Millcreek Common: Lunar New Year

 Millcreek Common is a new community hub in Millcreek. You could even call it downtown Millcreek I suppose. It contains City Hall, restaurants, and in winter, an ice skating rink!

Landis heard on the radio that they were doing a Lunar New Year event here that was free to the public. So we decided it was a good time to check it out. We didn’t have anything else going on.

Quick Details:

Length: Whatever you decide to do. It is a small square.
Trail Type: Meander
Difficulty: DR2. Paved and modern buildings.
Elevation Gain: NA
Restroom: Yes.
Dogs? I assume no.
Other Info: While this event itself was free, others may not be, and the skating is not either. Also, there is currently not enough parking for this size of an event. A problem that seems to becoming more and more common in the valley. We had to find street parking and hoof it in. However, as I understand it they will address this in Phase 2.

To Get Here:

Take i15 to 3300 South head east for 2.6 miles, turn left on Highland Drive. Go about 450 feet and turn left at the big moose, into the parking lot at 1354 E Chambers Ave.

After fighting the parking lots for a minute, we eventually gave up and found street parking.

The Trail:

Millcreek Pizza has a fun skeleton.

The skating rink and City Hall.

Fun neon sign.

It is the year of the horse.

They had Mahjong and Bau Cua games. I had never heard of the latter. It is a Vietnamese dice gambling game. Of course Mahjong is a Chinese tile game that has become pretty popular in America.

While we waited in the calligraphy line, the lion dance started.

I took a quick video.

Here it comes.

This was Landis’ first lion dance, but one of my previous jobs celebrated Chinese New Year due to a recent partnership with a Chinese company.

So I was curious; is Lunar New Year the same as Chinese New Year? The short answer is, pretty much yeah.

The longer answer, as I am understanding it anyway, is that many Asian cultures celebrate Lunar New Year. Some of these cultures have Lunar New Year on the same date as Chinese New Year, others don’t. Lunar New Year is meant to be all encompassing. Chinese New Year is quite wide spread around the world, so most people just associate Lunar New Year with Chinese New Year. 

Anyway, back to the Lion Dance.

This is neat.

Smaller lion.

Awww, there is even a little lion.

After the dragon dance finished up, we got our names done in calligraphy by the Salt Lake Eastern Art Club. I didn't catch what specific language it is.

Then some traditional dancing.

From the other side.

City Hall. It has a freaking climbing wall on it!

As far as I can tell, there was no old Millcreek City Hall, I found a building that was considered for it, but that didn't happen. Millcreek has only been a city for just shy of 10 years, incorporated in December 2016 so I guess that is not a shock, but there still had to be somewhere they did city business... right?

Dancers again.

The ice rink was deserted for a minute, we thought they closed it for the festivities, but then we saw a few people on it, so we decided to check it out.

Admission and Skate Rentals Available At The Granite Credit Union Adventure Hub just on the north side of the rink.
Skate Admission $7 Skate Rentals $5.

It has been well over 20 years since either of us has ice skated. I was hoping it would be like riding a bike. It is not, in fact, like riding a bike. At all.  It took a good while for my body to remember what to do haha.

Now, I will say if you are like me and haven’t skated in 20+ years, or if maybe you are a beginner, I would recommend a rink that is fully enclosed. This one has long gaps in the railing. When you start flailing it is nice to be able to grab on the rail, and it sucks when there isn’t one to grab.

I only fell once though, so there was that!

Eventually the rink started filling up again.

I guess there is this inner section that is more surrounded by a railing.

Okay, that was fun, but we had enough. I forgot skating uses muscles you don’t normally use. Owww.

City Hall again.

Same lanterns in front.

I would have to see a map for sure, but from what we could see, the bottom floor is a market, eatery, and a coffee shop. And the government stuff starts on the 2nd floor.

On the south side of the ice rink is Millcreek Pizza House. We just had pizza last night, so we decided to find something else.

The Common below.

We decided to try Tres Hombres. I had mole’ for the first time. It was so good.

The building looks like an old airplane hanger. But all that I could find is that it used to be a rug store called CarpeTown.

The Tres Hombres owners were nice enough to save, and update the beloved old CarpeTowne sign with the 3 bobbing heads. They just changed the faces.

City Hall again as we make our way back to the car.

The brickyard plaza stack. I have been meaning to go check that out, and it hasn’t happened yet.

Moose statue.

A fancy Crown Burger.

Well, that was super fun! I am glad we decided to come do it. I have been wanting to check out the new place, and plus, I enjoy getting some culture in as well. I, am not sure ice skating is in the cards for my future, but I am glad we decided to go for it. My only real gripe was the parking shortage. 9 out of 10 squirrels.

As for difficulty, its all paved. DR2. (except for the ice skating).

I am not sure about dogs in the outdoor area, but I am pretty sure they probably are not allowed in the buildings. Either way, I would be super nervous with them near the skating rink so I would leave them at home.