Salt Lake City & back to Tucson.
We were all still a buzz after the Cirque du Soleil performance of last night as we sat down for a nice breakfast in the MGM Restaurant. We sated our appetites, grabbed our bags & headed for Vegas Airport. Dave & Geri left us there to catch our flight to Salt Lake City before they headed for their long drive back to Tucson.
We were eagerly awaiting our arrival in SLC as it had been some 27 years since we had last seen Carol & Jerry Allen back in our Bougainville days. We landed at 3.15 pm & quickly had our luggage in hand. Carol & Jerry both looked fantastic & had hardly changed at all in those ensuing years- it was great seeing them after all this time it was just like we had never been apart.
After nice big hugs & kisses we took a drive into the city centre to re -orient ourselves since our last visit back in 1978, unfortunately the city is far bigger & busier since those days. We drove back through the outlying suburbs ( which had all developed since our last visit ) finally making to the Allens where we sat & reminicsed for the rest of the afternoon. We all went out for a nice meal at the local " Applebees " restaurant before settling down for some late night catch-up stories.
After a late start we took a drive around the surrounding lower slopes & discovered some really fantastic houses snuggled into the hillside with most of them having spectacular views back over Salt Lake. Later in the afternoon we watched our first Super Bowl final between the Indianapolis Colts & Chicago Bears. After leading 16-14 at half time the Colts through their dominant quarter-back Peyton Manning pulled away to win 29-17. Even though I didn't fully understand the rules of the game it was very entertaining to watch a full match, we certainly came away with a better understanding of the game. Half-time entertainment was from " Prince " but I'm afraid that some of the impact was lost because of an average sound coming from the arena.
We had another late start to Heber City before stopping at " Sundance " ski lodge owned by Robert Redford for a coffee ( we were a little disappointed as he wasn't there ) before heading off to Park City which is another very popular town for snow skiing. It is a lovely town with such a cute main street which is all heritage listed & maintains an 1880's facade on all the buildings. We decided that it was better to stay in Park City for dinner before heading back to SLC.
We spent the next afternoon driving past the Kennecott mine & part of the Great Salt Lake before returning home as we had Jerry's daughter Cathy & her husband Russell coming for dinner, we had another lovely meal prepared by Carol & the night & company turned out to be very nice indeed.
Unfortunately our time had come to an end and we said goodbye to our friends Carol & Jerry & hoped that we could catch up much sooner either in OZ or in the US. It was one of the special reunions of our travels around the world, it was just terrific to see them both looking so well.
Over the next couple of days we just lazed around the house in the nice temperate climate of Tucson, during this time we had a 2 hour walk into the neighboring Pima Canyon which was very good exercise for the legs.
We had a special last night in Tucson at the Westward Way Resort at the " Gold Room "
restaurant. We had a beautiful setting looking back over the Tucson city lights, backed up with a succulent & very imaginative meal, all very nice.
Our day of departure had finally come, Geri prepared yet another lovely lunch before our trip to the airport. This was an even harder goodbye as Dave & Geri had done so much for us during our stay there we look forward to repaying the favour back in OZ in the near future. We left nearly 90 minutes late out of Tucson but had time up our sleeve in Los Angeles so that was OK.
Another lengthy security check saw us finally through to get our Air NZ flight to Papeete. Like all longer legs on a plane it was quite boring & to make things worse the Air NZ staff were quite morose & very unfriendly. It is the only airline that we have travelled on that only provided dinner during this 9.5 hr leg, about 3.00 am a sandwich was offered with a glass of water- nothing else, very poor Air NZ. We arrived about 45 minutes late into Papeete at 6.15am.
We were eagerly awaiting our arrival in SLC as it had been some 27 years since we had last seen Carol & Jerry Allen back in our Bougainville days. We landed at 3.15 pm & quickly had our luggage in hand. Carol & Jerry both looked fantastic & had hardly changed at all in those ensuing years- it was great seeing them after all this time it was just like we had never been apart.
After nice big hugs & kisses we took a drive into the city centre to re -orient ourselves since our last visit back in 1978, unfortunately the city is far bigger & busier since those days. We drove back through the outlying suburbs ( which had all developed since our last visit ) finally making to the Allens where we sat & reminicsed for the rest of the afternoon. We all went out for a nice meal at the local " Applebees " restaurant before settling down for some late night catch-up stories.
After a late start we took a drive around the surrounding lower slopes & discovered some really fantastic houses snuggled into the hillside with most of them having spectacular views back over Salt Lake. Later in the afternoon we watched our first Super Bowl final between the Indianapolis Colts & Chicago Bears. After leading 16-14 at half time the Colts through their dominant quarter-back Peyton Manning pulled away to win 29-17. Even though I didn't fully understand the rules of the game it was very entertaining to watch a full match, we certainly came away with a better understanding of the game. Half-time entertainment was from " Prince " but I'm afraid that some of the impact was lost because of an average sound coming from the arena.
We had another late start to Heber City before stopping at " Sundance " ski lodge owned by Robert Redford for a coffee ( we were a little disappointed as he wasn't there ) before heading off to Park City which is another very popular town for snow skiing. It is a lovely town with such a cute main street which is all heritage listed & maintains an 1880's facade on all the buildings. We decided that it was better to stay in Park City for dinner before heading back to SLC.
We spent the next afternoon driving past the Kennecott mine & part of the Great Salt Lake before returning home as we had Jerry's daughter Cathy & her husband Russell coming for dinner, we had another lovely meal prepared by Carol & the night & company turned out to be very nice indeed.
Unfortunately our time had come to an end and we said goodbye to our friends Carol & Jerry & hoped that we could catch up much sooner either in OZ or in the US. It was one of the special reunions of our travels around the world, it was just terrific to see them both looking so well.
Over the next couple of days we just lazed around the house in the nice temperate climate of Tucson, during this time we had a 2 hour walk into the neighboring Pima Canyon which was very good exercise for the legs.
We had a special last night in Tucson at the Westward Way Resort at the " Gold Room "
restaurant. We had a beautiful setting looking back over the Tucson city lights, backed up with a succulent & very imaginative meal, all very nice.
Our day of departure had finally come, Geri prepared yet another lovely lunch before our trip to the airport. This was an even harder goodbye as Dave & Geri had done so much for us during our stay there we look forward to repaying the favour back in OZ in the near future. We left nearly 90 minutes late out of Tucson but had time up our sleeve in Los Angeles so that was OK.
Another lengthy security check saw us finally through to get our Air NZ flight to Papeete. Like all longer legs on a plane it was quite boring & to make things worse the Air NZ staff were quite morose & very unfriendly. It is the only airline that we have travelled on that only provided dinner during this 9.5 hr leg, about 3.00 am a sandwich was offered with a glass of water- nothing else, very poor Air NZ. We arrived about 45 minutes late into Papeete at 6.15am.
posted by sara and harvey at 9:43 PM
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