A Trip to Utah With the Sisters

It was that time of year again, when all the girls get together and take a fun vacation. This year we gathered together in Utah. We planned to stay in a hotel close to Thanksgiving Point so we might enjoy the Tulip Festival that is held in Utah each year in the Aston Gardens there and also enjoy all the fun shops at Thanksgiving Point. This year, sadly enough, one of the sisters couldn’t make the trip with us. We texted her each day and sent her pictures everywhere we went—which totally made her promise to never miss another sister vacation ever again.

The first place we decided to visit were the tulip gardens. When we arrived there we signed up to take the Segways through the gardens. You might think —-since we were all elderly at this point in our lives—we would prefer to casually walk through the gardens—but my sisters and I are not your average “elderly” women—and totally believe in continuing the adventure in life—no matter what our ages dictate. The woman that signed us up, however, tried to discourage us by telling us that an elderly woman in an earlier group of Segway riders—-panicked when she started going too fast and couldn't remember how to stop. Instead, she jumped off her Segway—as she watched it continue going into the lake there in the gardens. She explained that the woman had to pay a hefty fine for the damage to her vehicle. Her horror story didn’t phase us, however, as we felt confident in our own riding ability. So, we rented our Segways anyway.

Some might not know what a Segway is—-If you have ever seen the movie,”Mall Cop”, you would have somewhat of an idea of what it looks like. The dictionary defines a Segway as: “a two wheel upright, motorized personal vehicle with a platform for your feet above an axle and an upright post surmounted by handles”—-which I’m sure makes it all perfectly plain to how it looks. ( It’s much easier to understand how it looks and how to ride one by watching “Mall Cop”). When you are riding your Segway, you make it move by leaning forward and you make it stop by leaning backward or to quickly stop—act as if you were about to sit down—but still hold on to the handles and never get off while still in motion.

Once we got on our Segways, we started off on the garden pathways. There were great and easy pathways to follow throughout the gardens. The tulips were lovely that year and I’ve never seen so many different colored blooms—they were breathtaking! After awhile of slowing riding down the several pathways, we came to a very complicated and intertwining area of paths. Leave it to my younger sister,Patty, to decide to speed up, rather than slow down. She always enjoyed a challenge! Instead of calling to her to slow down—as she was in the lead—we all followed suit and raced in and out of the crazy pathways. Luckily, we all made it safely and didn’t end up in the lake, as our other elderly predecessor. After we finished our tour of the gardens, we spent the rest of our day enjoying all the shops at Thanksgiving Point. We all love Ice Cream and made several stops to try several different flavors while shopping. Later, that night we attended the movie theater there and also tried their gelato.

At the end of our visit to Utah, we sisters took a trip into Salt Lake city. We visited the LDS Visitor’s Center there, and walked around the temple grounds—which are lovely. Later that day, we took a horse and carriage ride through the city and finally had a wonderful dinner at the Roof Restaurant, atop the Joseph Smith Memorial building in Temple Square—and enjoyed a marvelous view and elaborate, gourmet buffet. We tasted most of the desserts shown there (which were many)—and were delicious. As usual, we had a wonderful time together —and I can see why we gain weight each time we all get together!