Visiting Salt Lake City

I have such mixed feelings about visiting Salt Lake City.  I lived there for ten years so I know it well.  I can drive around town and see certain shops and buildings and they bring back a flood of memories.  Some of those memories are great, like the late night food runs with my buddies or the drives in the canyon after class.  Others are not so great, like the blind dates that my friends put me up to or the hours spent studying in order to finally graduate.  So every time we head out west, which is about once a year, I’m always a little hesitant.

But this time, the trip was different.  This time, I found that none of the bad memories that I usually conjure up while seeing where I used to live and hang out.  Instead, I visited old haunting grounds and found myself smiling at the great times that I had there.  And I began to appreciate the things that the city has to offer.  It really is a great city too.

It’s fairly large and has the typical things that a big city offers such as a skyline and a whole variety of goods and services.

The downtown area is clean and attractive.

The modern office buildings and hotels are surrounded by

historic places such as the Capitol Theater.

These buildings have been here for years and offer a rich history.  They also have great architecture and details.

There are also little touches that make Salt Lake beautiful and unique.  Things like these cool benches on the sidewalk.

Or these great pieces of art that we noticed while walking down the sidewalk.

The city uses a bus system to help patrons get around downtown and a several years ago, it installed its own light rail system called Trax.  It’s sort of like an above-ground subway system.

If you look around the town closely, you’ll notice signs of the Winter Olympics that were held here in 2002.  (Hint: the tall banner in front of the glass building.)

But one of the best things about Salt Lake is not the history or the great buildings, it’s the streets.

This road looks like a highway but it’s not, it’s just a regular street going through town.  Salt Lake City streets are very wide.  If we had streets like that here in DC, we wouldn’t have all of the traffic problems that we do.

The city’s not perfect, of course.  There is a lot of construction going on such as this big hole where the downtown mall once stood.

It will be quite an eyesore until construction is completed, but I’m sure it will be a beautiful area some day.

Until then, one can enjoy the other views such as the surrounding mountains.

Salt Lake is, after all, a valley nestled inside these beautiful hills.

Drive a few miles outside the city, and you’re surrounded by them.  Drive a little further, and you’ll reach the Great Salt Lake itself.

I think when I lived here, I forgot about all of this beauty.  It was easy to look past it and focus on the things that I didn’t like.

I’m glad that we made this trip because Salt Lake City is a beautiful place and it was nice to be able to remember that.

Have you ever visited Salt Lake City?  What did you think?