my whirlwind tour of Salt Lake City

In hindsight, I may have been a tad insane to try to do this in 36 hours. We last left off with my first view of the mountains from the airport. From there, Aunt Terri picked me up and we went to the office for about an hour and then we were on our way to meet Andrew.

Of course, we had to park next to the photo collective.


The meet-and-greet with Andrew McMahon was phenomenal. If this was all I got out of the trip, I would be able to call it a success.

But there was more adventure to be had.

In between the meet-and-greet and the show, we went home to drop off my stuff and to let me see some more breathtaking views.


I also got to have the deliciousness that is Cafe Rio. (What can I say? She knows my taste in food.)

On our way to the show, we went a slightly longer way so I could see Temple Square lit up at night. It was beautiful. I *almost* (but not quite) wanted to skip the show to take more photos.


The next morning, I woke up bright and early. When I was planning the trip, I asked if there would be snow and Aunt Terri said if I got up early, we could drive up into the mountains for a little snow. I don't think I slept at all in anticipation.
We drove up through Big Cottonwood Canyon and all you could hear from the passenger seat was the *beep* of my autofocus, the click of the shutter, and me making excited sounds.



As we got closer to the top, I could see other mountains in the distance and it was wonderful.


But the best part had to be seeing snow on the ground as we drove by. The higher we got, the more visible the snow was. There wasn't a lot but it was enough for what I wanted.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot of the ski lodge, I was out of the car and had my gloves on. If you look carefully, you can see a perfect snowflake on my glove.

Once I had the calm, peaceful, powdery shot, I decided to throw some up in the air and make it snow on myself.

We posed in front of the mountains and then we had to turn around and drive back down.



On the way down, we were talking about how the last time she was up that way, Aunt Terri saw a moose.

Then, I saw movement off in the grass on the other side of the road. So we pulled over and I sprinted across the road to photograph the moose. I didn't even change to my telephoto; I just ran.


Apparently we had a good idea because someone else pulled over to photograph the moose.

The rest of the ride back down was calm and pretty.





In honor of the moose and/or because we were always planning it, we went to the Red Moose for breakfast burritos and coffee.



Then all too soon, it was time to go back to the airport to fly home.