Return of the Hippie Summer

Summer in Salt Lake City is blissful.  Fall is exciting, Winter is snuggly, Spring is just flat out awful, but Summer is rad.

Salt Lake provides an interesting cross section of middle class people who love the outdoors.  San Francisco generates rich foodies turned green/vegan/fad diet afficinados who love snobby Napa wine.  Portland is exactly like Portlandia -- obnoxious self righteous hippies.  Seattle is subject to it's horrible weather, but Salt Lake is the perfect blend.  

People really do spend weekend mornings going hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing and all those other relaxed free sports.  This contributes to the laid back slow pace you find in Utah.  The afternoons are nap heavy and evenings mean outside barbecues and frisbang (Jude calls frisbee frisbang and I will not allow him to be corrected.)  The common thread with the weekend activities is free.  

On Sunday afternoon in Liberty park the hippies gather with their hippie toys: slack lines, frisbangs, hula hoops and our family favorite: the drum circle.  The atmosphere is what I imagine Golden Gate park was in the 60's: come one, come all, share all the toys, chat with whomever.  It's friendly and kid friendly, if you ignore the casual marijuana use that lingers in the background.

I can't think of any place in the Bay Area that operates at this lazy low cost pace and I think the mountain environment begets the friendly malaise.  The only comparable place I've experienced is either Ashland, Oregon or the Athenian School.  Who knew that being the only Mormon kid at the afternoon Grateful Dead dance parties at Athenian would find it's natural development into drum circles with my children in Salt Lake City?  Who could have predicted that the rock climbing class I loved in high school and the underground rock concerts I would go to in SF would translate to marrying a climber who spends all his down time playing the guitar?  

It's a pretty good life out here.  And I'm sure there are plenty of musical barbecues in my near future.