Walked 2.85 miles for the 4th of July

For our 4th of July celebration, we took a family trip to the town of Brighton, Utah (about a 45 minute drive) and hiked around Silver Lake. When we finished the walk, we had a picnic lunch and then drove back home. Before the walk, we watched the town of Brighton's parade. The parade consisted of two police SUV, three fire trucks, a red square MG, a three-wheeled motorcycle, several pickup trucks full of kids, an original Mini Cooper, quite a few kids and adults on bicycles, and a lot of kids and adults walking. All of the motor vehicles in the parade were full of adults and kids who threw candy to the crowds along the street. It was fun to see an old fashioned parade in a small town. No gigantic floats that took hours and hours of time to build. Just kids with crape paper in their bike wheels, loud police and firetruck sirens, trucks and cars honking, and spectators along the road yelling and cheering the folks in the parade. The people in the parade had fun being there and throwing candy to the kids, and we had fun watching them celebrate the 4th of July.

Brighton is a small town of a couple hundred residents. It originally was a mining town in the late 1800s, but now it is home of the Brighton and Solitude ski resorts. Our elevation at Silver Lake was 8700 feet, and the mountains and trees were refreshingly beautiful. The air was cooler than it was in the Salt Lake valley, and that felt great!

Even though there were probably several hundred visitors to Brighton, we saw and spoke with two families we know in the valley: my wife's cousin who lives in a suburb that is next to Sale Lake City (we live further away from Salt Lake City in the south end of the valley)  and a neighbor who is a member of the same LDS congregation we attend. The cliché, its a small world, was certainly true today.

My feet were sore when I got home. Not only did I walk almost three miles, I was on my feet for a couple of hours waiting for the parade and then watching the parade. I just woke up from a long nap, and my feet feel fine now.