small LAKE city

Greetings race fans,

It has been quite some time. Sorry about that. I have been on the road over the last couple of months but the destinations have blurred in the rearview mirror of one rental or another, or in the contrails of the various planes. I have also been in the office a little more than usual.

At any rate, yesterday I flew back home to Raleigh after a few days in Salt Lake City. Or, as an architectural rep in the area calls it, "Small Lake City." In the architectural and art world and even some of the cooler restaurants -everyone seems to know everyone.

We spent some time with an old classmate from the architecture program at silo-tech (NDSU) and took her out to din-din at Eva's. She does custom residential work for some executives that work at a certain software firm. (Seattle to Salt Lake and back again? Don't ask.) The rep knew five of the people walking in after we were seated and the classmate knew the server and others. This wasn't an isolated event. Speaking of Eva's -pretty cool and recommended. Small plates and very good prices. Also, for lunch, I can give NICHE a four and a half Lilliputian score out of a possible five on the Gulliver scale. Great prices, good sandwhiches and a fairly hip/urban vibe.

One of the nice things about Salt Lake is that you can truly get anywhere in about ten to twenty minutes. The rep told me that there are about a million people in the Salt Lake metroplex, and yet, the city is incredibly easy to get around in when compared to other million person areas and suburbs. I drove to Sandy, Utah to look at a store I did years ago when I was still living and working in Fargo. I had a very narrow window of opportunity between the last appointment of the day and the designated "pick-up-coworker-rep-possible-customers-and-go-eat" time. I drove to Sandy in about twenty minutes, looked at the store, snapped some pics, and drove back within another twenty-five to thirty minutes. Those times would have been considerably less, however...

July 24th is a state holiday in Utah. Don't ask and I won't tell. Enough said.

Concerning architecture, the one must see building in SLC is the Public Library by Moshe Safdie. The library opend in 2003 and still looks great. Everyone will talk about "the Temple," but for my money, on a limited time budget, I would spend every moment at the Library -at least it is a building I can get into. And believe me, it is a building that you want to get into. Moshe is Moshe because he kicks major tail in the twin worlds of concepts and detail. Five Lilliputians out of Five, fo' sure.

So, let's recap:

Niche for Lunch. 4 1/2 Lilliputians on our Gulliver Scale.

Eva's for a small plate, laid back evening meal. 3 Lilliputians on a scale of five.

Spend the hours in between at the Public Library -5 Lilliputians.

Until next time,

Travel Safe.