Getting to Know the Area

So today, we decided to start getting to know our neighborhood and the local businesses better - instead of just going to the same old restaurants and coffee shops and movie theaters, we're going to explore. I've arbitrarily declared a very wide area as being "our neighborhood" - east to the University, south to 1300 South, West to 300 West, and north to North Temple. If you're not in SLC, that won't mean much to you; but it's a huge area that includes most of downtown, as well as the University of Utah and several funky little neighborhoods, so there's lots of exploring to do.

We started today's adventure at the Utah Museum of Natural History; they have a special frog exhibit now. The fun part about exploring is that going to one place makes you want to check out other places: the paleontology hall makes me want to go see more dinosaur bones, the anthropology hall had us planning a trip to the Four Corners area and the Grand Canyon.

After that, we headed to House of Tibet for potato cutlets, momos, and chicken curry. Yum! It's been several years since I've been there; I forgot how good it is. I think I'll put that on my list of places to take my parents when they're here next week.

Finally, we stopped off at Caffe Niche for coffee. It's a new place, occupying a space that used to be a funky vintage clothing store. The staff was super-friendly, and the space was beautiful and hip. It didn't seem much like the kind of coffee shop where you'd bring your laptop and hang out, but the dinner menu looked too tiny to make it much of a dinner destination, which left me a little confused about its identity - what kind of place is it? They're usually open from 7 am to 4 pm, so I think I'll have to swing by there in the day sometime, and see what it's like in their core hours.

When we came home, I accidentally fell asleep, instead of doing a few hours of Shimmer work. Mmm, sleep.