Unique, fun new store opened in St. George in November

Much construction was going on within one half mile from where I live. This area of busy building took up a large, full 4 corner intersection. One particular building being constructed was an immense thing. I kept watching it’s progress, wondering what business it would turn out to be.

In the mean time, on the other corner I was more interested because it was the long awaited health food store near completion.

When I finally DID notice "that immense building" and that it finally had a name....it said “Tai Pan Trading Wholesale Home Decor”.

Well, since I am not much into home decor, I sort of ignored the newly opened business. At Thanksgiving we had several family members visiting and so the “girls” decided to check out Tai Pan. Well....were we in for a treat and a surprise!!! Everything you could imagine for uniquely and cutely decorating a home was inside that gigantic shell of a building. The center section of the whole store was devoted to just Christmas items....and at very reasonable wholesale prices!!

As of December 26, every Christmas item is at 50% off the already low prices. When they clear out the Christmas stuff....in will come the Valentine stuff. What a fun, fun store.

The interesting part of this is that I thought that Tai Pan was another one of those large chain stores that are throughout the U.S. Wrong!!! Tai Pan is currently only in Utah, with 3 store locations, at the time being. I went online and checked them out and this is the story of Tai Pan Trading Wholesale Home Decor store:

In 1977, a young BYU University (in Provo, Utah) student began selling for a particular company. He learned and saw many great opportunities for business and eventually started his own side-business. He bought a van and started importing and buying products for resale. The merchandise was warehoused in his basement and garage. His business grew, and he started Tai Pan Trading International. Eventually he needed more warehouse space so he moved his business into the basement of a building in downtown Provo. From there it moved to a warehouse in Midvale, Utah and then to a location in Sandy, Utah. Finally, Tai Pan found a home in Murray, Utah where the company would spend the next 15 years in a 52,000 sq. ft. building.

Tai Pan’s business was strictly done on a wholesale basis, selling to all sizes of retailers, such as Wal-Mart and R.C. Willey. It didn’t take long for Tai Pan to realize that the greatest future opportunity was to sell wholesale directly to the public, somewhat in the pattern of Costco.

In 2005, Tai Pan became known as Tai Pan Trading Wholesale Home Decor and opened its first retail store in a 100,000 sq. ft. facility in Sandy, Utah. Tai Pan’s presentation was a highly merchandised approach with a superstore level of variety, and an ambiance and charm of a small boutique. The wholesale to the public concept has gone over very well and subsequently, Tai Pan has opened two more stores. One in Clearfield, Utah, which opened in 2006, and the other located in St. George, Utah, which opened fall of 2007.

Check out their website at: http://www.taipantrading.com/index.html

If you MUST have snow......

St. George climate is warm enough in the winter that we do not get snow...but other parts of Utah is famous for it's wonderful ski resorts. About 84 miles North East of St. George is beautiful Brian Head Ski Resort (see map farther down on this blog). Check out the following link for information:

http://www.utah.com/ski/resorts/brian_head.htm

Here is a link to other ski resorts in Utah:

http://www.utah.com/ski/resorts/

Here is a link to see a photo gallery of various Utah ski resort slopes:

http://www.utah.com/ski/phototour/

Golf, anyone?

I don’t golf....never have. But we have lots of beautiful golf courses to choose from.

In relationship to its population, the St. George area offers more golf than any other place in the Sunbelt. The golf courses in the St. George area are known for their challenging designs, their well maintained fairways and greens, and their spectacular scenic features. This is a year-round golf community with eleven great courses within a 15-minute drive from each other. In fact, several of the top rated courses in Utah are found here.

With blue skies and very little wind, winter daytime temperatures are generally in the 55-to-65 degree range making for ideal conditions for a round of 18 or more. Many local hotels even offer golf packages in which they can confirm your tee times - weeks and even several months in advance.

I was a little unsure of what the Sunbelt (mentioned above) was. So I went online to find out. So the following is quoted somewhat from an internet encyclopedia:

Sunbelt...southern tier of the United States, focused on Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. The term gained wide use in the 1970s, when the economic and political impact of the nation's overall shift in population to the south and west became conspicuous. Economic growth in many Sun Belt cities since World War II has stimulated interregional migration from the NE United States. During the 1990s the fastest growing cities in the United States were in the Sun Belt. The warm climate has attracted large retirement communities, especially in Florida, Arizona and southern Utah.

Mountain and desert beauty of St. George, Utah (double click on the photos to enlarge)

This last photo is one of our eleven beautiful golf courses in the area.

Utah's World Famous Bonneville Salt Flats

The Bonneville Salt Flats is located near the Utah-Nevada border, along I-80. It is one of the many unique natural features in Utah. It covers an area of more than 30,000 acres and it is administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

During the last Ice Age, about 15,000 years ago, Lake Bonneville was about the size of Lake Michigan. It covered one-third of present day Utah and parts of surrounding states. You can see traces of the shorelines, representing different levels of the receding lake, etched into the mountains surrounding the salt flats.

