Ever since I’ve come to San Francisco on my J1 visa, I’ve tried to take weekend trips to other cities to explore as much of the US as I could. In these trips (see my blog posts Weekend trip to Sacranento and Weekend trip to Santa Ana), I always made a point to try as much new food as possible. Little that I knew, the real foodie experience was still ahead of me: Thanksgiving.
In these last months, I made some friends in San Francisco. One of them, invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her and her family in Salt Lake City. It was perfect!
First of all, the Salt Lake City is in Utah, a state that is approximately a 2-hour plane ride away north of San Francisco. As such, it was very cold and snowy, which already made for a great sight and an amazing start for the weekend trip. Not only Utah features some amazing natural landscapes where ominous snowed mountains are predominant throughout the state, but it also has some adorable little cities where old architecture and modern buildings blend almost seamlessly. I had never even heard of it before coming to the US, so it was a great discovery for me – one that I can recommend experiencing to anybody who comes on a J1 visa!
After I got an amazing tour of the most important landmarks of the area, it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving. I loved helping with the cooking (I had never had a chance to try or prepare any of the holiday’s classic recipes), but I must admit, I was not ready for the sheer amounts of food that were about to come my way.
A giant delicious stuffed turkey, gravy, sweet corn, brussel sprouts, stuffing, mashed potatoes, several cranberry-based side dishes (who knew cranberry can be so good!), 16-layers gelatin, and two delicious pies: a pecan pie and a caramel pie. I ate so much I could barely move next day. And, oh, it was worth it!
The ambient was lovely as well, as many people spend this holiday around their families and they invest themselves to a great extent when it comes to decorating the house and making everything feel comfortable and cozy. After 6 months apart from my family back in Spain, this was perfect for me.
So please, if you’re ever in the US around Thanksgiving, make it a point to try and spend it with a local family – you won’t regret your decision.
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