Salt Lake City - Week 1

Well, my first week in Salt Lake went great.  I think I'm really going to like my new job and coworkers.  I jumped right in which didn't come as a surprise as I knew it was going to be a lot of work.  However, I believe it will all come together nicely working from home.  So very thankful for this opportunity!

I had almost forgotten how absolutely beautiful this city is (and how friendly everybody is)!  I love seeing mountains in every direction...even from my office window!  I'm staying at the Hyatt House a bit South of the city in a studio apartment type set up and it has been great.  They even have a borrow program, so I was able to get a blender for my morning shakes (I did eat the hotel breakfast one morning and I craved my shake all day long).  The hotel offers dinner and there are several nice, walk in fast food places.  They really have this concept down...think chipotle, but for Italian, American, Thai, etc.  My favorite is Cafe Zupa which has 10 homemade soups a day as well as chopped salads and hot sandwiches.

The sunset on Friday night was surreal...it took my breath away.  I'm 99.9% sure it is the most stunning sunset I have ever seen.  I just could not capture it properly with my iPhone.

I got up Saturday morning and headed to Alta.  This is my favorite resort because they do not allow snowboarders.  It was a warm day, but the snow was great.  I took a refresher course from Holley, who was awesome.  I wished I could have skied with her all weekend!  She was a 61 year old ski and yoga instructor and was just so pleasant.

My legs couldn't handle a full day, so came down around 2pm and headed into the city.  In the last 14 years the city has changed so much.  My avenues apartment was still there, but the hallway looks boarded up.  I do believe people are living there as some windows were open (it was 68 down in the valley on Saturday).  

Oh and they still use flags to cross the street.  They now have a Trader Joes, Tony Caputos has turned into a large grocery store and my favorite sushi place has closed.  They also have the most amazing grocery store called Harmons in the center city.  Think cool like Whole Foods, but not quite as healthy!

I went back up to Alta on Sunday.  The morning was good.  My legs were tired, but I was proud of myself for skiing alone.  I had such a good day on Saturday that I couldn't wait to get back on the mountain.  However, Sunday got cold and the snow was chunky and I couldn't get my right leg to ski properly and it was their busiest day of the year (thanks to President's Day).

I was very thankful for my new goggles!

And for this hot chocolate at lunch!

I didn't realize this till I was leaving Thursday, but our office was closed for President's Day.  Since I didn't think my legs would let me ski again today, I did some shopping, laundry and went to get a mani/pedi.  I sure missed the nail bar as I went in 3 places before texting a girl I work with for a recommendation (I just don't trust nail places, but didn't realize I had turned into such a mani/pedi snob).  I went and it was clean, but it was no nail bar.  Ready for week 2 and counting down till Thursday.  Ray and several of his coworkers will be here for meetings and then they are all staying for a weekend of skiing at Deer Valley!