Caramel Brownie's Road Trip to Utah: Part One

 

 

Ahhh...Utah!! Where the scenery is bountiful and beautiful! Also where slogans : 'This Is Still The Right Place'; 'Life Elevated'; 'Greatest Snow on Earth', and ' In God We Trust' reign throughout the State and on license plates.

Now, before this 17 1/2 hour (well technically about 20 hours when you factor in our rest stops and eating breaks) from Oklahoma City to West Jordan, UT (our hotel), I had never had the opportunity of visiting Utah. My hubby's 91 your old grandma, may she R.I.P. (his mom's mother) had passed; he wanted to be there for his parents and to pay his last respects. Although our visit was under sad circumstances, I was pretty excited to be going just to be able to meet more of his extended family on his mother's side that I haven't been able to meet yet. Plus I was finally going to cross Utah off of my map of places never been.

I had read and been told by many that Utah is a beautiful state. I must say that I definitely wasn't disappointed with the beautiful scenery of snow covered mountains, views and surroundings. Now my ears, on the other hand, didn't appreciate constantly being popped majority of the time, but I had plenty of gum and suckers handy to help with that minor distraction. Guess it's safe to say, that's why the 'Life Elevated' slogan was created.

Since our hotel was less than a 1/2 hour away from Lehi, I wanted to go see the Brown's infamous plyg home for myself. Not to mention that one of my all-time favorite movies, Footloose, had filmed a few scenes at the Lehi Roller Mills in 1984. Please bear with me; I will eventually get to my visit and pics of Lehi. I just wanted to share a few fun gems and experiences I had hanging out in Salt Lake City and West Valley City with his huge family.

My husband's 1st cousins had planned a bbq/cocktail get together for Friday evening. Since it was pretty much pot luck style, I asked if we could bring something because one of my pet peeves is showing up empty handed, even if we're told it's not necessary. One of the cousin-in-laws, who I had met before at a family reunion, immediately requested I make my homemade mac and cheese, since that had been a hit at the reunion. I said no problem, as long as I could use their kitchen. I have to say, I was a little bit intimidated only because of the size of my hubby's extended family. Now mind you, over the past couple of years, I've been able to sort of get to know a few of his cousins via Facebook, so that helped ease my nerves a bit.

So before we get to his cousin's house in West Valley City, we have to make a mandatory stop at a liquor store to pick up some liquid family gathering cheer in a bottle.

Say what??? OH DOUBLE SNAPS!!! Damn someone hurry up and get me some o.j, cranberry, ice…then shake and pour!!

Yes, that is Five Wives Vodka you see in front of you! My hubby and I were totally cracking up when we saw these and I couldn't wait to share these fun pics with my peeps at SWB. Hey I wonder if Meri has any Five Wives Vodka stocked in her wet bar?....HA!

Ok, enough clowning at the liquor store, we had places to be, people to see, food to eat and booze to drink! We arrive at his cousin's home and they were all very welcoming and greeted us with hugs, etc... After the greetings, we go to the kitchen to make some cocktails, chit chat and so I could make my homemade mac and cheese, which happened to score me some extra brownie points with his extended family, especially the little kids...Lol

When we're all sitting around eating, drinking, getting better acquainted and listening to all the 1st cousins tell stories of growing up together, my ears overheard one of the twins say that he's a police officer for the Grantsville, Utah PD and that his older brother( who wasn't there) was a police officer for Salt Lake City PD. OMG! Ya'll should know that a million questions started racing thru my mind that I wanted to ask about the Brown's without sounding too much like a groupie psycho fan. Also, my hubby saw my face light up and I kid you not, he just buried his face in his hands and started shaking his head, saying "oh no, here we go".....Lmao Yes, he knows me too well ;) But I was gentle and did hold back a bunch since it really wasn't the right time or place. I did ask him what he thought about the Browns and their lawsuit. I also asked why Utah continues to be a safe haven for polygamists to dwell since technically polygamy is illegal. Well after a short pause, he responded that he's not personally fond of the Browns (along with a majority of Utah...) and thinks the lawsuit was just to get ratings for their show. Interesting! He also said they just really don't have the resources to prosecute all polygamists living in Utah because there's so many of them, unless they're committing fraud, rape, incest. Then I interjected that the Brown's not only committed welfare fraud, by practically bleeding the beast for many years just to survive before they came into TLC $, but most likely tax fraud too. He just explained his own personal experiences with a couple of polygamist families he knows and how they're self-sufficient and don't depend on the government for handouts. I said, well that's maybe just a small handful, but majority of the polygamists live in poverty and depend on the government for handouts. He then again stated that unfortunately they just don't have the resources to go after everyone practicing polygamy. But I could also tell he was holding back what he really wanted to say. So I don't know if that's a good or bad thing? Or maybe he just really couldn’t spill the beans too much on the matter, which I would totally understand! **Sigh** Ok, I had indulged and harassed the family police officer enough about the Browns.

Fast forward to Saturday night. A few of us went to dinner downtown SLC to Squatter's Pub. It was a pretty popular spot and we had to wait about 45 minutes, but it was totally worth it. I highly recommend this place!! Great food, great hand crafted beers, and great prices! Plus they also have a little gift shop inside with some fun Polygamy novelty items which you can check out at their website. Again I ask, I thought polygamists didn't drink alcohol?? Hmmmmm??? FYI, this pic is courtesy of Google, because unfortunately my lil HTC One camera phone pic didn't come out as clear. I wish it had though, because downtown was covered in snow and had a really pretty view.

My souvenir Squatter’s Pub Shot Glass. Some handcrafted beers we tried were Chasing Tale Golden Ale and Provo Girl Pilsner, which both were quite tasty and refreshing. Also, you can sample beers for .99 cents out of dessert size shot glasses, which I think is a pretty cool option to try before you commit to a pint glass.

It was a fun evening and we all really enjoyed ourselves. I was miserably full from good food and beer, so I was ready to go back to the hotel and rest up for our visit to Lehi and Riverton (AUB church location) the next day.

Finally it's early Sunday afternoon and we're headed to Lehi. Since it was lunch time, we wanted to check out a locally family owned spot just to try something different. Well, it was closed on Sunday. Grrrrr.... Now I just didn't want to go do a mad dash drive by and snap pics of the Brown's plyg house either, because I wanted to drive around the small town and kinda get a feel of what it would be like to live here. Dang, let me tell ya, I was soon over it all in less than 30 minutes...Lol IMO, when the Browns become broke again and are forced to move back to Lehi, they will definitely all be unhappy and their family structure will certainly suffer more and be on an even more shaky foundation than what it's on now. They've had a taste of 'fame and $$' and Kody will not be happy moving back to the quiet town of his dirt farm. His wives, especially Meri, will become even more bitter and I just really feel sad for the kids, because they'll be the ones truly suffering - especially when their parents start throwing tantrums instead of acting like grown adults and taking responsibility for their families.

That's me!!

When we exited for Lehi, turned right and came to the 1st stop light, I immediately see the Lehi Roller Mills. That excited me, so I immediately wanted to get pics.















Conveniently, Lehi High School is located just behind the mills, so I went ahead and took a few pics of the school too.

Look at those mountains!

Lehi High School doesn't appear to be too shabby of a high school. I'm pretty confident it's way better than the AUB plygy school. Ok, I'm sure ya'll have been 'schooled' enough with my pics of Lehi HS. Besides by this time my internal lunch bell was ringing blaring, so off we go to in search of a local food establishment...

Stay tuned for Part Two of Caramel Brownie's ear-poppingly good Road Trip to Utah !!