Playing Catch Up

My apologies for the disappearing act - I've been off on one of my annual pilgrimages, and manged to get myself stuck overnight in Denver. With many thanks to the wonderful customer service agents (and definitely NOT to the gate agents) I managed to get on the earliest flight possible the following day (on a different airline) to make my destination and my morning appointments.

Where was I at? Why Outdoor Gear Mecca - the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rare is it that I can talk technical aspects of fabric, yarn, yarn construction and fiber, without peoples eyeballs glazing over. Interestingly enough, in the industry, by far, most of the folks I was having these wonderful conversations with were men...and I got the impression that they were surprised to find someone who could talk micron count, staple length and fiber blends with.

Before coming back home, I managed to get scheduled into a media tour of some Salt Lake City resorts - perfect for me to see them during the summer rather than in the winter since I haven't skied in years (something about high speeds and ground proximity don't go so well with me).

Here's the view from my room at the Alta Lodge...

Lovely, isn't it? There were deer bounding around on the slopes late in the afternoon - apparently there are also moose and antelope around also. We were also treated to a tram ride over at Snowbird, where the view from the top of the mountain was quite nice (and hey, it sure beat hiking all the way up there ;) )


The next day, I did get a chance to get out and do a hike, up over a pass (I forget the name) right over Twin Lakes and down into Solitude. You may be wondering why I have no photos of wildflowers or the twin lakes (which had overflowed their banks and appeared to be one large lake when I was there) - well, it was mostly because between the altitude and elevation gain, I was much more interested in getting up and over the pass than taking photos :P (and I figure I was kind of already holding up the group quite a bit with my slow pace). If ever you have a chance to visit - or are looking for things to do outside of Salt Lake during the summer, a visit up Little or Big Cottonwood canyons to these resorts would be fun....heck, if you're there in the winter, they have great skiing if you are so inclined!

To my surprise, Alta even hosts a knitters retreat! I suspect the aspens will be changing at that time, and the weather will be cool enough for wool (heck, I was wishing I had a wool sweater in the evening!) - you could spend the day hiking and the evenings knitting - or you could spend the whole day with your wool if so inclined - the area is beautiful, while I was there, I could have spent all day lounging on the deck with my knitting, with the hummingbirds as entertainment.

Stay tuned, I'll have Hemlock Ring progress to post soon :) and tomorrow closes the door on the Taste of Sweet pass it forward book "contest" - enter now if you're interested!