Utah & New Mexico work trip

My next work trip took me to the Salt Lake City area in Utah, as well as Albuquerque, New Mexico! I had really been looking forward to getting some tasty New Mexican, which I had sampled in 2009.

But first, Utah - which is sorta weird!

I had never been to Utah before, and I only knew one person from there - my law school friend Jeremy. I knew he had moved back there, so I met him and his wife (also a law school colleague) for coffee as soon as I landed. It was really fun catching up with them, talking about politics, and how isolated Utah is. Jeremy is working on an awesome project to bring more public defenders to underserved areas in rural Utah.

Of course, no visit to Salt Lake City is complete without a stop at Temple Square, the central hub of Mormonism. 

I had heard that the main church is beautiful, and it is. Of course there was an "elder" (in this case he really was elderly!) standing in the wings to chat with me about Latter Day Saints as I took my pictures. Sigh.

I didn't have enough time to go into the visitor's center, which I'm sure was interesting. I don't know much about Mormonism and I don't have any Mormon friends, really (except for Jeremy, who is sort of lapsed). All I really remember is that the Mormons tried to settle in Illinois first and that we did not appreciate that, to the point of killing their leader, Joseph Smith. Whoops.

Holy glow not photoshopped

Before my first donor visit that night, I managed to snap this photo, which has now become legendary in my group of friends: yes, friends and neighbors, you can now get your plumbing, heating, astrology, and hypnotism done in one place!

We do it all, folks.

On a more quotidian note, I visited the awesome public library in Salt Lake (main downtown branch). There was a TON of light in this place so I enjoyed working there for a few hours one morning.

The style of the left-side wall is modeled after the Colosseum!

I didn't see much about the collections in the SLC library because I was so stunned by the building's architecture. It was a truly unique space.

From the roof, you can walk down a ramp (also the top of the interior wall) out of the library!

Here's a better view of the way the Colosseum wall meets the rest of the library and continues the indoor-outdoor experience:

Better view of the ramp

From the library, you also have a great view of one of Salt Lake City's most historic buildings, the City & County Building. This grande dame is still host to active government functions in Salt Lake.

While in Salt Lake, I noticed an interesting beer culture. Clearly there are breweries doing some cool things, but the local liquor laws create a strange atmosphere. For instance, you typically have to buy food with beer (although the brewery Jeremy and I visited did not require us to buy food to get a flight), and they can't pour a draft for you if it's beyond a certain ABV - you have to get it in bottles.

They have a sense of humor about liquor laws at Bohemian Brewery.

From Salt Lake City, I flew directly to Albuquerque to visit more donors there, as well as another law school friend, Mark!

They have a cute library system where there are a lot of little branches, like the size of a small house. I didn't visit the main branch, but presumably it is larger. This photo is in the Ernie Pyle Library, which is housed in the war correspondent's house! This is his closet.

The donor group in Albuquerque seems surprisingly strong - they are interested in restarting their alumnae club, which I'm going to help them out with. And of course, for just about every meeting, I picked New Mexican food where I could! 

One donor told me, "New Mexicans like to talk about two things: green chile and how no one knows we're a state." They all had stories about that; apparently a lot of Americans think New Mexico is part of Mexico. Sigh.

I love Albuquerque and would love to go back for leisure anytime. Next work visit will also include Santa Fe, which has a different group of alumnae but would probably still attend events in Albuquerque. It's been a while since I visited there, too, so I'm looking forward to that in June or July!

The southwest has been a fun region for me to travel to for work. I feel very lucky and look forward to continue to forge relationships with alumnae in the area.