August 2018 - Belgium & friends (Part II)

So as I mentioned in my previous post (July 2018), on the 1st Og August, our boys left on a camp with the Chiro where they had a great time (as always).

Willem is the bald one in the middle 😱 ... PS: he didn't leave bald to the camp 😏

Hendrik is the blondie on the right, with his friend in his neck

And our busy schedule just continued 😅 ...that same evening we had a reunion dinner in Leuven with some ex-colleagues from Geert's squadron and on the 2nd we had a surprise party for Anneke, one of our friends in Meulsté, who turned 50 ...

A fun party in the middle of a nature reserve with great food, great spirits 😜, ...

... an occasional water, 😇 ...

... but most importantly, great people!

Geert went back home (yes, we do consider Utah our 'home' now) the 3th of August as somebody has to work in this family, right 😆.

After I dropped him of at the airport, I went to my parents' place to get some rest. The previous 2 weeks with parties and dinners every single evening, really wore me out!

But even while at my parents' place, I would be gone in the evenings, to catch up with Katleen, one of my best friends from the neighbourhood where I grew up (so we go way back!),

or with Karen, my best friend from high school,

or with some more of my favourite ex-colleagues.

I also went back to Belgocontrol, my last work place, for 1 day and saw even more of my favourite ex-colleagues 😊.
When I replaced my working life in Belgium for a jobless life in Utah, I was afraid I would miss the satisfaction that a job gives you. I know now, that it are mainly the people you miss!
It was a surprise visit, which made it extra fun to do of course.

I topped that fun day off by returning again to Meulsté for a pool party.
Life can be good indeed!

My penultimate evening in Belgium, I took my parents out for dinner, where I took their first selfie 😆

The next day, I picked up the kids from their Chiro camp, brought them back to my parents' place to try and get their clothes as well as themselves somewhat clean 😉, and pack for our departure back to Utah the morning after.

In front of my parent's place, right before leaving for the airport

Checking in

Ready to pass security and say goodbye.

PS: Hendrik just LOVES us taking pictures at moments like that

... NOT ... hence the face! 😆

We flew from Brussels to Atlanta, and then another flight from Atlanta to Salt Lake City ... that last stretch is always too much!

as I said, last stretch...always too much 😆

But it was great to be reunited again!

We didn't go home immediately, because 30 minutes later friends from Meulsté were arriving too, for their first visit to us ánd the States.

The advantage was that we all came from the same time zone, all experiencing the same effect from the jetlag.

They would only stay 3 nights with us before heading South to visit some of the national parks there, after which they would come back to our place for 2 nights before heading to some national parks in the North, and to return again for 2 nights before flying back home. We were serving as their basecamp...with pleasure!

Anyway, there was no time to lose, so their 1st day, we already dragged them to ...Antelope Island of course 😏 (remember from my previous posts that this is one of our favourite go-to places with visitors?).

We did the tour on the island by car (a hike was probably a bridge too far on their first day 😆) and stopped at the usual view points (like Buffalo point),

Warre checking out the gorgeous view @ Buffalo point

visited the ranch where we had our picknick,

and where we saw plenty of humming birds. I'v' never seen so many together! I just love these birds. They really are something special ... they're very tiny and light (4 grams (for comparison, a US penny weighs 2,5 grams!!), they're all-American birds (they only live in South, Central and North America ... no where else in the world!), and they don't flap their little wings, but they rotate them in a figure 8 as fast as 80 times per second!! For me they're like the fairies among birds.

During the summer months, you cannot skip a dip in the salt lake. You'll have to walk for 10 minutes across a very hot sandy beach (don't wear flip flops in case you don't want your feet to get burnt!), and the last 50 meters, you'll have to ignore the millions of little flies on the ground (when you think the beach is black, think again, those are flies 😳), but then you'll be able to experience how it feels to float effortless on the water.

The salinity of the lake is so high, that you can read your favourite magazine feeling as if you had the support of a sofa.

The next day, we went to Salt Lake City where we visited the gigantic Mormon Conference center.

Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, you can only visit it with a guide, without any charge though, and it's really worth the visit.

Inside there is the biggest theater-style auditorium ever built, it's large enough to hold a Boeing 747! It can seat 21000 people!

On the rooftop are gardens, fountains and meadows, fulfilling part of a prophetic statement by BrighamYoung (the Mormon who brought the Mormons from the East to Utah) who said in 1853 that he envisioned a downtown building with groves and ponds on the top. And all this is held up by 620 tons of fabricated steel imported from ... Belgium!!

Luckily, back then, Trump wasn't in the office yet 😏

On the roof, you also get a nice view on the city and the Mormon Temple:

Enjoying the view while chit chatting with our Mormon guide

From there we went to the Capitol,

selfie on the stairs of the capitol

after which it was time to give our inner self a treat in The Cheese Cake Factory. Of course they serve killer cheese cakes, and the 'killer' relates to the taste ánd the calories 😆, but they also serve decent food!

On our way to the car, we passed Temple Square with its Disney-like Mormon temple (which took 40 years to build ... from 1853 to 1893 ... it's the largest Mormon Temple of the world!).

Striking (unintentionally ... really!) a pose together at the statue where

Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery (the founders of the mormon church)

were given the authority by 3 apostles to lead God's church on earth.

During one of their stays at our place that month, I also took them shopping on 25th street in Ogden, a charming & cowboy-like town, 15 min North of us.

And we also took them on a few hikes of course!

Close to home, we went (unintentionally 😬 ... sorry Gracy!) of the beaten path to a little waterfall.

A bit further from home, in one of the canyons around Salt Lake City, we did the Bells Canyon Trail to a slightly bigger waterfall.

And on their last day, we went out on the Skull Crack Trail, to witness the Kokanee Salmon Run at Causey Reservoir. It's a very unique event, which happens only once a year and only lasts about two weeks. the Kokanee salmons , which are a shade of silver most of the year, change to a fluorescent red prior to travelling upstream to spawn and hatch, after which they die.