Interview Day!

Today we had our formal interview at St. Mark's Hospital (where we are doing our clerkship now). It went really well...we know everyone now and LOVE the program so it was really just a fun way to have scheduled hang out time with the residents and the program director :) After lunch, they let us have some time off, so we drove to Big Cottonwood Canyon (the home of Brighton and Solitude ski resorts). Here's what it looked like:
Aaaaand, of course, here's what we looked like when we were there:
Where's Waldo?
Solitude looked like this...pretty swanky:
And a little further up the canyon...Brighton!
As we drove back down, we stopped at the little turn offs along the way and found a ton of hiking trails up to various lakes in the area. Here's proof, as Matt loves maps:

Then when we got down, we went a took a picture of this old mill that is right down the street from where we stay in Cottonwood Heights. Apparently, it's been used in a few movies...therefore I am obsessed with it :)
And here's a sign nearby...because everyone lives downstream of someplace (or downriver...right Southgate?):
So after our tour we headed to Sugarhouse to meet up with the residents for dinner (as part of our interview day they all took us out to the Oasis). All in all...a pretty sweet day!

Picture of the Trip (so far)

Hiking at Alta (part 1)

Since we arrived in Utah I've been clamoring to go for a long hike up at Alta. Over the course of the month we've talked about it several times, but one thing or another kept getting in the way. This past weekend we finally got our act together and made it up Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day, the perfect opportunity for Audrey to give her new hiking shoes a thorough break-in. We packed a backpack, and pointed our feet towards "Rocky Point".

First, we got up to Alta and drove the "summer road" nearly to the top of the Sunnyside chairlift (one of the beginner lifts at the resort, Audrey plans to become quite well acquainted with it in December). Here's our faithful ride parked high up in the mountains.

To steal a phrase from Audrey... This is what we looked like before starting the hike.

Here I am starting our trek. That's the very top of Sunnyside in the frame.

A glimpse at our scenery... you like?

Audrey being goofy. We're obviously not hiking hard enough.

Couples shot!!!

Audrey posing with a strange rock.

As we climbed higher we began to see snow.

Some parts were just as steep as they look.

Audrey pretending to be tired, we're not even halfway up!

A sign pointing us to the base of the Supreme chairlift. Do the Davey's recognize this spot back in Catherine's?

The mountains are nice to look at.

If you look closely at the center peak you can see the top of the tram (we rode it in an earlier post) at Snowbird.

This is me, checking my fantasy football stats while hiking up a mountain. One of the many instances where Audrey wonders what she's gotten herself into.

We made it to the top!!! Hard to tell from this picture but you're now looking at the valley on the other side of the peak. For those that care, the photo is being taken from "Rocky Point" (aptly names because it is covered in boulders) and you're looking down at "Secret Lake" (also aptly named because it freezes over and gets covered up by about 20 feet of snow every winter, making it a secret to any skiers that may find themselves standing upon it).

Another shot of Secret Lake.

Taking a break... we might have made it to the top of one peak, but we're not done hiking yet!

Where should we go next? (hint: we'll show you tomorrow)

Tacos!

There is a really sweet restaurant in Cottonwood Heights called Lone Star Taqueria. The restaurant's menu changes daily and is written on a chalkboard. We've now been there a few times...not expensive and awesome Mexican food :) Here's what it looks like:

It's hard to see, but there are upside down cowboy boots on each post and the car you can see (with flat tires) has stickers completely covering the exterior. The stickers are from many different companies and places. On the top of the car there is a shark fin with their most popular menu item:
Gross...we didn't try them! But their nachos are AMAZING :) If we do end up in SLC for residency, we will definitely be taking any visitors that venture out west. Maybe you'll even get to take a signature picture with us:
The arrow makes it look like we are fish tacos...gross again! P.S. The drinks available include soda (people look at you weird if you call it pop) and imported Mexican beer (kept on ice in the cooler next to the register...classy!)

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has 2 free public performances per week. The Sunday one is more formal and is strict about seating, but the Thursday rehearsal is from 8-9:30 p.m. and you may come and go as you please. We chose to go to the Thursday one and looked like this when we did it:
You can't really see how cool the Temple looks when it is lit up at night, so here are better shots:

Anyway, once you get into the Tabernacle, you can sit anywhere and move around as you like. We sat in the back so we could take in the whole thing. Kind of a big organ, right? :)
During the rehearsal, we took a picture (big surprise!)
The rehearsal was great! I would definitely recommend going if you're ever in the area. After the performance, we walked around and took a few more pictures of the crazy huge buildings that make up the headquarters of the Mormon church.
At first we couldn't figure out why Africa was in the center, but on the other side of the building there was a similar carving with the US front and center. Here's what the entrance looked like:
Ta Da! All in all...a good night!

Park City

I've never seen a ski town (guess who is writing this post?!?) so last week after work we went to Park City and checked things out. It's pretty cool...little shops, tons of restaurants and a ski lift that picks you up right from the center of town. Anyway, since it's not ski season yet they have sweet deals on dinner...and we found a two-fer! Here's where we ate:
Aaaand because this is Utah, there are those pesky laws that make you have a "membership" before you can eat/drink in their establishment. Luckily, Frank & Dana had one...while they were looking up their membership info...we took a picture:Dinner was awesome-for the price of 1 set of ribs, we got 2! This is what we all looked like before eating dinner:
After dinner, we walked around a little bit more and I befriended a bear:
The end.

The Leaves Change at Alta

We came out west with an old 3 mega-pixel camera that Audrey's had since long before we met. That camera came with us to Europe a couple summers ago and has seen a lot of good times. Unfortunately, about a week into our stay in Utah the camera died.

It was a sad day that left us with a dilemma because there were about 80 pictures on the memory card that we could not recover (when I said this was an old camera I was not kidding, it used an out-dated smart card format (XD, for those that care) and we had no idea how to get the pictures off of it).

I myself was ready to chalk it up to a lost cause (as I am lazy and was not too concerned about the pictures that were lost). Audrey on the other hand, was not about to let the pictures disappear without a fight and with a little leg work was able to find a place to transfer the files to a CD.

This turned out to be a good thing, as we now look at the pictures we took on our second day in Salt Lake City there are a couple really cool shots. We had gone up to Alta (my favorite place) to show Audrey around and maybe get some dinner. And while nothing was open, we were treated to the fall colors at 9,500 feet. I had no idea there were so many deciduous trees up there.

Our "old" camera took a respectable self-portrait!!!

Those are three good examples of the colors, especially the third one (don't forget you can blow up the pictures by clicking on them).

The "Ski Shop" in the distance has seen a lot of our business over the years. And notice the sign for the Alta Medical Clinic, if we end up out here we can rotate at that very clinic for a month during our 2nd or 3rd year of residency.

The Alta surface tow looks much higher off the ground when there is no snow.

A stream with the surface tow in the background. Who knew this was there?

The Gold Miner's Daughter, our new favorite lodge at Alta.

Audrey thought the name was hilarious.

Matt being retrospective, and by retrospective I mean checking out lines for December.

Our faithful Civic, enjoying the scenery.

The Civic from another angle, rumor has it she can hardly believe she's out here (I had to ask Audrey if the Civic is a "he" or a "she" to which Audrey replied as if I'd asked a stupid question.... "A she").

The Wildcat base.

More fall colors.

We hiked up a little ways up the face of the mountain, this picture is looking back at the Rustler Lodge.

Audrey hiking up while showing her Michigan spirit.

High Rustler is arguably Alta's signature run, it's on the right side of the picture extending about 1500 feet from top to bottom.

Matt being dumb.

Another shot of High Rustler.