City Creek

The brand new City Creek shopping center had its grand opening a couple of weeks ago on March 22nd but Brandon had gone away for the weekend to Buffalo to visit his dad and I stayed with Emily for Heidi's birthday party and so we wouldn't be so lonely. Last Friday was the first chance we had to go check it out and it did not disappoint. It was as equally impressive and busy as we had heard.

To give you an idea of the scale of City Creek and why people have been so excited about it, here are some pictures that I found on the internet.

So I believe the part that is shaded is all the new construction. It actually isn't huge when you walk through it, but considering that it is in the heart of downtown taking up three city blocks (?), it seems like a pretty huge undertaking.

Source

And if you are wondering what all that glass is above, it is a retractable roof so that you can enjoy outdoor shopping in summer and indoor shopping in winter. That is one of the biggest downfalls of the Gateway (the other downtown shopping area) - since it is all outdoors, it's not great in the winter.

Even though spring just arrived here in Utah, I am really curious what the winter will be like at City Creek with the roof over it. But I imagine it will be great. Just walking through City Creek, there just seemed like there was so much thought put into it and so much attention to detail. It is beautiful. Stunning in some areas. And maybe that is because it is all new and shiny. But I'm hoping it will stay that way. I was talking with a friend about it and we agreed that it is really kinda enchanting even though it is really just a mall where the developers want you to spend money.

Here we are at the Nordstrom end where the water fountains are. There is a little splash pad for the little kids to play in similar to the one at the Gateway but the real eye catcher is the water fountains and the water show. I was pretty entranced by it. Especially with the fire in the water in the evening and the pretty tinkling music.

Even the water grates were really pretty - I had to take picture. 

Lucy was checking out the splash pads where there were many a soaking wet kid but fortunately, she wasn't interested in getting wet (even though she often does at Liberty Park where there is another splash pad). 

She was totally in love with all the water fountains. 

But I am sure that her favorite part was the kids play area in the food court on the opposite end of City Creek. It was pretty awesome. Wonderfully padded floors, fully enclosed, with comfy seats surrounding the whole thing. And even though food isn't allowed inside, there are plenty of high tables surrounding the outside of the play area so you can eat your meal and watch your kid. Definitely a place I can bring Lucy on a rainy or cold day (or any day for that matter) and read a book or chat with a friend. I'm sure that they thought about accommodating the many stay-at-home moms and families in Utah. 

Brandon and I had a nice time relaxing and just watching the pure joy on Lucy's face and she pranced around and climbed all over the place like a little monkey.

 We thought we should take a picture of us since you wouldn't know that we existed with all the pictures we take of Lucy.

Seriously, how cool is this place?

The only hard thing about the play place is that Lucy did not want to leave. Even after bribing her with a treat, Lucy curled up in the little egg, hoping her parents would just go away. It's definitely a place I will have to bring her again. Just need to find some good books to read while I am there. 

We ended our night at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for a chocolate pecan caramel apple (heavenly!). Lucy was a little disappointed at first because she had never had one and sometimes doesn't like to try new things. But once she tried it, she was in heaven too. 

And we were pleasantly surprised by how reasonable the parking was. The traffic was a little crazy getting into the parking garage but with three underground floors of parking, there was plenty and we immediately found a spot. And the first hour was free so after about 3 hours of looking around, we only spent $2. I think that is actually a little cheaper than the Gateway.

We are hoping that the Gateway isn't too negatively affected by the opening of City Creek but we are assuming that they will cater to different needs. City Creek has much more high end stores so it will cater more to an upscale crowd or those wanting to eat breakfast in front of Utah's first Tiffany's store.

In some ways, I am a little bugged by the whole commercialism of City Creek, especially because it was funded so much by the church where we seem to always to be receiving this message about living within our means and saving and not being tempted by worldly things and yet this shopping center seems to celebrate luxury, exclusiveness, and excess in some ways. But overall, I think that its development is a net plus for the city of Salt Lake in that is should bring good business (and tax revenues) for the city and help revitalize the downtown and make it a great tourist destination. So yeah, I'm a fan and I will be back. I just probably won't be buying anything from Tiffany's any time soon.