocean. Surprisingly there are lots of birds everywhere but there are also a lot of tiny flies. They don't bite. The Seagulls would run across the sand with their mouths open disturbing the flies on the sand and eating them as they fled his open mouth. Elizabeth found this great sport running around disturbing the flies. (Not eating them.)

After visiting the visitor center, we made our way to the beach area. Once at the beach, you literally had to walk a 1/2 mile to the waters edge. First, there is soft beach sand, then a more packed down dry crunchier sand. The water is surprisingly clear and inviting, though only a few people are actually in it which makes it feel a little eerie. You'd expect such a place to have people enjoying a beach day but most of the people wandered quietly. Off in the distance, you could see a few heads bobbing up and down, another 100 feet out. You have to go out pretty far to get deep enough to float. The water was warmer than I thought it would be. We were warned by squeamish reviewers that the water is filled with brine shrimp. You could see them if you looked closely. They are tiny. Nothing matches the red tide that Paul and the kids swam in in Rhode Island. They were covered in red algae from head to toe and in the pockets of their suits. Disgusting and smelly. This was nothing like that. In certain areas of viewing the Great Salt Lake, you will smell a dead fishy odor but nothing like the leaked bone broth in our car on this trip. It smells like a dead mouse. (I use the bone broth as part of my diet.) Ooops sorry.

We waded out deep enough to float. Mind you, I don't like to swim in lakes, oceans and other bodies of water. I needed to do this and check it off my bucket list. The Dead Sea is next. Matthew went first. HE FLOATS! Ben went next. Then me. I FLOAT! Even with my head up. I didn't want to put my head in the salt water. ELIZABETH FLOATS! IF you taste it, it tastes like the salt water you gargle with for a sore throat if you over saturate the glass of water. It makes you want to spit it out. Gross. This time Paul chose not to participate in the float experiment. Though, he did wade in with us. On the walk back to the showers, the salt started to crystallize on our skin. The hairy you are, the more the salt crystallized on the hairs. Matthew has fine little white hairs all over him and the salt was visible on them. It was a neat experience. I don't know if the flies and shrimp are worse at times but they were not an issue for us at all. They don't bite either.

After going to a couple of Costcos for meals for our next stop that is a condo (and I was in search of this great gluten free bread we found here that they don't have back home), we headed for Park City which is 30 minutes east of Salt Lake. Our car has been running hard in the mountains making us very nervous. We had Onstar run a diagnostic and they see nothing wrong. It is sluggish up the hills. We were told to take this scenic route out of Park City but we are too nervous to add more stress on the car. The mountains are rough. We will see.

We love the little condo we are in just on the outskirts of town. Last night, we had a home cooked meal and played a game of "The Office", the one the kids made. Today, we will go into Park City and explore. We just finished breakfast. I'll let you know what we do today later. Signing out from Park City, UtahRead more