On the way back from the great spectacle of the wildflowers, we stopped at Snowbird to ride the tram up the mountain, 11,000 feet is the destination landing. The ride takes about 10 minutes and once at the top there is a view of the surrounding areas all around. The view is spectacular. We spent about 20 minutes there and caught the same tram going down. There were young people with their mountain bikes who went up with us to ride down for the fun of it. Not having been to a ski area before, I thought it was very thoughtful of the resort to have bike paths prepared for these people. But Elif told me that what I saw was the ski slopes, duh! (OK, stop laughing.)

Here are some photographs going up and coming down.

On Friday, after a good night sleep, we took off a little before 9 AM to drive up to see the wild flowers. The Little Cottonwood Canyon has several attractions, Alta being one of them. It is a major ski area and the start of the tram ride to the top of the mountain. As we drove toward Alta the landscape was impressive with pine forests, waterfalls, and even a moose sighting. After Alta, the flowers started showing their colors, and variety. Driving higher and higher, we started seeing more and more dense coverage of flowers. Although the dominant color was yellow of some kind of local sunflower, other varieties put on a great show when the conditions were right. [Read more...]

The flight to Salt Lake City was reasonably smooth except the little kid behind me crying most of the way from Baltimore to Salt Lake City. Elif and Mina were waiting with a nice bunch of roses in Mina’s arms. After getting the suitcases we slowly walked to the parking lot and drove home. The weather was hot, but dry; hot is still hot though.

That evening we went to Sea Salt, Mina’s favorite restaurant nearby. They make her pasta just the way she likes, with olive oil and then Parmesan cheese grated on top. We enjoyed a couple of appetizers and shared a pizza. Back at home, Mina went to bed, we chatted a bit and did the same.

Here are some moments from the arrival and the next day

Probably because of the time shift and partly the flight fatigue, neither Jan nor I could sleep. So, we scrapped the plans for the next day and stayed home. The girls did some house work, I did some reading and a bit of photography. A bowl of onions and garlic stems kept me busy for a while; those photographs are converted to black-and-white then toned.