Friday, January 28, 2011

Freedom....To Visit Antelope Island

Over MLK weekend we wanted to "make memories" as McKenzie says. Luckily, it seems that a lot of things fell in place for us to have a good and memorable holiday weekend. First off, on Friday we met my Mom for lunch as she was down for the day doing work in Salt Lake. We all enjoyed good sandwiches at Kneaders. Afterward, my dad gave me my uncle's tickets to the Utah Jazz game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was a fun game to watch and the Jazz held 3 of the 5 top plays on Sportscenter that night. That is usually how I gauge if it was a good game or not. After the game, we grabbed a late night beto's burrito and made it just in time for our dollar movie at 10:30. Quite the eventful and fun evening.

Saturday was my 6th Grade Jr. Jazz team's second game. The first game they won 43-24 and the second game they won again but this time only by 17 points. They are a fun team to coach! After the game, we worked out (we have consistently been working out 4 times a week since New Years...how long will it last?) and got ready for a fun evening with our friends the Kelleys and Enyons. We went to the FastKart Raceway and used up our AWESOME Christmas gift from Hilary. We raced Courtney and Mike and it was fun. McKenzie and I both found it interesting how our emotions played out in a circumstance where we were having a lot of fun in a different way than usual but how tired and ready to be done we were in the end. By about the 17th lap of jerking a go-cart around sharp corners at 30 mph, we both felt our arms wearing out and the adrenaline rush settling and were ready for the checkered flag to fly.

After racing we placed our name on the waiting list at red iguana in SLC. We had an hour to kill and spent some time at the Gateway mall. McKenzie and Courtney were able to shop around and Mike and I found a television to watch the Packers beat the Falcons. While we watched at dick's sports, we played a fun game of putt putt and tried to create difficult shots for each other. It was a good way to kill time.

Later when we met up with our other friends Jeff and Natalie Eynon, we got back to Red Iguana at exactly an hour after they told us and they had given our table away so we waited another hour to be seated. I was surprised how frustrated I was but again surprised how quickly that frustration settled once our food came. That place is daggum good!

On Monday (MLK Day) we decided to go for an adventure and took a drive out to Antelope Island. Because this drive is over 1.5 hours, it required two things, sunflower seeds and sweats. If you are going to be in a car for a while you need to feel comfortable (sweats) and having something to chew on (sunflower seeds)! On our way to the island we stopped at Quiznos to grab sandwiches to take for a picnic. I really like Quiznos food but I have always thought their service was the worst. This visit changed my mind. As we walked in and as usual, we started debating whether to try something new or to get the usual that we were always happy with. McKenzie mentioned that we should try the Italian because we liked Subway's Italian so much. We decided against it and got two chicken sandwiches. As we were checking out we saw a third sandwich that had been put in our bag; the manager wanted us to try the Italian in order to show us how much better Quiznos is the Subway. Although the sub wasn't better, the manager's act changed my mind about Quiznos customer service.

We got out to the island and it was a perfect day to be there; 45 degrees, sunny, and a slight breeze. We journeyed down the west side of the island (as a year earlier we toured the east coast with the Hursts over Thanksgiving). We found a great picnic spot that had a table overlooking one of the beaches and not many people were in sight.

After eating lunch, we went for a hike that turned into a photo-shoot/buffalo chasing expedition. McKenzie and I tried to be respectful of the animals and keep our distance but when we saw people just a few yards away from them, it was hard not to want to run and touch them. Stupid yea, but something about getting closer and closer was very appealing. We resisted.

When we returned home we realized that we had homework and other obligations that we had put off all weekend. Oh if every weekend could be MLK weekend.