Salt Lake City Weekend

For the long weekend, we headed to Salt Lake City for some big city perks, since we were going to be rained out of most outdoor plans.  We'd always seen and admired some of the big planes from the interstate, so we finally made the effort to stop at the Hill Aerospace Museum.  They have an impressive collection of planes and helicopters, and I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in planes or wartime history.

It really boggles the mind how some of these monstrosities can get airborne!

Owen kept grabbing onto some of the protrusions and pretending that he was hanging on to them while the planes were flying high and then doing complicated aerial acrobatics to jump to the next plane's "handles".  I love his imagination!

We also found Pilot Hadley!  Apparently, he was kind of a big deal, because one of the indoor galleries was named after him.  Owen was tickled that Hadley's name was on the plane, because his name had been in the newspaper comics that morning.  :)

So, on to the indoor galleries!

I may not be an aerospace nerd, like some others (ahem, my husband), but this place was so cool!  It really made me appreciate the variety and scope of that branch of technology.  And can you imagine flying some of these things?!?!  That was brought to mind, especially on the Memorial Day weekend:  all the brave people who used and needed these vehicles when they did.  Thank you, thank you.

Since the weather was iffy, an added bonus to our trip was the hotel swimming pool.  It was actually a mini-water park, and the kids were so excited!

Hadley got in a loop on the stairs and slide.  She absolutely loved it!  Owen was in heaven, and he was a good big brother, going down the slide with Hadley several times.  He was such a blur that I didn't get any good pictures of him there.  :)

Before we left for the trip, I asked Owen if he would rather go to an aquarium or a dinosaur museum. He didn't hesitate, "Aquarium! Aquarium!"  I was a little surprised by that, but I love aquariums too, so we obliged.  Our first stop in the aquarium was South America where they had piranha, anaconda, toucans and...

this awesome suspended rope bridge!  Both kids were very eager to cross it and showed no fear!  Mom may have joined in, too.

The Utah river otters were less impressive.

The penguins were more lively, but the kids were not impressed.  I guess that's because we have some at our local zoo...?  I certainly could have watched them longer!

 That's Owen in a viewing bubble inside one of the tanks.

The octopus was also fascinating and huge!

They had touch tanks for little rays and starfish, but you had to be pretty big to reach them.  There was a huge wall to lean over and notice how the water is still up to his elbow.  I think they might want to reevaluate this design if they want to appeal to little kids or someone is going to fall in!

This just made me laugh.  Hadley's shirt was pretty voluminous, so she thought it could double as Daddy's hat.

Of course, Owen's favorite part of the aquarium was the shark tunnel.  What can I say, the boy loves sharks.  This tunnel wasn't particularly long, but the tank extended back pretty far to allow for a more traditional viewing room around the corner.

We even got to see some divers feed the sting rays.  What a job!

Yes, Hadley was there too, but she was pretty tired by this point and stuck to Daddy's shoulders.

I guess we did get a little taste of dinosaurs with this megalodon jaw replica.

After a lunch stop at Freebirds, we were intrigued by a huge store called Scheels in the same parking lot.  We decided to check it out, but we did not expect to find a full ferris wheel inside the store!  Of course, we had to go for a ride.

Once the ride was over, we discovered that the rest of the store was an outdoor/sporting goods extravaganza.  The kids usually love seeing all the different taxidermied animals, but they were very distracted by the hunting simulation game.  Oh, Idaho...  What are you doing to us?  

The store also had some funny photo ops.  These were our favorites.  Not sure why Honest Abe was hanging out at this place, but maybe he was waiting for his turn on the monster truck.

We got an early start on the way home the next day, so we opted to take the scenic route through Logan.  We always enjoy checking out other university campuses, and Logan is home to Utah State.  They have a picturesque location with mountains on all sides for a dramatic backdrop to the everyday commute.

Since it was Memorial Day, the campus was pretty quiet and we took a nice stroll down the length of it, even with two not-so-happy hikers.  (Owen was hoping to hike in the woods, not on sidewalks, and Hadley prefers to be carried.)

One of these things is not like the others...