UT Jazz NBA Draft Party - June 24, 2010

Every year (at least the last 2 years), the Utah Jazz throw an NBA Draft Party at the Energy Solutions Arena.  They give out free hot dogs and soda, have opportunities for pictures with the Jazz Dancers, Play Draft BINGO and give out free tickets to a Bees baseball game.  Last year, James went by himself (I was working late-ish and didn't meet up with him).  This year, we turned it into date night.  FREE date night, with a bonus date - the future Bees game - thrown in.  AWESOME!

James at the arena - they blocked off most of the seats so that all the people were in the lower sections in front of their "stage."  The ESPN coverage of the draft was playing on the big screen overhead.  They had a season ticket holder announce the Jazz first-round draft pick to us in the arena, just before the pick was announced by the commissioner on ESPN.  "Gordon Hayward!"

My draft BINGO card.  As a player was drafted by any team, we crossed his name off the BINGO card.  There were only 4 prizes and by the time we left the only one left was for the outside edge (top row, bottom row and outside columns).  I had two names left and we gave our cards (and all the cards we'd scrounged from people who had already left) away to some guys who were determined to wait it out.  We left at the end of the first round.

The Stockton (right) and Malone (left) statues outside the arena.  I remember them playing for the Jazz, but I don't know if I ever got to see them play in person or if I just remember them from TV...

It was a fun, free date night.  James would have liked about 3 more hot dogs.  They were pretty small.  But hey, free is free.

7/6/10 postscript: The free Bees baseball tickets were for specific home games at the end of June and early, early July.  So we went to a Salt Lake Bees v. Tacoma Rainiers game on July 6th (Happy Birthday Mom!).  It was a beautiful evening, not too hot.  

We wondered what the mascot of the Rainiers might be - since their ball cap just has a mountain with a "T" coming out the top.  I googled them - the mascot is Rhubarb the Reindeer. Is that more or less embarrasing than Bumble the Bee?

I learned that when a batter hits a home run with no other runners on base, they still get 1 RBI - for hitting themselves home.  So their RBI stat will ALWAYS be equal to or greater than their Home Run stat. 

Sadly, the Bees lost.  Sad again, the game was free, but we spent some money on soda and a churro - actually that was yummy and not very sad - except that it cost money.  More sadness, I didn't take any pictures. 

Happily, it was another fun date night.  :) 

Hiking Farmington Canyon and Brighton - June 19-20, 2010

One of the things I really enjoy about summers in Utah is the hiking.  I really don't like to be sweaty and hot, but it is okay to be sweaty and hot if you are working for it!

On Saturday, James and I went hiking up Farmington Canyon.  In the past, we have driven up the road and parked at the campground, hiked down to the waterfall and then back up to the car.  Today, we parked at the lower parking lot and hiked up for however long we chose to hike.  We didn't make it to the upper waterfall this time, but we still had a great hike.

We did stop at a lower waterfall for a bit to check out this tire. 

There is a surprising amount of bits of cars in the canyon.  The road is high up above the creek and it is a dirt road with lots of switchbacks on the steep mountain side.  I suspect that if a car goes over the edge, the parts just stay wherever they land.  I wanted to get a closer look at this falls, so I stepped on rocks until I was at a nice spot for a picture.

And then I promptly fell into the water while working my way back to the trail.  Squish squish squish for the rest of the hike.  That is when James told me he is buying me new hiking shoes for my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

James checking out the view.

These guys were way, way up near the road, shooting at clay disks.  You could hear the shots echoing around the canyon and we wondered if any of the clay or shells or bullets would rain down on us.  They didn't.

We hiked for about an hour before we turned back and ran the rest of our Saturday errands.

On Sunday, our Sunday drive after church took us up to Brighton.  We were interested to see if there was still any snow.  This is the view of the Great Western Lift - not much snow, just a little. 

We decided to hike for a little bit and James brought along his flexible Frisbee.  We played for a while near the Milli lift line and there was enough of a breeze that I could throw the Frisbee toward the lift tower and it would be caught by the wind and turn back to where James was standing.

Since we were almost to the Twin Lakes Dam anyway, we hiked the rest of the way to the lake - then we finally saw some leftover snow and threw rocks out onto the slush in the water.

Another two or three weeks, and there won't be any snow left. We'll have to go up and check it out!