SpragueFest Day Two

A glorious day. One full of sight seeing, freezing falls, tours through the canyon, pristine aspen groves, a little Sun Dance, an autobiography, three hour lunches with an amazing group of people, a Fly Girl, naps, dinner with an amazing group of people, special surprises and churros filled with Bavarian cream!

You're probably wondering how all of this fits together. Let me back up and fill in some details.

The alarm went off at 7 A.M. MST. This translates into 9 A.M. EST, but it just didn't feel like it for some reason. Showers and breakfast in the concierge lounge. Terrific perk, by the way, thanks Bennett! Then it was time to meet up with the Spraguers in the lobby. Little pockets of groups wanted to go every which way, but we made plans to meet up for lunch.

Meg, Gail, and I really wanted to do the Alpine Loop tour and see the foliage changing in the canyon. The drive wasn't that far away and we started with Bridal Veil Falls. There are three of them which cascade down a sheer rock face. At this time of the day the whole area was in shadow. We took one step out of the car and about froze into popsicles. I am so thankful that I decided not to wear shorts today. Weather Channel said to expect high 70's all week, so I only brought one pair of jeans. I might need to go shopping later on. But I digress, we finagled another family to take our picture while we shivered in front of the falls, then we raced back to the car's warm embrace totally forgetting that we had promised to take the family's picture! Meg jumped out and saved us from purgatory.

On up into the canyon we drove. The next stop was Sundance. Yep, THE Sundance. The one of the film festival and Robert Redford and all. It was pretty up there with the ski lift looking all forlorn. The grounds crew was busy setting up tents for next weekend. We run into another Sprague group of Amy, NanaJeanne, and Joan S. Mix and Mingle then head out for a drive through this beautiful twisty turning road full of those white aspen trees. A forest of white birch is truly something to see (pictures inserted later).

The rest of the canyon was great, but please don't stop frequently to take pictures on the side of the road! We got yelled at several times.

Drove through American Fork and down through Cedar Hills (can't get away from school, can I?) then back to the Riverwood Shopping area. This is where we found Jessica and the crew hanging out in Borders. Beth and I debated the virtues of Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies. Laurie and I tried to convince Tori she TOTALLY needs to finish Time Traveller's Wife. Then Liv saw me looking over "My Life in Paris" and combined it with her Buy One, Get One Half Off stash! Yay! Can't wait to read Julia Child's autobiography.

About twenty happily chattering woman and me head over to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch. Thus proceeds the greatest three hour lunch as I sit directly across from Jessica Sprague and Candice Stringham. Could I go to Heaven now? At the end of the meal, we all scramble into the trolley car with Provo-Orem on top for a group shot. At this time it was discovered the many past lives of Ana Cabrera. She has trained the executive chefs of PF Changs, she has danced on In Living Color as an actual Fly Girl BEFORE J-Lo, she has worked with TuPac, sung on Arsenio, and has a design life as well. So when we asked her to climb up on the table to get in the shot, she was right there! So cool.

Back to the room, without having visited the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory, for laying around and napping.

For dinner we walk over to the restaurant called Los Hermanos just down the street from the hotel. We had been giggling and preparing for those delicious adult beverages. Our hopes were dashed when the 12 year old waiter, Kyle, hands us the menu with the words Non Alcoholic above the margarita list. Huh? What? Jessica explains that we can just ask and they will add some for us. She got my hopes up for nothing when I asked blondie to add some rum in my Peachy Rico, he denied my request. Huh? What? Hmph.

Dinner was okay, but the best moment came when we ordered the churros. Oh, My, God. They were warm and filled with a luscious cream and came in this tall shot glass that collected all of the dislodged cinnamon goodness. We debated on whether or not to lick that up too. They were so good!

Back to the hotel lobby where Jess and Liv surprised us all with a heartfelt and teary eyed speech about how wonderful we all were. Friendship is a sheltering tree! She gave us goodie bags that had some wonderful gifts in there. Then we broke apart and headed to bed.

Was that enough detail?