My Salt Lake City Itinerary

The mountains were breathtaking. 

 My daughter's wish for Christmas was to see snow. She has requested this for about two years now. So, this year I finally made it a reality for her. I was going back and forth between Salt Lake City, which is on my bucket list, and Quebec. The flight prices and hotel prices for Salt Lake City won out. Upon purchasing our tickets, I searched and searched my travel groups, TikTok, online forums ... you name it, and I searched it, trying to find out WHAT I could do in Salt Lake City that would be fun and interesting. Finally, I created this itinerary. My daughter rated our trip a 9 out of 10 so I think I did a good job. 😊 So, if Salt Lake City is on your list of cities, check out this itinerary. 

Sunday: 

We arrived in Salt Lake City Sunday, Christmas Eve, at 10 pm. We stayed at the Comfort Suites near the airport. Despite being a Comfort Suites, this hotel had some of the BEST reviews. After staying there, I see why that is. The workers were sooooo welcoming, friendly and helpful. They went out of their way to accompany us. As soon as we arrived, they sent an Uber to pick us up because it was Christmas eve, late and the shuttle driver had gone home. Understandably but them sending an Uber just kicked off what would be an awesome stay with them. They served a hot breakfast daily and it was delicious. They even gave me a personal ride to the rental car spot to pick up my rental car, which you will definitely need when visiting. They also have an indoor pool and hot tub, which we never used, but came prepared for. I just highly recommend them and would not mind staying at their establishment upon returning to Salt Lake City. 

Monday: 

It's officially Christmas!!!! 🥳🥳 After breakfast, we put on what felt like 1000 layers and headed to Woodward Park in Park City, Utah. It was about a 30 minute drive that was full of panic attacks and an abundance of nerves. The mountains were BEAUTIFUL but driving near them on the first day was a bit nerve wrecking. I did a good job and after day one, I never panicked again. 

Paige and I at Woodward Park

We had a 1:00 pm reservation to go snow tubing. This was my daughter's first-time seeing snow and she was in awe ..... for all of 5 minutes 😂 Woodward Park is full of snow. You can do snow tubing, ski, or snowboard. We picked snow tubing, and it was fun. It was $80 per person for 2 hours of tubing. It was a great experience but in typical kid fashion, my daughter was over it after 1 hour. Luckily, they have an indoor area as well where kids can play and jump around (for an additional fee) or families can rest, sip hot chocolate or eat food. Since it had been hours since we had eaten, we picked the later ... and did not regret it. We both had brisket burgers that were tasty and satisfying. 

Paige ranked Woodward Park a 10 out of 10. I ranked it the same. It is definitively a must do if you are ever in Salt Lake City. We spent more time admiring the snow, playing in the snow and getting warm for Christmas dinner. 

Tuesday: 

Today's theme was GAMES! We started off by going to Fashion Mall in Murray ... about 10 miles from Salt Lake City. We went to a spot called Immersive Gamebox. IG had various interactive games ranging from Paw Patrol to Ghostbusters. Since Paige and I are HUGE Squid Game fans ... we decided to do the Squid Game challenge. Now BOTH of us have talked a lot of ish about how we would WIN Squid Games if we ever participated. Chilllleeeeee....

The first game, red light green light, almost took us out. But this experience was FUN! It lasted for an hour, and we were good and tired from running around the room. It was about $30 per person but totally worth it. Paige ranked it a 10/10 and so did I. 

Ready for Squid Games

After we left, we hit up a local spot called The Crack Shack. It is a chicken spot similar to the Shack Shake. Paige ranked it a 4 out of 10 😬 She said the food was bland. I was a little nicer and gave it a 6 out of 10. My food was ok but it's not a place that I would highly recommend. 

