Back in the middle of the summer Jesse was still working at the restaurant and was putting in some serious hours. He was getting burnt out and had been craving some sort of getaway. Thankfully, an opportunity presented itself when he randomly got two days off in a row. We kicked around the idea of going to Vegas but he didn’t want to have to do the long drive so instead he found a bed and breakfast in Big Cottonwood Canyon that seemed like a nice fun mini vacation. There are seven rooms to choose from and they are upstairs from the dining room. There is also a TV room and a cute sitting area by a fireplace. They also have a downstairs area that people can rent for weddings and things. It is all wood everywhere and I am pretty sure my mom would just love the place. It was the perfect place to get away from it all and unwind.
We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into our room. There is no TV, phone or air conditioning but it is much cooler up in the canyon than it is down in the valley. Since we didn’t have lunch we headed to the dining room for a snack. A glass of wine and a salad was perfect, not too heavy and very tasty. We layed around for a bit and decided to go for bit of a hike before dinner. The idea was to work up an appetite for a fancy dinner under the big Utah sky. The hike didn’t go exactly as planned. We walked up the road to a trail that should take you to a small lake. The bugs were very bad and we saw a snake curled up on the trail and we decided that was enough wilderness for one day. The idea was to decompress after all. After getting back to the lodge we cleaned up a bit and Jesse napped in the room while I read my book downstairs. We finally got the relaxation we were looking for. When he woke up we wandered around the grounds and decided to get some dinner. I somehow managed to lock the door leading to the dining room and we could not get out of the little sitting area. Luckily the gentleman that was in there with us got the attention of some of the wait staff to unlock the door. Jesse thinks he was the manager of the place.
Unlike the hike the dinner went exactly as planned. In fact it was exactly what we were needing. We sat out on the patio and had a lovely dinner. The views of the mountains were awesome and the food was great. Jesse had lamb of course, that is his favorite, and I had a big piece of salmon. We had a bottle of wine and dessert and watched as the sky darkened as the sun went down. After dinner we headed back to the room where I read and he surfed the internet. We fell asleep pretty early and it was nice to finally sleep somewhere cool. Our apartment is on the third floor and is pretty warm. Our “air conditioning” (Jesse thinks it is a swamp cooler) doesn’t do much to cool it down.
The next morning breakfast was included in our stay so we went down to get some. It was really the coffee we needed but we both had a big breakfast before heading back home. The quiet atmosphere was more important to us than the food (not that it wasn’t great). These were the last moments of our weekend getaway and we wanted to make them last. When we had finally finished we checked out and made the trip back to the valley. MoeJoe was all alone after all and probably missed us a bit.
It was a fun little overnight getaway. That is what is great about this area, since it is such a tourist destination you can have a getaway without having to drive for hours and hours. It is really nice. Hopefully we will do more stuff like this, there are a lot of ski resorts nearby to explore.
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