We're here! We arrived yesterday afternoon. We were kind of tired and a little headachey/nauseaous from the altitude (it's about 5200 ft. up here in Ogden) but we still had a lovely quiet dinner with Mike's mom Beverly, and we're feeling much better today. We can feel the altitude a bit though. We took a lovely walk with Bev this morning and we were both a little bit more winded than we would usually be. It's lovely country up here though, and we even heard a male pheasant crowing, though we didn't see him. I also learned about the history of Malan's peak, which you can see from the little park we walked around:
Admittedly, I'm still not a hundred percent on which one exactly is Malan's Peak (I'm not a Western girl, I'm no good at mountains) but I believe it's the one just in front of the snow-covered mountain in back. They've got so many mountains here, I just don't know how they keep track of them all! Most of you probably don't know this, but Mike's middle name is Malan, and that was Bev's maiden name. It's no coincidence, that mountain was named after Bev's grandfather and his family. In 1892 Bartholomew Malan (known as 'Tim' although I'm not sure why) who lived at the foot of this peak with his wife, Louisa Mariah, and their children (he eventually had sixteen children) decided to carve a road into the mountain. From what I understand, everyone thought they were pretty crazy, but he and his older sons persevered and dug out a small, one lane road up to a lovely basin most of the way up the peak. From there they cut down trees, built a sawmill, and, using the sawmill, built an inn, several cabins, and a clubhouse. They became quite the little tourist destination for awhile, and the mountain became known as Malan's Peak. They'd haul guests up on a little wagon up their road, and during the tourist season ran quite a good resort. I think my favorite part of the story though is how most of the family would move down the peak for the winter, but two of the older boys would stay up to guard the place and keep it in repair. At a set time of the day, every day, the boys would wave signal flags down the mountain to let their Mom know they were ok. Kinda cool, huh? Eventually though, the business started flagging, they shut it down for good, and first vandals and then fires got to it. But it's still known as Malan's Peak. We might try to hike up there sometime this week and look at the basin, we'll see how everything goes.
We are pretty busy though, today we're going to cook dinner for Bev and some of Mike's siblings. Little nervewracking though, wanting to do a good job, but using a new kitchen and slightly different ingredients. Cross your fingers for us. Mike is making African Peanut Soup (yum!) and I'm making my low-fat chocolate truffle cake, with a red wine sauce to go on top. Here's hoping it turns out well!
Update: I changed photos and we're pretty sure Malan's Peak is the one on the left.
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