Salt Lake City Work Trip - Day 6

Today was supposed to be my travel day after the successful completion of our project this week and I was looking foreword to the next phase of my Nomad Life.  Unlike what happened back in Minneapolis, though, I was given permission to defer the travel until Monday.  This gave me a chance to experience a bit more of Salt Lake City before I moved on to the next stop - score!  The day started early again (0615) but I didn't have to get online for work because it was Saturday.  Instead, I spent the early morning hours reading, doing Duolingo exercises and working on puzzles.  At 0745, I went to the Fitness Center of the Staybridge Suites (West Valley City) and worked out for 20 minutes on the stationary (recumbent) bike (4.3 miles).  Afterwards, I went to breakfast in the hotel lobby and filled up on the food they had there.  Back in my room again (0830), I worked on my travel blog, took care of some finances and continued resolving Thanksgiving stuff.  At 1100, I loaded up my car and checked out of the hotel.  Outside, it was another beautiful sunny day ( temps 74 F).  Hoping to get some birding for once (my eBird entries had been pretty sparse for most of the week), I drove over to nearby Decker Lake and took a walk on the trails there.  I ended up being very successful in my species search.  During this same timeframe, I also coordinated with my friend (Rich V) about my upcoming stay with him and his wife (Dana).  With a green light to make my way over to their house, I departed West Valley City (1130) and drove south (mostly via UT-154) to the town of South Jordan.  Right up until I got off the main road, I thought they might live in a "normal" suburban neighborhood.  I was not prepared, then, for what I found when I arrived at the entrance to the Daybreak Community.  Wow!  It was huge, with all kinds of small homes, large (waterfront) estates, walkups, condos and (I assume) apartments.  In various places in the huge neighborhood, there was also plenty of shopping, extensive walking trails and many more amenities than I could have imagined.  In fact, the Salt Lake Bees (minor league baseball team) had just built their new stadium on the fringes of the Community and the UTA (rain system I tried yesterday) had a stop right in the heart of the area.  It took a bit of time for me to locate the home where Rich and Dana lived because the house numbering didn't really make any sense to me - there were odd numbered addresses on both sides of these little side streets (where the garages were).  I learned later that the front door was only reachable from a walkway ("The Passeo") on the opposite side of the homes.  When I finally parked in Rich's driveway (1150), I was thoroughly impressed with what I'd seen.  Inside, I joined my friends in watching the second half of the Notre Dame v UNC football game.  It was great to be able to do so much reminiscing with Rich since the last time I'd seen him (back in January).  After the game ended (1630), we left the house and drove to a nearby restaurant (still in the Daybreak Community) called "The Break", where we had an early dinner.  I got a delicious sandwich and a large beer.  There was more time for conversation and catchup and we stayed at the restaurant until about 1800.  Back at Rich and Dana's home, we did some more visiting and watched more football.  Rich gave me the paper mail I'd forwarded to his house back when I was in Copper Creek State Park (WI) - I'm glad that plan worked!  Dana showed me several of her amazing photographs - she is an amateur wildlife photographer and had hung so many of her images of wild animals in every room.  Beautiful!  By 2000, I was feeling very tired but I managed to last for another hour before I said my goodnight.  In the guest room, I watched movies and worked on Duolingo exercises.  Sadly, all this stimulation kept me awake much longer than I'd planned - after getting carried away with the fun, I didn't go to bed until just after midnight.  Oh well...  Even so, it felt so nice not to be in a hotel bed and, instead, fall asleep in the warm, comforting and welcoming bedroom at my friends' home!