April is such a horribly busy month for both H and I as we both have annual conferences towards the end of April on top of that other responsibilities have been piling up over the years. So, it was with great pleasure that we took a bit of time off from work on Saturday to meet for dinner down at Caffe Molise before heading back to our respective duties. Caffe Molise is a tasty little restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City that typically serves up quite acceptable food, though Saturday night they seemed just a bit off. H’s pasta was a bit underdone and my bistecca was a bit overdone. This seemed a bit out of character for the restaurant, so I am willing to cut them a break on this visit and try them again in the not too distant future.
After dinner, H headed back to her conference and I wandered through town taking pictures before getting back to work myself later in the evening. Downtown seemed a bit more lively than usual with a variety of parties going on, a military culinary competition happening and judging from some of the totally over the top formal wear on all the teenagers, apparently it was also high school prom night.
First up was a trip to the top of the Wells Fargo Tower where there always appears to be a party going on. I was up here a few weeks ago with Rich where we crashed a wedding party or two (not really).
After Utah’s tallest building it was back down to street level where I was treated to what I initially thought was a hummingbird flying in front of my face into an adjacent tree where I was shocked to see an incredibly long tongue (actually a proboscis) unroll and I realized I was seeing a Macroglossum stellatarum or hummingbird moth. I’d read about them in books, but this was actually the first time I’d seen one and unfortunately I only had the 50mm lens on me leading to this rather poor, heavily cropped and zoomed shot in failing light. They are rather large moths and do tend to make a humming sound when they fly much like the hummingbird. I can’t wait to find more of them.
After that, it was back to work for the evening to continue preparations for ARVO.