Chicken sandwich with fries

We left The Crack Shack and went to Nicklemania which is about 2 minutes down the road. Now THIS place is a place that I highly recommend. Paige gave it an 8 out of 10 but that is because in this case, Paige is a hater. I would give it a 15 out of 10 if I could but you get my point ... GO! First of all, the nostalgia. They had games from the 80's and 90's. I'm talking Donkey Kong, Super Mario Brothers, Tetris, Galaga, Pacman ... I could go on and on. All for a mere nickel! It's $2.50 per person to enter, whether you are playing or not and then you are able to load up your card. I was not thinking. I put $20 on my card. Do you know how far $20 goes in a space that operates on nickels. We were there for 3 whole hours. Honestly, I could've stayed an additional 1-2 hours if my daughter was not in the background hating because she could not beat me in the games. 😂 

This was one of my favorite activities!

Wednesday

The real life UP house is in Utah

Wednesday was our first day NOT sleeping in. We had a full day on this day. We decided to go to the UP house first and I'm glad that we did. The UP house is in Herriman Utah which is a good 30-minute drive away depending on traffic. It was a nice and pleasant drive. Upon entering the neighborhood, you notice that all of the houses are brown ... and then BAM, there is the UP house. I was a little disappointed because the owners (yes real people live in the house) decorated the house for Christmas which kind of took away from it's UP appearance. Either way, this is a quick stop...maybe 2-3 minutes tops. 

After visiting the UP house, we went to the Hogle Zoo. While we were there, they had a special for $5 Wednesday and we took advantage. Honestly if I would have paid more than $5 I would have been highly upset because the zoo is small. We finished the entire thing in 1.5 hours. Given the climate, cold AF, you can understand why they don't have as many animals as other zoos. It was nice to see grizzly bears for the first time though ... and boy are they HUGE! Paige and I spent about 15 minutes staring and debating whether we would run or play dead if we ever encountered one in the wild. 

After the zoo we went to R&R BBQ. This was our best meal in Salt Lake City. We went to the downtown location. Since we were downtown, we decided to ride around and look at sites that Salt Lake City is known for ... Temple Square and the Mormon community buildings. The Mormons are serious about their buildings. They are huge and downtown SLC is basically their playground with a church museum, conference center, university and various temples. While I understand that some people are truly intrigued by this culture, I was not. I drove by, looked and went to my next destination. Gilgal Sculpture Garden. This is a quirky sculpture garden with various displays. It is something free and out of the ordinary to do. Beware the parking is a whole nightmare. On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Momo's Gourmet Cheesecake. It is imperative that I try as many local spots as possible while visiting other cities. We got a sample pack. My daughter HATES cheesecake with a passion but murked the Oreo cheesecake in 3 minutes. It's safe to say that she highly recommends Momo's.  

Thursday

We slept in Thursday because it was our last day in Salt Lake City. After checking out of the hotel, we went downtown to the Clark Planetarium. We parked at The Gateway, a notable mall in downtown Salt Lake City. The Clark Planetarium is free and features 3 floors of interactive science games and stations. Paige and I both were locked in and excited. We spent a good 3-4 hours there.  

Afterwards we went to the state capitol. This spot is beautiful and features a few history lessons about Utah that I did not know. Did you know the first woman to vote was in Utah? The capitol is beautiful, informative and free with free parking as well, something that is rare in downtown. Surprisingly my daughter, who favors science over history, really enjoyed it. 

So, this was our time in Salt Lake City. There is soooooo much to do. We literally could have spent an additional 3 or 4 days there. I wanted to go to the Salt Lake, salt flats, view a few of the national parks, explore Park City more, and go and see the bison but we didn't have enough time. However, there is always next time. 😉 Especially since Paige has already said that Salt Lake City will be our destination for Christmas next year. 🙄

So what do you think ...... Would you visit Salt Lake City? 

Off to Paris for $240 Roundtrip

 

You read that right!!!!!  I am not lying nor am I kidding.  I just scored tickets for me, my daughter, my niece and my mom.....all for $240 round trip. 

Now I've told you all on a previous post about one of the ways that I'm able to get great flights. This is by using Scotts cheap flights aka GOING. I've even given you guys my referral code .  Have you signed up yet? 👀 Well after this deal, you may be kicking yourself and saying, let me go ahead and sign up. I'm going to drop the link again for my referral. (https://goingwith.me/rdmap32d) It is only $50 a year, but as you can see, it is well worth the price.

