Fun in the Sun!

It has felt like I have been inside this whole summer, but on Saturday I made up for it by...

Going to the Salt Lake Farmers Market. It was very cool. I went with Cath, Rach and Joy and we took Gypsy and Xyla as well. The Farmers Market is in Pioneer Park in downtown Salt Lake. Generally I would not go to this park. I work just a couple of blocks away and will frequently eat my lunch at the park...in my locked car. It can be a little scary because there are a lot of homeless people (who are not that scary), but there are also a lot of people who appear to be looking for their next fix and they seem sort of unstable and intense, which doesn't seem like a good combination. I am not generally someone who gets intimidated easily by this kind of thing, but Pioneer Park is a place that scares me. Except today it was overflowing with people and vendors with all sorts of good stuff.


While Rach got some fresh produce and I got some yummy cheese, Cath and Joy took Xyla and Gypsy to the dog park. This was definitely a bigger hit with Xyla. Gypsy was a little anti-social...they say that dogs are like their owners...so I don't know why we did not expect this of Gypsy. There was a whole dog party going on and Gypsy sat on the sidelines and couldn't wait to get out. (I have no idea how she felt....really...why are you laughing!?!)

After that we found lots of great, over-priced food. I had shared some delicious Gelato from the Dolcetti Gelato cart with the girls. I also tried an Argentinian empanada. Unfortunately, the person making my empanada forgot to add the feta to my spinach and feta empanada. Very disappointing. I am trying to get back to my vegetarian days, but I loooove cheese so the vegan thing is out and I really wanted the feta!!! (I also don't think I like spinach that much, which I never realized until today when I tried a spinach pie from this great falafel restaurant right here in Utah!!!!! Who would have thought that Utah would have falafel? So it really might not have been the empanada-maker's fault that I did not love the empanada.)

I have not been to the physical store, but you can bet that I will check them out sooner rather than later.
(See them at http://www.dolcettigelato.com/ )

These are like the empanadas we tried at the farmers market. Rachel went with the traditional beef empanada, which was tasty.

After the farmers market, I realized that the Annual Greek Festival was going on across the street. Love the grape leaf dolmathes...yummmm! However, this year I did not plan well, so I missed it. Luckily SLC seems to have a very strong Greek community with many great Greek/American food restaurants. They definitely make the best burgers in town right alongside the best Gyros. I don't know if I can really embrace the vegetarianism...too much good meat based foods here in SLC.

Later that night I was able to go to the Utah State Fair with Karen, Brian, Dejah, Catherine, Rachael and Joy. While the rest of the group chowed down on corn dogs and other heart clogging traditional fair fare, Joy and I went in search of the public restrooms. Finally, we were all able to head off to the rodeo at Dejah's request. I could tell that most of the group was like me and had considerably less enthusiasm for this idea than Dejah, but because we didn't have any of our own ideas, Dejah's pre-planning paid off and we made our way to the rodeo grounds. I had never gone to a rodeo before, so I was not sure what to expect. I had heard something about 8 seconds being important in rodeos from some movie with Luke Perry, back when people knew who Luke Perry was and went to see crap movies just because Luke Perry was in them. But really I was a novice. We saw people jumping on cows and wrestling them to the ground, others attempted to rope cow legs and horns and then pull the cow between the ropes, and still others riding directly on cows (or bulls...I think they may be different, but maybe not). There were also lots of great horse riding and even little tiny children getting trampled by sheep. What is not to love about the rodeo!?! How did I miss out on this before?...Oh, that's right, I am a city girl. So now I am converted to this rodeo thing. I must go again!

Bronc Riding

Barrel Racing (women only)

Steer wrestling

Roping

Bull Riding (this is where 8 seconds matters)

We also got to see a hypnotist. He was fun, but the rodeo was the highlight of the night for me! I have not been to the fair in a long...long...long time. I enjoyed it and I kept expecting to see Templeton sneaking off with discarded food.