Category Archives: Salt Lake City

Do More Good

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This year I was invited to join a questival team and it was one of the funnest 24 hours of my life! Questival is like having your own local amazing race. It is hosted by a company called Cotopaxi and their motto is “Do More Good.”For 24 hours you and your friends try to complete as many tasks as possible (some of them are sponsored check-in points), some of them worth more points than over. The tasks can be anything: hikes and outdoors activities, lip-syncing to songs, community contributions like donating to a food bank, and visiting landmarks. Everything has to be documented and submitted.

Me and our wonderful team raced all over and while we didn’t win, it was still a pretty amazing time. There are way too many challenges to list them all, but here are my …

Top 10 Moments of Questival

Kicking off the party

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This isn’t from the kick off festival, but you can see my cute lil backpack.

We selected uniforms: Black t-shirts, some of them more artfully decorated than others, ha. We collected our backpacks (mine’s a lovely hot pink number)….. And then started the thing off by visiting llamas, strategizing at chick fil a, and jumping/screaming as confetti cannons acted as our starting bells.

Making new friends at the Capitol at midnight
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We made it to the Capital building by midnight to howl at the moon (an actual challenge) and found it’s the cool place to be on a Friday night. A few other teams happened to be there and we helped each other complete challenges (like a wheelbarrow race on the Capital lawn).

Counting Cavalia propaganda along the way 

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This is a sample from google. Just imagine this billboard x30.

No joke, I think we counted 30 of the Cavalia billboards!! We are now obsessed with finding out the truth about these horses … just not obsessed enough to pay the ticket price (um, can you send us a groupon please?). It really better be an amazing show.

Visiting my old friend, the Spiral Jetty 

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I was delighted to see the Spiral Jetty on the list of challenges. I love this place.

Andrea taking on the ultimate dare

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I can’t post the video evidence of Andrea’s worm eating, but enjoy this picture of her making friends with this horse.

We were at the Golden Spike, on our way to the Spiral Jetty, when another team dared Andrea to complete one of the more unusual challenges: EATING A WORM. She got a little freaked out when she saw the the worm but eat that thing like a champ!!!

Becoming an expert in everything from hiking to knot tying 

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Many of the challenges we had to complete on the go or in the car. Aubrey handled most of the stranger ones, she gave people flowers, switched shoelaces with another team, and gave hugs. We also created a lot of instructional videos. And mailed a potato.

Making it to the rock climbing check point juuuuust before it closed

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There were a few sponsored checkpoints throughout questival, including mini facials at a spa, going behind the scenes at a brewery, and jelly bean taste tasting at liberty park, but one of our first checkpoints was the best. It was at a rock climbing gym and we managed to run in the door a minute before they closed. We got on the wall in time, but I could barely hold on (my faux-spiderwoman is definitely an image to remember, haha).

Racing across the Salt Flats

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We also saw this sculpture on the way to the Salt Flats. Bizzaro in a cool way.

I’ve always wanted to see the Salt Flats so this was definitely a challenge I was excited for. They didn’t disappoint. Definitely an interesting little slice of the world.

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Me, just chilling on the Salt Flats

Floating in the Great Salt Lake

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One of the first things we did Saturday morning was jump in the Great Salt Lake. It was cold, but kind of amazing.

Dancing it out in Wendover 

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I don’t have an image of our dance party, but this pic seems to capture the feeling of the day!

We crossed the line into Wendover minutes before questival ended. We figured what better way to end an adventure then dancing it out to Footloose?

Bonus: “Worst” moment of questival: We had to order the 13th item on a diner menu and it turns out I am not a fan of country corn cakes.

Currently: Enjoying all the spring flowers (and showers) of SugarHouse

Brunch – It’s What’s for Dinner

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Like many people my age, I have a totally normal and completely healthy obsession with brunch. Brunch is somehow more magical than those other meals. There are few better ways to start your day.

The sadness of this obsession is if you work from 9-5 you have a very limited brunch window. This is why while the IT guy was rebooting my computer the other day I pitched him this super excellent, brunch friendly work week schedule:*

Four 9 hour work days [Mon – Thursday] followed by a 4 hour Friday. Now, most big office can’t have everyone leaving in the middle of the day on Friday [at least the little people who answer the phones and such]. This necessitates people alternating morning and afternoon shifts. The day you have your afternoon shift you have a perfect brunch window.

This may not seem like much, but that’s 2 extra potential brunch days a month or 24 a year. That’s a lot of gourmet twists on traditional comfort foods and expertly cooked bacon.

Let’s work on making this a reality. European employees get siestas and close down their businesses for weeks at a time, the least we deserve is a few more brunch days in the work calendar.

In the spirit of this brunch celebration here are some great SLC places I’ve brunched:

  • Park Cafe
  • Eggs in the City
  • Blue Plate Diner
  • Finns
  • Grand America Hotel
  • Wild Grape
  • Pig & A Jelly Jar
  • The Original Pancake House
  • The Rose Establishment
  • Evas [ Not to be confused with Eva, small plates]
  • Ruth’s Diner

Also, here is my SLC Brunch wishlist:

  • Frida Bistro
  • Rye
  • Em’s Restaurant
  • Lazy Day Cafe
  • Caffe Niche
  • Penny Ann’s. I will however, be tempted to try pie with breakfast.
  • Faustina
  • Pago
  • Bambara
  • Finca
  • Eva [Not to be confused with Evas, the bakery]

SLC friends, am I missing anything ?? Also, please say you’ll come with me : ) The only thing better than brunch is a brunch shared of course! And by share, I mean share each other’s company, and not my actual food. Sorry, them’s the brunch rules.

[Note: Thanks to this list for helping me vet recommendations. Also some of these, like Rye, Faustina, and Penny Ann’s, I’ve been to for other meals, but never brunch. ]

*The IT guy was receptive, but more interested in fixing my browser issues so I’ll mark him as “tentative” for a pro-brunch workplace

Currently: Trying a new workout thing called “tendonitis.” Oops. Thankfully the people in my life are taking good care of me. My sister and Derek even brought my a little pie from Press Sweet Cidery last night [Pie, of course, is a highly recommended treatment for tendonitis].

Totes Pumpkin

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No one does fame quite like pumpkin. No, I am not describing a nonsensical nickname for a reality tv show character you haven’t heard of. I’m talking about the vegetable. It happens every year, but this year pumpkin is especially out of control. Or perhaps, just greedy? I mean, what’s the rest of the cornucopia to do?

In fact, here is an actual list of pumpkin products and/or shenanigans you could accidentally bump into tomorrow:

  • The basics: pumpkins, mini pumpkins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, adorable pumpkin patches, etc.
  • PSL [aka Pumpkin Spice Latte] [aka the one who got us into this mess]
  • Pumpkin Spice Oreos [That for some reason I have not gotten to try yet! :( ]
  • Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Salted Caramels [Trader Joes]
  • Actually, everything at Trader Joes
  • Pumpkin cream cheese
  • Pumpkin Spice Hummus
  • 92 % of Pinterest [The other 8% is still Mason Jars]
  • Correction: 98% of Pinterest [I just found a whole section of pumpkin mason jar diy crafts]
  • Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake Enchiladas … with Caramel Drizzle
  • Pumpkin Spice Coconut Milk
  • Every instagram photo with the hashtag #basicwhitegirls
  • Pumpkin Pie Toaster Strudel
  • Pumpkin Spice Extra Gum
  • Thomas’s Pumpkin Spice English Muffins
  • Gluten free – dairy free – soy free – egg free – pumpkin truffles
  • Taco Time Pumpkin Empanadas
  • Pumpkin Spice Cat Shampoo [For that trendy teen who’s also really into staying home on the weekends with her cat?]
  • Chobani Pumpkin Greek Yogurt
  • Pumpkin Spice JIF Whips. So basically, this is peanut butter and pumpkin pie spice whipped together. Like that whole peanut butter and jelly in one jar thing. Except Pumpkin.
  • NO, REALLY, EVERYTHING AT TRADER JOES
  • Harvest Pumpkin Tortilla Chips
  • Pumpkin Pie Spice Pringles
  • Rossi Pumpkin Spice Fettuccini
  • Pumpkin French Toast

Oh and did I mention Sugar House does giant pumpkin boat racing every year?

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It is called the “Ginormous Pumpkin Regatta.” Which actually is probably a more accurate name for this entire season.

I don’t know how all those Cotton commercials of famous people dancing around in light, breathable fabrics are working out, but they might want to consider doing whatever pumpkin growers are doing. Because, it is working. We are all drinking the pumpkin spice kool-aid, photographing it, and posting it on instagram. #totespumpkin

Currently: Really fixating on those Pumpkin Spice Oreos actually. They sound like heaven.