The Bonneville Salt Flats and the Great Salt Lake are what remains of ancient Lake Bonneville. Wind and water each combine to create the flat surface of salt. Every winter, a shallow layer of standing water floods the surface of the salt flats. Then during spring and summer, the water slowly evaporates while winds smooth the surface into a vast, nearly perfect flat plain.

The salt surface contains potassium, magnesium lithium and sodium chloride (which is common table salt).

Around 1824, Jim Bridger and other mountain men explored the Great Salt Lake desert region. The first recorded crossing of the desert was made in 1845 by Captain John C. Fremont's survey party, with scouts Kit Carson and Joe Walker. Early the next year, 23 year old Lansford Hastings retraced Fremont's trail across the salt plain. Joe Walker's writings warned emigrants not to attempt the untried route; however, Hastings convinced several emigrant parties to follow him.

Despite Walker's warnings, the Donner-Reed party, seeking a shortcut to California in 1846, attempted the "Hastings Cutoff". They failed to take enough water and lost a critical number of oxen. Four of their wagons were abandoned just 10 miles northeast of the salt flats. Time was lost, and the delay resulted in their late arrival to the Sierra Nevada Mountains and their tragic winter.

Later, in 1910, the first permanent crossing of the Bonneville Salt Flats was completed when the Southern Pacific Railroad was built linking Salt Lake City and San Francisco.

The Bonneville Salt Flats is named in honor of Captain B.L.E. Bonneville, whose expeditions in the 1830's proved the area was part of an ancient basin.

Try to imagine a place so flat you seem to see the curvature of the planet, so barren not even the simplest life forms can exist. Imagine the passing thunder of strange vehicles hurtling by on a vast dazzling white plain. This is not an alien world far from earth; it is Utah's famous Bonneville Salt Flats.

Thousands of visitors, commercial filmmakers, and of course, high speed auto racers, make the Bonneville Salt Flats a world famous destination. By way of information….one scene in the third film of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series was filmed on the Salt Flats (the scene was when the pirate ship Pearl was on this great white unending plain).

The salt flats' potential for racing was first recognized in 1896 by W.D. Rishel who was scouting a bicycle race course from New York to San Francisco. Rishel returned and convinced daredevil Teddy Tezlaff to attempt an automobile speed record on the flats. Tezlaff drove a Blitzen Benz 141.73 m.p.h. to set an unofficial record in 1914.

The salt flats drew international attention in the 1930's when Utah driver Ab Jenkins lured British racer Sir Malcolm Campbell to compete for speed records on the salt surface.

By 1949, the raceway on the Bonneville Salt Flats was the standard course for world land speed records. On this natural straightaway the 300, 400, 500, and 600 mile per hour land speed barriers were broken.

Since the first speed record attempts in 1914, hundreds of records have been set and broken in a variety of automotive and motorcycle classes.

Typically, speed trials are scheduled throughout the summer and fall at the Bonneville Raceway. Most events are open to the public. The annual Speed Week is usually held in mid-August.

We lack one important store in town......

Everyone is Christmas shopping now, and St. George has stores and businesses galore. There is something new being built and opened all the time. It is fun and exciting to anticipate what new establishment is coming next.

But St. George lacks one important store, I feel. That store is a Toys R Us. We have one very small retail toy store and of course there are the toys within Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and other similar stores. But I feel we NEED a larger toy store with greater variety and volume. Goodness….we have over 100,000 people living here, and lots of children who like toys.

Our phone book has pages and pages of listings for eating places….and only one listing for a small toy store. Toys R Us…..WHERE ARE YOU!!

Additional information about St. George

image above...bird on snow (brrrrrr). Wouldn't this bird like to come to St. George in the winter and be a snowbird?

St. George is the most southwestern town in Utah and closest to the Nevada state line. It is only 119 miles from the famous city of Las Vegas and many travelers heading to the bigger city often stop by in St. George for a night or two.

In recent years, the St. George economy has boomed and with it brought an increase to the city’s population. Tourism is the greatest attributer to the economy of St. George and many come for recreation and sights.

St.George is famous for its “snowbirds”. These aren’t actually birds, but what is referred to as the people who come and spend their winters in St. George and then about March or April, they will go back to their regular homes in northern Utah and other places. The mild winter weather draws many senior citizens to move permanently to St. George or at least to become “snowbirds”.

With the city expanding steadily, it has plans to build a new, much larger airport by 2010, which will keep the flow of buyers into the region and increase the economic gains due to tourism.

I can't believe this weather!

It is 3:30 pm. and our temperature outside at this moment is 72 degrees!

It is a down right gorgeous, shirt sleeve day. That is what is so therapeutic about living here in St. George....the beautiful fall and winter weather. Some days when I get into my closed up car, I have to turn on the air-conditioner for a few minutes....better yet I open my car windows and let the refreshing wind blow on me as I drive down the road. Heavenly!!!!

