Texas vs. Utah

Earlier this month Justin and I went to visit my friend Jamie, who tragically moved from the promise land of Tejas to Utah.

I’ve been telling her to move back ever since.

To be completely fair to my sentiments, I figured I’d give a full assessment of our trip…

Assessment one: It's easier to Google a cuter state image for Texas...

Day One
We scored some cheap flights on Southwest, which made the trip possible.

That’s when we ran into our first problem… apparently everyone else on the plane scored the same deal because it was PACKED. We had to sit in the back of the plane where they apparently hadn’t cleaned the lav since the thing was built.

The flight wasn’t direct and we had a short stay in Albuquerque. Which, when stuck at the airport for an hour what do you do??

That's right... beer-me.

Just as I texted this picture to Jamie she informed me that the alcohol content in Utah beer was less than Texas.

...

Uh… what? 

Tejas 1, Utah -1 (sorry Jamie – that requires a negative)

After the layover we landed in Utah about 6 and Jamie met us at the airport. It was so good to see her – I know it had only been since September but it’s hard getting used to not seeing people on a regular basis (even if it’s been three years since she moved).

That night we grabbed some food at a little taco place and went back to Jamie’s place to watch the play-off games and meet her friend, who shall be known as Harry Potter. Potter seemed nice but I don’t know if he’s down to win the Quidditch cup. :) (Yes I’m dorky – but not as dorky as these people)

The food was good but let’s face it – you can’t get better tacos than Tejas… I’ll call that a wash though.

So that makes trip tally so far:
Tejas 1, Utah -1

Day Two

This was the day where we really got to see the scenery – and I have to say Utah, or at least the area we were at, has Texas beat hands down.

Tejas 1, Utah 0

The main activity for the day was skiing – and I was a first-timer. Being ever-unprepared for winter weather I had to bum my ski clothes from a co-worker and from Jamie. I’ll throw in a bonus for that…

Tejas 1, Utah 1

Since I hadn’t been before, I opted to take a ski lesson so I wouldn’t (1) injure myself or (2) set myself up for lawsuit by recklessly injuring someone else.

I made it through the lesson with only one instance of narrowly taking out a small innocent child so I thought I was pretty set.

That was until I had to get on the grown-up slopes…

Let me tell you what I learned:

1. My ski instructor did NOT teach us how to turn on the slopes
2. Turning on the slopes helps you slow down
3. When you don’t know how to slow down you have to resort to falling over to stop
4. You will incur about 6 falls, a bruise the size of your fists put together, and a hurt wrist in one trip down the slopes

Another epiphany I had while 7 and 8 year-olds zoomed by me to make the experience that much more terrifying/humiliating was that:

1. Kids have no fear
2. They don’t because they don’t know how much insurance costs…

Here are some photos from the day…

Yay ski school!

Notice how my leg is awkwardly turned? Yeah that's because the 6 falls to get down the mountain effectively took out my hip...

After that day I’ll score the following:

Tejas 1, Utah 1 (I’ll credit 5 points for skiing and deduct 5 points for the lack of instruction on turning… sorry sometimes the state pays for one guy…)

After skiing we went back to take a nap before meeting up some friends of Jamie’s for dinner.

Dinner was good – Jamie’s friends Karen and Casey seem like nice, fun people and I’m glad that Jamie’s got a friend up there to run around with. I’m not going to tally here though because (1) even I’m not that judgmental and (2) I’d have to tally up the fab people in Texas and since I only met 3 total out of the many Jamie and I know together it wouldn’t be a fair fight.

Trip tally recap:

Tejas 1, Utah 1

Day Three

I can sum it up in one word… FREEZING

Tejas 2, Utah 1

It was about 21 degrees most of the day, but there was a ton of snow so it was really pretty.

Tejas 2, Utah 2

Did I mention that while it was 21 degrees in Utah it was about 70 in Texas…

Tejas 3, Utah 2

For the day we walked around Temple Square in Salt Lake and saw some of the history behind the town establishment. After that we went to Park City and had some lunch and walked around a bit when I found this gem…

Could you possibly leave a store without this???

The answer is “no”…

Actually, the answer is “no – and others must participate with you”…

That's right... animal hats all around!

Hats in Utah have to gain some points and makes the trip tally so far:

Tejas 3, Utah 5

Day Four

The trip comes to a close :(.

It was a good time but it was time to go home. Our flight was ridiculously early (I’ve been banished from booking air travel).

Oh and it was freezing…. Again.

Tejas 5, Utah 5 (as lately we have a freezing day followed by a gorgeous sunny and 65)

And you know as I do that I feel that I totally snubbed the value of the alcohol content for Texas…

Tejas 6, Utah 5

There - that's more fair.

So all-in-all it was a good try Utah… but Texas still has my heart.

Jamie… move back!