Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 6 years and 9 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Today is a sight-seeing day … no serious driving except around town as-needed.

After packing and checking out of the hotel, we left the car in the garage and walked to breakfast at Bruges Waffles & Frites (I had the Pig on a Cloud … yummy!). Across the street, near Pioneer Park, we spied a rack of rentable GreenBikes and decided to use these to get around ($7 each got us “unlimited” 30-minute rides for the day).

First we biked back north to Temple Square and spent some time walking around the shaded grounds (and air conditioned buildings … it was a really hot day). Next we did a little shopping across the street at the City Creek Center mall. Then it was back on the bikes down to the City Library which has a really nice rooftop patio (it would have been nicer if it wasn’t 100 degrees out!). From the library we biked a few blocks east to Buds for lunch. This was easily my daughter’s favorite meal of the vacation so far … everything on the menu is vegan (100% plant-based ingredients). I had the cheesesteak, which actually wasn’t too bad, I have to admit.

By now it was mid-to-late afternoon and we were pretty hot. We managed to bike back to the hotel and get the car for our next round of sightseeing. First was the Olympic Cauldron Park at the University of Utah. While it was cool to see the torch from the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the park itself is a little sad and almost seemed discarded and forgotten about. We considered driving the 30 minutes to the Utah Olympic Park, but didn’t think we’d have the time (turns out we were wrong, but oh well). Instead we drove out to the Great Salt Lake Marina to see, of course, the Great Salt Lake. Seeing the lake was cool, but the marina itself, like the Olympic Cauldron Park, was underwhelming. I probably could have picked a better place to see the lake. The parking lot was under massive construction, mostly dirt and loud generators, and everything was covered with large spiders (thanks to the large quanities of brine flies). The lake also smells, but hey, we saw it. 😉

Since we spent a lot less time at the lake than we had planned, we now found ourselves with some more free time than we expected. It was hot, so ice cream was the first thing on our minds. We drove to West Valley City and went to Freddy’s. Across the parking lot was a Cinemark movie theater and, checking the Fandango app on my phone, there was a 5:30pm showing of “Despicable Me 3.” Perfect! I purchased tickets online while we were driving across the parking lot. 🙂 The movie was cute (I loved the 80s-themed villain and 80s references, which I suppose I was the target market for), but not as good as the others (I’m getting sick of the minions).

After the movie we had the perfect amount of time to drive to the Salt Lake City International Airport, drop off the rental car (now covered with smashed bugs from the last four days and 1,500 miles), and check in for our flight to Denver. Yes, we’re cheating a bit on this road trip and saving some time by flying to Denver from SLC instead of driving. This was the first time I’ve flown Frontier and I can’t say I’m impressed. Yes, the initial fare seemed cheap, but then you have to pay for seat assignments, pay for carry-on baggage (and, of course, checked baggage, but it gets more expensive the closer to flight time you are), and the seats were really uncomfortable. I guess this is now the current state of the airline industry.

The flight itself was fine and we landed in Denver on-time around 10:30pm. We’re staying at the Westin at the Denver airport so we just had to retrieve our bags and then walk to the connected hotel. I had used the SPG app to check-in earlier in the day and selected the keyless option so we were able to right to our room without the need to check in at the front desk. I just used iPhone to unlock the door (via NFC) and we were in. Very slick.