Double the Waffles, Triple the Traffic

This morning, we woke up around nine and ate breakfast which consisted of a waffle and other various breakfast items. We packed our stuff into Mom’s Honda Fit and headed twenty five minutes over to Henderson to visit the Ethel M. Chocolate factory. It was short walk-through tour of the factory and a small gift shop at the end. It was neat to see all the effort they put into make high quality chocolate with no preservatives (all their products must be eaten with two weeks of purchase). There used to be a marshmallow factory neighboring Ethel M, but it closed years ago. Mom has been devastated ever since she found out the factory shut down, but at least she can still visit the chocolate factory.

To chocolate factory

The room where the ingredients for the chocolate are mixed together

Mom, always the curious learner

After Ethel M, we merged onto the I-15 and drove up it for about 400 miles to get to Salt Lake City. I took the wheel for the majority of the trip and clocked in a personal record of 324 miles or about five and a half hours in one day of driving, the longest I’ve ever done. The drive was long and made worse by the three times we hit traffic due to construction and accidents. Who would have thought you’d be in bumper to bumper traffic in three separate location all in the middle of nowhere within the timespan of only a few hours?  Mom was fairly calm and relaxed for the majority of the ride except when I passed trucks that were going 60 mph in an 80 mph zone (or maybe it was the fact I was going 80 mph). Needless to say, we arrived in Salt Lake City at around seven at night. 

Once in Salt Lake City, we ate at Bruges Waffles & Frites, a hole in the wall restaurant. I ordered my second waffle of the day with fresh strawberries and sweet whipped cream. It exceeded my expectations. The waffle itself was a bit denser than a traditional waffle and had a vanilla flavor. After we finished eating, it was time to rush over and explore the Temple Square of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I was most impressed with the architecture. The temple itself was massive and reminded me a little bit of a castle. We went through two of the visitor centers and perused the exhibits on the teachings of the Mormon Church and the history of the Temple Square (the Temple building itself took forty years to construct). By the time we were done it was time to pick up Joe from the nearby airport. After he joined us, we drove the last few hours of the day to our hotel in Pocatello, Idaho. Tomorrow, we’ll visit the Museum of Clean and Grand Tetons National Park.

Bruges Waffles & Frites

The Temple

If you would like a different perspective of the day’s events, read my mom’s blog at: http://andallthatjusttosay.blogspot.com/