Jacquie's Journal

There's Gold in Them There Hills!

It's that time of year again, and it never gets old - I am talking about the autumn colours in our mountains.  This will be our tenth fall in Utah - maybe our 11th, though arriving at the end of October in 1998 we probably missed the best of it that time.  Here are some pictures I took today after dropping Gary off at the top of Guardsman's Pass for his bike ride on my way back down Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Off he goes on the path in the middle part of the picture!

 

 

 

 

Ghost Town

We did our traditional thing and went to the movies yesterday lunchtime to see Ghost Town starring Ricky Gervais.  He is not the obvious leading man, but he was brilliant as his character.  You could tell that he had added a lot of extra stuff to the script that made it more 'real' rather than just acted.   I was hoping to go for a good laugh, as I have been feeling a bit fed up lately - nothing major - and I got that but he was just as good at the sad parts as the funny parts - I have to confess to it being a 3 handkerchief movie for me.

The one thing I will say is - stereotypical of the British according to Americans though it is - Ricky has terrible teeth to be playing a dentist in America!

Our 28th Anniversary!

This Saturday was our 28th Wedding Anniversary and Gary arranged a lovely night away in downtown Salt Lake City.  We stayed at the Hotel Monaco in a lovely suite much like the pictures on the website. 

We had dinner at the Bambara the restaurant connected to the hotel.  A very nice touch was the personalised menus - they had "Happy Anniversary Jacquie and Gary" printed on them.  We had cocktails and wine and wonderful food. 

After dinner we went to see "Ne le dis à personne"  a 2006 French movie based on the Harlan Coben novel "Tell No One" at the Broadway Centre Theatre.  Luckily it was with subtitles.  I was hoping I would understand some of the dialogue from my school French, but they spoke so fast - and maybe French has changed a bit in 35 years?  Anyway I love Harlan Coben's novels and although this movie was a bit different to the book - being set in France for a start, there were his signature plot twists and turns that kept you guessing all the way through. 

It was lovely to stroll to the cinema from the hotel on the last warm summer's night for a while I suspect.  We saw the beehive and bees sculpture on 3rd South, and the decorative inlays in the sidewalk near the Gallivan Center.  Of course I didn't have a camera and I can't find any reference to them on the Internet - having trouble finding the right keyword perhaps- but they were beautiful little works of art - look out for them next time you are there.  And next time I go I will remember my camera and be there in the day time so I get a good picture.

The next morning we had breakfast again in the Bambara, I had smoked salmon Benedict - very yummy indeed! And then we had to check out and head back home.

The Monaco is a great place with some interesting quirks - like you can ask to adopt a goldfish and have it in your room for the duration of your stay.  We didn't as we were only staying the one night.  They serve pre-dinner wine every evening and have a massage therapist on hand to give seated massages.

Thank you, Gary for organising everything and making it such a special time for us both!