We had an adventure today!

Posted on by Adventures of Dan and Lisa

We had a tight connection. The airline offered an itinerary with a 30 minute connection at a major hub. We could have taken an itinerary with a longer layover, but it required leaving Minneapolis at 6 am, instead of 8:23 am. Dan has an intense dislike for very early flights (the 8:23 flight even caused grumbling) as they are disruptive of his sleep. I am usually inclined to take them as I think it is a small price to pay for a flight that is less likely to be delayed, and longer layovers are always better than shorter layovers.

That said, I love Dan more than I care about airport stress, which means I love him A Lot. So, I believed the airline, despite a previous experience with a similar layover at the same airport on a flight to the same destination that required a mad dash through two terminals to be the last passengers to board the plane.

Well, a storm just West of MSP required a flight path that took us due North toward Canada before we headed west to Salt Lake City, which added just enough time to our flight that we landed and exited the plane as our flight to Montana was headed to the runway, without us.

The airline already rebooked us on the later flight, so it wasn’t tragic. But that later flight got us in way past our toddler like bed time, and we would still need to make a 3 hour drive to our destination. Faced with 11 hours of hanging out at the airport, and the need to wait until tomorrow to drive the last bit anyway, we made the call to take the next morning’s flight and spend the night in a city Dan had never visited, and Lisa hadn’t been to in 25ish years. Plus, spending the night gave Dan the chance to check Utah off on the list of states visited (based on the family rule “you have to stay the night, airports and drive throughs don’t count”). The airline people who helped with the rebooking and baggage retrieval were super nice. And, the volunteers at the Salt Lake City Airport Information booth were delightful!

A view from the very efficient and convenient City Train that whisks you from the airport to the city center in less than 30 minutes!
The view from our downtown hotel. SLC seems a bit more dense than I remember from my visit last century.
They are doing a massive renovation on many of the building is on Temple Square.
The gardens were open, and blooming. Based on the enthusiasm one of the Information Desk volunteers had as she shared this information, we think they only recently reopened that part of Temple Square.
Across from the Square was a park that used to be part of Brigham Young’s complex, complete with water wheel, like the one that would have been used for the on-site Mill. With multiple wives, lots of children, and other pioneers encouraged to come west, there was labor to support these endeavors.
At another park in town they had a number of stones to help folks learn the tracks of some animals. I don’t think this would be an inaccurate travel moniker for me to use, but it might cause some folks to question how delightful I am.
Here’s another, Dan just offered me a long suffering look when he heard my plan to maybe reference each of us with these options on this blog post.
As we exited the second park, we realized we were half way up the hill toward the Capitol Building. I had already promised Dan I wouldn’t drag him on a tour because I had done one when I was here back in the 1900’s. But we were mostly there, so there we headed. It was a warm day, but breezy and gorgeous.
The Church of Latter Day Saints and the founders of the State liked the industry of bees and there are many representations in the Capitol Building. Don’t ask for any more detail on that, the tour I took was over 25 years and many other Capitol tours ago.
One thing about SLC is that it sits in a massive valley, with lots of mountain views. Here is a particularly nice one from the Capitol.
And, since this was a new state and Capitol for Dan, we got a selfie!
More blooming flowers. These surrounded a marker for the Kimble Family, a founding family. Near as I could tell from the listing of family members, the senior Kimble had at least 9 wives, and a lot of kids.

If you’ve hung in this far, you get a glimpse into our marital and travel dynamics. When I realized it was highly likely we would miss our connection, I spent a few minutes working through how to respond to the issue. Not just the logistics and rescheduling, but the “we should have given ourselves a longer layover” response. At that point I decided, while I was disappointed to miss a day with family, we still had a good number of days to spend with them, and this really wasn’t worth drama. And I reminded myself that our travel motto is “Oh Goody! An Adventure!” for a reason. So, I just turned to Dan and said, “we’re not making that second flight.” And when he responded “the airline will help us figure it out, and it will work out.” And you know what? It did, and I was much happier not being a stressed out fussball, and Dan was much happier not having to manage said stressed out fussball. So, we enjoyed a nice day in Salt Lake City and are looking forward to a nice visit starting tomorrow.

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Published by Adventures of Dan and Lisa

When the boat broke down the nice lady from England exclaimed "oh goody, an adventure!" That changed the possible problem into a great story and improved attitudes. It has become the motto for our travels. We hope you enjoy the stories as much as we enjoyed the adventure.

1 thought on “We had an adventure today!”

  1. With all my mapping and drilling projects out west, Salt Lake was one of my favorite places. It didn’t have near as many restaurants per capita as Denver, but it had some pretty darn good ones and just as great scenery, and an airport with parking only a few steps away from the terminal. I imagine the latter has changed these days. Glad you had fun!

    Lori

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