Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday afternoon,  July 19, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)

We are in Salt Lake for Pat’s Stampin’ Up! convention.   We were able to get reservations at the Marriott (Downtown) again this year.  This hotel is right across the street from the convention center.  We got a corner room, conveniently overlooking construction of a new building {grin}.

We left Evergreen Tuesday (7/15) and stayed in Green River, UT (our normal stop).  Wednesday we arrived in Salt Lake in the early afternoon and Pat started her meetings that night.

There are about 4,000 SU demonstrators here this year.  In years past there were as many as 7,000 demonstrators and they had to have two sessions of the convention.

I have been holed up in the room quite a bit working on a computer project for our Eagles club.  I have spent lots of time learning database management, software program code modification and all those fun things.  It is a fun challenge, but I have spent way too much time of the project (probably 300 hours over the past several weeks). 

Today was the last day of the convention.  Pat has been going almost non-stop.  The last meeting just got out and there is a huge line waiting for the elevator.  As I draft this, I am stuck in the lobby until the crowd clears.  I had to come down here when they cleaned the room – I knew the timing was terrible.

Yesterday, I drove up to Hooper, UT (about 35 miles north) to visit with a good friend.  It is always good to see Kent and talk about buses and cars.

Tonight we have tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance.  This will be the third time that we have seen them and it has been an amazing performance in the past.

Tomorrow we will start home.  We are changing our route so that we can stop in Gunnison to visit our two grandsons who go to college there.

That is all of now.

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Sunday afternoon  July 21, 2013   (second travelogue of this trip).

Well, as Paul Harvey would say:  “now for the rest of the story”. 

After teaching the class in Denver I was supposed to catch a 10:00 pm flight to Salt Lake to meet up with Pat at her convention. Well the plane was three hours late and I got to the room at 3:11 am  That is two weeks in a row.  As I mentioned in a previous post,  a bit over a week ago,  I was flying back from Seattle (taught a class at Boeing) and that plane was delayed 4 hours (got home just before 5:00 am). Did I mention that I hate flying? 

Friday was my birthday (71, but who is counting?).  I had hoped to at least be in the air to Salt Lake by the end of the day – didn't happen.  As you read the rest of this post, you will see that I had a great belated birthday.

Pat and I are staying at the Hilton Inn, City Center (map).  She would have preferred to stay at the Marriott, but they were booked up – even though she registered for the convention (and rooms) within minutes of the site going on line.  She said that there were 5800 Stampin' Up! demonstrators attending this year.  That is up from past years, but this was the 25th anniversary convention.

Pat and I got to have dinner last night with a great bus friend and his wife.  I always try to see Kent when I am in the area.  He has has been fighting cancer for several years and has managed to “beat the odds” through some experimental treatments.  You would not know about his journey, as he handles the situation much better than most folks would in the same situation.

We also got to attend a very special Mormon Tabernacle concert. The performance included both the choir and and orchestra as well as two extremely talented guest artists:  Nathan Pacheco and Lindsey Stirling.  The concert is free, but you need to order tickets early.  Words can't describe how amazing the concert was!!  Then to top it off when we came out, the full moon was right over the beautiful spires in Temple Square (see photo).

I am actually posting this from Salt Lake.  We are in the airport waiting for -are you ready?- a delayed flight!  Right now, the delay is only 40 minutes – yeah sure!

We had a very leisure morning today.  Pat was tired from her convention and I was tired from lack of sleep.  We arranged a late check out and that allowed us to have nice, albeit expensive, breakfast at the hotel.

That is all for this trip.

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Hello from Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday evening:   July 21, 2012   (second travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Marriott at City Creek (map).  This is my third stay here with Pat and she has stayed here several other times for the Stampin' Up! convention.  The other two times I was here, we had corner rooms and that was great since they were constructing the City Creek shopping mall.  This time we have a room facing north which overlooks Temple Square and some of City Creek.

City Creek is essentially complete.  It is an amazing place.  It spans almost three city blocks and has two areas where the roof can be retracted when the weather permits.  There are two anchor stores; Nordstrom and Macy's.  Most of the retail spaces are leased and the stores are generally upscale establishments.  Even during the week the stores are pretty crowded and folks are carrying lots of shopping bags.  The food court has many unique restaurants and it is crowded as well.

Pat has been going non-stop since the convention started on Wednesday.  This is the last day and it is probably just as well, as she is half dead {grin}.  The attendance is about the same as last year: 3400.  That is about half of the attendance from a few years ago, but the enthusiasm of the demonstrators is still very high.  One of the major activities of the conventions is what they call “swapping”.  Most of the demonstrators make a large number of cards that they swap with other folks (to get ideas).  I attended a swapping session on a ship and it was like a feeding frenzy at the zoo {big grin}.   At conventions it is much lower key.  I have attached a photo of Pat swapping with lady that she sees at every event.  Pat had been working on her swaps, but got behind.  So we spent Tuesday night working together to get her swaps ready.  She ended up with about 150 swaps.

Pat and BJ swapping cards

Thursday was my seventieth birthday.  I knew that Pat would be tied up, so I made arrangements to visit a good friend and fellow bus nut.  Kent and I have been good friends for several years and he has helped me obtain some major parts for the bus.  Kent has been fighting a significant bout with cancer.  I was glad to see that he is doing OK thanks to some very advanced medication. 

We took his 1957 Crown bus on a little ride and it was really fun.  He bought the bus in 1981 and has done some major and amazing work on the bus.  He converted from a mid-engine configuration to a modern engine in a fabricated rear engine compartment.

It is always fun to visit Kent and it was great to share my birthday with him.  I have included a photo of Kent and I in front of his bus.

Kent and I in front of his '57 Crown

Last night we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner.  It is located in the City Creek complex.  The waiting time was over 45 minutes, but the food was great.  We shared a dinner and a piece of fabulous cheesecake and it was just the right amount of food.  While we waited outside, we had great people watching.  In addition, we watched some neat cars pull up the the valet parking stand including a very stealthy Ferrari.

That is all for now.