I had to drive 6 hours to go shopping

A few weekends ago (I know I need to blog more consistently.) two of my friends from Butte and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake City. The city is about 6 hours from Butte so we just left Saturday morning, stayed the night, then came back on Sunday. The whole reason for the trip...sometime in the summer I mentioned I wanted to go there and they of course asked, "why?" They were thinking that Seattle would be a much cooler semi-close city to visit. I responded that I wanted to go shopping and Salt Lake City was the closest place that had a lot of stores that I used to shop at while living on the East coast. Shops that just don't exist out here. I agree I would love to go to Seattle but that is a 10 hour drive and not doable for just one night. Salt Lake City meant no need to take a vacation day for a three day weekend and I could still do my shopping.

So the idea was in their heads, but these were boys so I wasn't too optimistic the trip would happen. Then one day one of them told me he had the perfect weekend for Salt Lake City. A band he liked was playing there October 9th. So it was set I would get to do my shopping and the boys would get to see a band they were into. I had never heard of this band but I did not care. The Felice Brothers band would be the reason I would get to see an Express and Forever 21 for the first time in months.

On October 9th we began our little journey. We traveled South through Montana and Idaho until we got to Utah. I had never driven through Idaho before and I'm sure several areas of it are quite nice, however, the part we drove through was pretty desolate. Now if hay bails were people Idaho would be the most populated state in the nation. Seriously there were just stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of hay all along I-15 South through the state. Granted we did pass Idaho Falls and Pocatello and then we saw some civilization. But that was quickly gone 10 minutes out of the city limits. Oh there's also a massive Budweiser factory or something in Idaho. So Idaho has hay, Budweiser, and potatoes. Sadly, I did not get to visit the potato museum.

Once we were about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City I got very excited. There were tons of cars on the road! Another thing I have not witnessed in very long. I swear when I go back to Philly for a visit in December I'm going to be overwhelmed with all the traffic. Anyways we arrived in Salt Lake City and it was a very nice, clean city. But honestly for a big city there weren't too many people just out and about walking around. The weather was really nice too, in the 70's. But that's ok. So we put our stuff in the hotel room then went out walking around looking for a place to eat. After that we continued to just walk around the city and eventually we came to a very happy place. A large outdoor shopping complex. This is where I would then spend too much money. But I told myself it was ok since I hadn't done some serious clothes shopping since probably college. I quickly lost the boys when I saw some cute boots to look at and later fielded calls from them while in dressing rooms. But eventually we found each other again, me with large shopping bags in hand. And I did appreciate them telling me all my new clothes were cute even though I know they don't care one way or the other.

Later that night we went to see the band. They were good. I was wearing one of my new white shirts. One of my guys friends bumped into me and my drink went all down the front of my shirt. This is probably why I should have waited to wear some of my new clothes but oh well the stain came out once I got home and had time to work on it. The next morning we drove back to Butte through all the hay in Idaho. So it was a successful weekend getaway and I'm glad I got to see a little more of the West while I live out here. Now I just have to find the time to get to Seattle.