Life is BeUTAHful!!

And a most reich-teous of greetings to you, my RRSLA homies! (okay I'm done with the puns)

Well here I am in the one and only Beehive State, and its nectar is sweet lemme tell ya. It's great to be back out west, close to family, old friends, and, of course, MOUNTAINS. Some of you might not know that I actually did my undergraduate degree at a university in Utah, and that my wife is from here; so it's kind of my second home. Honestly, I think I've spent more time in Utah than California over the past 4 years (the little surfer angel on my shoulder got really sad as I typed that). Ok enough reminiscing, onto the good stuff.

WORK
I'm interning at the Salt Lake City office of an engineering firm called Michael Baker International. They're one of those companies that falls somewhere in between "cute little boutique-y" firm and "holy hannah this is a gargantuan beast how does it even function!" firm. Pretty lagom for the engineering world. The office I work in is super heavy on transportation/traffic engineering (think huge highway corridor projects) and structural engineering (bridges and buildings). It's fascinating to see what they're all up to.

So, am I doing roadway alignment and soil remediation for intense infrastructural projects on I-15? Not even close. While I work in the same space as all of these engineers, I work on completely different projects. I work for the Senior Planner who was brought in to establish the planning and urban design branch at the SLC office. He just started a few months ago, so everything is just getting under way project wise. We're working on a couple of fun projects he already had going before I arrived, but most of what we do right now consists of responding to RFPs and chasing work--an act he affectionately calls "frog kissing". He constantly apologizes for not having a huge load of work for me right away and reassures me there will be soon, but I honestly think the timing is perfect because I get to see firsthand what the entire process of a project looks like from due diligence to drafting proposals to getting the job to submitting the final deliverables. Really relevant info for me in the (incredibly) off chance that I become a project manager/decide to start my own firm one day. Good stuff!

PLAY
There is SO MUCH to do in Utah. Seriously. If you're an outdoors person, you can hardly find a better place to be. The entirety of Salt Lake and Utah counties is surrounded by mountains and two large and in charge lakes, with activities to boot. So everyone essentially lives within minutes of a great hiking trail, bike path, swimming hole, climbing rock, or ski slope! Not to mention there are literally five national parks within an hour's drive of each other ;)

Well, I think that's enough keyboard blabbering for now. I'll post some pics below from our Memorial Day hike up to Desolation Lake in Cottonwood Canyon. Hope everyone's summer is going smashingly.

seasonal transitions are still happening in the mountains

 it was a gorgeous morning

a frozen Desolation Lake, the last half mile was still full of snow pack

quaking trembling birch aspens (studio inside joke)

it really is an aspen colony though 

Cottonwood Canyon area

some slightly deplorable 5 min sketches on lunch break, 

our office is right next to a creek

Rooftop Concert Series on Center St in Provo

they used to actually be on a rooftop, but it got so big they 

decided to close the street down to accommodate all the peeps