Yes, even down in St. George we watched Idol last night. Archuleta was back on form; Cook\u2019s second song was great, and Syesha was dang sexy even if she really wasn\u2019t all that good. But I really, really hope Jason Castro is able to hold on and horrify viewers for another week. Sanjaya was never this bad. His flailing Bob Marley weirdness and his inability to remember \u201cjingle jangle morning\u201d were guilty pleasures, indeed. If he sticks around, you\u2019re going to watch Simon Cowell\u2019s head explode. Too bad Paula wasn\u2019t nearly as stoned last night. I think I\u2019m becoming a Vote For The Worst acolyte.<\/p>\n
I mentioned in the comments yesterday that I\u2019d post the Top 10 cool things you need to see in Utah, and then I realized that I\u2019m not sure what they are. I grew up hating Utah \u2013 I was a Californian, you see, and Utah was filled with \u201cUtah Mormons.\u201d Now that I\u2019m a Utah Mormon, I\u2019m not really sure what the difference is between Utah Mormons and other varieties. That would really piss off Adolescent Stallion, who I\u2019m sure would view me as a sellout. I sometimes think that if my 16-year-old self met me, he\u2019d smack me upside the head. I take comfort in the fact that my 16-year-old self was kind of an idiot.<\/p>\n
My ward in California growing up was not particularly different from the ward I\u2019m in now. The Mormons here aren\u2019t necessarily different \u2013 there are just more of them. I don\u2019t think active members of the church take their faith more or less seriously than they do anywhere else, and you have about the same percentage of weirdos and obsessive\/compulsives as you find anywhere else. I don\u2019t remember anyone in California thinking that the Chinese were going to invade Gunlock, Utah in preparation for the Second Coming, though \u2013 I had to move to St. George to hear that one.<\/p>\n
Since Latter-day Saints constitute a majority in Utah, that creates certain opportunities and challenges that were unheard of in LA, but I don\u2019t know if one is better than the other. One thing that startled me upon moving here is how vocal and public critics of the church are willing to be, and sometimes it\u2019s nice to be able to talk about something else. I remember when I spent a year at the University of Utah after my mission, I was aghast at how polarized the environment was between members of the church and those who wanted the church to sink into a large hole. I went back to USC in large measure because nobody much cared one way or the other about my religion, and that was kind of nice.<\/p>\n
Geesh, I\u2019ve wasted quite a bit of time. I\u2019ve only figured out 7 of the Top Ten. So here\u2019s what I\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n
7) Park City<\/strong><\/p>\n Famously labeled as being \u201cIn Utah but not of it,\u201d this upscale Mecca for the rich and famous has great restaurants and plenty of fun local color, but it\u2019s best taken in during the early summer months or any time when the Sundance Film Festival isn\u2019t in town. Unless you\u2019re dying to see celebrities from a distance in overcoats and sunglasses, stay out of Park City when Redford\u2019s pals come to call. And don\u2019t ski Park City \u2013 the slopes are better elsewhere.<\/p>\n 6) Skiing at Alta<\/strong><\/p>\n They say Utah has the Greatest Snow on Earth \u2013 and by \u201cthey,\u201d I mean the Utah State Travel Council. Still, you\u2019d be hard pressed to find a better place to hit the slopes than Alta, which is just 15 minutes from my home. Brighton is cheaper if you have young kids, but Alta only allows skiers, which makes life easier for those who don\u2019t want to avoid running into snowboarding Jason Castro look-alikes.<\/p>\n 5) Temple Square and its Environs<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s a huge tourist trap, but spending a day in and around Temple Square is the best way to get a taste of Utah\u2019s pioneer history. The Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall are the most interesting parts, while the Visitor\u2019s Centers are great if you want to know more about the Mormons. Make sure you take in the Church History Museum and the free movie over at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which manages a fairly accurate depiction of Mormonism\u2019s founder while scrupulously avoiding any reference to polygamy.<\/p>\n 4) Zion\u2019s Canyon 3) The Utah Shakespearean Festival<\/strong><\/p>\n They won the Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre in 2000, and it\u2019s easy to see why. You\u2019re not going to find better theatre anywhere in the state, and, I daresay, anywhere else in the country, either. Sitting outdoors in a replica of the Old Globe and watching great actors perform Shakespeare \u2013 it doesn\u2019t get much better than that.<\/p>\n 2) Bryce Canyon<\/strong><\/p>\n Probably my favorite of Utah\u2019s natural wonders, only because there\u2019s nothing quite like it anywhere in the world. The strange, redrock \u201choodoos\u201d are truly fascinating and make you feel like you\u2019ve wandered into another planet altogether. I would probably recommend other national parks except that I\u2019ve never been there myself.<\/p>\n 1) Aspen Grove <\/strong><\/p>\n If I\u2019m really pressed to discuss my favorite place in Utah, it\u2019d have to be Aspen Grove Family Camp, a mile above Robert Redford\u2019s Sundance Resort in Provo Canyon. My extended family has been going there every year for the past 35 or so, and it\u2019s the closest thing to a childhood home I still have left. It\u2019s not for those who get uncomfortable around lots of Mormons or people who actually want to do things on Sundays, but if you\u2019re related to me, it\u2019s where you spend a week in August, whether you want to or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yes,even down in St. George we watched Idol last night. Archuleta was back on form; Cook\u2019s second song was great, and Syesha was dang sexy even if she really wasn\u2019t all that good. But I really, really hope Jason Castro is able to hold on and horrify viewers for another week. Sanjaya was never this ... Read more<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4882,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/4882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stallioncornell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>
Utah has a plethora of national parks, and this one is probably the easiest to get around, due to the cool tram system they instituted a few years back. Great family hikes abound, and you can see most of the park in a day or so.<\/p>\n