Sunshine, sunshine, and more sunshine. That's the story for 5 months out of the year here and it's wonderful. Knowing when you wake up that more than likely it'll be sunny out is very nice.
Lifestyle difference. SLC is a diverse city, and remember it is a big city. The center of the city, down in the valley seems to be the more average living with smaller houses and yards in a rather dense forest, but with smaller trees than in Peoria so they aren't so overpowering. The closer you get to the hills the fancier it becomes with houses easily soring over 1 million dollars each. The difference between home prices is also huge, with some house sizes doubling in price here over Peoria. For example, just down the street from my current living place, a ranch with 2500sq ft between both levels asking price is $350K. That same house in Peoria I would consider around 150-170K depending on the location.
While we're on the subject of money, there is quite a bit of it here, and I imagine many of them are doctors with 5 major hospitals here in SLC and millions of people to take care of. It's not uncommon to see many really nice cars (Porsche's and such) in a rather short drive along the hillsides. But with money also comes poverty, and there is plenty of that too here. It's been a long time since I've been asked for a few dollars for "food," but it's happened here twice in the 9 days I've been here.
On to the single biggest difference I've noticed about SLC compared to Peoria. The lifestyle people live here is incredibly different. When people get off of work they head outdoors. Bicycling, hiking, rock climbing, skiing, rafting, boating, you name it and someone is doing it. The weekends are crazy busy outside with cyclist everywhere on the roads in hundreds, and not just putting around neighborhoods, but riding dozens of dozens of miles a day and many riding over 100 miles a day for leisure and training for racing. Every hiking trail has all sorts of people on it and each well known rock climbing face usually has someone climbing up it. Before you say people go for walks in Peoria too, remember the difference now. A hike here can consist of walking up mountains for miles and in high altitude which compared to a practically flat walk at sea level, well it's a HUGE difference. To sum things up, people here embrace the outdoors like I've never seen before and it's wonderful to see.
Because of the active lifestyle of SLC'ers, they are noticeably healthier too. When you walk through the grocery store everyone seems fit. I guess I never really knew how unhealthy Peoria/midwest was until I came here. I saw the mayor of SLC on tv the other day and it was great to know that unless it's snowing out he rides his bike to work EVERY day with his suit on! That's just the type of people that live out west.
One thing that drove me nuts back home was when I asked someone "what's new," or "what did you do over the weekend," I always got the same boring answers which didn't conclude to much of anything. Out here it's completely different, in a much better sense. Friday evenings it seems like every camp site in the area is full of families that are staying the weekend. People take off on major hikes (multi day routes), go ski mountaineering (usually an all day activity)...etc. They don't sit at home wasting their lives away.
Ok, you probably get the point by now. I'm also getting tired of writing about this, so I'm ending it here. Here's a pic of what I did yesterday when I had 2 hours free before going to a movie (not what most midwesterners would do with 2 free hours):
Sweetness and welcome to Utah. I guess we do have it pretty good. Welcome from up here in Park City! I caught that storm, was nasty. Two days of afternoon hell... Good stuff you're doing, good stuff!
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