So this year, the plan was to keep our vacation simple. Harrison is only two. He doesn't need to travel miles and miles to go somewhere exotic. He doesn't need it, and probably wouldn't appreciate it all that much, so where did we go for our Fancy Summer Vacation?
Salt Lake City! Woohoo! Exciting, right?
Ok, so let me break it down for you:
DAY ONE: Hogle Zoo
Harrison is crazy about animals, so we knew he would love seeing them up close at the zoo. Here is a picture of Harrison and Elesa enjoying the Elephant Show. Um, each of us enjoy it in our own way.
Here is Harrison and his Daddy by the Zebras. As you can see, by this time we had given Harrison an icecream cone, so he really couldn't have cared less what we were looking at.
He did think the giraffes were pretty cool. Probably because they came right up to us. We got closer to them than any other animals in the park.
Looking at what may or may not be Turtles.
Not sure what animal Harrison is looking at here. Probably none of them. We were there in the afternoon, and most of the animals seemed to be asleep.
Here are the 3 of us on the train, looking really, really outstanding.
The Playground!
Here is Richard and Harrison taking a trip down the slide. Good thing Elesa is such a gifted photographer or this picture might not have turned out so well.
We really did have a great day at the zoo. Ate lots of icecream and popcorn (Harrison's Favorite Food) and we all had a great time seeing the animals. Next time though, we are going in the morning so that maybe we can catch them awake!
We stayed in a little hotel somewhere in the vicinity of down-town Salt Lake. It had an indoor pool and hot tub, and free cookies in the lobby. Which is all we could ever ask for.
DAY TWO: Discovery Gateway
Day two we headed for The Gateway in downtown Salt Lake. But first, we stopped by the Salt Lake City Public Library. Would you believe it is one of the top tourist attractions in the city? With good reason too. It was very cool. We didn't get any pictures inside, cuz, ya know, we didn't want to look like idiots taking pictures of a library. You'll just have to trust that it really was very neat.
But here are some in front of the water structure out front and from the roof.
Then on to the Discovery Gateway. We didn't have any idea what to expect from this, but it was perfect. A hands on, full-sized playland for kids of all ages. Harrison LOVED it.
First off was the ball center. And not some dinky ball pit like they used to have at Hardees. This was Ball Heaven! One short flight of stairs up from where Harrison was in this picture, kids would send balls down ramps and slides and they would run down all these different tubes and pop out right in front of Harrison. Yea!
Harrison spent a lot of time putting balls into this tube. Richard would slide open the door, Harrison would push the ball inside, and a strong wind would carry the ball off through tubes lining the ceiling, to pop out and hit into gongs and whatnot. So fun!
Further on they had a miniature town, complete with a house, a grocery store, mailboxes and letters to be mailed, construction site and a farm. Harrison's favorite was the house. Because he likes to eat.
And then, to top it all off, was the water zone. Water ran down mini water falls and into pipes and pans and spoons and was equipped with tiny little balls that could run down the pipes with it. That is some serious, wet, fun.
We will definitely go back. A lot. We liked it just as much as Harrison did!DAY THREE: The Living Planet Aquarium
Having never been to the Aquarium in Sandy before, we didn't know what to expect. But we weren't disappointed. First off, Harrison got to drive a boat!
whereupon he ran us into a sandbank (he could barely reach the steering wheel after all.) After only panicking a little, we realized that it was a FAKE boat, and that we weren't really movingl. Phew! What a relief!Then we looked at the Marine Life. I think this is an octopus.
Ooh, Jelly Fish. So cool.
More Fish.
Then they fed the sting rays. We all stood around this pool and the fish feeders and a few lucky guests had the sting rays eating right out of their hands. I think they were feeding them like candy bars and stuff.
More Fish.
We had a great time and learned a lot (like the fact that sting rays eat candy bars. See, I am so smart now!) and then, after stopping for milkshakes, we headed home.
Vacation 2009 status: SUCCESSFUL.