Utah's Dinosaur Land

Yes, dinosaurs really did exist! And Utah can prove it.

Millions of years ago, all types of dinosaurs roamed across the landscape of what is now Utah. Literally thousands of actual remnants of this fantastic prehistoric era are carefully preserved and interpreted in sites, state parks, museums and quarries all across the state of Utah...just awaiting your discovery.
There are prehistoric sites and attractions throughout all of Utah....the northern part, northeastern part, central part, eastern part, southeastern part, and the southwestern part.
By visiting these dinosaur sites, you can see and learn how these fossilized remains have been protected and preserved. These prehistoric fossils and bones represent a priceless part of Utah's past, and these remnants are protected by federal regulations.

Interesting Facts....

**Digging up new types of dinosaurs allows paleontologists at Dinosaur National Monument in Jensen, Utah, to reconstruct the environment that the dinosaurs lived in. Each piece of information, from the types of rocks, to plant fossils, to remains of the frogs, lizards, and salamanders living at the same time as the dinosaurs, helps scientists describe what northeastern Utah looked like when the dinosaurs roamed.

**Fossils are remains or traces of ancient life. They provide the clues that paleontologists use to learn about prehistoric animals and plants. When a plant or animal dies, it usually decays or is eaten by other animals. However if it is buried before that happens, it may become a fossil. Hard materials, such as wood, bones, shells, and teeth have a better chance of being buried and fossilized because they decay more slowly than soft tissues like leaves or skin.

**The dinosaurs of Douglass Quarry, in Jensen, Utah, lived in the middle of the Age of Dinosaurs. They were one of nature's experiments that succeeded. The first dinosaurs survived, thrived, and ruled the earth for some 150 million years, while adapting to changing conditions. The early dinosaurs multiplied. Some grew larger, some began to walk on four legs, and others grew into different shapes. Each new feature.. a long neck or sharp teeth, or bony plates, if it helped the animal survive, was passed on to later generations. These features became the hallmark of each new kind of dinosaur.

**In order to be classified as a dinosaur, an animal must have...

1... hip, knee, and ankle bones that allow it to stand with its legs directly under its body.
2... a ridge on the upper arm bones.
3... jaw muscles that attach to the top of the skull.
4... three bones (that make up one side of the hips) that form an open socket for the thigh bone to fit in.
5... the second finger is the longest digit of the hand.


Dinosaurs in Southwestern Utah....

The St. George, Utah Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm.. http://www.dinosite.org/ Dinosaur tracks were discovered on the farm in February, 2000, and it has become quite an attraction. The site is in the early stages of scientific study - so far more than 1,000 tracks have been found within a 10-acre area. Most were made by Dilophosaurus-like creatures and are three-toes, 13-18 inches long. There are also some smaller tracks and researchers have identified skin prints and impressions made by tail drags and swimming movements.
The tracks were found in large slabs of sandstone from the Moenave Formation, dating back some 205 million years to the beginning of the dinosaur era. Residents tromped over that very sandstone for years, never realizing it sheltered such treasures. Nobody new, until Dr. Sheldon Johnson flipped over a slab while trying to level his land. There, on the underside, the tracks were clearly visible.
Most of the tracks are actually "negative impression" casts that appear as bumps on the stone. The area was the bottom of an ancient freshwater lake in the center of the super-continent Pangea. Footprints left in the mud filled with silt and sand, and more sand was deposited over the top. The mixture eventually solidified into sandstone and mudstone, forming the casts. Now, when the slabs are flipped over, the casts appear, much like Jell-o popping out of a mold.
Dr. Johnson donated his land to the city of St. George and the U.S. Congress appropriated funds to help construct a science and visitor center. Volunteers do most of the work at the site.

~ ~ ~ Readers please note: This article is part of a much larger article I wrote in the Story Pages section of Footnote.com.http://www.footnote.com/page/1586/utahs_dinosaur_land/ I used about 50 photos and I also write under a different name. I have about 25 stories that I have written on the Footnote website, so far.

The size and climate of St. George

St. George is a very large city compared to the small country western town where I lived before. We are growing by leaps and bounds as people have discovered the area's great diversity of things to do and places to see. I am not sure of the current population....over 100,000 people and growing each day. We have constant construction of new buildings all the time...both homes and stores. Every store you can imagine!

Not that I like large cities, I really don't. BUT....I do love the dry climate here! And for me, that is the very big plus side of living here. I can't handle very cold, snowy winters. It makes my depression much, much worse. Living here in St. George provides the ideal winters for me. I would say the normal high temperature during winter hovers around 50-65 degrees. The average normal winter lows at night gets around 25-30 degrees (sometimes maybe a touch colder). Our summers DO get a little hotter than most places (110-115 degrees average). But a person gets use to it, and it is really not that bad after awhile.