So today I was feeling a little sad. I will admit I was feeling a little down, so I decided to check my email. The first email that I saw was an email from GOING aka Scott. The email said that they have a mistake fair to Paris for $240. I immediately started calling people that I knew had Paris on their bucket list. I asked my daughter if she wanted to go. She was like what...of course I do. Say Less! I called my mom and asked if she wanted to go. My mom was like well of course.  And then I asked my niece because previously my niece requested that I let her know wherever I was going ... so she could go to.  So, when my sister called my niece to see if she wanted to go, she couldn't get it out her mouth before my niece was like heck yeah! The flight is through American Airlines, so I am holding my breath and praying for a great experience. But overall I'm excited. 

My email from GOING

So essentially, I was able to book four tickets, round trip, from the United States to Paris for $240. 😁

Easter in Toronto

 My daughter has an obsession with Canada. I don't know how this came to be but whenever she is allowed to pick a trip, it will 9 times out of 10 involve traveling to Canada. So when I asked her what she would like to go for Easter and she say Toronto ...

We left Good Friday evening and arrived in Toronto around 9 pm ish. As soon as we exited out of the hotel, a cold brush of air hit us with the quickness. It was 25 degrees. A BIG difference from Florida. However I love cold weather so this was a plus for me. We took a shuttle and arrived to our hotel which was merely 2 minutes away. We stayed at the airport Holiday Inn which I highly recommend. Not only was it close to the airport and public transportation, kids also ate free. The breakfast buffet was yummy and the service was impeccable.

On day 1 we took an uber (big mistake) to down town. At the time we didnt know any better. 🤷🏽 We quickly learned that Toronto is public transportation friendly and walkable. We did a city tour by bus but that also was not needed. Afterwards we hit Queen Street which was my favorite. I could've stayed there all day. So many food spots, unique stores, and just places to see. A lot of notable Toronto spots are located on Queens St including graffiti alley, the Toronto sign and the infamous Members Only restaurant. Although I had my 10 year old with me, I had to stop by and grab an "inappropriate" waffle. Judge me 🤦🏽‍♀️ I was in and out with the quickness. The waffle spot is definitely one that you should drop by just for social media purposes. The waffle itself started off hot and amazing but by bite 3 I was over it. Another spot that I enjoyed was Graffiti Alley. I did not enjoy the smell at times (urine) but as a mural lover, I loved walking and looking at the various murals (some better than others). We tasted various Boba teas while on Queen St and my daughter picked a ramen place for lunch. We walked to the CNN tower but at this time my daughter was exhausted and wanted to go back to the room. We decided to take the train back and it was a game changer. $10 to go from downtown to the airport (kids ride FREE). We got off at the airport and took our hotel shuttle back to the hotel. Easy peasy

On day 2 we slept in and went to an Easter brunch that our hotel offered. It was delicious. The previous night I found out that there would be a Stranger Things exhibit. My daughter is a HUGE fan of Stranger Things. So I knew I had to take her to his immersive experience. I knew nothing about Stranger Things but I went along and played along. I loved it and would highly recommend going through an immersive experience if you have the opportunity. It was a little pricey but it was worth the smile on her face. The 80's (80's baby here) room was a lot of fun. They had various places to take pictures, food, and video games. I could've spent hours in there but after 2 1/2 hours my child was ready to leave.

As soon as caught an Uber back to downtown, we visited the CNN tower. I have done experiences like this. My daughter and I both went up on One World in New York City. So we really didnt think this would be any different. WRONG! The elevator was glass so you could see yourself going up. I started having a panic attack. Once we go in, I was fine but that didnt last long because the structure moves a little. Plus it was super crowded. My daughter was ready to leave immediately. So just as quick as we went up, we found ourselves standing in line to go back down. The ride down wasn't that bad. I would actually skip this experience unless you have not done it elsewhere.

Afterwards we went to view the Raptors stadium and caught the train back to the hotel.

That was our trip to Toronto. It is walkable, the people are friendly and there is a wide variety of food. Would you visit?