Magic Jewball

In honor of our nation’s birthday, I’m going to finally write about all my domestic travels over the last month. This is really the first week of vacation I’m getting (I hear your tiny violins) in the sense that I can get up whenever and just slack around the house. Apartment. Whatever. Soon I’ll have to start the many projects for school that I have to accomplish over the summer, so it’s not like I will be spending the next seven weeks sitting on the sofa eating potato chips.*

*There may be some of this.

So! The first place I went was to visit my dear friend, Tami, in Provo, Utah. I had intended to travel to Utah for a long, long time both because Tami lived there and because it is one of those increasingly rare places in America that has a distinct culture. Also, because I didn’t want to be one of those people who get their main knowledge of the LDS church from Big Love. But then Tami’s beloved husband passed away suddenly and I knew that this was the year.

Utah is a lot like Tami. It’s beautiful and is also wholesome yet full of rugged character. Tami was kind enough to tour me all around in her DietCokeMobile and we visited Park City, Provo, and Salt Lake City with various stops in between. We even ate across the street from where they found Elizabeth Smart, but that was accidental, plus Tami forgot to tell me till two days later. Oops.

I took this picture out the window of the DietCokeMobile. Seriously, is our country beautiful or what?

And this one. So gorgeous.

This is in Park City. I can’t believe those guys wouldn’t get out of my shot.

This is Brigham Young’s house in Salt Lake City. It’s called the Lion House. I wanted to tour it but there was no time to do both that and the Nordstrom so we went to Nordstrom. This is kind of the story of our time together. We did a lot of shopping and eating. Personally, I did it all so that my tax money could go to better pay teachers like Tami in Utah. I am THAT selfless.

It was a totally lovely trip and I had an utter blast. Tami is the kind of person who has a million interesting stories but also listens to your dull ones. She even has fun friends. And her daughters were awesome, too. I am not sure if I am more jealous of her to have such great kids or of them to have such a great mom. In conclusion, we live in a beautiful country with amazing people, and all you can eat pancakes with buttermilk-maple syrup are the greatest invention ever. God bless America.

Tomorrow, two more cities I visited for the first time. Also, sorry there were no actual ho’s in this post.

Edited to add this song, which is Tami’s new favorite after she kindly set up the Depeche Mode Pandora station just for me and then proceeded to spend eleventy billion hours in the car with me. We sang the alternate lyrics, though, if you must know.
Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough