Beautiful and intriguing

Last week, I got to travel to Salt Lake City for the first time. Unfortunately, it was for a work meeting, which usually means that I have no time to see the sights and my meals consist of dry hotel chicken. This time, though, my flight plan and meeting itinerary gave me a scant 2 hours of free time before my first appearance, so I e-mailed Heidi to see if she was free to meet up. She was! A few e-mails later, we settled on a plan for those 2 hours, and man, we packed them full.

Half an hour after I arrived at my hotel, Heidi picked me up and we drove straight to the trailhead of Ensign Peak. “It’s not too long, but it’s straight up,” she warned me. Okay, I was game. Hoo boy, she wasn’t kidding! We stopped a couple of times to catch our breath, and I was thankful that Heidi and I appeared to be in the same level of fitness. Plus, the altitude was killing me. And then, finally, we were at the top. The view of Salt Lake City and the mountains beyond stretched in front of me. A cool breeze swept over us, and we were quiet for a minute. Then I snapped pictures while Heidi pointed out other landmarks on the horizon. I had no idea how close the mountains were to the city, and it was very interesting to see the urban landscape from above. At some point, our conversation turned to books, and in no time at all, we were walking down the train and landed back at Heidi’s car.

Our next stop was Temple Square, which I found to be really beautiful and intriguing. If I hadn’t had such a strict deadline to get back to my hotel and the weather had not been so blazingly hot, I would have had a nice time puttering around, taking pictures, and reading all of the historical markers. Instead, Heidi gave me a quick, but thorough, run-down of each building’s function and history. All I have retained, however, is something like, “lots of pipe organs, these buildings can seat a lot of people, and the architectural elements are probably allegorical.” I attribute this lapse to information overload and general exhaustion from having hauled myself up a mountain in an hour. Even though we weren’t able to go into the temple, I liked it the best. The structure itself is very imposing, kind of fortress-like, but I liked the solidness of the whole thing. Like, this temple isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I was also amused that Heidi and I had to trip over half a dozen newlywed couples and their photographers. On a Wednesday! Heidi assured me that this was normal. “Actually,” she mused, “kind of slower than usual.” I was stunned.

After a quick walk through the conference center, Heidi deposited me back at my hotel, right on time. After she pulled away, I realized that it had been our first time meeting, but we’d jumped right into conversation with no prelude. It’s always the same with blog friends, isn’t it? We are already friends! And still, it gets me every time.

For the next 48 hours, I did not see the light of day. I rode elevators and walked hallways between my room and various meeting rooms, wearing suits and heels and a nametag, pecking furiously at my computer for a report to write later, and schmoozing as best as I could. Since my first time doing this type of work a year ago, I have become much more adept and efficient, but it’s still hard. When the meeting wrapped at lunchtime on Friday, I was antsy to get out. I received the blessing from my meeting planner, changed into jeans, and struck out for the library.

Yes, the library! Because I am that nerdy. But seriously, the Salt Lake City branch of the public library is a really cool building, and it was at the top of my list of things I wanted to see. I had to meet my ride to the airport in just over an hour, so I had just enough time to walk over, eat my lunch in the courtyard, walk around the roof terrace, and bask in the aura of bookishness. After 2 days of mixing and mingling in the confines of the hotel, it was lovely to be out in the sunshine and by myself.

With only 3 hours to myself, I think I did Salt Lake City pretty well.