Utah: This Is The Place Heritage Park

This is the Place Heritage Park is seriously the place to be. I love those live-in historical places where you're walking around and actually feel like you've been transported back in time. That's the place this place is. It highlights what it was like in the early settlement of Utah complete with a mercantile store, petting corral, print shop, furniture store, schoolhouse, and so much more. I first visited in December with my friend AJ during their Christmas event and loved it. When my mom came to visit, I knew it was a place I really wanted to take her. So we went along with my friend Chloe and her son Caiden. 

Let's begin our tour! 

First, they've got a train that goes around the perimeter of the park and has the best corny jokes you'll at least smile at. 

Our first stop was at Brigham Young's farmhouse. It's an original home built in 1863. My mom thought it was interesting the house was pink. We learned pink used to be a masculine color and blue a more feminine color, although it wasn't a true gender differentiating color until stores realized by the 1940s that people were generally choosing more pinks for girls and blues for boys.

We also learned, pointed out in one of the portraits in the home, that artists used to charge by arm and leg for a portrait. So the phrase "that'll cost you an arm and a leg" comes from that! 

This Is The Place hosts many special events throughout the year, such as the Candlelight Christmas event I mentioned attending in December. During this time, we were able to come for baby animal season and see some chicks and goats and bunnies. Then, we went into the petting corral area and said hi to some more animals.

After the animals, we were really excited to get some food. Do not miss out on the doughnuts they have here. They're almost like taking bigger, puffier pieces of funnel cake, breaking them into smaller pieces and serving them. They melt in your mouth.

We also went to the Deseret News Print Shop where they showed us the process they'd use to print back in the day.

We had enough time to finish the route around the park on the train before we had to leave. There's so much more to do here and I'm excited to keep going back in the future!

Here are some more moments from the day:

The funniest part that had nothing to do with early settled Utah, is that Caiden would only go to my mom and Chloe, but he would literally give me the cold shoulder every time I tried to hold him or interact with him! It was pretty funny. I saw him the next week though and after continuing playing hard to get for awhile, he finally gave me a huge hug.