I never specifically had Utah on my bucket list, or at least not Salt Lake City. I’ll admit the pictures of Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon capture my imagination, but I hadn’t really thought much about Salt Lake. This past week we had a garden center convention in where else but Salt Lake City. Before we even landed, I realized what a cool place it was. From the window of the plane, you could see the brown, rippling landscape as if it were a sea full of waves. And then suddenly, a huge mountain made an appearance at what seemed like a mere hundred feet below the plane. It was quite striking. I mean when you are born and raised in Florida, any hill is exciting. Mountains like the Rockies just blow your mind.

The convention was great. We got to visit a few beautiful garden centers and all around the city were bright, colorful plantings, filled with flowers we can only dream about in the summertime. We also toured Temple Square which is home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The architecture of the buildings was amazing and the gorgeous flower beds throughout the square were eye-catching. We even caught an organ recital in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearses and performs. Throughout the city, there were great places to eat, cool modern architecture and of course ever-present mountains in the background. One night out behind our hotel, there was even a live jazz band with tons of people dancing along. Definitely a vibrant and beautiful city.

With all we had to do while we were there, there wasn’t much time for mountain exploring, but I had five hours between our last session and my flight and I thought, I’ll bet I could find a little hike up those mountains. And then I got lazy. I was flying the red-eye home, and I didn’t want to be worn out and exhausted, so I skipped the mountains and did a little last minute exploring on foot. I saw more of the grounds of Temple Square and eventually found myself decompressing my thoughts from the convention in a small city park called Brigham Young Historic Park. Throughout the park were statues and stories of the people that settled the Utah Territory. There was a small water wheel to show how they used streams for power, but of course what caught my eye was a large veggie garden. The settlers of Utah had a strong pioneer spirit and they involved the entire family in tending to the home and garden. This park really captured that spirit.

And as my trip ended, meandering through this park and sitting in a shady bench along the garden really gave me time to daydream about the upcoming fall season. It will be here before you know it. At our house, we’ve already seeded out some snap peas and our garden beds are just about ready for fall planting. Now, if the rain would let up a little in the evenings, we might actually get it finished.